Marie Stopes International recruits 01 Country Director

Marie Stopes International recruits 01 Country Director

About Us:

Marie Stopes International (MSI) is a global organisation providing personalised family planning services to women and girls. Our local teams of professionals are passionate about the work they do in communities across 37 countries. The services we provide give a woman the power to choose when she has children so that she’s free to pursue her plans and dreams for herself and her family.

The primary responsibility of this role is to further MSI’s Goal: The prevention of unwanted births and its mission of ensuring an individual’s right to: children by choice, not chance

The Function:

The International Operations function plays a critical role in the work of our country programmes which deliver family planning and safe abortion services to our clients around the world. It is responsible for ensuring that our programmes are positioned to deliver results, drive growth, achieve programmatic and operational excellence, are committed to implementing best practices at scale, while simultaneously adhering to core programmatic and operational standards.

Marie Stopes Mali began clinical operations in 2008 and has quickly developed into Mali’s largest and most specialised family planning and reproductive health organisation. The Marie Stopes program consists of:

• three clinics (two in Bamako,and one in Mopti)
• eight mobile outreach teams providing comprehensive voluntary FP services in mainly rural areas
• twenty Marie Stopes Ladies providing voluntary FP and sensitization activities in the urban and peri-urban area of Bamako, some of them specialising in reaching adolescents in schools and Universities
• a network of over 250 BlueStar Social Franchises (SF) providing all methods of family planning

An integrated market strategy is in place to remove demand side barriers. Marie Stopes Mali works both with media (radio/tv) as well as with interpersonal communication which is being ensured by community mobilisers. There are punchline events that are further increasing the awareness of Family Planning and Reproductive Health. A call centre is in place to make sure that information can be obtained.

The voluntary FP services provided by MSIM in 2018 resulted in [1]:

• 468 000 persons across Mali were using a contraceptive method provided by MSI in 2018;
• 625 000 Couple Year Protection generated in 2018
• 216,000 unintended pregnancies averted;
• 980 maternal deaths prevented.

Our budget is currently around 6 million GBP and the team over 200 staff. As we continue to grow, we aspire to serve over 1 million women in 2020 and have even more impact.

[1] Impact2 Calculator

The Role:

The Country Director is responsible for delivering results for women and their families, driving programmatic excellence and implementing best practice at scale. They provide high quality services where they are needed the most, and their work directly contributes to preventing unnecessary deaths and making a sustainable impact on the lives of thousands of people every year.

The Country Director is a key leadership position responsible for the overall strategy, management (programmatic, financial, and administrative), and development of our national family planning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programmes. They lead skilled, professional country teams to deliver life-saving services through clinical centres, mobile outreach teams, social franchising and social marketing. In addition they are responsible for preparing and executing annual budgets, marketing plans and work plans;developing new business opportunities; overseeing financial, administrative and logistical resources; ensuring adherence to MSI minimum standards; and assuring quality operations in line with annual and long-term strategic goals and objectives. The Country Director manages for results, valuing and rewarding high performance, accountability, speed and efficiency and innovation, while keeping the client at the heart of everything we do.

The Country Director is MSI’s senior representative in the country of assignment. They work closely with governments, donors and other key stakeholders to overcome barriers that prevent women and men from accessing safe, affordable, reliable family planning and other sexual and reproductive health services.

About you

To succeed in this role, you must have:

Skills and Experience:

• International work experience – will have successfully worked in a senior management role in a developping country and will have had experience of growing the business
• Proven general management experience in operationally demanding and challenging environments (to include staff recruitment, training and supervision of teams)
• Proven experience of change management, including identifying required change, leading the change programme and ensuring change is embedded and sustained
• Designed and delivered strategic and annual business plans
• Experience of income generation through donor funding and/or commercial activities and in delivering proven results by making informed decisions with the use of management information
• Financial management experience, including internal controls and accountability: Ideally the individual will have managed a P&L; however, they will have definitely have experience managing and improving the bottom line
• Demonstrable experience of generating, tracking and analysing management information and client data to inform management decision-making
• Previous experience identifying and sharing best practice and encouraging innovation within dispersed teams
• Proven experience of building lasting relationships with key external stakeholders, e.g. government or donor stakeholders in order to deliver tangible results for the organisation (for example, previous fundraising success).
• Experience of business development including developing and writing compelling tender proposals

Qualifications and Training:

• Educated to degree level
• Relevant post-graduate qualification e.g. MBA, MSc, MA (desirable)
•  Project Management
• Fluent written and spoken English and French

Personal Attributes:

• Energy, drive and unwavering commitment for MSI’s mission, and the ability to inspire others
• Passionate about our clients and strives to consistently meet and exceed expectations, putting the clients at the centre of everything, and ensuring we deliver high quality, high impact services that meet their individual needs
• Inspires individuals and teams through situational leadership providing clear direction
• Motivates and develops the skills of the team members
• Works as part of a team, providing support and flexibility to colleagues, demonstrating fairness, understanding and respect for all people and cultures
• Focuses on results, ensuring long term sustainability and increased impact
• Courageous: pushes the boundaries, make tough decisions and challenge others in line with our mission
• Takes accountability for the decisions made and the behaviours demonstrated
• A commercial mind-set, understanding the levers for profitability for success within the marketplace
• Aware of the emerging developments within our sector, with the ability to focus and articulate a vision of the future which inspires and excites others, while understanding the detail and looking for the evidence
• Actively seeks out feedback on their performance (both results and behaviours) with a view to continuously learning and growing as a leader
• Builds and maintains effective long-term working relationships with all stakeholders, and is a true MSI ambassador.

For more information about the role, please view the job framework on our website.

Location: Bamako

Closing date: 6^th May 2019 (midnight GMT). Interviews may take place before this date for exceptional candidates.

Salary: Competitive

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and post holders to share this commitment.