Country Director at BBC Media Action

Country Director  

Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Reports to: Regional Director, Africa (based in London)

Contract duration: 36 months (with the possibility of extension)

BBC Media Action in Tanzania

BBC Media Action is currently implementing several multi-year projects in Tanzania addressing themes such as gender equality, civic engagement, responsible parenting and humanitarian response. We do this by combining intensive training for Tanzanian media houses with the production and co-production of targeted media outputs on radio and social media using various factual formats and dramas. All our projects are currently responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic and we will be developing some additional related projects during 2020.

BBC Media Action’s Tanzania team requires a dynamic leader with a highly developed understanding of media and development, together with solid management experience, to lead it into its next phase of development.

Overall Purpose of Job
As Country Director, you will assume overall responsibility for developing new projects, securing funds for these projects, and delivering BBC Media Action’s current portfolio in Tanzania to a high standard, on time and within budget.

You will be responsible for the financial management of projects and reporting on editorial and operational progress to London headquarters and to project donors. You will represent BBC Media Action in Dar es Salaam to key stakeholders and will ensure effective relationships and partnerships with funding agencies, government bodies, broadcasters, NGOs, academic institutions, international development agencies and others.

The role of Country Director will also involve leading the development and implementation of BBC Media Action’s Country Strategy for Tanzania and contributing to the overall development and strategy of the overall programme in Africa. You will therefore have substantial management experience – ideally in an African media and/or international development setting – with a proven ability to effectively deliver complex projects within budget and on time. You will also have a strong understanding of international development and how media can support development goals, combined with a strong track record of developing proposals and raising funds from donor agencies.

Main Duties

*Represent the interests of BBC Media Action in Tanzania and to ensure the sustainability of its work in-country*

– To ensure the effective execution of all BBC Media Action activities in Tanzania. This includes:

• Ensuring that all initiatives are delivered within agreed standards, timescales and budgets;
• Developing and managing effective relationships with funding agencies, stakeholders and partners;
• Meeting the requirements of funding agencies and other stakeholders;
• Taking overall responsibility for all programme outputs, based on a thorough understanding of BBC Media Action’s methodologies and objectives, the needs of target audiences, and BBC editorial values;
• Reporting regularly to the London office of BBC Media Action, on editorial, operational, legal and financial issues.

– To be responsible for developing and implementing BBC Media Action’s strategy for Tanzania, including  identifying future business development opportunities and raising funding to secure a medium-term future for BBC Media Action in the country and a long-term sustainable legacy

– To take overall management responsibility for BBC Media Action’s team in country, including:

• Providing dynamic, inspirational leadership and management to local production, projects and research teams
• Managing staff health and safety, and leading human resource planning and recruitment
• Ensuring effective management of project office and that finance and administrative functions are carried out in line with BBC guidelines and local regulatory requirements
• Ensuring the effective and consistent implementation of safeguarding procedures in country offices, which requires working closely with Senior Management Team members to ensure that they each understand how safeguarding affects the function of their department

Required Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Proven track-record of personally leading the development and contracting of several donor-funded multi-year international development projects (ideally including significant media-for-development components) with budgets of over £1 million each, including successfully developing new project ideas, writing proposals, and presenting these persuasively to funders.
• Proven ability to lead the delivery of complex development projects involving multiple direct and indirect staff, delivering to deadlines, within budget, achieving pre-defined objective targets, and with a good track record of donor liaison and reporting.
• Significant personal experience of managing, and being personally responsible for, budgets totalling over £1 million, including demonstrating effective use of resources and value for money.
• At least five years of experience in the direct and indirect management of diverse teams of at least ten staff, including recruitment, management, discipline and professional development.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including experience working with colleagues whose first language is neither your own first language nor English.
• A proven track record of forming effective relationships with at least three different local and international donors and with other partners including at the highest levels of government and media, and of managing effective collaboration between partners and stakeholders including those with differing agendas.
• Strong understanding of and commitment to international development, including media for development, with at least five years’ experience of working in the media or development sectors (and preferably both) and demonstrable field-based experience of the international development and/or media-development sectors in Africa.
• Demonstrable understanding of, and preferably direct personal experience in, media production – ideally with personal experience of making sensitive editorial judgements at a senior level or at least proven evidence of having made significant decisions based on clearly defined normative or ethical criteria.
• Dynamism, proactivity and personal resilience, and demonstrable ability to adapt to changing and uncertain circumstances.
• Professionally excellent written and spoken English.

Desirable

At least one year’s experience living and working in countries other than your home country.
Experience working in, or on projects related to, Tanzania.
Fluent written and spoken Kiswahili.

Application deadline:  5pm Tanzania time on Friday 1st May 2020

Application instructions: 

Please note: This role is currently only open to Tanzanian citizens.

Please send your CV and a cover letter (PDF or Microsoft Word format) outlining your experience and suitability for the role in English by the specified deadline to: [email protected] writing ‘Country Director’ in the subject line. Applicants with no separate cover letter will not be considered. Please do not send certificates or other attachments.

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.