Area Director - North East at Action Against Hunger | ACF-International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno and with one week a month to be spent in Abuja.

Scope of Role

• Reports to: The Country Director as Deputy Country Director position
• Supervises: North East Area
• Budget Responsibilities: approx. USD 50 million. The portfolio and budget responsibilities will vary with the expansion or contraction of the programme in the long-term.

Requirements
Key Activities in your role will include:

Strategy:

• To actively contribute as co-lead on the production of a strategy for the North-East and that this is reviewed on an annual basis and documented each year.
• Ensure that the strategic plan is informed by the ACF global strategy and continuously evolves to achieve the greatest impact and relevance in the operating context by providing strategic guidance to the Area/Field Cos.
• Define within the plan a clear strategy for different approaches to work to ensure access and coverage, that may be adopted separately or severally whether through partners, direct implementation or through advocacy.
• Engagement with state government, UN, other strategic level coordination groups and visiting donors in the North-East to position ACF as a partner of choice; a leader in the fight against hunger and an influential voice for the humanitarian response.
• Ensuring on-going analysis of humanitarian trends in the northeast to develop early warning signals for a proactive rather than a reactive humanitarian programme.
• Ensure policies and strategies of AAH globally are incorporated into our work and contribute to ongoing development and modification of existing SoPs guidelines.

Programme Delivery:

• Continually guide the humanitarian response team on assessments, programming and changes in plans that will affect the annual strategic plan.
• Work with the SMT members to ensure that ACF Nigeria has the necessary capacity to meet the management, logistical and technical requirements of any programme undertaken and to ensure effective coordination of the programme activities with key stakeholders at state and national levels.
• Collaborate with relevant departments at the country office to ensure timely decisions are made regarding opportunities for delivery of concept notes and project proposals to allow the humanitarian response to be effective and efficient.
• Ensure compliance with ACF’s MEAL framework and Gender minimum standards.
• Develop initiatives for continuous learning, pilots and innovation.
• Ensure the humanitarian programme delivery is principled and is based on ACF global standards where applicable and on other global minimum standards, such as SPHERE.

External Representation & Coordination:

• Provide feedback to country office and the HQ for global messaging and engagements with international coordination fora, concerned with northeast Nigeria or the Lake Chad Basin crisis.
• Facilitate funding and non-funding partnership to increase participation. Including NGO partners (local and international), networks, alliances, institutions, UN, Government of Nigeria, etc.
• Support the team to ensure programme learning and innovation are documented and shared at appropriate national, regional and international level.
• Ensure active and effective collaboration with the advocacy and communications team at the country office.
• Actively engage with the OHCT, iNGO Forum and other coordination platforms in the North-East. Ensure that accurate and updated host government (state and federal) relations information and other relevant policy information is disseminated to SMT and Area/Field Coordinators promptly.
• Ensure that ACF has up-to-date legal status to operate activities in the intervening states as well as program related agreements with the relevant line ministries, departments and agencies.

Team Management, Coaching and Capacity Building:

• Promote a continuous learning environment within the humanitarian response programme and country programme through dissemination of up-to-date thinking on humanitarian/development issues.
• Manage a multidisciplinary team of senior staff. Performance manage all direct line reports including development and coaching of staff.
• Team building and development of team capacity, with particular focus on developing skills, knowledge and capacity relevant to attaining the ACF Nigeria Country Programmes objectives and vision.

Does this Description Fit You?

• A Master's Degree in International Development, Humanitarian Assistance, Political or Social Science, Economics, Business Administration or related field.
• At least 10 years of work experience preferably in humanitarian or development work with at least 5 years of experience in management.
• Minimum 5 years experience in the field leading humanitarian and/or preparedness programs.
• Knowledge and experience of emergency and development issues; deep understanding of causes of emergencies, emergency programming and links with policy.
• Proven experience of building and leading teams and evidence of strong people management skills
• Proven programme & project cycle management skills – proposal and report writing skills; monitoring and evaluation skills and experience.
• Proven Representation skills at senior coordination and strategic levels.
• Knowledge and experience of promoting gender equity, and an active commitment to promoting the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of ACF’s work.
• Ability to work with others to develop vision into strategy and communicating and influencing this to a wider audience.
• Proven knowledge of computerized system; high degree of computer literacy and word processing and spreadsheet skills essential.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Ability to work under pressure, prioritises well and meet deadlines.
• Ability to travel extensively, especially to remote disaster prone/affected areas.
• Commitment to the aims and objectives of ACF’s Child Safeguarding policy and ACF code of conduct.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian principles and standards and how it is applied in emergency contexts.
• Credibility to lobby, influence and represent ACF at all levels.
• Experience in working in Nigeria, particularly northeast Nigeria is preferred.
• Knowledge of Hausa or Kanuri language is also preferred.

Our Core values
In this position, you are expected to demonstrate Action Against Hunger-USA-USA’s five core competencies:

• Respect- we work with compassion and dedication, treating everyone the same way we expect them to treat us.
• Integrity-: we believe that being honest and fair is integral to every aspect of our work; conducting our work with a spirit of sincerity, truthfulness and transparency is imperative.
• Creativity-we encourage new ideas, embrace innovative solutions, and create opportunities for meaningful and exciting ways to do our jobs and provide solutions to address the needs of the populations we serve.
• Excellence- we strive to provide services that meet, and even exceed, the expectations of our stakeholders (populations in need, staff, communities and donors).
• Empowerment- we are committed to fostering an environment in which our staff, partners and communities where we work have the space to grow, develop and feel confident about participating.

Benefits
Action Against Hunger-USA values its employees and offers a comprehensive remuneration and benefits package. These include but are not limited to:

• Health Insurance
• R&R Breaks
• Paid annual leave (vacation)
• Training opportunities