Jobs at TechnoServe

Job Summary

• Reporting to the Deputy Country Director, the Project Manager will be responsible for leading a team in the rollout of all project activities conducted, including engagement with donor and Stakeholder Convenings and workshops.
• S/he will be responsible for managing the project team while initiating constant feedback with team members and partners on project quality and deliverables.

Program / Practice / Department Overview

• The project seeks to increase the accessibility, and availability of fruits and vegetables while improving the resilience to climate and economic shocks, of low-income communities of Delta and Kaduna.
• The project will deploy a combination of innovative pilots and scale up already proven solutions to address the food security challenges in Kaduna and Delta States by improving access to, availability and affordability of nutritious foods for select low-income communities in Kaduna and Delta states, while improving their incomes building their resilience to price and climate-related shocks and stresses.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities

• Ensure efficient and effective implementation of project activities, output and outcomes as laid out in the executed contract
• Lead the development of a project work plan and ensure timely and quality delivery of project KPIs.
• Ensure timely preparation of donor reports according to prescribed guidelines and format
• Ensure that members of the project team are adequately capacitated to conduct their respective project activities.
• Provide team leadership to optimize team performance on the project
• Coordinate all required training, including, TOTs, and ensure all training manuals are up to date.
• Enhance strong stakeholder engagement with government, private sector, business associations, community associations, and financial institutions as needed.
• Manage and mitigate potential program risks; Develop and continuously review project risks management measures.
• Work closely with the MEL specialist to ensure proper and timely reports of the program for internal communication and action. Share best practices and lessons learned from the project and lead program communication activities.
• Manage project budget to ensure that burn rate targets are achieved.
• Understand, respect and promote TechnoServe’s values, vision and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Any other tasks that may be assigned in relation to the evolving needs of the project.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Marketing, Business Enterprise, Project Management or relevant Social Sciences/ Humanities related discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in working with communities living on less than $2 a day in educating clients/beneficiaries on business development and marketing goals while nurturing relationships with relevant stakeholders.
• Alternatively, a Master’s degree with 3 years’ experience.
• Demonstrated ability in working with small and growing businesses for at least 5 years.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the fruit and vegetable value chain in Nigeria
• Ability to engage and advise senior level stakeholders, including senior management of private sector companies, donor representatives, and others;
• Demonstrated experience in data collection and analyses.
• Demonstrated experience with digital training and delivery mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience in report writing.

Required Languages:

• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English

Travel: 

• At 40% with willingness to travel to these communities.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experienced in writing excellent reports.
• Must have strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven skills with Microsoft Office software (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). Knowledge in the use of Comcare, KoBoCollect will be an advantage.
• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.

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Job Summary

• The Program Manager will manage a team of up to 15 staff to implement this entrepreneurship, job creation and skills building project in Kano and Lagos state, Nigeria, over a 2 year and 4 months period.
• S/he will lead the overall implementation and management of the project, including providing oversight of activities, developing work plans, overseeing the project budget, overseeing M&E, and reporting to the donor on delivery and progress.
• The Program Manager will continuously develop operational efficiencies and drive innovations in delivery and will serve as the primary point of contact with the donor, ensuring that the project meets established objectives and targets.

Program / Practice / Department Overview

• TechnoServe’s Skilling Adolescents and Young Women for Entrepreneurship and Employability (SAY-WEE) project in partnership with MindTheGap, will leverage TechnoServe’s global Entrepreneurship and Gender expertise, replicating and scaling our proven multi-country approaches, which have provided 68,000 youth with the skills and knowledge they need to improve their livelihoods.
• SAY WEE will improve the employability and entrepreneurship capability of 37,000 adolescent girls & young women in Kano and Lagos states in Nigeria, targeting those enrolled in vocational training or formal education institutions and those running microbusinesses, providing them with the entrepreneurial, digital and soft skills to secure formal employment or succeed in entrepreneurial ventures.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities

• Recruit staff and oversee their induction on TechnoServe and project systems and processes.
• Develop project work plans and M&E plans.
• Oversee project-related procurement.
• Identify staff training needs and oversee staff capacity development as required.
• Maintain a good working relationship with the donor, partners, project steering committee members and key stakeholders.
• Effectively plan and manage the project steering committee meetings.
• Lead overall project strategy to improve the employability and entrepreneurship capability of 37,000 adolescent girls & young women.
• Ensure that project objectives, outcomes, and deliverables are met on time and within budget, and that financial, operational, and reporting requirements of the donor and TechnoServe are adhered to.
• Guide team to develop effective monitoring and evaluation plans, turn data into actionable insights to guide implementation, and disseminate results and learning.
• Lead the development of reports for donors, as required.
• Develop and share internal and external project performance metrics.
• Manage the activities and performance of project staff and consultants, ensuring high-quality execution and delivery of project targets.
• Supervise, mentor and develop staff capacity to ensure project delivery, staff performance, and retention, overseeing the recruitment of new staff as needed.
• Ensure all payments/activities are in compliance with donor requests, restrictions and regulations.
• Develop and maintain a budget for each respective project work-stream, ensuring operational plans are aligned with project budgets.
• Monitor project expenditures and manage budget variances, realigning as required.

Basic Qualifications

• A Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Economics, Marketing or related discipline with at least with 7 years’ experience in the following below. Alternatively, a Master’s degree in similar fields listed with 5 years’ experience in the following below:
• Experience in implementing private sector or SME development assistance programs.
• Experience with SMEs is strongly
• Experience with entrepreneurship and business accelerator programs strongly preferred.
• Experience with youth and gender programming is preferred.
• Experience leading entrepreneurship and skills development programs, with aparticular focus on entrepreneurship, digital and soft skills.
• Among the experiences, at least 2 years of post-graduate experience in analytical and strategic roles within the private sector and/or development spheres (ideally with a top-tier management consulting firm).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Related work experience and knowledge of the Nigerian economic, social and development context preferred.
• Experience in leading/managing donor funded projects required.
• Knowledge of the private sector/SME landscape in Nigeria and/or anglophone West Africa preferred.
• Good experience in working with FCDO funded projects.

Required Languages: 

• Fluency in English is required.

Travel:

• Local and International

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong interpersonal and communications skills in a multicultural
• Ability to work with tight deadlines while managing multiple tasks and projects.
• Ability to develop well written, cohesive analyses and reports.
• Proven experience managing and motivating teams.

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Job Summary

• Under the overall guidance of the Project management, the MEL Specialist will perform activities related to monitoring, evaluation and learning for the project, including organizing and implementing data collection and analysis for the project.
• He/she will serve as a point of contact for data collection and aggregation that supports project reporting and will provide inputs to inform project decision-making and adaptive management.

Program / Practice / Department Overview

• The project seeks to increase the accessibility, and availability of fruits and vegetables while improving the resilience to climate and economic shocks, of low-income communities of Delta and Kaduna
• The project will deploy a combination of innovative pilots and scale up already proven solutions to address the food security challenges in Kaduna and Delta States by improving access to, availability and affordability of nutritious foods for select low-income communities in Kaduna and Delta states, while improving their incomes building their resilience to price and climate-related shocks and stresses.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities
The MEL specialist will support MEL implementation for the project, including:

• Coordinate data collection from primary data sources to final reporting and reporting against project performance indicators and emergent project information needs
• Support application of qualitative and quantitative methods to inform knowledge gaps
• Contribute to the design of forms, surveys, and indices as well as the data management system
• Perform regular development of databases and dashboards
• Perform regular data quality assessments, data cleaning, and data analysis
• Conduct field visits to understand the context and identify additional data needs
• Provide ongoing technical assistance and training to project technical staff on their role in performing data collection, basic analysis, and data review and use
• Coordinate the project’s learning agenda through data collection, analysis and reporting and in the mobilization of consultants and other experts for specific learning questions
• Ensure that project’s monitoring system captures impact of project activities on women and other disadvantaged groups
• Become familiarized with the applicable donor rules and regulations, including the donor’s evaluation guidelines and indicator handbook
• Understand the specific MEL deliverables that the project is contractually responsible for, and manage their development

Provide inputs to data-driven decision-making:

• Assist in the process of adaptive management in the project using project MEL data
• Support the documentation of best practices and production of information to capture and share lessons learned
• Support information flows across the implementation team and the sharing and analysis of new information
• Actively engage with project staff on areas for course correction, serving as a collaborative and reflective source of information to inform project progress.
• Assist in the development of all project reports.

Participate in the broader MEL ecosystem at TechnoServe:

• Attend capacity building meetings and other relevant events related to MEL as directed
• Support access to and insight into the project’s MEL approach to facilitate the Regional MEL’s assessment of the project against organizational standards and annual impact reporting
• Assist in the development of corporate measurement reports as required

Basic Qualifications
These are the requirements that any qualified candidate must meet. Typically includes

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Agribusiness, Project Management, Social Sciences or related discipline with 3 years’ experience (alternatively Master's Degree + 1 years’ experience) in monitoring and evaluation and also donor funded programming.
• Demonstrable critical skills in data collection, analysis and reporting, and performance monitoring of donor funded projects.
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of the enterprise development landscape in Nigeria Minimum years of experience.
• Experience utilizing M&E methods and methodologies (including qualitative, quantitative, and participatory methods as well as the use of causal logic in designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating projects) Technical skills required to do this job.
• Ability to work in a multicultural context as a flexible and respectful team player.
• Proficiency in working with Comcare is an advantage.
• Proficient in MS Office: MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel.

Preferred Qualifications:
Additional qualifications that would make a candidate more desirable.

• Experience working in Nigeria
• Experience working with an INGO
• Experience working on an entrepreneurship donor funded projects.