Country Director, Afghanistan

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international charity. We support the independent media essential to democracy and development; and support people facing insecurity, inequality and poverty with information they can trust – to protect health, bridge divides and challenge prejudice. With our partners, we reach millions through creative communication and trusted media, helping people have their say, understand their rights, responsibilities and each other, and take action to transform their own lives.

BBC Media Action has worked in Afghanistan since 1994 on projects and programmes that have addressed health, education, equality and inclusion and participation. This exciting and influential role will be responsible for the overall running of BBC Media Action’s office in Afghanistan where we are delivering a portfolio of projects including support to the media sector and humanitarian efforts.

Main Responsibilities

The Country Director will lead the development and implementation of country strategy, taking overall responsibility for the running of BBC Media Action’s office in Afghanistan, ensuring strong management and high-quality delivery of a range of development projects which use the power of media to tackle issues of governance, health and resilience, as well as in humanitarian contexts.

The Country Director will provide guidance and leadership on all facets of external engagement and will represent BBC Media Action to authorities, donors, media and NGO partners and other key stakeholders. The postholder will lead the development of our portfolio in Afghanistan, including identifying future business development opportunities and overseeing the writing of new project proposals.

The post holder will ensure effective office management so that all functions are carried out in line with donor rules, local regulatory requirements and BBC guidelines. An important part of the role will be to ensure that BBC Media Action upholds the highest standards of safety and security for our staff, partners and people we work with in the design and delivery of our projects. This includes ensuring that activities comply with BBC Media Action and donor standards around safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.

Are you the right candidate?

A compassionate and inspirational leader, you’ll bring substantial experience in the management, motivation and development of diverse teams of staff, including recruitment, management, discipline and professional development.

As important will be your ability to manage large-scale, donor-funded projects in complex and challenging contexts, preferably in fragile settings, with strong and proven ability to deliver high-quality projects to deadlines and within budget and highly developed skills in security and risk management.

Your ability to form and cultivate effective relationships and partnerships with a range of local and international stakeholders and partners at all levels, including at the highest levels of government and media, will be key to your success. You will be able to manage effective teamwork between partners and stakeholders, including those with differing agendas.

Experience developing and securing funding for international development or media projects will be critical, including the ability to develop new project ideas and present these persuasively to potential partners and funders, and write successful proposals.

Beyond these critical, core areas of skills and experience, you will also have:

Significant budget management experience, demonstrating effective use of resources and responsibility for large budgets.
Experience managing security planning, including overseeing processes to understand and minimize risks to staff, and ensuring security and safety training for staff.
Considerable experience of working in the media or development sector (preferably both) and demonstrable knowledge of the development and/or media context in Afghanistan.
Confident public speaker with experience of presentations to colleagues, donors and other stakeholders.
Good judgement and decision-making skills, including the ability to adapt, react and respond to crises, and to evaluate risk.
Experience working on own initiative and organising time effectively within a range of often conflicting deadlines and demands.
Strong understanding of and commitment to international development, including the use of media for developmental goals.

Ideally, you will also bring:

Experience working in Afghanistan, preferably including after August 2021.
Understanding of written and spoken Dari and/or Pashto.
Experience working in one or more of BBC Media Action’s key thematic areas: governance, media ecosystems, health (e.g. maternal and child health, nutrition, epidemic/pandemic response), mine action, humanitarian response.
Demonstrable editorial judgement skills and understanding of BBC editorial values, or demonstrable potential to acquire strong editorial skills in order to help make sensitive editorial judgements at a senior level.

The role may involve working with groups of vulnerable children and adults. For the successful candidate, mandatory training will be provided on BBC Media Action’s safeguarding policy and staff code of conduct. A DBS or other appropriate background check (depending on the country of residence) will form part of the recruitment process. BBC Media Action operates a zero-tolerance policy concerning all forms of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people.