Market Manager, Propcom Mai-karfi (PM) - Nigeria 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 opportunities for increased employment and improved productivity in selected agricultural market systems in northern Nigeria. It is now implementing 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).
Propcom Mai-Karfi was a six-year DFID programme aimed at increasing incomes for the poor in Northern Nigeria through enhanced opportunities for increased employment and improved productivity in selected agricultural market systems in northern Nigeria. It is now implementing 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

PURPOSE

To provide direction and management to the technical work within an identified state which constitutes part of a Tier – determining the overall direction and delivery of the programme, by collaborating and coordinating with the Tier Leads of the Tier. The Market Manager will also be responsible for providing direction, in association with the core specialists, the Results Measurement team, and identified Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA). For a given intervention(s) the Market Manager 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

Management support for interventions and associated activities of the programme ensuring progress and achievements which contribute to wider programme milestones. Market engagement in a given state is tracked and documented (to agreed formats where applicable), and disseminated to relevant internal and external audiences in an appropriate and timely manner.  The field level work will be supported by the line managed State Officer and, when required, M&E Enumerators. 

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

The Market Manager will be responsible for the following:

• Provide overall direction for identified interventions and activities within the assigned state,Ensure adequate understanding of field level issues and provide required support to the inter-linkages of  activities taking place in the state.
• Ensure all opportunities to identify and incorporate WEE activities are acted on in the Tier, and also ensure implementation of relevant interventions is aligned to delivering Climate Smart Agriculture indicators with required field evidence.
• As part of the required wider monitoring and quality assurance, all intervention guides and associated documents and resulting outputs are adequately documented.
• Identify new markets with the aim of contributing to the overall programme strategy; liaise with other members of the programme senior management team especially Tier Leads on potential markets and design effective implementation strategies for approved market interventions ensuring that they meet all donor and programme requirements
• Manage all market related value chain analysis ensuring study designs, contracting and implementation are done in accordance to set standards and in consultation with senior management, the Results Measurement team and the Support team; with the Tier Lead review 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, as well as identifying and contacting potential agents of change within agreed value chains and/or specific states.
• Support work required for PEA analysis for a state context as well as for specific value chains and potential partners.
• 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 design follows the agreed process and reporting developed by the Programme.  This complies with agreed reporting and is aligned with the defined protocols.
• Identify evolving policy areas along with the Tier Lead 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 other contractual mechanisms

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The Market Manager will report to the Tier Lead(s). S/he will also be expected to work closely with the Results Measurement team of the programme in supporting with the design of all information gathering and progress monitoring tools for all interventions. S/he will also be expected to establish and maintain good and effective working relationships with other members of the Propcom Mai-karfi team.

The Market Manager will work closely with all market partners ensuring that interests of smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups are adequately protected and all interventions have the potential for sustained improvements of the standards of the poor within the market areas. S/he will be required to drive the programme and donor interests within all interventions within the market, thereby representing the programme at a strategic level with both the donor and other stakeholders.

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 endeavours with colleagues (Line Manager) and the Results and Monitoring Team; actively identifies issues that may hinder effective collaborations and devises means of minimizing these.
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.  Supports with the interpretation of complex evidence; cost-benefit analysis of given interventions for pro-poor improvements in markets.
 RequirementsThe Market Manager should have:

• A degree or similar qualification in Business Development, (Agric) Economics, Agronomy or Development Studies;
• Work experience in activities related to agricultural commodities / marketing & sales within value chains and rural development, with some experience working with the private sector and confirmed knowledge of the institutions and organisations that provide services to the agricultural sector in Nigeria;
• Experience leading a small team which required a coordination function
• Experience in business development with a focus on agricultural value chain analysis;
• Experience in market development activities in post-conflict environments would be a distinct advantage;
• Experience in developing and supporting the delivery of simple business plans in complex market chains;
• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties;
• Ability to influence a range of people including client organisations, government agencies and other key stakeholders by building constructive relationships through clear communication and generate effective discussion and mutual support for plans and ideas.
• Strong project management expertise, exposure to implementing technical assistance projects, and ability to bring together sector stakeholders would be advantageous
• Previous experience using the market for the poor (M4P) approach would be an advantage;
• Ability to speak Hausa is desirable. Fluent verbal and written communication in English is essential.