CFYE Relationship Manager at Palladium Group

Ref Id: req10912
 

Project Overview and Role

• The Relationship Manager will be responsible for representing the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment in their assigned country or region, and acting as the primary point of contact for the Fund for Implementing Partners (IPs).
• The Relationship manager will act as ‘critical friend’ of the IPs, which will be reflected in closely monitoring the project performance on the one hand, but also discussing any emerging issues from that with the IP, in an open and transparent manner.
• The Relationship Manager will ensure that IPs are compliant with the Fund’s delivery guidelines. This includes monitoring progress of the Implementing Partners’ projects, and supporting Implementing Partners with technical and financial reporting, providing strategic guidance, mobilizing technical assistance (TA), and any other needs that may arise.
• The Relationship Manager will liaise with the Central Team to report on progress, flag issues, and contribute to high quality learning from their portfolio.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities
The responsibilities and duties of the Relationship Manager include the following;

Programme and Relationship Management:

• Coordinate with the Private Sector Development Consultant based within Fund’s Central Team to oversee the delivery of projects;
• Serve as the first point of contact for any questions or issues arising from IPs during the project life cycle.
• Facilitate the Fund’s central team in project operations and management including periodic review of progress against due diligence improvement plan, financial management and oversight of projects’ spending against budgets, as well as other areas identified by team;
• Ensure the documentation of key project documents (workplan, budget, reports etc.) is complete, meets the CFYE requirements and has been approved and uploaded in the MIS; and
• Facilitate and coordinate (virtual or in-person) meetings between the Fund’s Central Team and the Implementing Partners, when required and requested.

Technical Assistance:

• Act as a ‘critical friend’ of the IP with regards to the identification of Technical Assistance (TA) needs and TA delivery;
• Facilitate and support the TA diagnostic that will take place during the inception phase. The diagnostic will be the basis for the TA plan;
• Together with TA focal point, supervise the TA planning to the IP’s: assist in drafting the TA assignment (SoW), requesting approval from TA manager and TL, coordinate recruitment and on-boarding of the TA provider. In the case of volunteers, work with the local VSO country coordinator.
• Monitor TA delivery to IPs on a needs-based basis and report on a quarterly basis on the progress of ongoing TA delivery, ensuring that both the TA provider and the IP live up to their commitments as agreed in the TA plan;

 Reporting and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL):

• Coordinate and chair the quarterly progress review meetings with each Implementing Partner (IP), and document minutes, observations, and reflections, including external conditions and local external factors relevant to project implementation;
• Ensure that Implementing Partners update their progress reports in the CFYE IT System in a timely fashion. In case of any issues, resolve them with support from the Fund’s Central Team;
• Guide and facilitate IPs in preparing annual technical and financial reports;
• Support partners to monitor and evaluate the impact of their projects in accordance with the CFYE MEL system;
• Conduct or facilitate the Data Quality Assessment (DQA) process to promote high quality data collection.
• Support IPs to prepare knowledge and communications material and present learnings in annual learning events, where relevant.

Communications:

• Participate in calls and relevant conferences or events within or related to their country or region, either to promote the CFYE in order to receive fund applications, or to share programme learnings.
• In case of any in-country events, support the Fund’s Central Team in their organisation; and support the Communications and MEL teams to ensure generation of relevant content and stories to be disseminated to share learning or raise the profile of the CFYE.

Marketing and Outreach:

• Work with the CFYE Partnership Development Manager to support pipeline development as well as design for future calls;
• Support the CFYE Communication and Marketing Manager with local marketing activities

Financial Reporting:

• Guide and facilitate IPs in the preparation of financial information and supporting documents as part of the quarterly review process;
• Guide and facilitate IPs in preparing financial information and supporting documents as part of internal reviews or external project audits, as requested by the Fund’s Central Team;
• Alert the Finance Manager at HQ when issues arise in relation to financial management that requires a response from the fund management team; and
• Liaise with the IPs on invoicing and contractual payment processes..

Required Qualifications
Minimum Requirements:

• Nigerian national, based in Nigeria
• Relevant academic qualifications in a related field such as business administration, economics, HRM or finance
• Proven experience with project management and performing related administrative tasks
• Relevant technical work experience in one of the following areas; youth employment, private sector development, and/or business consulting.

Core Competencies:

• Strong business acumen, and understanding of business support
• Strong Project Management skills
• Strong affinity with youth empowerment, gender and social inclusion, and decent work.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• Good organisational and planning skills.
• Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Comfortable to work with Microsoft Office
• Ability to work successfully as part of a team.