Intervention Leader - Finance at Mott MacDonald

Job Profile
Mott MacDonald is a £1.2 billion management, engineering and development consultancy with 16,000 staff and a global reach spanning six continents. Our network of 180 principal offices in 140 countries gives us local market insight backed by world class expertise to deliver excellence for every client.

Job Description

Accountabilities and Responsibilities

• The Intervention Leader for Finance will have primary responsibility for all programme activities and interventions (including monitoring and results measurement (MRM)) within the Finance work stream.
• Design, manage and periodically revise the overall intervention strategy within the Finance work stream;
• Develop and manage the budget for each intervention and activity, and the Finance work stream overall;
• Develop an activity plan and results chain for each intervention and review such documents on a periodic (at least quarterly) basis;
• Provide a written progress report to the Deputy Team Leader on a monthly basis and contribute to the quarterly programme reports to DFID in the required format;
• Participate in weekly and monthly team meetings to report on progress within the Finance work stream;
• Manage and progress existing partnerships and pilots to promote the effective use of mobile money systems by parents to save for and pay school fees in Lagos (especially among low-income communities) to include monitoring and evaluating the impact of such pilots;
• Develop and design new pilot schemes for school fee payment in partnership with mobile money providers in Lagos, and parental savings products in partnership with microfinance/commercial banks;
• Collaborate with such providers and private school associations to identify and engage appropriate participants for scale-up and roll-out where appropriate;
• Build on existing partnerships and work to initiate new relationships with financial institutions and banks to create and develop new financial products and services to support private education, which could include products and/or services for schools, parents, teachers and/or other school staff;
• Support current pilots and initiatives with financial institutions for better products and services around private education and manage and oversee all aspects of the schemes, including the MRM;
• Explore and initiate new interventions, activities and/or partnerships for the Finance work stream to achieve outputs, outcomes and impacts within the work stream and across the programme in accordance with the agreed logical framework;
• Conduct ongoing analysis of the constraints on the private education market relating to the inadequate access to finance, identify areas for potential research and relay such recommendations to the R&L Leader and Research Officer;
• Liaise and work with the other programme Intervention Leaders to discuss current activities (including challenges, failures and successes), identify opportunities for synergy across the programme and maximise key interactions between the work streams (see the table below for examples);

Monitoring, Results Measurement and Learning

• Support the R&L Leader to develop an effective MRM system in respect of the Finance work stream, including results chains and intervention guides;
• Comply with the requirements of the MRM system as instructed by the R&L Leader in respect of the Finance work stream;
• Provide the R&L team with regular data on work stream activities and progress as required;
• Provide the Communications Officer with information on the Finance interventions and activities as required;

General

• Ensure that all aspects of the Finance activities and interventions are conducted in such a way as to consider the impact on and maximise the learning outcomes of girls and children from low-income families;
• Wherever possible, disaggregate all results and data from the Finance work stream by gender and poverty to monitor the programme’s impact on girls and the poorest families specifically;
• Develop effective and professional relationships with key stakeholders in the programme, such as DFID, the Educational Data Research and Evaluation in Nigeria programme, private school associations, financial institutions, mobile money operators and the Lagos State Ministry of Education (MOE).

Candidate Specification

Competencies, Skills, Qualifications and Experience

Required:

• Significant professional experience working on access to finance, financial inclusion and/or microfinance projects or programmes, ideally with experience in international and/or social development.
• Education to first level degree or equivalent.
• Effective people and team management skills.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills.
• Strong project management, financial and budgeting skills.
• Fluent in English (spoken, reading and writing) with good writing skills.
• Experience working in international and cross-cultural contexts.
• Confidence/proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and email packages.
• Attention to detail and accuracy.

Desirable:

• First degree and/or Masters in finance, economics, education and/or international development.
• Experience working with mobile money schemes and/or conducting financial research.
• Experience working in education, private education and/or low-cost private schools.
• Experience working in multi-disciplinary teams in projects or programmes with components of social development and/or poverty reduction.
• Experience working with donor agencies (specifically DFID).
• Experience conducting training and facilitating workshops in a developing and cross-cultural context.