Country Director Mali

SNV is a global development partner, deeply rooted in the countries where we operate. We are driven by a vision of a better world: A world where across every society all people live with dignity and have equitable opportunities to thrive sustainably. To make this vision a reality, we need transformations in vital agri-food, energy, and water systems. SNV contributes by strengthening capacities and catalysing partnerships in these sectors. We help strengthen institutions and effective governance, reduce gender inequalities and barriers to social inclusion, and enable adaptation and mitigation to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Building on 60 years of experience we support our partners with our technical and process expertise and methodological rigour. We do this in more than 20 countries in Africa and Asia with a team of approximately 1,600 colleagues. By being adaptable and tailoring our approaches to these different contexts, we can contribute to impact at scale, resulting in more equitable lives for all.

Are you looking for an exciting position, in which you are crucial for the success of SNV in spearheading SNV’s impact, business development, operational excellence and partner engagement in Mali? Then this is your role! 

SNV in Mali implements programs that are supported by various international donors. Implementation of these programs is currently active in 19 regions.  
Country specific information can be found here: www.snv.org/country/mali. Our aim is to maintain and expand our diverse portfolio and impact in the dynamic and conflict affected development market that is Mali.  

Country Director Mali  
SNV seeks an entrepreneurial, results-oriented, seasoned people leader who will lead the Mali country team in enabling and delivering high quality impact programs. You are a champion on SNV culture, representing our values and encouraging a team culture of learning, creativity, and innovation. 
 
SNV offers a challenging position, leading a well-established team. The current EUR 15 million per annum program portfolio includes support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation, Swiss, Swedish and Danish development cooperations,  and the European Union.    

The Country Director leads, coaches and supports their country management team (CMT) and inspires a total team of 60 team members in 4 offices across the country.  

The Country Director is a key member of SNV’s global senior leadership team, making meaningful contributions across the wider organisation to further shape and enable the future of SNV. 

Your role   
The Country Director is responsible for leading and enabling the country program with and through their team and local implementation partners. It is a multi-faceted role, focused on upscaling and strategically strengthening the country position with an ambitious country strategy, ensuring high-quality delivery of operations, and securing adequate funding to sustain and grow opportunities to deliver impact. The Country Director needs to be well informed about national and international development priorities and steer the sectors and themes in response to these priorities. The Country Director is expected to forge partnerships and alliances between SNV and important national and international actors and stimulate collaboration for impact. She/he will be the face of SNV in the country and ensure our positive image and visibility. 

In this role you will also be responsible for the following tasks: 

Strategic leadership of the country programme. Providing innovative leadership and encouraging people to take an active role in programme design and proposal development and ensuring quality and implementation in line with the strategic directions within the annual Plan and SNV’s global strategy; 

• Strong and supportive people leadership enabling the country team: creating and nurturing an environment that supports high performance, continuous learning and teamwork at all levels; 
• Representation and profiling: building partnerships and maintaining excellent relationships with national and local governments, donors, partners, businesses, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders; 
• Oversight and quality assurance of project implementation (including project director roles) ensuring the delivery of impact to the satisfaction of key stakeholders and compliance with national Mali government regulations, SNV’s and the donor’s financial standards and monitoring protocols; 
• Business development to grow the country position and its programmes, ensure financial sustainability of SNV in Mali and ensure high-quality project design; 
• Collaboration with other SNV countries to effectively exploit opportunities for synergy, deliver at scale (including multi-country projects), exchange knowledge and strengthen SNV’s positioning; 
• Foster innovation of SNV products and services: facilitate learning, documentation and evidence-based knowledge development in collaboration with SNV’s global team and partners; and ensures collaboration with renowned knowledge institutes and networks. 

Your background 
The ideal candidate brings a minimum of five years of relevant leadership experience at a senior, end-responsible level in West Africa. We expect you to be a strong people leader with an understanding and curiosity for diversity and inclusion. You thrive in an environment where evidence building is required, and you are able to engender that passion to motivate others. You have experience in cooperation with governments and partners as well as donor relations, and actors in SNV’s three sectors and core thematic areas. You have a proven track record in project management including familiarity with donor-funded project procedures and processes. 

You have strong business acumen accompanied by demonstrated business development experience on large tenders and grants from multilateral development agencies, banks and bilateral donors, but also a track-record in mobilising resources, including strong networking and positioning skills at multiple levels. You thrive in a complex multi-stakeholder environment, you have experience in fragile and conflict affected work environments, and you understand the sensitivity of the political economic context in French–speaking Africa or SAHEL. 

You have a people-centric focus and can mobilise teams against strategy. You are able to coach, lead, stimulate, and inspire professionals in a development context. Proficiency in both written and spoken French and English is required. 

Working for SNV 
We are home to 57 cultures working in 22 countries, with about 95% of our team members holding the nationality of the respective countries we work in. We promote (international) career development. Our workforce exists of a mix of both people with longstanding tenure, willing to share their institutional knowledge, as well as people with external backgrounds and experience. All with an inquisitive view and united in ‘ONE SNV’ working towards our purpose. 

Together, we are committed to the effective and efficient stewardship of resources and maximising positive, lasting impacts. Our ability to deliver results rests on our robust foundation of experience, knowledge, evidence and learning; our commitment to strengthening capacities and catalysing partnerships; and the relationships and trust of those we work alongside. 

At SNV, inclusivity is at the heart of our ethos. We celebrate the diversity of our workforce and uphold a policy of non-discrimination based on factors such as disability status, religion, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, and more. 

Our offer 
We offer a competitive salary and benefits package in a stimulating work environment, opportunities to lead and innovate, and a commitment to growing your skills in a fulfilling international working environment.  

• Contract Type: Full time (40 hours per week) 
• Contract Duration: 3 years initial assignment, with the possibility to extend   
• Expected Start Date: April 2025  
• Duty Station: Bamako, Mali   

How to apply 
If you believe that your credentials meet the outlined profile, we invite you to apply by uploading your English CV and letter of motivation by 2nd of January 2025.    

Reference and vetting check                    
We will require that you provide us with the full details of two people willing to act as a reference. We will not contact these references without your explicit permission. 
 
SNV carries out rigorous background and reference checks concerning possible safeguarding incidents for all candidates applying for International determined positions. As SNV participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, all reference checks include a request to past employers to fill in a questionnaire regarding Misconduct (sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment), the “Statement of Conduct". This Statement of Conduct adopts the definitions used in the Scheme.   

*We do not appreciate third-party mediation based on this advertisement.