Latest Job Opportunities at International Alert 5th May 2017

• The project manager is responsible for the timely and effective implementation of the project through the establishment of appropriate systems and procedures and the leadership of the project team.
• The project manager is also responsible for timely and accurate financial reporting, monitoring progress and impact of the project in both financial and technical terms, and providing adequate reporting on activities as well as mid and final reports.
• As this is a project implemented with several local partners in Maiduguri and other LGAs in Borno state, the project manager will need to play an important role in ensuring good communication and coordination among the partners and assuring connections between the partners and other actors working in similar work in the Borno and the NE in general.
• As a senior member of the Nigeria country team, the Project Manager can be requested to take leadership and representation responsibilities as necessary.
• Implementation will begin in May 2017 and will run through April 2019 with the possibility of extension. Therefore, the project manager is expected to provide proactive leadership to ensure the timely implementation of planned activities and to successfully achieve the project’s objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities
Staff Management:

• Lead the project team(POs and Partners)
• Line-manage partner organizations and supervise consultants, including recruitment, work planning and performance management
• Provide technical support in the recruitment and supervise consultants for evaluations, base/end-line and trainings

Management of Project Activities:

• Take overall management responsibility for the designate Alert project, including overseeing project roll out in Maiduguri and overall implementation of activities over the project period;
• Ensure clarity about roles and responsibilities among project stakeholders involving them in planning and informing all stakeholders of implementation plans
• Develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation plan in collaboration with International Alert M&E Officer, Programme Manager and Senior Advisor on Conflict Sensitivity;
• Monitor and continuously assess the operating context and the project activities, and recommend changes in approach accordingly;
• Ensure partner reporting on activities is completed in a timely manner;
• Provide narrative progress reports after three months and the annual report on activities and impact by at close of project.
• Oversee partner assessments (including both programmatic and financial assessments), identify partner training and support needs and organize appropriate responses together with donor.
• Oversee the production of project reports in a variety of formats (written, audio, video)
• Identify appropriate fora for the dissemination of project information and materials, and organise appropriate dissemination activities
• Ensure compliance with Alert Nigeria and donor operational policies
• Liaise and coordinate with relevant local and international stakeholders.

Financial Management of Project Implementation:

• Develop project implementation budgets in close collaboration with the International Alert Programme Manager and Finance and Operations Manager (FOM)
• Authorise project expenses based on project plans in close collaboration with the International Alert FOM
• Authorise project expenses based on implementation plans in close collaboration with the International Alert FOM
• Plan and forecast grant expenditure, project activities, procurement and staffing to ensure compliance with the project contract and budget and to prevent overspending or under spending
• Provide timely and accurate financial data to the Nigeria and Africa Programme Finance staff for purposes of planning, reporting and audit.

Reporting and Evaluation:

• Take overall responsibility for complying with reporting (narrative and financial) requirements set by Alert and Donor
• Ensure the timely submission of narrative reports on all aspects of the project that are required by International Alert and donor
• Provide technical input in the Design of all M&E templates and required documentation by M& E officer and Programme Manager
• Plan and manage the baseline and end-line surveys at project start and end
• Plan and manage the overall external project evaluation to take place in the last month of the project.

Coordination with other Alert Staff and Activities in the Region:

• Participate actively in the management processes of the project team, including team meetings, sharing of information, context analysis, and strategy development.
• Participate and contribute to other Africa Programme activities and events including regional meetings, and also promote cross-learning and help create linkages between different country programmes.

Contribute to wider organizational goals within Alert Nigeria Country Strategy:

• Participate actively in the management processes of the International Alert Nigeria team, including team meetings, sharing of information, context analysis, and strategy development
• Any other tasks as may be reasonably required.

Management Responsibilities

• The consultant will be line managed by the program manager Acting, International Alert Nigeria .

Requirements

• Within Nigeria, regular travel between Abuja and Maiduguri may be necessary. Also, travel to target LGAs of Bama, Gwoza, Damboa and Dikwa may be necessary if security permits.

Essential Requirements

• University degree in relevant field
• Three years of relevant working experience with management responsibilities
• Knowledge of gender sensitive approaches
• Knowledge of peacebuilding approaches
• Previous experience of working in high-risk areas of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe
• Excellent working knowledge English
• Good coordination and communication skills
• Attitude for team work and good leadership skills
• Experience of partnership development and management
• Responsiveness, and ability to handle stressful situations and intense work periods
• A high degree of emotional intelligence and the ability to interact successfully with a diverse range of people. Being non-judgmental and able to understand different perspectives
• Possessing a can-do approach, willing and able to improvise and adapt

Desirable Requirements:

• Experience of networking or advocacy on political and/or gender issues in Nigeria
• Experience of working with civil society organisations
• Knowledge of hausa and Kanuri

Timeframe for Consultancy:

• International Alert seeks to contract for a total of 154 working days over a period that runs between the 15 May and 31 December 2017 with the option to renew for FY2018 if satisfactory performance is observed and documented.

• The project will assess the obstacles to social cohesion in IDP camps, host communities and selected local government areas of Bama, Dikwa and Damboa.

Result or Outcome of Project

• The overall project will lead to a deeper understanding of the obstacles to social cohesion for both IDPs and those that remained in host communities.
• Objective of the consultancy
• The objectives of the consultancy is to carry out monitoring and evaluation support to the Programme Manager, Project Manager, and Project Officers in Maiduguri.

Deliverables
International Alert is seeking to contract a monitoring and evaluation officer to execute the following tasks:

• Support and strengthen M&E planning systems and best practices
• Maintain M&E frameworks for projects
• Lead on the development of a MEL plan for the current projects and any projects moving forward
• Advise partners on MEL, ensuring that partner staff are implementing best practice on projects with Alert
• Build knowledge and skills of Alert staff and partners in monitoring and evaluation methods and tools including logical frameworks, data collection, data analysis, and results-oriented programming
• Coordinate and deliver design, monitoring and evaluating (DM&E) training and learning programmes including inductions, refreshers and learning workshops with Alert staff and partners.
• Coordinate the collection and reporting of monitoring data and support evaluation management to project staff and partners
• Support project managers in their evaluation of project objectives and impacts In an on-going basis
• Ensure innovative dissemination of lessons internally for redesign and learning purposes
• Coordinate with Communications staff to ensure the impact section of the Nigeria webpage is engaging and relevant

Main Duties and Responsibilities

•  To supervise regular data collection through implementing partners and ensure quality of the data by random verifications and validations.
• To record, manage and preserve monitoring and evaluation data in a safe and accessible way
• To analyse and discuss findings based on regular monitoring data.
• Provide technical support on M&E and evidence-based recommendations to the relevant Project Manager and Partners.
• Ensure that implementation of field activities adheres to Alerts monitoring and evaluation system.
• Support partners in conducting baseline surveys and KAP surveys.
•  Participate actively in programme planning process.
• Support project team in developing the annual and six monthly organisational reports. Support Project team in dealing with any other tasks as may be required.

Specific Responsibilities
Monitoring:

• Develop project monitoring plan (PMP) of the projects in line with project plan and consulting with programme team and partners.
• Coordinate with Implementing Partners (IPs) for collecting data against agreed indicators.
• Engage with IPs to collect and manage essential data of their respective projects.
• Ensure quality of data collected by partners.
• Provide feedback to partners and programme teams on projects’ performance based on monitoring data findings.
• Assist Manager in building capacity of IPs on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E)

Evaluation:

• Assist Manager in designing, coordinating and conducting project evaluations (mid-term and end-line)
• Assist Manager in designing and conducting Post Implementation Monitoring Survey
• Assist Manager in conducting Programme Data Review
• Reporting and Documentation
• Assist Manager in developing quarterly, six-month and annual reports
• Develop and share field visit reports with relevant staff
• Upload key reports to the Data base

Planning:

• Assist project Manager during multi-year plan and budget (MPB) process to develop a good quality MPB for project
• Assist Manager in reviewing project plans during planning process
• Ensure quality of data/ statistics in project plans
• Upload relevant MPB documents
• Learning and Sharing
• Share learning from M&E process with the wider team
• Support partners in improving learning and sharing mechanisms in their projects
• Promote culture of two way learning in the organisation
• Contribution to Effectiveness of the Programme and WAP
• Work collaboratively with different programmes for strengthening integration and cross-learning in programmes
• Proactively volunteer for various team activities
• Take on any other tasks assigned by the line manager

Schedule:

• International Alert seeks to contract for a total of 154 working days over a period that runs between the 15 May and 31 December 2017 with the option to renew for FY2018 if satisfactory performance is observed and documented.

Reporting:

• The consultant will be based in Maiduguri. The consultant will report to the Programme Manager in Maiduguri as a technical lead and the Country Manager in Abuja as the functional lead.
• The consultant will have oversight from Programme Design and Fundraising officer and Communications team in London for additional support if and when necessary.