Project Officer, Arts at British Council

Role Type: Business Delivery
Pay Band: 4
Department: Business Support Services
Duration: Indefinite
Reports to: Project Manager, Arts
Eligibility: Pre-existing right to live and work in Nigeria

Role Purpose

• To work with the Project Managers (Arts), the West Africa Arts team and the wider British Council team to deliver programmes, audiences and partnerships which contribute to the British Council’s arts programme in West Africa.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview
The West Africa context is one with democratic governments but unstable transition / election cycles, relatively small middle class with high levels of inequality, significant national and international migration, large youth population, a weak skills base and high unemployment, low broadband penetration but growing fast, and rapid mobile phone penetration.

The arts and creative industries in Nigeria and Ghana are rapidly growing and increasingly recognised as economic powerhouses and job creators for young people across music, film, fashion, and the performing and visual arts, leading to increasing public and private support for the sector. In Sierra Leone, (partly influenced by Ghana and Nigeria), and due to a lack of cultural infrastructure for performative arts, there is growing interest in video and film and the music industry is also growing. Street art is also a significant part of the arts scene.

In Senegal, historical public support for arts means a strong focus on artistic practice in dance, literature, music and film particularly but less developed creative economy but this is changing quickly.

In the UK, there is interest in the West Africa creative sector particularly in Nigeria by diaspora and non-diaspora players especially in film, music, and fashion and technology sector. There is diaspora and non-diaspora interest in fashion, design and music in Ghana and Sierra Leone to varying degrees. There is also UK interest in francophone countries like Mali and Senegal particularly in music and dance.

The post holder will work within our West Africa arts cluster programme which has a range of projects including:

• Consistent (e.g. monthly / quarterly) Creative Hustle events in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone for young artists and creatives to develop awareness of creative industry livelihoods, new skills and create new networks or strengthen existing ones.
• Artistic showcases in festivals and venues in West Africa and the UK; either reciprocal or collaborative.
• Cross Cluster training and networking events that bring together artists and creative entrepreneurs from across West Africa with UK counterparts. Participants will be drawn from across West Africa and will hold in Ghana, Nigeria or Sierra Leone (for English speakers) or Senegal (for French speakers).
• Country level training or networking activity in response to evidence of UK and / or Country need and alignment with cluster ambitions.
• Grants to UK and West Africa organisations to collaboratively develop projects that respond to cluster ambitions.
• Ongoing policy advocacy through conferences, study tours, one on one lobbies and other activity as appropriate and agreed with programme board. Where these are opportunistic, they will align with the cluster ambitions and be signed off by Country Director then reported to the board.

Main Opportunities/Challenges for this Role
This role will:

• Afford the post holder exposure to different internal and external stakeholders in the arts and creative industries in West Africa and the UK.
• Increase the knowledge and use of SAP (financial management software) of the post holder
• Involve working to tight deadlines to support project delivery through administrative support and other tasks
• Involve negotiating with external vendors to get best value for money for the council.
• Need to use the monitoring and evaluation tools of the British Council to report projects delivered.

Main Accountabilities
Project Coordination:

• Support the delivery of project activity to agreed timelines, costs and performance indicators.
• Responsible for maintaining programme activity and Gantt charts
• Responsible for programme records management and archiving in line with corporate policy on data protection and information management
• Support Project Manager in organising and managing events for programme related events.
• Support project manager with the management, communication and coordination of key stakeholder groups.
• Reporting on impact, financial, equality and diversity and other reporting measures

Finance and Procurement Coordination:

• Support the project manager with the procurement of goods and services in line with established corporate policies and guidelines.
• Ensuring the administrative purchase to pay process is executed in line with corporate standards.
• Responsible for creating and managing programme purchase orders and ensuring appropriate management of invoicing and payment of suppliers and vendors.

Evaluation:

• To administer British Council’s monitoring and evaluation tool: the Results and Evaluation Framework (REF)
• Collect and record all data within deadline and according to corporate standards.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Child Protection standards:

• Support project manager to ensure that project delivery and activity reflect British Council EDI policy.
• Ensure that child protection policy and standards are followed and maintained for all relevant projects

Other important features or requirements of the job:

• Required candidate will also need to possess:
  • Strong organisational skills and attention to detail
  • Ability to work effectively with tight deadlines

Key Relationships
Internal:

• All Arts Project Managers in Nigeria and West Africa, the rest of Sub Saharan Africa and the UK Business Support Services teams in West Africa

External:

• Artists in West Africa and UK, British Council arts partners, vendors and customers

Role Requirements/Person Specification
Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution - Minimum/Essential
• Shortlisting - Assessment Stage.

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience:

• 2 Years’ Experience in project delivery support - Minimum/Essential
• Experience organising and managing events - Minimum/Essential
• Demonstrated experience managing relationships with external clients, partners and stakeholders - Minimum/Essential
• Experience working in creative sector in West Africa or the UK - Desirable
• Shortlisting - Assessment Stage.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English - Shortlisted candidates will either demonstrate they have met the required standard through presentation of an agreed English language certificate, or will be required to take the APTIS test and demonstrate a B2 level of English proficiency. - Minimum/Essential
• APTIS - Assessment Stage.

Remuneration
340,331 Nara per month.