WIP Project Coordinator at Oxfam

Req ID: 7261
Internal Job Grade: C2
Contract Type: 1 Year Fixed Term
Reporting To: Head of  Program
Staff reporting to this post: Program Assistant

Background

• The Work in Progress! Alliance is an initiative that seeks to enable young people from diverse backgrounds to generate sustainable living wages and create optimism about their future in Nigeria, Egypt, and Somalia. Sponsored by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Alliance consists of Oxfam Novib, Venture Capital for Africa, Butterfly Works, and a number of national partners in respective project countries.
• The project’s ambition is that young people in Nigeria, Egypt, and Somalia are empowered and have improved skills and jobs. This program focuses specifically on skills building, startup acceleration, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development; and promoting a more favorable environment for young people to get a job or start their own business, and for startups and SMEs to grow
• The Work in Progress! project is strongly linked to an innovation trajectory in Oxfam on business development globally (with various projects in different countries beyond the countries of the Work in Progress project).

Main Goal of the Job:

• Managing the realization of project goals of “Work in Progress!” in Nigeria, the Project Coordinator is responsible for managing relationships and coordinating project activities in all three outcome areas of the project.
• The Project Coordinator will work together with the Project Officer,  Finance Officer, and a Communication Officer in the Nigeria office, and also with Oxfam’s Global Project manager and SME expert both based in Oxfam Novib The Hague office, as well as with various Alliance members and national partners.

The project Management main tasks are to:

• Realize (sub-) goals of the Work in Progress! the project, with a focus on skills building, startup acceleration, SME development, and influencing.
• Manage partnerships with all Work in Progress! partners in Nigeria and on international level.
• Maintain and monitor project plans, project schedules, budgets, and expenditures.
• Organize meetings between partners to stimulate cooperation in order to improve impact.
• Coordinate activities of partners and link different activities to improve impact.
• Coordinates also with investors to link them up to SMEs and startups part of Work in Progress!  project.
• Actively participate and share his/her expertise in Work in Progress!; with other countries and colleagues.
• Contribute to future programme development youth employment, contributing to fundraising of (new/continuation of the) projects in this respect.
• Share knowledge and produce knowledge/learning materials to contribute to the development and increased programme quality of the project.
• Profile the project externally, build bridges to financial intermediates to ensure finance for SMEs and youth entrepreneurs and advocate for a more enabling environment for SME development and youth entrepreneurship.

Requirements for the Job

• Have demonstrable experience of 3-5 years in project management focusing on working with youth s and/or in projects providing Business Support to SMEs.
• An academic Degree in a related field such as Business Administration is desirable, however, this should be accompanied by substantial practical experience in the private sector, government or with an NGO.
• Expertise and knowledge on youth employment and empowerment (including promoting youth participation) works in your advantage.
• Being an innovator and connector; experience with multi-stakeholder initiatives, multi-country programmes and thematic advisory support in that context.
• Have a result-oriented approach.
• Entrepreneurial mind-set, risk-taking and able to co-create, negotiate, and develop with Country Offices, partners, and alliances.
• Have excellent written & spoken English skills; overall good communication skills & experience in external profiling.
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills and ability to build good relations both internally and externally
• Well-developed facilitation and training skills are an advantage
• Self-reliant, flexible and able to handle pressure.Able and willing to travel regularly and for longer duration for project development and/or implementation

Key Behavioural Competencies:

• Decisiveness: We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.
• Influencing: We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organization We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities, we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.
• Humility: We put ‘we’ before ‘me’ and place an emphasis on the power of the collective, nurture the team and play to the strengths of each individual. We are not concerned with hierarchical power, and we engage with, trust and value the knowledge and expertise of others across all levels of the organization.
• Relationship Building: We understand the importance of building relationship, within and outside the organization. We have the ability to engage with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders in ways that lead to increased impact for the organization.
• Listening: We are good listeners who can see where deeper levels of thoughts and tacit assumptions differ. Our messages to others are clear and consider different preferences.
• Mutual Accountability: We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.  We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner.
• Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity:  We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways.
• Systems Thinking: We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organizational decisions and actions.
• Strategic Thinking and Judgment: We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and values.
• Vision Setting: We have the ability to identify and lead visionary initiatives that are beneficial for our organization and we set high-level direction through a visioning process that engages the organization and diverse external stakeholders.
• Self-Awareness: We are able to develop a high degree of self-awareness around our own strengths and weaknesses and our impact on others. Our self-awareness enables us to moderate and self-regulate our behaviors to control and channel our impulses for good purposes.
• Enabling: We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job.  We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support.