Job Opportunities at North East Regional Initiative (NERI)

Job Title: Program Manager

Location: Monguno, Borno
Contract: Short-term for 6months

Position Summary

• The Program Manager (PM) will be responsible for the contracting, Implementation and close-out of a portfolio of activities.
• The PM will work with in close collaboration with Senior Management (including USAID/OTI) and community stakeholders to identify, prioritize and design activities that will respond to community development priorities in order to further the objectives of the NLCB program.
• The PM, working with a small multidisciplinary team of 8 to 10 staff, will be charged with oversight of project activities to ensure that all tasks are completed within timeframe and budget parameters defined during project design.
• The PM will be tasked with the programmatic and administrative closeout of all activities, including final reporting, disbursement of funding (in concert with finance staff) and disposition of any project inventory.
• The PM will serve as the main point of contact for state-level actors and community stakeholders to ensure that all activities fit within a strategic and coherent portfolio.
• The PM will be expected to report daily to and receive guidance from Senior Management.
• The PM will be expected to liaise with various levels of stakeholders, including government officials, civil society organizations and community actors; the selected candidate must be able to maintain good relations with all associated parties.
• In addition, the Program Manager will be expected to collaborate horizontally with other PMs to share lessons learned and jointly design program strategy.
• This position will be based in Monguno on a short-term contract for 6months.

Reporting & Supervision

• The Program Manager will report to the Regional Program Manager (RPM) based in Maiduguri. All Program Managers should expect direct interactions with members of Senior Management Team and with the client, USAID/OTI.
• In the North east, the Program Managers will supervise and lead multidisciplinary activity management teams, comprised of Community Development Facilitators (CDFs), Grants Officer, Procurement Officer or Assistants, M&E Officer or assistant, finance assistant and Logistics Officer or assistant.
• These team members also report technically to their line managers in Abuja, the PM is expected to lead the team and ensure that they work together to design, implement, monitoring and learn from activities.

Primary Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Responsible general oversight of a portfolio of projects. The geography of targeted communities as well as type of programming is expected to change frequently over the course of the program.
• In concert with senior management, advice on programmatic design of new projects, including identification of potential local partners and beneficiaries, monitor implementation to ensure timely completion and adherence to budget and administrative and programmatic closeout throughout the portfolio of activities.
• Take a leadership role in the program’s learning process by feeding information in a timely manner on political and security developments in the PM’s target area.
• Develop activity-level Theory of Change (TOC), thinking strategy about the contribution of each activity to the overall program objective.
• Work alongside Government of Nigeria (GoN) officials, community stakeholders and civil society actors to ensure coherent and strategic programming as part of a unified project endeavor.
• Serve as the focal point of the objectives and purpose.
• In coordination with Community Development Facilitators, establish community-level project oversight committees to ensure community buy-in of activities.
• Help set up transparent management and oversight mechanisms and work to incorporate as wide a range of project beneficiaries, GoN and other important stakeholders as possible.
• Responsible for the proper use of the program database for project and program development and management, including updating information on projects and activities per week.
• Comply with all Creative and USAID procedures and policies with regards to ethics and compliance, grants management, HR, finance, operations and security.
• Perform other tasks, as assigned.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• University Degree in a related field is required
• At least 5 years of general work experience is required.
• Experience in working with communities to implement grassroots development projects preferred
• Prior experience (3 years or more) in grants management with international-funded projects is highly desirable.
• Proficiency at using Microsoft office: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc. is required.
• Ability to work under short deadlines and efficiently handle multiple tasks.
• Attention to detail and the ability to function well in a team.
• Experience of working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Fluency in Hausa and / or Kanuri is preferable.

Job Title: STTA Monitoring & Reporting Assistant

Location: Monguno, Borno
Contract: Short-term for 6months

Position Summary

• The STTA Monitoring and Reporting Assistant (MRA) proactively contributes to telling the story of the NLCB program through daily, short-term and long-term coverage of activities.
• S/he gathers, analyzes, and processes complex information related to all aspects of program activity implementation and impact to produce compelling investigative stories.
• Through qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques including interviews with beneficiaries, local officials and other stakeholders, the MRA helps the team learn how its activities contribute to the overall program goal.
• This position will be based in Monguno on a short-term contract for 6months.

Reporting & Supervision:

• The Monitoring and Reporting Assistant reports to their respective Monitoring & Evaluation Officer (MEO).

Primary Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Coordinate weekly with M&E Officer to determine priority tasks.
• Conduct site visits during the project implementation phase for each grant in assigned areas.
• Collect in a timely manner information on persons or communities impacted by the program’s activities or on the latest political or security development in target area.
• Draft concise, high-quality reports, articles or summaries on a daily or ad-hoc basis on activity progress or outcome. Monitoring & Reporting Assistant should be able to identify by him/herself information and stories of relevance to the program.
• Develop and maintain a strong network of contacts in target communities.
• In concert with the M&E Officer, develop Monitoring and Evaluation plans for field-level projects.
• Produce a “routine monitoring report” (RMR) according to an approved template for each site visit prior to the indicator verification visit.
• Accurately interpret Bills of Quantities (BoQ) and grant database file shared by head office to determine indicators according which the Officer will be evaluating projects.
• Contribute to drafting “final evaluation reports” (FER) for each activity based on prescribed format after visiting a grant site for verification of indicators.
• Identify lessons learned, constraints, and project impacts based on determined theme and/or sector for inclusion in FERs.
• Share observations from monitoring visits with M&E Officer when findings demonstrate questionable actions.
• Serve as primary point of contact for Grants Office when developing impact assessments, success stories and weekly reporting.
• Serve as primary point of contact for Grants Office when additional information is needed to close grants.
• Participate in professional training and development activities, as necessary.
• Represent the program positively and professionally in both internal and external environments.
• Perform other tasks, as assigned.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• High School Diploma is required while a University Degree in International Development, Journalism, English, Communications, Social Science, Economics, or related field is desired.
• One year of relevant experience in field monitoring, journalism, evaluation design, and/or information management is required.
• Strong editing skills, including both line and copy editing, as well as being able to discern broader subject-matter problems.
• Proven writing and editing skills in English with an ability to convey complex ideas in a clear, direct and lively style is required.
• Attention to detail and ability to follow up on tasks to completion is required.
• Excellent reporting and research skills and experience writing for the Web preferred;
• Strong analytical skills are required.
• Knowledge of social media and multimedia technologies desired.
• Prior experience with USAID or US Government funded projects is highly desirable.
• Experience of working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in one or more of the local state languages in the North Eastern part of Nigeria is required.