Tier Lead at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role
Propcom Mai-Karfi was a six year DFID programme aimed at increasing incomes for the poor in Northern Nigeria through enhanced employment opportunities for increased employment and improved productivity in selected agricultural market systems in northern Nigeria. It now has a three-year extension 2018-2021 to work in a reduced number of states from mid-2018:

• Tier 1 (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe);
• Tier 2 (Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi) and
• Partnership states / Tier 3 (Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa)

Responsibilities

• To provide strategic direction and management to the technical work within the identified three states which constitute a Tier - determining the overall direction and delivery of the programme, by collaborating and coordinating with the Senior Management Team.
• The Tear Lead will also be responsible for providing direction, in association with the core specialists, the Results Measurement team and identified Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA).
• The Tear Lead will also have responsibility for ensuring compliance for the programme objectives of:
  • Gender and women’s economic empowerment (WEE), and
  • Climate smart agriculture (CSA).

Scope of Work

• The Tier Lead will have the overall responsibility for providing strategic guidance and management for the programme in the three states which she/he is responsible for. This will be done by managing all the programme interventions and overseeing both the strategic and administrative elements of the interventions, activities and inputs.
• S/he will also be required to establish and manage strategic relationships with potential partners and stakeholders in the three states.
• The Tier Lead will identify and design potential interventions for the programme and develop strategies for implementing these interventions to contribute to the delivery of Programme milestones. This will be done in conjunction with the DTL/ MGD and Team Leader and with the support of the Market Managers linked to these states and to these potential interventions.
• The Tier Lead will share the plans for new interventions and activities with his/her peers and will pilot agreed activities which have the potential to be brought to scale in the Tier states under his/her responsibility and other Tiers state groupings
• S/he will be responsible for ensuring strong linkages between the technical and the Results Measurement team of the programme. S/he will also be responsible for ensuring strong communication channels with the support team to ensure timely, safe and appropriate delivery of activities and travels.
• Though based in Abuja, Kano or Gombe, this post will require frequent travel to the field and especially to the three states that they are responsible for.
• The Propcom Mai-karfi staff work as an integrated team. The Tier Lead will be expected to contribute to other aspects of the programme. It is expected that the six Tier Leads will initially meet fortnightly and will contribute to the wider programme planning with the senior management team on a regular basis to ensure optimal learning and sharing of ideas for cross programme ownership.

Specific Responsibilities
The Tier Lead will be responsible for the following:

• Provide overall strategic direction for interventions and activities within the three states of a Tier, generated by the Tier Team and ensure full understanding and provide required support to actives taking place in the Tier that are overseen by another Technical Team Member (outside of the Tier).
• Tier Leads must ensure all opportunities to identify and incorporate WEE activities are acted upon in their Tier also, where relevant interventions implementation must be aligned to delivering CSA indicators.
• As part of the required wider monitoring and quality assuring all intervention guides and associated documents and resulting outputs must be adequately documented and evidenced.
• Identify new markets with the aim of contributing to the overall programme strategy; liaise with other members of the programme senior management team on potential markets and design effective implementation strategies for approved market interventions ensuring that they meet all donor and programme requirements.
• Initiate and manage all market related value chain analysis ensuring study designs, contracting and implementation are done in accordance to set standards and in consultation with the Results Measurement team and the Support team; coordinate the development of final market opportunity reports as well as all other weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports.
• Drive the stakeholder analysis of the selected commodity chains, if appropriate, as well as identifying and contacting potential agents of change within agreed value chains and/or specific states.
• Oversee the implementation of all intervention ensuring that initiative is taken within each intervention and setting work plans for the interventions.
• Ensure that all intervention designs follow the agreed process and reporting developed by the Programme and that these comply with agreed reporting and are aligned with the defined protocols.
• Identify key policy areas for each intervention and establish appropriate partnerships and contacts aimed at driving the policy amendment process where applicable.
• Coordinate all administrative aspects of partnerships including but not limited to grants, MoUs, Collaboration Agreements and contracts
• Manage the outputs of all members of the Tier Team, ensuring optimum performance of all members of the team.
• Establish and maintain processes and systems which ensure strong continued linkages between the Programme’s Results Measurement team, ensuring all interventions are adequately and extensively researched, reported and monitored.

General:

• Contribute to overall programme strategy as part of the senior management team (SMT) with the delivery of/ or contributions to milestones;
• Work closely with the Support Team to ensure smooth implementation of interventions in all Tier states;
• Work with the project communications team members to develop materials that promote Propcom Mai-karfi’s interventions and that disseminate its learning as widely as possible across a diverse set of media channels.
• When required represent the Programme in public forums, coordinating with Senior Management and the Communications Manager.
• Oversee budgeting and spending on interventions and activities ensuring they meet agreed standards and also exhibit the DFID value for money policy guidelines.

Working Relationships:

• The Tier Lead will report to the Deputy Team Leader / Market Group Director and will co-manage all members of the Tier Team allocated to the three states.
• S/he will be a key strategic member of the programme staff and will form part of the senior management team contributing to the overall programme strategy and delivery.
• S/he will also be expected to work closely with the Results Measurement team of the programme and work effectively with all other members of the Propcom-Mai-karfi team, including the Support team and Communications and Knowledge Management personnel.
• The Tier Lead will work closely with all partners including DFID Coordinators and Advisors ensuring that all interests are adequately protected. Ensure all interventions have the potential for sustained improvements of the standards of the poor within the market areas and in the geo-political areas in which the Tier Lead works. S/he will be required to drive the programme and donor interests within all interventions thereby representing the programme on a strategic level with both the donor and other stakeholders.

Requirements/Essential Qualifications
The Tier Lead should have:

• A Master's degree or similar qualification in Business, Economics or Development Studies or relevant experience within the commercial agriculture space;
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in implementing and managing projects with at least one year spent on the field on market research or community projects;
• At least 3 years experience leading a busy team and coordinating across teams;
• Experience in business strategy development with focus on agricultural value chain analysis
• Knowledge of northern Nigeria Agricultural supply and demand chains would be an advantage
• Experience reviewing and writing reports
• Experience in the development of surveys and data collection instruments for monitoring programmes;
• Previous data analysis experience using Microsoft Excel or any other data analysis tool;
• Previous experience using the market for the poor (M4P) approach would be of great advantage, (but training and/or mentoring will be given).
• Knowledge of the institutions and organisations and/or businesses that provide services to the agricultural sector or rural development sectors in Nigeria and at the State level;
• Enhanced interpersonal skills and the ability to form strong relationships within CBOs, INGOs and within the state structures
• Previous supervisory/ managerial responsibilities within a busy team
• Previous experience of budgetary management and managing office and project finances
• Good understanding of DFIDs policies on VfM, fraud, due diligence etc or similar activities with other major donors is an advantage etc.

Competencies:

• Communication: Confidently delivers tailored messages to various audiences using various media and tools. Asks insightful questions, validates the speaker’s feelings and points, and encourages the speaker; leaves the speaker feeling ‘heard’. Reports concisely and proactively with observations, analysis, and implications of the observations on project work and has the ability to present such findings to a variety of stakeholders in a concise and effective manner.
• Relationship Builder: Quickly develops trusting relationships with others; proactively assesses and manages trust with others. Maintains industry, government, donor / INGO and corporate networks and consistently forges new business relationships to fit strategic priorities. Identifies shared goals and develops effective strategies around those goals; follows-up on connections to catalyze positive relationships. Demonstrates neutrality and helps parties come to creative agreements and solutions, while keeping ownership with the parties.
• Business Person: Understands the idea of the marketing mix (the 5 ‘P’s) price /product / promotion /place / people; can gather market info and give advice on marketing strategy; Advises on building and keeping good customer relations.
• Keeps records in more complex business environments; Advises on basic finances; Identifies and considers the financial risks of decisions; considers the economic value for the markets before making financial decisions. Delivers and / or support when required training workshops; Advises on selecting and recruiting staff; appreciates the importance of incentives for performance and will undertake staff performance reviews.
• Mentoring: Regularly engages with market actors and stakeholders to uncover and identify specific needs; builds desire in the coachee to address the needs. Offers specific, constructive feedback to others; leaves the coachee feeling empowered to improve; actively seeks out feedback to improve; uses feedback in reviewing intervention strategies. Creates buy-in from the coachee to improve; helps develop action plans; provides support, while ensure coachee ownership over the process. This mentoring should cover line managed staff as and when required. 
• Innovator: Tests out new ideas on an ongoing basis; failure encourages greater future effort; often demonstrates creative thinking; uses innovative approaches in the execution of work; actively searches for solutions beyond traditional boundaries. Makes time to reflect and codify learning; seeks out sources of learning; regularly adjusts actions based on comparing expected results against actual results; makes informed decisions based on lessons learnt from other interventions within the sector or geo-political area.  Proactively shares both successful and unsuccessful endeavors with colleagues and the Results and Monitoring Team; actively identifies issues that may hinder effective collaborations and devises means of minimizing these; takes a leadership role in a team
• Political Economist: Critically analyses institutions when required using a visual model, objectively allocating roles and functions. Can prescribe with support from colleagues an agenda to improve the institutional arrangements for the benefit of poor people. Rigorously analyses the way power and politics affects markets and poverty; can model the power relations; and can prescribe improvements for the benefit of poor people.
• Collects and arranges complex evidence; cost-benefit analysis of economic options; prescription and argument for pro-poor improvements in markets.