Programmes Director

Job title: Programmes Director

Location: MDAC headquarters, Budapest, Hungary

Reports to: Executive Director

Responsible for: Several programmatic staff

Goal: Based in MDAC’s headquarters in Budapest and working in close collaboration with the Executive Director, the Programmes Director oversees MDAC programming, ensuring program integration and policy coherence. The post-holder supervises staff, ensures delivery of project results, and makes sure that the organisation communicates in an effective way to a variety of stakeholders.


Programme Management
• Inspires, guides and supervises staff, consultants and volunteers;
• Develops team knowledge and skills;
• Acts as project manager in specific projects and project supervisor in others;
• Ensures the smooth management of several projects running in parallel;
• Represents MDAC as required at external meetings;
• Participates in strategic planning and new project development;
• Gathers reports on work achieved and planned.

Policy and Advocacy
• Guides the implementation of policy and advocacy initiatives and related strategies at international and regional levels;
• Oversees national-level advocacy in conjunction with MDAC staff and NGO partners, ensuring policy consistency and an integrated approach across MDAC’s programming;
• Ensures that the organisation establishes and maintains good working relationships with partner organisations, including NGOs, governments, Ombuds offices, and international organizations;
• Drafts policy papers and a variety of other advocacy and marketing documents related to MDAC’s programming, and edits other people’s writing;
• Takes responsibility for MDAC’s external communications (including its website) to a range of stakeholders at the international level, ensuring consistency, relevance and quality of communications;
• Maintains and improves MDAC visibility in a variety of fora;
• Coordinates the submission of policy and advocacy statements to intergovernmental human rights bodies;
• Oversees the capacity building of civil society to monitor the ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international legal instruments;
• Seeks out fresh issues and creative ways of carrying out activities.

Financial management and fundraising
• Assists the Executive Director in conceiving of new projects, identifying donor prospects and drafting proposals;
• Oversees narrative reporting for and compliance with grants;
• In conjunction with Finance Officer, prepares project budgets;
• Monitors financial allocations and programme expenditures.

Other
• Plays a key role in suggesting new areas for institutional development, informed by developments in the disability and /human rights landscape globally;
• Deputies for the Executive Director in his or her absence;
• Carries out other tasks as requested by Executive Director.



PERSON SPECIFICATION


Qualifications
• Masters degree (or equivalent) in public policy, sociology, law, human rights, management or relevant field;
• Management qualification an advantage.

Work Experience

Minimum five years work experience in issues related to human rights, public policy and advocacy.

Applicants must demonstrate their experience with all of the following:
• Advocacy in any human rights field;
• Working at the international level;
• Drafting English-language documents;
• People management;
• Project management.

Applicants must demonstrate their experience with some of the following:
• Working on equality, non-discrimination, and other issues affecting ‘vulnerable’ people;
• Interaction with national politicians or civil servants;
• Building capacity of civil society organisations;
• Analyzing State compliance with laws or policies;
• Supervising monitoring and research;
• Writing fundraising proposals;
• Budget development and tracking.

Personal attributes and skills
The ideal Programmes Director will have the following attributes and skills:
• Commitment to MDAC’s mission, vision and organisational values;
• Ability to transform policy analysis and discussions into measurable advocacy outputs;
• Excellent spoken and written English;
• Willingness to be based in Budapest and travel internationally;
• A commitment to engage in dialogue with a variety of stakeholders;
• Demonstrated political acumen and analytical skills;
• Strategic thinking and someone who seeks linkages between people and themes;
• Quick learner who thrives on multi-tasking;
• Outstanding writing skills who can make sense of complex information and condense it into punchy outputs;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Self-starter able to lead and be a member of teams;
• Ability to deal with ambiguous external environments and a high paced working environment.

To apply please email your CV and a cover letter (explaining how you meet the person specification for this post) to JoinTheTeam@mdac.info by 21 July 2009.