Latest Jobs at Partners of the Americas

Overview 

• Partners of the Americas seeks an experienced Finance Director to work on a program in Nigeria focused on poultry and aquaculture within Agriculture and Agricultural Trade. This multi-year initiative aims to increase poultry and aquaculture productivity and expand trade by strengthening market systems, improving compliance with international standards, and fostering public-private partnerships. The Director of Finance will be responsible for the financial and operational management of the program in Nigeria, ensuring compliance with regulations and policies, transparency, and effective use of resources. The Director will be responsible for reviewing and analyzing financial reports for the project, ensuring they are accurate and timely. The Director will also periodically oversee procurement, disbursement, and reporting processes, ensuring compliance with regulations. The Director will conduct audits of office operations and random checks of implementing partners as part of POA’s fraud prevention and internal controls system. This position reports directly to the Chief of Party. The Finance Director will be based in Lagos, Nigeria.

 Key Responsibilities 

• Lead the financial, administrative, and operational functions of the Nigeria project. 
• Supervise the administrative and financial personnel for the project, coordinating, monitoring, supervising, and developing the team’s capacities. 
• Lead the development, updating, and implementation of the project’s financial, operational, and administrative processes, ensuring the systems established promote efficiency, effectiveness, standardization, and compliance with rules and regulations. 
• Ensure compliance with POA, Government of Nigeria, and project rules and regulations related to finance, procurements, and contracts. 
• Communicate in a timely manner any concerns or questions regarding the project’s financial, technical, administrative, or organizational management, within POA or its partners. 
• Develop accurate annual budget projections to support the planning of activities and resources. 
• Support capacity-building efforts of project partners and subrecipients around administration and finance. 
• Review the project’s budget, spending reports, and procurement plans regularly to ensure implementation is aligned with the goals, needs, rules, and regulations of the project. 
• Ensure financial reports are submitted in accordance with the timelines established by POA’s home office Finance Department. 
• Support the development and/or update of Nigeria’s Supplemental Operations Manual, providing capacity-building to project staff. 
• Effectively coordinate with the accounting, tax, and legal advisors of the Nigeria entity to fulfill the entity’s responsibilities and ensure that the procedures and practices of project comply with all current Nigerian Government regulations. 
• Review monthly project payroll registries to ensure adherence to local laws, POA’s policies, and donor regulations. 
• Oversee procurement processes, including supervising the drafting and/or review of RFPs and RFQs, determining evaluation criteria, performing bid analysis and evaluations, drafting procurement contracts, and reviewing contract deliverables in accordance with POA’s procurement policy. 
• Implement fraud mitigation policies. Conduct confidential investigations as needed. 
• Other relevant tasks that are assigned by the Chief of Party.  

  Team Management  

• Develop team capacity, deepen understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and assist in career development.    
• Assist team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and achieve goals.  
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback formally and informally with regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.  
• Create and maintain a mutually respectful work environment where team members strive for excellence.  Hire, mentor, and direct team members as needed.  

 Responsibilities of All Partners’ Team Members  

• Have a clear and deep understanding of POA and donor policies and standards to comply with programmatic, financial, administrative, procurement, logistics, human resources, and security processes.   

 Required Qualifications 

• Minimum of ten (10) years of professional experience in management and leadership positions, or equivalent, executing financial, administrative, and operational activities for the implementation of development projects.  
• Professional with an advanced degree (preferably a master’s degree) in finance or related field.  
• Experience leading the administrative and financial areas of projects. Experience should include strong skills in procurement/subcontracting, budget development and implementation, compliance, and administration. 
• Experience in the development and implementation of organizational policies and procedures and operational and/or management manuals. 
• In-depth knowledge of Nigerian labor, administrative, tax, and banking laws and regulations. 
• Knowledge of program rules and regulations for international development project implementation. 
• Strong leadership, mentoring, management, planning, analytical, and organizational skills demonstrated by the ability to work independently and within a team, assess priorities, and manage a variety of activities with attention to detail. 
• Previous experience in field operations is desirable. 
• Ability to effectively supervise local staff. 
• Ability to work with collaborative partners in the implementation of complex programs. 
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills. 
• Demonstrated versatility and integrity. 
• Advanced proficiency in English; written and oral communication.

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Overview 

• Partners of the Americas seeks an experienced Monitoring & Evaluation Director (M&E Director) to work on a program in Nigeria focused on poultry and aquaculture within Agriculture and Agricultural Trade. This multi-year initiative aims to increase poultry and aquaculture productivity and expand trade by strengthening market systems, improving compliance with international standards, and fostering public-private partnerships. This position will lead the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) component of the Nigeria Project. This area is responsible for monitoring activities and measuring progress during project implementation, according to the Work Plan, indicators and their corresponding goals, objectives, changes, effects, and expected impact. M&E guides and ensures compliance with quality standards during the processes of capture, processing, analysis, and reporting, contributing useful and timely information for strategic decision-making of the project.  This position reports directly to the Chief of Party. The M&E Director will be based in Lagos (Nigeria). 

 Key Responsibilities 

• Formulates MEL plan and systems for capturing data and pertinent information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impact. 
• Provides leadership, training, and mentoring to carry out MEL activities, including designing tools, conducting data collection and analysis, and sharing and utilizing data to evaluate and enhance program impact. 
• Effectively implements data collection and reporting systems to all staff and partners through training, site visits, manuals, and other necessary technical support. 
• Collaborates across the project to ensure alignment to targets and indicators contained in the project proposal and utilize information from the MEL systems (Activityinfo) and tools to enhance program effectiveness. 
• Facilitates the collection and use of qualitative data and implementation learning to facilitate collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA), including participating in special studies to answer learning agenda.  
• Coordinates and support baseline, mid-term, and final evaluations. 
• Directs and provides the day-to-day management of the M&E activities for the project and its partners.  
• Leads the development, update, and implementation of the project’s M&E Plan, including the approach to collecting, evaluating, and validating data to measure overall progress toward project outcomes and objectives.   
• Proactively participates in project evaluations, including the baseline, mid-term and final evaluation, collaborating, and coordinating closely with the donor and the external consultant.  
• Monitors and updates project indicators and their progress toward established goals in coordination with the technical team.   
• Develops and ensures adequate performance of M&E platforms, data integrity, and accuracy in project-relevant reporting.  
• Contributes to the elaboration of Requests for Proposals for relevant consultancies assessing project progress, such as annual, intermediate, final, and others as required.  
• Manages the renewal of the licenses of the required software tools.  
• Supports the development of project progress reports, annual work plans, and other documents as required by the donor, by providing accurate and reliable data.  
• Collaborates and regularly meet with the project’s technical team to update the Work Plan, activities and analyses lessons learned accordingly.  
• Stays up to date on the donor’s M&E guidance and opportunities, including but not limited to revised standard indicators and opportunities to give feedback or highlight project achievements.  
• Regularly improves project M&E systems and empower local staff, stakeholders, and partners to use quality data to drive meaningful changes related to project interventions.  
• Works closely with project staff and partners to develop mechanisms for the project’s Work Plan to actively incorporate lessons and modify approaches in implementation as needed.  
• Creates, organizes, and submits M&E deliverables as required by the donor.  
• Develops learning, knowledge, and results management materials for internal and external audiences.  
• Designs and monitors the proper and responsive management of data collection instruments (e.g. surveys, focus groups, evaluations) with project beneficiaries and target populations.  
• Coordinates closely with POA communications team members and partners in the preparation and delivery of inputs for the development of project success stories to ensure project achievements are widely shared and reported to the donor and key stakeholders.  
• Works closely with all project units, technical teams at POA, and partners to ensure that M&E is aligned with the project.  
• Designs and maintains project dashboards updated for timely and relevant decision-making.  
• Uses relevant secondary research for M&E purposes, including context and a better understanding of project performance.  
• Supports the development and implementation of partners’ organizational development and monitor the progress of project activities to strengthen their capacity.  
• Other relevant tasks that are assigned by the Chief of Party.  

Team Management  

• Develops team capacity, deepen understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and assist in career development.    
• Assists team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and achieve goals.  
• Promotes accountability, communicates expectations, and provides constructive feedback formally and informally with regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.  
• Creates and maintains a mutually respectful work environment where team members strive for excellence.  Hire, mentor, and direct team members as needed.  

 Responsibilities of All Partners’ Team Members  

• Have a clear and deep understanding of POA and donor policies and standards to comply with programmatic, financial, administrative, procurement, logistics, human resources, and security processes.    

 Required Qualifications 

• Minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience in management and leadership positions, or equivalent, executing monitoring and evaluation activities for international development projects, specifically projects focused on rural development and food security.  
• Professional with an advanced degree (preferably a master’s degree) in statistics, demography, public policy, international development, economics, or related field.  
• Experience in the design, implementation, and operation of monitoring and evaluation systems from project inception to the closeout stages.  
• Desirable familiarity with indicators from the donor’s programs.  
• Experience in strategic planning and performance measurement, including indicator selection, goal setting, reporting, database management, and development of monitoring and evaluation plans and implementation of monitoring plans.  
• Knowledge of main evaluation methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, and impact) and data collection and analysis of the methodologies.  
• Experience in planning and managing surveys and developing and refining data collection tools.  
• Desirable understanding of the main problems of agricultural value chains, including market access, collection and processing of products, and provision of inputs and services to producers.  
• Advanced proficiency in English, native in French and Arabic; written and oral communication.  
• Desirable knowledge of project management tools such as Smartsheet and other applications for data management such as Kobo Toolbox and Power BI.