Country Representative

Ipas; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Ipas South Africa seeks a Country Representative to provide national-level leadership for the SA program under the Regional Director. You will drive strategy, work plans, and performance, overseeing budgets, donor reporting, and risk management while guiding technical units to ensure high-quality implementation.

You will collaborate with in-country partners, represent Ipas to stakeholders, and foster strong partnerships to advance SRHR leadership in the country.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Public Health or related field is preferred.
• Master’s degree or higher is preferred.
• Certification in project management is required or preferred.
• Qualification in humanitarian action and/or Monitoring & Evaluation.
• Eight or more years of leading program operations and logistics experience.
• Supervisory experience of at least three full-time technical staff.
• Willingness to travel up to 30% domestically.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and managerial leadership for the South Africa program.
• Develop and implement strategies and work plans to meet program goals.
• Oversee financial monitoring, donor reporting, and risk management.
• Coordinate with in-country counterparts to ensure successful execution of work plans.
• Support technical units with guidance and ensure program quality and alignment with Ipas mission.
• Represent Ipas with external stakeholders and donors and build strong partnerships.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Budgeting

Donor reporting

Team supervision

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Public Health or related field

Master’s degree or higher

Project management certification

Humanitarian action / M&E qualifications

Job description

The Country Representative at Ipas South Africa will work at a national level to provide technical and managerial leadership for the South Africa program under the direction of the Regional Director for Southern Africa Program. This position is responsible for the development and implementation of strategies and work plans to ensure that program goals and objectives are met. This includes providing strategic inputs for annual work plans, proposal development, analysis of programmatic results, identification and resolution of challenges and program performance, application of lessons learned and best practices to improve program performance, donor reporting, financial monitoring, and personnel management. In addition, the Country Representative works with in-country counterparts to ensure successful implementation of work plans. The Country Representative will oversee the technical unit functions by providing technical support and programmatic guidance to each unit.

Key responsibilities of this position include but are not limited to:

• Organizational Leadership and Strategy:

  • Contributes significantly to the development of the country strategy; Leads in developing assigned components of the strategy
  • Leads implementation of the local strategic plan, ensuring results in assigned areas
  • Fosters teamwork and collaboration across the organization
  • Provides supportive supervision at department level

• Financial and Risk Management:

  • Reviews and provides final approval for project workplans and budgets, with a focus on cost efficiency and stewardship
  • Leads regular, high-level reviews of project progress and financial monitoring across the program, identifying opportunities for increased cost efficiency
  • Ensures internal control systems are functioning
  • Contributes to risk mitigation planning for the country office
  • Ensures departmental level compliance with Ipas policies

• Program, technical, or functional content of the job:

  • Responsible for managing the execution of programmatic work, ensuring high-quality project implementation and achievement of objectives
  • Reviews and provides technical and programmatic inputs into the development for country work plans and budgets, with a focus on cost efficiency and stewardship
  • Contributes to new program design and strategy integrating lessons learned and best practices, and ensuring alignment with Ipas mission, values, and strategic plan
  • Leads regular, high-level reviews of project progress and financial monitoring across the program, identifying opportunities for increased cost efficiency
  • Ensures internal control systems are functioning
  • Contributes to risk mitigation planning for the country office

• communications & representation:

  • Represents Ipas with a variety of external stakeholders, including partners, counterparts, and donors
  • Contributes to positioning Ipas as a leader for SRHR in the country or region
  • Reviews and shares learning and results within the Ipas network as well as with counterparts, partners, donors, other country programs and the global Ipas network
  • Leads and contributes to the development of key messages and communications strategies and plans, primarily at program or departmental level
  • Builds and maintains strong partnerships in relevant areas (Finance, Programs)

The Country Representative – South Africa must meet the following criteria:

Minimum

• A deep commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially abortion and contraception access
• Proven ability to lead and motivate teams and create a positive work environment, including through supportive supervision, strong communication, nonhierarchical leadership approaches, and modeling the Ipas core values.
• Demonstrated capacity and commitment to good stewardship of funds, including strong skills in work planning, budgeting, financial monitoring, and data-driven problem solving.
• Proven ability to build positive working relationships with diverse internal teams and external partners
• Eight (5) or more years of leading program operations and logistics experience
• Previous supervisory experience of a minimum of three full time technical staff members required
• Cross-cultural work experience
• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically (with occasional regional or global trips if applicable)

Education

• Bachelor’s degree but master’s degree or higher (or an International Equivalent) in Public Health or a Related Field is preferred.
• Certification in project management.
• Qualification in Humanitarian action and/or Project Cycle Management and/or Monitoring & Evaluation.

Preferred

• Demonstrated skills in leadership, planning, management, and technical skills working with health systems and community programs.
• Strong consultative and negotiation skills.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills to strategize, plan, and manage resources for successful completion of projects.
• Ability to motivate, influence and collaborate with others.
• Ability to build positive working relationships with district/state/national government officials, UN and other multilateral bodies, NGOs, and donor representatives.
• Must be able to read, write, and speak fluent English and fluent in host country language(s).
• Experience operating in challenging environments.

Ipas is strongly committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and inequity. We recruit, employ, train, promote, and compensate our personnel without regard to race, age, sex, religion, national origin, color, creed, ancestry, citizenship, caste, ethnicity, regional identity, tribal identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic protected by law or outlined by Ipas policy. Ipas acknowledges that these personal characteristics may differ in different contexts.