Federal Partnership Facilitator at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role  

• The Federal Partnership Facilitator is responsible for working under the direction of the Federal Team Leader (FTL) and with other Partnership Facilitators to ensure the front-line delivery of the programme within the federal team. This includes contributing to the development of programme strategy and priorities within the federal team and working closely with partners to ensure delivery in line with the direction of the programme’s theory of change, results framework and work plan.
• Federal Partnership Facilitators (FPF) shall be expected to ensure the integration of their work with ECP M&E, KM and communications systems, including developing output or work stream relevant M&E plans and effectively recording and sharing results. Maintaining close relationships with programme partners, under the guidance of the FTL, is essential to the role including with relevant programme partners, other programmes and government representatives.
• It is mandatory for every staff to participate in, read, understand and take any eventual courses and exams as they may advised by palladium in relation to the code of conduct, Diversity and Inclusion, whistle-blowing and child protection policies.
• It is the responsibility of the staff to constantly check for updates for this courses, instructions and briefs as they may arise. There is zero tolerance on defaulters.

Authority levels
Reporting Requirements:

• The FPF reports directly to the FTL and is responsible for working under the direction that the FTL provides. Regularly reporting to him/her and ensuring his/her activities fall within agreed frameworks and operating principles, as well as building an effective working relationship more broadly.  

Signatory authority:

• This position has no signatory authority but will be required to work closely with other team members who do have signatory authority and provide them sound recommendations. They will also work as part of the team to ensure that the variance of spend against forecast remains below 2% on a monthly basis, this is achieved by good communication of spend and anticipated spend against forecast to the Finance Officer.

Relationships
Teamwork & Mentoring

• Familiarize yourself with the work of all your team members as well as key programme management frameworks: technical, financial and administrative policies and guidelines as well as the PERL Business Case, Theory of Change, Intervention Logic,  Federal Strategy etc.
• Establish good working relationship with all members of the federal team and the National Support Team.
• Establish working relationships with counterparts in PERL pillars 1 and 3.
• Mentor other colleagues and consultants (within and outside of PERL, and across the federal) – direct provision of guidance and support, consistent with ECP’s key values/principles. Encourage and nurture interest in programme work shown by direct reports.
• Actively contribute to Team-Building within the federal team – 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.
• Actively contribute to a positive office culture within the joint Palladium office at federal level (if applicable), and collaborate with other programmes to ensure operational synergies. Look out for, highlight and support resolution of internal challenges impacting on team performance.

Responsibilities   
Support to development and refinement of programme strategy at the federal level:

• Undertaking operational research in the federal, including political economy, gender and conflict analysis, as well as assessments of the media, legislatures and ICTs with advise from the Technical Advisers.
• Liaising with other FPF’s and the FTL to identify priority issues and partnerships to support at the federal level.
• Contributing to the development of work plans and budgets at the federal level
• Contributing to refinement of programme priorities and approach within the federal team on an on-going basis through participation in processes of reflection, review and re-strategizing within the team

Programme delivery:

• Deliver against the agreed work plan including coordinating strategic planning, budgeting and implementation of assigned work areas with the rest of the federal team, ensuring synergy between work areas, and compliance with Programme Operations Manual.
• Ensure work is delivered in line with PERL’s Theory of Change and strategic approach
• Facilitate implementation of ECP’s approach by local partners, and mentor partners on how to manage project funds, enhance their resourcefulness and diminish their dependency on ECP.
• Diagnose constraints in partners capacities, motivations and enabling environments and identify support required to meet these needs
• Manage external support (local, federal and national TA inputs, in line with guidelines in Programme Operations Manual) to meet agreed partners requirements on assigned Work areas
•  Coordinate joint planning and implementation of support to partners with other pillars of PERL and other Development Partners.

Support to M&E, Reflection, Reporting, KM & Communications systems:

• Develop and implement MEL plans relating to assigned Work areas/work streams, as well as to Outcome & Impact Level MEL as requested/delegated by the FTL and in conjunction with the MEL Support Team
• Maintain personal activity, results and replication diaries relating to assigned Work areas/work streams and their Outcome & Impact, including from monitoring of the political environment and local context.
• Compile required information/data into federal programme M&E database, activity report & replication diary summary sheets, case studies, Quarterly Program Reports (QPR) and other reporting templates as required– whether individually or as a team, as agreed with FTL.
• Actively contribute to ‘bigger picture’ reflection, analysis, generation of learning/new knowledge and broad re-strategizing/planning through formal and informal interactions within the federal team (e.g. quarterly/monthly reflection meetings).
• Internally communicate/share learning and ideas with staff in other states and Abuja and externally communicate/share learning and ideas with other Development partners

Liaison with key programme partners:

• Lead on liaising with implementing partners in civil society, Media, Private Sector, NASS, MDAs as delegated by the FTL
• Maintain a close working relationship with SPFs in the Delivery Teams, the FPFs or their equivalent for Pillar One of the PERL’s programme, as well those in the sectoral programmes.
• Liaise with FTLs, SFAs, SFOs, FOs or equivalent staff of Other Programme’s serving as implementing partners on work areas/ sub-work areas handled by SPFs, with oversight of the FTL.
• Liaise with ECP Abuja (NTL/DTL, RTL, Regional TA, etc) as required through the FTL.
• Liaise with key high-level partners (DFID, leadership of Federal Govt & NASS, etc) as requested/delegated by the FTL.

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  
• At least 5 years’ experience in voice and accountability, civil society, private sector, or media in Nigeria.  Experience working in a donor (preferably DFID) funded programme is an advantage

Key Competencies and Professional Expertise Required

• Ability to engage a broad range of federal stakeholders, including civil society, private sector government and the media and broker relationships between them
• Strong understanding of federal and civil society dynamics particularly at the federal level as it relates to high fragile, donor driven and complex service delivery space.
• Strong skills in using systems for the delivery of development programmes, including work planning, monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management.
• Demonstrable skills in ICT, Advocacy and Work planning
• Ability to work effectively as part of a complex team and demonstrable experience and ability to support Programme development, implementation/ monitoring of work plan and Budget
• Experience working on key service delivery-related areas such as agriculture, health, and education is an advantage.
• Good working knowledge of the FG’s Social Investment Program (SIP), accountability frameworks like the Open Government Partnership (OGP), electoral cycle, and the constitutional amendment process.

Key Behaviors 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.