Deputy Chief of Party - Program at Creative Associates International

ID: 2021-1821
Category: Program Management

Overview

• The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), contracted Creative Associates International to implement the Nigeria Lake Chad Basin (NLCB) Program, a quick-response mechanism supporting activities to strengthen and extend stability and peace in Nigeria.
• The NLCB program is initiating new programming in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and potentially the Northwest to anticipate, prevent, and respond to increasing violence and threats of attacks against civilians, including individuals and groups targeted based on their religion. Community-based interventions will be designed to help ensure that such groups can persevere as distinct communities; to ensure equal rights for individuals and groups regardless of belief; to improve the safety and security of public spaces; to build resilience and promote the restoration of the social fabric of targeted communities, and to protect and preserve the cultural heritages of these communities.
• The complexity of a peacebuilding response to conflict requires a highly contextualized, localized response at the individual, community, and national levels. Violence and conflict in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and Northwest are driven by several factors, including ethnicity, politics, lack of accountability and access to justice, criminal organized violence, insecurity and increasing competition over dwindling land resources as well as religious differences.
• The program is implemented primarily through small grants at the community level, designed to address specific problems or requests. Activity processes are as important as activity outputs in contributing to the program’s strategic goal. Program objectives are not met solely by performing tasks under an activity, but rather through an inclusive locally led process that brings the community (including the Government of Nigeria) together to realize goals and foster positive engagement.

Position Summary

• The Deputy Chief of Party - Program (DCOP-Program) will be responsible for ensuring that program activities are designed, implemented, and completed following a fast-paced program strategy.
• The position will be based in the head office, located in Abuja, with work expected to be carried out in Plateau and Jos States and other locations in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Chief of Party, the DCOP-Program will:

• Oversee the activity development process, and will provide direct management of a national activity management team ensuring coordination and communication with activity development staff in the state offices and, if required, in other Lake Chad Basin countries;
• Along with the COP, engage OTI counterparts to guide program strategy, including setting objectives, developing theories of change, and supporting program expansion into neighboring areas if required;
• Manage program development and implementation of activities, ensure alignment with the broader program strategy and drive continuous improvement in processes and outcomes;
• Oversee the function, effectiveness, and compliance of the Grants Department to ensure all activities are conceived, delivered, and closed in compliance with the approved Activity Cycle and Activity Manual Addendum;
• Ensure the timely design and delivery of all engineering activities and compliance with prevailing environmental regulations;
• Oversee or directly maintain financial management tools and financial projections for program activity (Transition Activity Pool) spending. Advise the Senior Management Team, OTI, and HQ team on expected and actual commitments and expenditure and provide quality control on internal/external projections;
• Oversee the activity closeout process, including financial and reporting closeout of each activity;
• Provide management oversight of the M&E and research functions on the program, ensuring coordination and mutual support between Program and M&E teams, and establishing feedback processes to ensure that activity lessons and research outcomes feed into and inform the activity design process.
• Travel to state offices/field presence in Plateau and Jos states, and potentially to other locations in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, or Lake Chad Basin countries, security permitting, to ensure that lessons learned are practically applied into activity design;
• Support the COP in drafting and submitting program deliverables;
• Identify windows of opportunity for new program activities;
• Perform additional tasks as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree is required, Master’s degree is preferred;
• Five (5) years of relevant work experience, including experience with a donor, contractor or international NGO managing an office or program required;
• A minimum of three (3) years of experience working on complex, high-speed and challenging programs that operate in transitional environments;
• Previously demonstrated supervisory experience of HCN and expatriate staff required;
• Experience with activity design and development, including firsthand experience drafting award reporting and deliverables, implementation, and close-out;
• Experience with grant management under ADS 303 required;
• Experience working in post-conflict and resource-limited environments is required;
• Capacity to understand and analyze national and local contexts; to guide the program staff in creatively designing grants that relate to the current country context;
• Exceptional organization skills and ability to work and multi-task under pressure;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with culturally and geographically diverse staff, fostering overall good dynamics within and between teams;
• Fluency in written and oral English is required.

Desired Skills & Qualifications:

• Experience with in-kind and small grants, preferably Program that require various and simultaneous procurements of goods and services and management of providers of short-term technical assistance;
• Proficiency in French is an advantage but not required.
• Previous OTI experience is highly desired.