Country Manager at International Alert

Contract: 12 months with the possibility of extension

Job Purpose

• The purpose of this job is to lead Alert’s peacebuilding work in Nigeria, managing Alert’s country programme and ensuring that projects deliver quality peacebuilding outcomes. Alert’s portfolio in Nigeria includes a robust programme in the Northeast, working on the Boko Haram crisis, work on women, peace and security in the Middle Belt, and commercial contracts for technical assistance, primarily in the area of conflict and gender sensitivity.
• The Country Manager works with programme, finance/operations and M&E staff in Abuja and in field offices, ensuring quality and impact of programme implementation, and compliance in finance and operations.
• The post holder will play a pivotal role in implementing the country strategy in line with Alert’s global 2019-2023 strategy, in consolidating the existing northeast programme and expanding progressively and sustainably in new thematic or geographic areas, and in ensuring financial and operational stability for the country office.
• The post holder will also play a role in overseeing the work of national and international technical advisers delivering on commercial contracts.

Duties and Responsibilities
Provide strategic leadership:

• Ensure the country strategy is closely aligned to the organisational priorities, that it is adapted to local and regional dynamics, and used appropriately to inform strategic decisions;
• Ensure quality and relevance of state and country-level conflict analyses and ensure this feeds into the peacebuilding strategies.
• Nurture collaborative relationships with a wide array of stakeholders including with Government, private sector, international agencies and institutions, civil society, national and international NGOs and key bilateral donors;
• Contribute to strategic development on Alert’s role in the wider West Africa/Sahel region, looking specifically at conflict dynamics and peacebuilding opportunities in the Lake Chad basin;
• Develop and deliver internal reports and programme and projects plans in a timely manner, and ensure that these highlight programme impact and lessons learned, including through case studies/stories.
• Ensure visibility of Alert in various peacebuilding/NGO platforms and work with the Senior Programme Officer for Communications and Advocacy to deliver Alert’s influencing strategy

Ensure that Alert’s team in Nigeria is well staffed, managed and coordinated:

• Provide internal leadership and communicate clearly the vision and mission of Alert in Nigeria, working to ensure ownership and participation by all staff in Nigeria working effectively together to deliver the country strategy;
• Ensure the team is well staffed, with the appropriate mix of talents, knowledge and skills, and that the management structure enables staff to work effectively in pursuit of Alert’s goals in Nigeria;
• Line manage 3 staff directly (currently), providing support and encouragement (including staff development as necessary) and ensuring efficiency and accountability;
• Ensure all staff have clear roles and responsibilities and that teams work effectively together to achieve common objectives;
• Provide opportunities for staff to learn and develop; and monitor staff’s progress in capacity, knowledge and insight as much as in performance and skill;
• Hold relevant staff accountable for responding to the requirements and demands of functional leaders, (e.g. in Finance, DME, etc.), and mediate these relationships;
• Promote coordination and cross learning within the Nigeria team, regionally and at the organisational level.
• Support direct project implementation and grant management as needed

Supervise systems and procedures to ensure good stewardship of Alert Nigeria’s human and financial resources:

• Line manage and support the Finance and Operations Manager to ensure that country office finance management policies and practices are in line with Alert’s global finance manual, ensure efficient use of financial resources (by staff and partners), minimize fraud, maximise project results and respect donor contractual obligations;
• Work closely with the Finance and Operations Manager (with support from AP finance manager) to monitor the evolution of the country programme Master budget and take corrective measures to minimise and/or fill identified gaps;
• Ensure that budget forecasts submitted to the Africa programme are realistic and accurate;
• Support teams to produce realistic planning and effective implementation to achieve budget expenditure targets in a timely manner;
• Support improvement of global systems and tools for managing commercial contracts and consultancies
• Ensure respect for Alert recruitment, retention and staff performance management policies;
• Ensure HR and administrative systems and procedures comply with Nigerian law, Alert global policy and donor-specific requirements.
• Ensure continuous evaluation of risks and oversee updating of standard operating procedures as per evolving security situation in zones of operation;
• Ensure that all staff in Nigeria are informed about and respect the Nigeria country security manual, and liaise as necessary with appropriate staff in London for security management purposes;
• Following agreed security procedures of Alert, be responsible for security management decisions within Nigeria, including evacuation or relocation of staff, decisions to limit movements to/from or within certain areas, and ensure updating of security manual and procedures as necessary;
• Liaise with the INGO platforms in Nigeria and Alert’s in-country lawyer to collect relevant information and ensure Alert respects all its legal obligations.

Provide strategic leadership to project design, monitoring and evaluation:

• Lead the identification of new areas of intervention for Alert’s programme in Nigeria
• (thematically and geographically), compounding expansion with programme consolidation and ensuring alignment with country fundraising strategy and organisational goals and approaches;
• Work with the Senior PDFA Officer for West Africa to monitor and adapt an effective fundraising strategy for the programme
• Conduct scoping and monitoring visits across the country, ensuring these visits lead to sound conflict and peace analysis that can inform programming options;
• Support programme and M&E teams to effectively document and share impact, and support learning from programme delivery and impact assessments ;
• Ensure that all programmes integrate monitoring and evaluation, and identify areas of interest for research, scoping and assessments and support programme teams to deliver,
• Lead on programme design and fundraising, including writing funding proposals in coordination with the Programme Design, Fundraising and Assessment (PDFA) Team in London;
• Ensure new local partnerships are identified using coherent methodology and invest strategically in partner accompaniment
• Represent International Alert and liaise regularly with donors in-country.

Contribute to Alert’s organisational processes and strategies:

• Contribute to organisational development; raising and engaging on organisational
• issues, e.g. strategic perspective , regional strategic workshops, organisation-wide priorities;
• Take proactive steps to ensure that effective relationships are created and maintained with staff and consultants at different levels within the organisation;
• Provide information orally and in written form to the Regional Director for Africa and others as necessary on the progress of work in Nigeria – also to external audiences when appropriate;
• Contribute to Alert’s initiative on Knowledge Management and outreach, e.g. by articulating lessons learned from the Nigeria country programme, contributing to project diaries etc.;

Travel requirements:

• This post is based in Abuja, with regular national travel to field offices (currently Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Benue States) and sporadic travel to other locations across the country. International travel to London is also required.

Person Specification
Essential Requirements:

Talents:

• At Alert, we have introduced Talent Management to our business model as we believe talented people are crucial to the success of our work. We believe all individuals are talented andsuccess comes in matching the right talents to the right roles.
• For this role, the skills, qualifications and experience listed below are important, but we believe that to be great in this job you are likely, to have a talent for entrepreneurial and strategic programme development, with strong technical peacebuilding competences.
• You will be an outstanding team player, supporting individuals and groups working together to advance peacebuilding outcomes in Nigeria and across Alert’s portfolio.
• You will have a talent for multitasking, leading and organising others but also working independently and making sharp decisions, using your judgment. These are the qualities we will be looking for above all else.
• University degree in a relevant subject
• Fluent English
• Excellent writing skills, including experience of writing policy briefings, project proposals and reports
• Substantial experience at senior management level with INGOs (country manager, programme manager or chief of party) in conflict-affected or fragile context
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to engage with a wide spectrum of actors, including political and civil society figures, military and security forces, diplomatic missions, donors and UN representatives
• Experience in peacebuilding, including direct experience in at least two of the following areas: governance, political economy, gender, conflict analysis, natural resource management, conflict sensitivity
• Solid experience of grant programmatic and financial management
• Knowledge of Nigeria and its conflict dynamics

Desirable Requirements:

• Master's or PhD in a subject related to Peacebuilding
• Experience of working and living in West Africa, ideally Nigeria
• Experience in project design, monitoring and evaluation
• Direct experience in research, assessment, analysis and policy development, ideally in fragile environments
• Experience in peacebuilding training, coaching and capacity building more broadly
• Experience of negotiating and/or managing commercial contracts
  

Salary
£54,169 per annum, plus excellent benefits.

Summary Terms and Conditions

• Pension: All staff receive a pension contribution which is equivalent to 10% of their gross salary.
• Leave entitlement: 36.5 days leave annually
• Notice period: There will be an initial three month probationary period during which notice will be one month on either side. On successful completion of the probationary period notice will be three months.
• Working hours: Full time staff are expected to work a standard 35 hour week, with some flexibility around start and finish times to be agreed with the line manager. All staff are required to work core hours 10am –4pm.
• Sport’s club membership: Staff can take advantage of subsidised membership of a local sports club, upon successful completion of the probation period.

Salary

• £54,169 per annum.