State Team Leader at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role   

• The State Team Leader is responsible for managing and overseeing the delivery of the Engaged Citizen’s Pillar of the Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn in their state. This includes leading on the delivery of ECP programme’s interventions at the state level under the direction of the North East Lead.
• They will liaise closely with the North East Lead for strategic scale up direction, managing the setting of priorities and workplans, ensuring the maintenance of MEL and KM systems and overseeing programme finance and administration.
• The State Team Leader shall be responsible for the line management and supervision of State Partnership Facilitators, Finance Officers and Admin Officers, short term advisors, as well as participating in the recruitment of new staff into these positions as needed.
• They shall be responsible for managing the performance of these members of staff and building relationships between them to create an effective team, as well as playing a leading role in managing relationships with programme partners in the state, including DFID, government representatives and other programmes.
• The STL will work closely with the North East Lead, Regional Advisors and relevant National Technical Advisers to ensure the effective oversight of the programme.

Primary Responsibilities
Visioning, strategizing, development of approach:

• Lead on the delivery of ECP programme’s interventions implementation at the State level. with support from the North East Lead, Technical Advisers. Reviewing research outputs and supporting the selection and prioritization of issues and partnerships to support at the state level.
• Leading the development of work plans and budgets and communicate these to staff and partners.
• Oversee strategy implementation and delivery of results in the state with close working relation with the North East Lead for strategic direction.
• Contributing to refinements of programme priorities and approach on an on-going basis through support for processes of reflection, review and re-strategizing within the team

Leadership, teamwork, relationship management:

• Actively contribute to Team-Building within the ECP team  through the use of shared mission, vision, values, identity/public profile, use of staff meetings, staff welfare, social events, formal and informal opportunities, etc, to reinforce teamwork. Look out for, highlight and support resolution of internal challenges impacting on team performance
• Provide leadership for the state team.
• Maintain strong working relationships with other members of the ECP and ARC State Teams and deliver a shared approach and work plan. Provide support to other members of the team as needs arise and consult each other closely.
• Maintain close working relationships and ensure co-ordination with members of the ECP Technical, MEL and Operational support teams. Ensure the State Team is working within systems and approaches developed by these teams.
• Work closely together with STTA working at the state level. Ensure effective co-ordination and oversight of their inputs.
• Work closely with North East Lead including coordination with Regional Parliamentary and Media Adviser's in implementation of strategies
• Work to support key programme partners at the state level, including contact points in the media, legislature, private sector, civil society, MDAs, professional associations and traditional institutions.
• Liaison with State Government and counterparts in ARC at state level

Delivery:

• Oversee the implementation of the state’s work plan through effective delegation of duties within the team and oversight and management of their work
• Oversee how programme resources (funds/budget and ST-TA) are being allocated/managed/used in support of partners.  Habitually monitor and promote value for money analysis and consciously diminishing financial dependency of local partners of ECP in line with ECP’s broad empowerment approach
• Ensure work at the state level is fully integrated with ECP’s information management, communication and monitoring, evaluation and learning systems
• Review and report progress in depth on a quarterly basis, ensure results are appropriately captured and reported on.
• Mobilize and effectively oversee short term advisors inputting to the state team. Ensure resources are used strategically in line with the programmes broader approaches and catered towards a diminishing dependency.

Line Management Responsibilities

• Line managed by  North East Lead:
• The State Team Leader is responsible for working under the direction provided by the North East Lead and regularly reporting to them and ensuring his/her activities fall within agreed frameworks and operating principles, as well as building an effective working relationship more broadly.  

Line manager of State Partnership Facilitators, State Admin and Finance Officers:

• Provide daily oversight, staff performance management, including mentoring, staff development (in line with ECP’s Mission, Vision, Values & Behaviors and their ToR), signing off timesheets, appraisal, mediation, arbitration, and enforcement of discipline.

Compliance
Policies:

• Agree that performance will be assessed based on these Terms of References.
• Understand that you will be expected to undertake any reasonable task as requested by the line manager. 
• Maintain and actively promote the implementation of Palladium’s Code of conduct, Diversity and Inclusion, Whistle-blowing and Child Protection, Safeguarding and Respectful Workplace policies
• It is the responsibility of the staff to constantly check for updates for these courses, instructions and briefs as they may arise. There is zero tolerance on defaulters.
• Ensure familiarity with all DFID and Palladium policies & procedures and check the ECP SharePoint regularly to ensure that any updates are also being implemented in a timely manner.
• Adhere to all stipulated PERL-ECP communications protocols regarding use of official email, Box, SharePoint, MIS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts.
• Ensure all labor and finances relating to this role is accurately reported (using correct codes, inserting adequate comments) in timesheets, expense claims and cashbooks.
• Ensure cost of all activities completed falls within that forecasted to ensure monthly variances of reimbursable income to DFID are kept below 2%.
• Work to place the programme’s core values/principles, approach, ethos and priorities above private interests while delivering to this role.

Information Management:

• Ensure familiarity with all DFID and Palladium Policies and procedures and check SharePoint regularly to ensure that any updates are also being implemented in a timely manner.
• Ensure that all work is completed in an accountable and transparent manner, this includes the use of official emails for work purposes. Use of personal emails will not be permitted. All work must be saved to the agreed cloud or central server storage systems and not individual desktops or hard-drives.

Requirements   
Minimum education and experience required:

• Educated to university degree level or above. (A postgraduate degree is an advantage)
• At least 10 years’ experience in voice and accountability, civil society, private sector, or media in Nigeria
• At least 5 years’ experience in senior management and leadership positions
• Experience working in a donor (preferably DFID) funded programme
• At least 3-5 years’ work experience in one of the above-mentioned states (Borno, Adamawa &Yobe- BAY)
• Experience in working in conflict environments with understanding of governance in recovery coordination

Key competencies and professional expertise:

• Strong expertise in building relationships with high level stakeholders in government, media and civil society
• Expertise in the line management and mentoring of programme teams
• Strong skills in overseeing and managing systems for the delivery of development programmes, including planning frameworks, monitoring and evaluation, Coordination in recovery context and knowledge management
• Good understanding of state and civil society dynamics in the region and Nigeria, particularly at the state ‘s level (BAY)
• Evidence of thinking 'outside the box' in handling programme management or administrative issues in a sensitive manner.
• Demonstrable skills in ICT, M&E and work planning etc
• Excellent Communication and facilitation Skills (formal and informal)

Key Behavior in Engaged Citizens:

• Accountability - Accountability entails being open and transparent in all our work, action and behavior.
• Sustainability - Keeping the process going or continuous is key.
• Respectfulness & Inclusiveness - Sensitivity to people, context and environment; everybody counts.
• Learning & Sharing - Everyone knows something and shares something.
• Teamwork - Recognizing everyone’s value and encouraging effective work in teams.
• Adaptive and Iterative - being politically smart and how well our systems and processes respond to changes is key.