Regional Finance Director - West and Central Africa

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We won’t stop until we are all equal.

The Opportunity

In Operations, our vision is ‘to be a globally trusted partner in the organisation’s delivery of life-changing programmes for girls and young women’.

We aim to do this by ‘providing the robust financial and supply chain systems, reports, tools and data, and the skilled people to enable successful project delivery. We equip our customers with the insights, capabilities, and expert advice that they need to change lives’.

Plan International embarked on an ambitious and exciting strategic change initiative to make the organisation more transparent, legitimate, and agile. Strengthening our financial and supply chain planning, decision making, and analytics is a key enabler in attaining our strategic goals.

Our Regional Finance Director provides critical leadership to ensure that Plan International Inc.’s finances in the WACA Region adhere to external and internal financial standards and donor regulations. The Regional Finance Director ensures that Regional Management and the Global Hub (GH) finance function are alerted to financial risks and opportunities in the WACA Region, while also providing strategic analysis on the business environment, with a key focus on implementing solutions in a cost-effective way by determining the requirements of a project or program and communicating them clearly to the WACA Hub office (RO), as well as Country Offices (CO).

This role is responsible for the finances of the WACA Region. Although COs have a Country Finance Director/Manager and team who have responsibility for internal financial standards and donor regulations, the regional role has oversight of the COs. The Regional Finance Director monitors the performance of all COs, ensuring that financial standards are high across the region, identifying areas of concern and implementing a strategy to ensure all COs hit key KPIs. The regional hub works with the COs to strengthen their finance capacity. The Regional Finance Director is part of the WACA Regional Management Team whose remit is broader than just finance. This role is also part of the Finance Leadership Team and as such participates actively in the global functions strategy development and continuous improvement.

Please follow this link for a full role profile; Regional Finance Director Role Profile Dec 24.docx

Dakar, Senegal preferred however other locations where Plan International has offices in the West and Central Africa region may also be considered (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo). Support with relocation is available if required. 

Type of Role: 5 year fixed term contract

Reports to: Regional Director of WACA - Line Manager and Chief Finance Officer - Functional Line Manager

Closing Date: Tuesday 21st January

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.