MINELRES: Roma Education Fund is seeking a new Executive Director

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: Roma Education Fund <office@romaeducationfund.org>


The Roma Education Fund is seeking a new Executive Director

Terms of Reference

Executive Director

I. Introduction

The Roma Education Fund (REF) is seeking a new Executive Director to
lead the organisation in the fulfillment of its 2010 -2015 Strategy,
approved by the REF Board in October 2009.

REF runs six major programmes:

- Project grants to NGOs and governments

- Tertiary education scholarships to Roma students studying for BA,
Masters and PhD.

- Policy development and capacity building

- Direct implementation of large-scale EU-funded projects

- Reimbursable grants to NGOs to ensure Structural Fund projects can
start on time

- Communication and outreach

The REF annual budget has averaged around 6 million EUR over the last
three years, but this is expected to increase over the course of the
medium term strategy as the organisation becomes more successful in
securing funding from European and national sources. The Roma Education
Fund is a headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, but has established
foundations in Switzerland, Hungary and, most recently, Romania. The
Executive Director serves as Executive Director for all three
foundations. The Director is responsible to the REF Board of each
foundation.

In its headquarters, REF currently has 15 staff, but will shortly
appoint two new staff members.

In addition, REF has engaged consultants on a near full-time basis in
five (soon to be six) countries as Country Facilitators to provide
support to local organizations preparing and implementing projects with
REF support and has 14 Country Coordinators for managing the REF
Scholarship Programmes in their respective countries.

A Senior Management Team, consisting of the managers of the grant,
scholarship and policy development programmes and the financial manager
is chaired by the Executive Director. In addition, a Project Management
Committee, consisting of the country officers and chaired by the
Executive Director, is responsible for reviewing and making
recommendations to the REF Board for funding of project grants.
Decisions on scholarship awards are made by national boards in each
country.

In addition to its staff, the World Bank and the Open Society Institute
each second an advisor to REF, providing technical advice to REF staff
about education policy issues and about monitoring and evaluation. The
Executive Director manages these staff and is responsible for assigning
tasks and conducting performance reviews.

Finally, the Chair of the REF Board is a full-time position based in
Budapest. In addition to his responsibilities for chairing the Board,
the Chair also carries out outreach and fund raising activities. In
carrying out these activities, the Chair acts at the direction of the
Board and in close consultation with the Executive Director of REF.

II. Duties:

- Manage REF�s operations so as to reach the targets set out in the
medium term strategy and so as to continue to increase the flexibility,
efficiency and effectiveness of programmes.

- Manage REF staff so as to ensure the right balance of skills and
knowledge and to motivate and support staff for better performance.

- Solely responsible for managing the staff and has full responsibility
for the daily operation of REF

- Plan for and oversee the development of the foundation in Romania and
any new foundations in other countries as approved by the Board in
consultation with the Chair

- Plan and manage REF�s budget

- Develop strong collaborative links with all stakeholders, including
those involved in the Decade of Roma Inclusion

- Ensure, through the Chair of the Board and other staff, that REF is
represented effective externally, so as to promote REF�s demonstrated
successes and to advocate for improved educational outcomes for Roma

- Provide timely and clear advice to the REF Boards, in the role as
Secretary

- Ensure all REF decisions and actions are taken in line with existing
policies and that accurate and complete records are kept

- Sustain the independence, objectivity and integrity of REF and its
programmes

III. Profile

The successful candidate is expected to have:

- A successful track record of at least five years of managing staff,
resources and fiduciary responsibilities in a multicultural environment.

- Demonstrated success in managing complex, international projects

- Ability to work effectively and sensitively with a very wide range of
stakeholders, including minority groups, civil society and international
organisations and governments.

- Familiarity with policies of international organisations in Europe,
especially the European Commission, Council of Europe and OSCE

- Experience with minority inclusion issues, programmes and projects.

- Knowledge of education policy and practice as they pertain to
minorities. Experience of these issues as they relate to Roma will be an
advantage

- Excellent spoken and written English. Knowledge of other relevant
European languages spoken in Central and Eastern Europe, including
Romanes will be an advantage.

- The highest personal integrity

- A Master�s Degree or equivalent academic qualification in a relevant
field of study, such as education, social science, political science,
management or economics.

REF encourages applications from women and members of ethnic minorities
including Roma.

All applications will be considered in their merits against the criteria
above.

Salary and benefits: Commensurate with experience. The Director will be
employed on a contract under Hungarian Labour Law.

Applicants should send a letter of interest, a statement of up to 500
words of how they would contribute to REF implementing its 2010-2015
Strategy, a full CV and the names of three references who may be
contacted before interviews are held. These materials should be sent to
Costel Bercus, REF Board Chair at: office@romaeducationfund.org. This is
a confidential email address to which only the Chair and the current
Executive Director have access.

Only applications received at this email address before 16:00 hours
Central European Time on Friday 26 February 2010 will be accepted. All
applicants will receive an email confirmation that their application has
been received; after that only those invited to an interview will be
contacted. 

More information about the Roma Education Fund, including the medium
term strategy, can be found at:
www.romaeducationfund.org.

---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using Endymion MailMan.
http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ http://www.microlink.com/