Programme Quality and Development Manager at Oxfam

Internal Job Grade: C1- national
Contract type: 1 Year Fixed Term
Job Family: Program
Reporting to: Deputy Country Director - Programs
Staff reporting to this post: MEALSA Officers

Job Purpose

• To increase Oxfam’s programme impact in Nigeria by working closely with country and regional teams to improve program quality - providing leadership, coordination and strategic support on program design, planning, monitoring, evaluation, learning and partnership.
• The Programme Quality and Development Manager will assume a technical role in establishing, implementing, and maintaining effective and appropriate Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning and Knowledge management systems for Oxfam’s programmes.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Strategic management and thought leadership:

• Work with the Deputy Country Director - Programs to shape and embed the country vision and leadership on programme quality
• Understand and ensure compliance with Oxfam and donor program policies and procedures, in particular lead in the roll out of Oxfam’s program quality frameworks such as CAMSA
• Contribute to the development and implementation of country strategy and develop and coordinate operational plans to achieve the strategy including participation in V2020 processes.
• Work with the Programme and Influencing Manager to ensure quality, coherence and impact of the Nigeria program through monitoring and evaluation (advisory and oversight role) of the impact of the various components of the program.
• Provide a critically analysis of program strategies and approaches and facilitate appropriate changes to ensure program outcomes are sustainable.
• Support program teams make complex technical information accessible and usable by non specialist within/out the defined program area
• Maintain links with regional and global program development, quality and monitoring initiatives
• Under the leadership of the Deputy Country Director – Programs and in collaboration with the Head of Influencing and Public engagement design and facilitate programme review/audit process and follow through on effective and timely resolution of matters arising.

Managing program monitoring evaluation, learning and social accountability:

• Manage MEALSA staff who provide technical support to Oxfam programme teams on implementing MEALSA in all programmes, within the established Oxfam standards
• Provide technical advice to strategic and operational program reviews. Ensures high quality programme planning, monitoring and evaluation including regular field visits, periodic reviews, communication of progress and results and knowledge management.
• Ensure evidence based programming, feeding MEALSA data analysis to the Programme Manager to ensure learning influences programme design and strategy
• Coordinate and produce key baselines, midlines, endlines, evaluations, surveys meeting the expected standards, in close collaboration with MEALSA Officers, , and programme teams
• Facilitate programme/project planning processes, particularly on logic of intervention
• (Develops logical frameworks and MEALSA plans), and contributes to ensuring adherence to Oxfam’s programme quality standards.
• Provide the specific research design, key questions to be addressed, and methodological approaches to be used to be used to establish baseline survey, mid-term review and final evaluation and ex post assessment.
• Establish a robust knowledge management and learning system on how KM & L will take place between levels of the system (e.g., between field sites and national offices) and how KM & L takes place in a context of partnering/working with others
• Develop and implement M&E System, M&E Plan, Reporting Indicators, and M&E Tools; used for capturing and documenting data and relevant information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
• Support the conduct of periodic supportive supervision and Data Quality Assessment visits to state teams, partners, and communities

Capacity Building for Partner and Oxfam Staff:

• Design and lead the delivery of proactive strategic program quality capacity building plan,
• designing and implementing capacity building initiatives and mobilizing resources for training, coaching and mentoring, as appropriate
• Contributes to managing technical performance of all MEALSA staff including objective setting, personal development plans, performance appraisal, training, mentoring and coaching.
• Support programme teams in establishing knowledge creation and sharing and learning loops, through for instance production of case studies, presentation of key results for monitoring and evaluation activities, and facilitation of learning and capitalisation workshops

Partner and Stakeholder Management:

• Develop and maintain effective partner grants and reports monitoring system, ensures adherence to Oxfam policies and procedures on partner management.
• Establish a robust stakeholder’s complaints and response mechanism; ensure that accountability and community feedback mechanisms are implemented and utilised according to agreed principles
• Interact with Oxfam communities of practice working on programme quality to represent the issues emerging from the programme, to remain up to date with internal good practice and to solicit capacity building and other support when necessary.

Educational, Experience & Competence
Essential:

• First degree or equivalent in statistics, research methodology, social sciences, or other relevant qualification, and possess strong analytical abilities.
• Masters degree in International Development, Economics, Project management or closely related field i.e. in the areas of research, assessment, monitoring, learning, and capacity development/transfer or a combined professional qualification.
• Minimum of 8 years “hands-on” working experience in designing learning, and monitoring systems; 3 years at strategic level in Oxfam's (or similar organisation’s) program work, including field experience and/or with institutional donors.
• Knowledge of capacity building, learning and development activities and how to create a learning and sharing environment with a strong knowledge management basis and experience of delivering capacity building programmes for national level organisations
• High levels of strategic and people management skills, able to support and mentor teams in their professional and personal growth and use a variety of strategies and approaches to motivate teams
• Excellent personal communication skills, in written and verbal English, with high impact influencing and persuasive skills an able to represent Oxfam to donors and external institutions
• Excellent knowledge of the political economy in Nigeria, politically astute, with a good understanding of key external organisations, how they operate and make decisions, and the country development context
• Good research and analytical skills and ability to write quality reports and make recommendations for improvements
• Well-developed conceptual, critical, thinking with the ability to convey complex information in a straightforward, interesting way, and influencing this to a wider audience.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using a computerised information management system (Ms. Word, Excel, Accounting/Statistical analysis software etc.)
• Capacities to implement M&E and Learning in terms of planning skills for necessary conditions and capacities - staff skills and numbers, (human capacities, incentives for implementing MEL&SA and organizational structures)
• Involvement in projects utilizing grass-roots approaches and addressing issues of power, diversity, exclusion, participation, and gender.
• Good ability to demonstrate qualitative data within a MEL&SA system
• Tech savvy with a strong level of IT Expertise and use of mobile survey/field data collection tools (odk, KoBoToolbox, TaroWorks, GIS mapping, etc)
• Excellent in various statistical packages and softwares including SPSS, Stata, Excel, Access, and CSPRO etc
• Commitment to Oxfam’s overall aims and policies and experience of promoting women’s rights and the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of Oxfam’s work
• Understanding of and commitment to Oxfam’s One Program Approach (linking humanitarian, development & influencing work)