Chief Executive Officer

Job Description

Chief Executive Officer
Better Brick – Nepal

This document serves as a Terms of Reference (TOR) for the coordination and reporting responsibilities of Better Brick – Nepal’s Chief Executive Officer.

Job Description: Full-Time, Chief Executive Officer of Better Brick Nepal

Country Focus: Nepal

Responsible to: Better Brick Nepal’s Board of Directors and in close collaboration with Global Fairness Initiative (GFI)
Organizations: The Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) has been implementing the Better Brick – Nepal Program and will transition over management to Better Brick Nepal (NGO) after appointment of CEO.

Duration: One year contract, with possibility of extension and dependent on grant funding
Compensation: Commensurate with Experience

1. Opportunity Background
Over 200,000 workers, of whom as many as 32,000 are children, labor in unhealthy and unsafe conditions in Nepal’s brick kilns. The informal nature of the industry, which operates on the periphery of communities and with little government oversight, has served to entrench exploitive labor practices such as forced, bonded, and child labor. While work conditions are often harsh, the brick industry provides needed income to thousands of unskilled laborers, and in the wake of the Gorkha Earthquake of April 2015 the sector has become a particularly vital source of the jobs and building materials necessary for Nepal’s rebuilding and recovery.
The Better Brick - Nepal Program’s objective is to transform the brick industry by eliminating child, forced, and bonded labor. We incentivize kilns to improve conditions for workers through access to better production techniques, stronger operations, and the creation of a market for ethically produced bricks. To achieve this, long entrenched systems of recruiting workers, paying wages and operating kilns themselves must be reformed and new, locally appropriate, approaches introduced that maintain financial benefit for owners and workers alike. Brick kilns in Nepal play an important role in an economic infrastructure that supports the livelihoods of thousands of workers and provides the raw materials that drive Nepal’s reconstruction and future growth. A future goal of Better Brick - Nepal is to create a more nuanced vision of brick production with wider recognition of good and bad practices where, currently, the sector is largely disparaged on the whole. The impact of creating this “choice” leverages a prevalent interest from kiln owners to find solutions to social and environmental problems entrenched in the sector, and taps into an insurgent demand for responsibility and accountability in the commercial sector in Nepal, led in part by international donor agencies, and amplified in the wake of the Gorkha earthquake.

2. The Better Brick - Nepal Program
The Better Brick - Nepal Program is a collaboration between the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), GoodWeave International, Nepal GoodWeave Foundation, and 4 local Nepali NGOs, supported by Humanity United. The program’s objective is to incentivize kilns to eliminate bonded, forced, and child labor in the brick industry by increasing market opportunity and improving enterprise viability. Better Brick - Nepal is achieving this objective by utilizing a “tiered” system of engagement to differentiate levels of progress towards improving working conditions, as defined by the Better Brick - Nepal Standards, the program’s levels of engagement and investment on each kiln, and intensities of market facilitation and promotion for the kilns.

Better Brick - Nepal currently has 40 partner kilns, which fall into three tiers - Participant Kilns, Member Kilns, and Certified Kilns. By staggering engagement and investment based on performance, the program can partner with more kilns, more quickly. In addition, by marketing Member and Certified Kilns, the program can start to add in suppliers to meet the increased demand, while also ensuring that a zero tolerance policy on child labor is upheld.

Better Brick - Nepal’s specific objectives are:

• Support kilns in sustainably improving working conditions on their kilns and ultimately help them become a viable enterprise that is certified as a Better Brick Kiln
• Create a market segmentation for “Better Bricks” and secure buyers interested in purchasing socially-responsibly produced bricks
• Generate awareness around the challenges brick workers face among public consumers, policy makers, and decision makers to galvanize support for improving working conditions on brick kilns and creating a market preference for Better Bricks,
• Implement a multi-stakeholder engagement strategy to segment the brick market and drive a set of policies and practices that incentivize the production of Better Bricks.
• Creation of a local entity – Better Brick Nepal – and strengthening of its capacity to manage the program and supporting initiatives

3. Roles and Responsibilities

• The primary responsibilities of Better Brick – Nepal’s Chief Executive Officer are to provide leadership and strategic support to the program and help in the creation and strengthening of a local entity to manage the program.
• Leadership & Strategy Building
• Serve as a representative of BBN, liaising with local, national, and international stakeholders including government, industry representatives, kiln owners, local NGOs, program partners, buyers of Better Bricks, and international organizations to promote BBN’s objectives and continued success
• Identify partner organizations or potential champions of BBN’s objectives, internationally and locally, and manage the outreach and engagement of those relationships
• Work closely with GFI’s leadership to continuously refine and improve BBN’s strategy and activities to achieve the program’s objectives
• Lead on the development of the market segmentation strategy and supporting marketing initiatives
• Actively participate in identifying strategic opportunities to create higher demand for Better Bricks.
• Actively participate in identifying barriers to success for BBN and strategies for removing project constraints
• Work to position GFI and BBN as leaders in improving labor conditions through market-based solutions by speaking at events, preparing publications and issue statements on relevant issues, and continuously promoting the program and our model
• Set comprehensive goals for performance and growth for both BBN and staff
• Any other duties, as assigned.

Management of BBN Local Entity

• Oversee the transition of BBN management from GFI to the local entity, including program activities, staff management, office and financial responsibilities
• Oversee the development and implementation of policies, procedures, and processes to help govern the local entity and its operations
• Once the local entity has been established and staffed, directly supervise the staff and oversee BBN activities
• Coordinate closely with BBN Board of Directors and nurture and manage those relationships and their roles in BBN
• Any other duties, as assigned

Program Management

• Ensure program implementation is progressing in a timely manner, objectives are being met, and suggest any appropriate programmatic adjustments
• Collaborate regularly with program partners such as Nepal GoodWeave Foundation and local NGOs to ensure activities are coordinated, duplication of efforts are avoided, and a consensus on all major decisions is obtained
• Contribute to the development of annual work plans, donor report, and any other relevant program reporting requirements
• Ensure that all program reports and communications achieve a high-level of clarity and professional quality and that public documents are disseminated to relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Ensure strong Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) systems are in place and used for both programmatic decision-making as well as high-quality reporting to GFI and donors
• Any other duties, as assigned

Office and Financial Management

• Ensure that contractual and financial obligations are being met
• Ensure that policies and procedures are approved, in place, understood, and followed at GFI and eventually the local entity
• Oversee a budget tracking and management process that ensures an accountable and transparent tracking of the program budget
• Any other duties, as assigned

4. Knowledge and Experience:

• 10 to 15 years of experience in managing complex projects and teams with demonstrated results
• Strong background in strategic planning, business development and/or fundraising
• Strong background in management of operations and staff, including understanding of human resources and finances
• Previous experience in leading multi-stakeholder engagement strategies, including government, international, and local stakeholders
• Strong oral and written communication and presentation skills
• High competence using standard office software systems including MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• A high level of personal integrity, efficiency, and ability to balance multiple tasks and deadlines
• Fluency in both English and Nepali required
• Prior experience in setting up a local NGO or strengthening capacity of small NGOs preferred
• Prior experience or exposure to brick industry a plus

Success Factors:
The successful candidate will bring a wealth of experience in the management of complex projects and teams as well as strong background in strategic development and excellent skills at engaging and managing multiple external stakeholders with the integrity and capacity to represent a coalition of individuals and organizations responsibly, accurately, and with appropriate cultural and social sensitivity.

How to Apply: Please email a Letter of Interest with most recent CV to: applications@globalfairness.org

Please reference “BBN Chief Executive Officer” in the Subject line

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