Practical Action COUNTRY DIRECTOR October 2019

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 1 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 1 Contents

About Practical Action 03

Overview of the Role 04

Scope of The Role 06

Accountabilities 07

Person Profile 10

How to Apply 11

About Oxford HR 12

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 2 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 2 About Practical Action

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and , an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 3 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 3 Overview of the Role

Reporting to the International Director, the Country Director has overall responsibility for shaping and delivering on our ambitious strategy in Bangladesh. S/he will lead a high performing team to develop and test out ingenious ideas that can address systemic challenges, demonstrate and learn from what works, and inspire others to adopt successful approaches at scale.

In Bangladesh, we work in both a development and humanitarian context supporting communities and government to build resilience to climate change, make cities safer, make farming work for smallholder farmers and use energy to transform lives. We do this through a range of programmes, consultancy services and policy/advocacy work with communities, local authorities and the private sector, national government, academic institutions, other NGOs and donors.

The Country Director will be a dynamic, exemplary leader with the drive and experience to manage change and achieve impact. Entrepreneurship and new ways of thinking and working will be essential in this role as will good knowledge of the country context. Externally oriented with a proven track record of successful fundraising, building and nurturing strategic relationships with partners, development donors, commercial clients and government, the achieve impact.

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 4 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 4 Scope of the Role

Internally, the Country Director will ensure sound, high quality management of all programmes, consultancies and operations to meet our standards and those of the donor or client. S/he will drive a focus on quality, results-centred delivery and accountability. This will include sound financial management and controls that mitigate risk and ensure that our business model is viable. S/he will have demonstrated experience of managing and mentoring high performing teams and promoting a culture of excellence and professionalism in all we do.

The Country Director is also a member of Practical Action’s global Strategic Leadership Team, contributing to shaping the group’s overall strategic direction and leading on specific global pieces of work. We expect all our teams, and especially our leaders to have a strong commitment to Practical Action’s vision, mission and values and ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults with whom we work.

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 5 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 5 Scope of the Role

Title: Country Director, Bangladesh

Directorate: Bangladesh Country Office

Reporting to: International Director

Direct Reports: Senior Management Team in Bangladesh

Member of: Strategic Leadership Team

Relationships: With external partners; with all other Regional & Country Directors; with

people & culture and communications

Budget scope: Oversight of a growing country portfolio, currently of £3m/pa

Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Duration: 5 years with potential for renewal

Grade: TBD

Travel: annum

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 6 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 6 Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership: • Demonstrate and model strategic leadership qualities and behaviours at all times to foster a culture that values learning, collaboration, dynamism, accountability and transparency. • Actively contribute to setting, guiding, and monitoring Practical Action’s global strategic direction and priorities taking into consideration global trends and our capacities, opportunities and risks. • Lead the Senior Management Team in Bangladesh to develop, implement and monitor viable strategic and business plans based on entrepreneurial ways of working to achieve impact. • Ensure our ethics and values, as set out in our Code of Conduct and related policies, including safeguarding, are embedded in team culture and well modelled through the leadership team

Achieving Change Ambitions: • Ensure that we apply our Framework for Change, using systems analysis and our pathways for change and integrating gender, to achieve sustainable impact at scale. • Nurture a culture of strategic and purposeful learning across the team to continuously improve our work and inspire others to adopt models that are proven to work. • Seek and foster opportunities for bold collaboration between our work in Bangladesh and in other countries to maximise our global impact

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 7 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 7 Accountabilities

Generating Income and Nurturing Relationships: • Provide the vision and leadership for an ambitious but feasible fundraising strategy and plan • Foster and lead relationships with partners, commercial clients and development donors that support our fundraising strategy, for both programmes and consultancy work. This will require external-facing representation, networking, visibility, creativity and engagement. • Ensure our business development processes align to our strategy, yield high quality design, promote business viability and minimise or mitigate risk.

People, Capabilities and Leadership • Ensure that the capabilities, accountabilities and structures of the

• Create and nurture a culture of excellence, teamwork, motivation, satisfaction and high performance. • culture that promotes the Practical Action People Management Process, employee engagement strategies, remuneration, learning and development, leadership development, workforce planning and talent management and growth.

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 8 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 8 Accountabilities

Delivering Performance •

compliant with our policies and procedures and those of donors, clients and Government. •

• Identify, mitigate and manage operational risks and ensure proper

administration, communications, reporting and M&E. • Be accountable for monitoring, achieving and reporting on global KPIs, impact and project indicators, promoting a culture of continuous learning to improve accountability and impact. • and actively promote their use in improving the quality of and learning from our programmes. • recommendations are implemented. • Be accountable for overall safety & security management, ensuring that policies and procedures are consistently applied.

• Actively enhance Practical Action’s visibility and impact through strategic partnerships, representation, communications and engagement with government, non-government, and private sector actors, as well as the media. • Practical Action’s local and global reputation and brand awareness. • Manage Practical Action’s reputation, combining global and local reputational perspectives to identify and manage challenges and risks.

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 9 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 9 Person Profile

To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Essential Experience & Knowledge • Significant experience in the development field and/or consultancy sector, preferably at a senior management level. • Experience of developing and leading ambitious, viable strategies. • Excellent knowledge of the Bangladesh context, ideally related to: energy, agriculture, WASH and/or climate & resilience • Proven track record of leading portfolio growth • Experience of managing a high performing team to achieve results and ability to drive change processes, bringing people along on the journey • Proven track record of managing multi-million pound portfolios, ensuring business viability, compliance, delivery and controls. • High caliber representation and leadership in partnership building. • Cultural sensitivity and ability to effectively lead a diverse team. • Ability to manage multiple responsibilities and to set priorities.

Desirable • Proven ability to make sound and courageous decisions. • Ability to work collaboratively and play a global leadership role. • Excellent written & verbal communications skills: English and Bangla. • A sound understanding of and commitment to gender equality. • Commitment to Practical Action’s vision, mission and values. • Ability to travel up to 8 weeks per year. • Post-graduate degree in relevant subject

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 10 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 10 How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR.

To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button in the job advert page and complete our online application form. Please provide a CV and Cover Letter – in ONE single document - which should be prepared before applying as they will be requested in the application process.

The statement should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience please see here.

The document should be saved in MS Word in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (yymm) e.g: Pat-Jones- CVandStatement-1910

Timeline Closing date: December 1st Preliminary interviews: Week of December 9th Final interviews: TBC

If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion about the role and the organisation, please email practical-action-cd@ oxfordhr.co.uk

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 11 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 11 About Oxford HR

Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive

human resource and organisational development consultancy.

Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed

working in international development and the social sector as well as the corporate and governmental sectors. We are in a unique position to

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 12 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 12 Strategic Organogram

Country Director

Business Programme Influence & Development & Practical Action Finance & Delivery HR Unit Impact Unit Quality Assurance Consulting Unit Services Unit Unit Unit

Head of Business Head of Strategic Lead Strategic Lead Manager - People Manager - People Head of Finance & Development & Programme (Agri +DRR) (Urban + Energy) & Culture & Culture Services Quality Assurance Implementation

Subject Matter Experts Business Programme Team MEL & Research Team Team GSS Finance IT Advocacy, Partnership, Gender Development Dhaka

Marketing Knowledge All Fundraising ICT & Comms Management Field Offices

Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 13 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 13 OXFORD LONDON AMSTERDAM NAIROBI

The Old Music Hall Three Tuns House, WeWork Office, Watermark Business Park 106-108 Cowley Road 109 Borough High Street, Strawinskylaan 4117 4th floor, Clove Court, 1st Floor Oxford London 1077 ZX Ndege Road off Langata Road OX4 1JE SE1 1NL Amsterdam PO Box 17300-00606, Nairobi

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Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 14 Practical Action - Bangladesh Country Director 14