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Program / Department Summary
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and its influence spreads across the continent. Yet, inequality and insecurity have consistently undermined Nigeria's development. Mercy Corps Nigeria was established in 2012 to respond to these challenges. The Nigeria team is headquartered in Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with programming across 16 states of Nigeria. Mercy Corps works together with communities to build economic opportunities, enhance water security, drive peace and good governance, and ensure food security. In 2022, Mercy Corps reached more than 600,000 Nigerians directly and more than two million through indirect impacts. Our activities aim to build resilience through an integrated approach, helping communitiesโand the most marginalized within themโcope, adapt, and thrive in the context of numerous shocks and stresses. With a strong and growing team, Mercy Corps works to achieve the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient and secure. The Rural Resilience Activity (RRA) is a five-year, $49 million USAID-funded program in Nigeriaโs northeast. The purpose of the Rural Resilience Activity is to sustainably move people out of chronic vulnerability and poverty. The Rural Resilience Activity will enable individuals and communities to engage in strong and sustainable market systems rather than continuing to rely on humanitarian assistance and faltering with each new shock. To achieve this purpose, the Activity has five components and five cross cutting elements:
The CoP will provide overall leadership, management, and strategic vision to the final phase of implementation of the Rural Resilience Activity, to ensure that the program meets its targets and deliverables within the remaining completion time. The CoP will leverage the programโs established partnerships platform towards consolidating program impacts. In addition to progress towards program goals, the COP will focus the final eighteen months of the program on finalizing and leveraging strategic learning, knowledge management and dissemination, ensuring the successes and lessons learned from the program are effectively captured with evidence, communicated, and used to influence policy makers and implementers. The CoP will supervise program staff and ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and donor rules and regulations. S/he will be the primary program representative to donors, relevant government entities, partners, other implementers, and stakeholders.
Essential Job Responsibilities Strategy & Vision Recognize and leverage the existing opportunities for scale and impact in the program to drive sustainable impacts beyond program close. Action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed. Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve objectives. Oversee the development of annual, integrated strategic work-plans, learning agenda, knowledge management, and strategic influence plans for the program. Integrate a resilience lens to team decision making, proactively analyzing evidence to predict trends and respond accordingly within the program scope.Program Management Oversee program management and administration of teams across various field locations. Lead the development of detailed implementation plans, flowing from annual strategic workplans, and ensure the delivery of the same. Lead program close out in Year 5, ensuring compliance with USAID and Mercy Corps close out processes. Lead the development and implementation of the learning agenda and knowledge management and communications strategy, ensuring the program is generating evidence against priority research and learning questions, and documenting and disseminating successful, scalable models for impact for strategic influence with key internal and external stakeholders. Lead the communications strategy of the program with Government of Nigeria stakeholders, ensuring necessary approvals and collaboration, responsiveness of program strategies to government priorities, and influence of government stakeholders to support program objectives and sustainability of impact. Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria. Integrate climate-smart, gender and conflict sensitive and capacity building elements into all activities as appropriate. Provide managerial and programmatic oversight to partners and sub-grantee(s), including an extensive network of private sector partners. Ensure partners operate in line with Mercy Corps and donor principles and adhere to safety and security minimum standards. Provide quality assurance to all donor deliverables, leading on weekly reports, check-ins, program performance reports, regular success stories, etc. Oversee the M&E systems for the program and ensure effective, accurate data capture for integration into adaptive management decisions. Ensure collaboration and integration with the country portfolio, contributing to management decisions, communities of practice, and strategic direction. Lead the effective and efficient delivery of the program within budget, ensuring that USAID expectations and program Key Performance indicators are met and exceeded. Develop and execute overall project strategy, work plan, and leadership for the successful implementation of the project. Manage the development of, and monitor, work plans and budgets; ensure appropriate levels of technical assistance in program operations; oversee and coordinate with key stakeholders and partners; and ensure appropriate program monitoring and reporting. Build good working relationships with USAID, partners, and other key stakeholders to assist with program delivery and closeout. Implement effective stakeholder management plans for the consortium ensuring sound and proactive communications with Mercy Corps Nigeria, partner organizations, Mercy Corps headquarters, USAID, Government of Nigeria authorities, and colleague agencies. Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites โ spend up to 30% of time in the field. Team Management Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence. Promote accountability, and evidence-driven and inclusive culture, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews. Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes. Supervise and manage all program staff to ensure day-to-day activities are implemented in a coordinated fashion according to schedule, budget and quality. Supervise and manage all program partnerships to ensure sound coordination in the context of an overall program strategic and resilience-building framework. Manage and help with the recruitment, orientation, professional development and ongoing training of staff to ensure they are of the quality and technical capacity necessary to ensure the successful implementation of activities.Finance & Compliance Management In collaboration with the country programโs operations and finance departments, ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources, and logistics (including transport, warehousing and asset management) needs of the program are conducted within Mercy Corpsโ policy and with the maximum benefit to the program. Monitor adherence to grant agreement, Mercy Corpsโ policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations, including those of the government of Nigeria.Influence & Representation Liaise with and represent program to USAID and other cooperating sponsors and stakeholders. Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO, and other events relevant to RRA, in close coordination with the Country Director. Ensure close coordination and information sharing with consortium partners, sub-grantees, local government, and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs. Establish and maintain relationships with communities and local government. Utilize the evidence generated by RRA to contribute to Mercy Corpsโ strategic learning, influence and advocacy goals, ensuring team contributions to key national fora and coordination platforms, such as food systems reforms, CBN inclusion committees, implementing partner coordination fora, and others as relevant.Security and conflict sensitivity Work closely with the country teamโs security focal point to ensure a team culture of security and adherence to all safety and security protocols. Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security and community acceptance, integrating conflict sensitivity and do no harm principles into all implementations.Supervisory ResponsibilityThe COP has overall accountability for the RRA team of approximately 60 staff with line management of eight staff. The COP also retains overall supervisory responsibility for partnerships with international and national program partners. Accountability
Reports Directly To: Director of ProgramsWorks Directly With: Finance and operations teams, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit, and Partner Organizations