Head of Corporate Services - Farm Africa

Job Description

IMMEDIATE EXTERNAL VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT 

Farm Africa, founded in 1985, is a specialist international non-governmental organization working in remote and resource-poor rural areas in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, and Uganda. Farm Africa believes in a prosperous rural Africa and it aims to reduce poverty by helping poor farmers and herders grow more food, keep their livestock healthy, make a basic living and manage their natural resources in a sustainable way. Farm Africa works in partnership with communities, governments, local organizations, international NGOs and the private sector to develop strong rural livelihoods and then share the results of this work with others to achieve maximum impact. Farm Africa has a regional office in Nairobi and a country office in Ethiopia.

 
Position: HEAD OF CORPORATE SERVICES
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

To ensure that Farm Africa Ethiopia’s back office functions efficiently, effectively and professionally deliver corporate services to programmes and projects, as well as ensuring adherence to corporate policies and procedures.    

KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The head of corporate services will serve as the single point of coordination and accountability for the delivery of key services in support of the delivery of Farm Africa’s programmes in Ethiopia. He/she will be a member of the Ethiopia SMT, supervising the key support functions which include HR, finance, logistics, procurement and IT/asset management and office administration.

Oversight of financial management
The head of corporate services (HoCS) will directly line manage the finance team lead in the country office/ the finance team lead will in turn line manage more junior members of the finance team.
In addition, he/she will be responsible for:

• Ensuring timely and accurate donor contract compliance with regards to financial reporting and audit
• Ensuring compliance with ChSA and regional government requirements on financial reporting and audit
• Oversight of proper internal controls and compliance
• Ensuring the delivery of accurate and timely burn rate and income reporting to Ethiopia SMT and London
• Ensuring cash flow management is effectively undertaken
• Active relationship management with audit firms, as well as timely and effective management follow-up on audit recommendations (internal and external)
• Management of 70:30 cost categorisation, including ensuring consistency of approach across teams, and embedding systems to report on, manage for, and build awareness of, effective ’70:30’ management within Farm Africa Ethiopia
• Support the process of quarterly and annual budget planning.
• Primary point of liaison with London finance team·        Signatory on country office accounts

Logistics
The HoCS will directly line manage the senior logistics officer in the country office, who will in turn be responsible for line management of the IT officer, driver pool, cleaner(s) and security staff.
He/she will also take direct responsibility for:

• Ensuring efficient and effective driving services are provided to the country office, visitors, as well as any ‘flex’ support as required to project teams.
• Ensure the cost-effective management of Farm Africa Ethiopia fleet, including ensuring the appropriate paperwork is in order, repair and maintenance is conducted, and the fleet and drivers are deployed in the most efficient (financially and in terms of carbon emissions) fashion.
• Ensure fleet management can reflect cost codes effectively
• Responsible for overall safety and security of Farm Africa Ethiopia employees, field offices, fleet, and the country office
• Ensure the country office is run in an efficient and effective fashion, and the office is physically maintained to a high standard, with risks of accident/ health and safety breaches kept to a minimum.
• Review and upgrade of the Farm Africa Ethiopia overall IT system
• Review and upgrade of software/ basic IT functions being currently used, or potentially used in the Farm Africa Ethiopia team for more efficient functioning (shared Outlook calendars, Quickbooks installation, basic software for common tracking of ‘live’ procurements, etc)
• Build better IT user and use-norms capacity in the overall team (champion excel capacity, Yammer use, email etiquette, etc)
• Review and oversee an upgrade of hardware being used in Farm Africa Ethiopia, including a review of potential IT improvements at field office level.
• Champion the ‘greening’ of Farm Africa operations.·        Ensure compliance and transparency in asset management and disposal.

Procurement
The HoCS will directly line manage the senior procurement officer in the country office, and will hold overall accountability for the following:

• Review and enforcement of an approvals limit system that is fit for purpose, and combines control with flexibility
• Build capacity to ensure procurement processes are conducted (in the country office and at field team level) in a compliant, and time-efficient fashion
• Personal supervision of significant or sensitive procurements
• Ensuring the smooth and effective functioning of the procurement committee in the country office
• Oversight of key reforms to improve the procurement procedure in the country office (periodic evaluation of the local market, standard specifications, clear and transparent PO-payment processes)·        Ensure all staff are aware of the bribery and fraud policy, as well as the conflict of interest policy in the implementation of procurement processes.

Risk management

• Prepare and ‘champion’ the business continuity plan for Farm Africa Ethiopia;
• Maintain and update the Farm Africa security plan, and provide security briefing for all external visitors to Farm Africa Ethiopia (Addis and project sites);
• Liaise and follow up with legal advisor on legal issues pertaining to property and government agreements;
• Contribute to the establishment and maintenance of the Farm Africa Ethiopia risk register.
• Ensure that Farm Africa- Ethiopia property insurance coverage, renewal and claims are handled properly;
• Ensure first aid kits are maintained in country office, field offices, and vehicles, and appropriate training has been conducted for first-aiders. 

Human resource management
The HoCS will provide line management to the senior HR officer, and will also undertake the following:

• Be the SMT champion for effective implementation of Farm Africa’s performance management system
• Implement finance/HR systems for accurate coding of HR inputs across project codes
• Ensure procurement and finance systems align in support of effective L&D provision across teams
•  Oversee decisions and processes annually related to staff salary increases
• Personally champion Farm Africa Ethiopia’s demonstration of, and awareness of, the Farm Africa values

Other

• Champion awareness of, and compliance with, Farm Africa corporate policies
•  In collaboration with the country director, lead the relationship with the ChSA
• Actively participate in SMT decisions and processes
• Champion continuous changes to seek efficiencies and find more effective ways to service programmes and donor contracts
• Maintain close and effective working relationship with Farm Africa Ethiopia legal adviser

Job Requirements

Education, qualifications & other knowledge

• Postgraduate qualification and ACCA
• Fluent written and spoken English

Experience

• Fifteen years’ experience acting in a senior management capacity, ideally across the NGO, public and private sectors.
• Experience of procurement, IT systems management and operations management in complex contexts
• Experience in driving through organizational change
• Experience of human resource management

Skills & abilities

• Believes in Farm Africa’s values, acts as an inspiring model of them and instils them in others through behaviours, storytelling and dialogue
• A commitment and basic understanding of environmental sustainability issues
• A natural leader
• A commitment to client orientation
• Excellent communicator at all levels
• Ability to multitask and work at speed
• Ability to undertake ‘systems thinking’
• An eye for detail
• A diplomatic style, able to effectively build relationships with GoE counterparts at senior levels
• Awareness of gender and diversity issues in the workplace, and an ability to reflect that in leadership style, and actions.

Values

Farm Africa seeks to employ those who believe, as we do, that farmers can and will play a key role in achieving long-term rural prosperity in Africa and who seek to deliver on those beliefs by:

• being experts in our field, delivering insightful/impactful evidence-based solutions
• pushing boundaries, being creative with new and old solutions
• acting for the long-term, building relationships and delivering long-lasting change for farmers
• working flexibly, taking advantage of the most effective solutions, whether from the communities, private sector or government
• sharing knowledge with others, reaching more farmers than we do alone, ensuring effective technologies are widely accessed.

Place of work:  Addis Ababa, with a significant of travel in Field
Contract period:  1 yr with a possibility of extension
Terms of the position: Attractive salary & benefit package according to Farm Africa’s field staff handbook.
 
Those who meet the above requirements should apply in writing with CV and copies of all relevant testimonials to:

Farm Africa; P.O.Box 5746;
Addis Ababa; Ethiopia
Tel. 251-011-467-4129; 465-5156
Fax. 251-011-467-4281

E-mail: ephrataf@farmafrica-eth.org, bethelihemt@farmafrica-eth.org or submit it in person Document will not be returned and only short listed candidates will be contacted.
Application deadline will be Ten days from the first announcement APPLICATIONS ARE ESPECIALLY WELCOMED FROM FEMALE APPLICANTS.