Country Director Full Time

Vacancy Announcement – Country Director, ActionAid Ethiopia Qualified Women are highly encouraged to apply

JOB TITLE : COUNTRY DIRECTOR

JOB LOCATION : ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA

CONTRACT TYPE : FIXED-TERM

CLOSING DATE : 31 OCTOBER 2025

ABOUT ACTIONAID

ActionAid Ethiopia (AAE) is a Gender justice and poverty eradication organization. In Ethiopia, ActionAid works to challenge gender inequalities and the structural causes of poverty through empowering communities to create critical mass of communities especially Women and Girls living in poverty and exclusion.

ActionAid Ethiopia believes that Gender justice and poverty eradication are achieved through purposeful individual and collective action to bring socio-economic changes from household level to local, national and international levels. Empowerment of people living in poverty and women leadership with the support of their allies is crucial to drive change that will ensure equality and poverty eradication.

THE ROLE

ActionAid Ethiopia is currently seeking a visionary and dynamic Country Director (CD) to provide strategic leadership, high-level representation, and overall management of ActionAid Ethiopia. The CD will inspire staff, strengthen partnerships, influence policies, and ensure effective delivery of our Country Strategy Paper (CSP) in alignment with ActionAid International’s global Strategy Implementation Framework (SIF).

The CD is expected to champion feminist leadership principles, safeguarding policies, and ActionAid’s values, while driving innovation, sustainability, and accountability across programs, fundraising, advocacy, operations, and people management.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Representation:

• Lead the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of ActionAid Ethiopia’s Country Strategy Paper (CSP).
• Contribute to federation-wide priorities, campaigns, and decision-making, maintaining regular communication with the Head of Africa, International Secretariat, and peer Country Directors.
• Drive organizational development and transformation processes in line with federation priorities and change management initiatives.
• Ensure program strategies remain relevant to Ethiopia’s political, social, and economic context.
• Represent ActionAid Ethiopia in national, regional, and global forums with government, donors, NGOs, networks, and the media.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with civil society organizations, social movements, communitybased organizations, and academic institutions.

Program Development & Delivery:

• Oversee design and implementation of high-quality programs with a focus on gender justice, youth engagement, climate justice, humanitarian response, and governance.
• Ensure participatory, inclusive, and cost-effective program delivery with strong monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems.
• Promote documentation, learning, and dissemination of best practices to strengthen impact and influence policy.
• Lead humanitarian preparedness and contingency planning, liaising with ActionAid’s International Humanitarian Response Team.
• Promote evidence-based learning to strengthen impact and influence national and international policies.

Policy, Advocacy & Research:

• Champion feminist leadership and embed safeguarding, child protection, and accountability across all work.
• Drive ActionAid Ethiopia’s policy and advocacy agenda in collaboration with national and international stakeholders.
• Encourage research and evidence generation to inform programming and influence national and international policy debates.
• Champion feminist leadership approaches and embed safeguarding and accountability in all programming.
• Strengthen AAE’s public image through proactive media engagement, digital presence, and external communications, including social media fundraising.

Fundraising & External Engagement:

• Develop and implement a robust fundraising strategy that diversifies income and ensures sustainability.
• Strengthen donor relations, ensuring effective communication, grant compliance, and accountability.
• Proactively identify local fundraising opportunities and build AAE’s credibility with donor partners by showcasing impact, particularly with women and girls.
• Ensure strict donor compliance, timely reporting, and accountability across grants and sponsorship programs.
• Lead external communication strategies, including media and digital platforms, to strengthen AAE’s profile and advocacy.

People Leadership & Culture:

• Lead, develop, and manage the Senior Management Team (SMT) to work collectively towards organizational goals.
• Promote ActionAid’s values, feminist leadership principles, and a culture of transparency, accountability, and inclusion.
• Ensure gender balance in staffing, invest in staff development, and promote team innovation and cohesion.
• Encourage a corporate perspective amongst staff and actively promote staff exchange, secondment and development schemes, where these contribute to the meeting of ActionAid’s programme objectives and priorities.

Finance, Operations & Risk Management:

• Ensure financial integrity, accountability, and compliance with ActionAid International’s financial framework, donor requirements, and Ethiopian legal obligations.
• Oversee budget preparation, expenditure control, and resource allocation to ensure cost-effective and impactful program delivery.
• Strengthen risk management systems and internal controls to safeguard assets, resources, and reputation.
• Ensure proper procurement practices, asset management, and financial reporting in line with policy and donor standards.

Governance & Federation Engagement:

• Maintain regular communication with the ActionAid International Head of Africa, International Secretariat staff, peer Country Directors, and federation governance structures.
• Contribute to ActionAid International’s global initiatives, campaigns, and task forces.
• Ensure ActionAid Ethiopia complies with national regulations and maintains positive and cooperative relations with government authorities.
• Drive organizational transformation processes in line with ActionAid’s federation priorities and change management initiatives.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE REQURED

• Master’s degree in social sciences, development studies, management, international studies, or a related field.
• Minimum of 15 years’ experience in the development sector, including at least 10 years in senior leadership roles with proven record in program design, fundraising, external engagement, and organizational management.
• Demonstrated experience as a Country Director or equivalent leadership role in a comparable organization.
• Strong knowledge of Ethiopian social and economic context and its impact on development strategies.
• Proven record in fundraising and donor engagement, including innovative financing approaches.
• Experience working with social movements, feminist organizations, and youth-led initiatives.
• Proven ability to lead policy advocacy, external communications, and media engagement.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and diplomatic skills, with proven ability to influence at the highest levels.
• Strong skills in monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure program quality and accountability.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and diplomatic skills, with proven ability to influence at the highest levels.
• Strong commitment to ActionAid’s values, feminist leadership, safeguarding, and human rightsbased approaches.
• Fluency in English is required.

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Tagged as: ActionAid, Ethiopia