Location: Sokoto
Travel: Required throughout state of representation, other partner states, Abuja, etc. pending security situation.
Background:
The purpose of the five-year (2020-2025) “State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness” (“State2State”) Activity is to increase the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of selected state and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria. This will be achieved by: strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management [PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the delivery of services in key sectors (basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH]); increasing government responsiveness to citizen needs and priorities; and improving government and civil society capacity to manage conflict (through work on prevention, mitigation and reconciliation with the same sectoral partners, not stand-alone assistance to the police or judiciary). State2State will achieve this purpose by facilitating the strengthening of subnational governance systems in a sustainable manner, supporting the efforts of local reformers, and building on locally derived solutions including, to the extent possible, reforms already working in other parts of Nigeria.
Position Objectives:
The State Team Lead (STL) is a critical technical and management staff. S/he provides day-to-day leadership and management to the state project interventions. S/he will develop strong relationships with the government and relevant counterparts to move State2State interventions forward successfully. S/he will oversee the state-based teams and interventions, ensuring the highest quality implementation. S/he will support technical interventions, including (but not limited to), assisting partners to develop and implement their own budget transparency plans. S/he will facilitate regular meetings with the civil society and private sectors, state procurement agencies, and Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to improve accountability, transparency, and effectiveness. S/he will review state-level performance against work plans, the Nigerian budget cycle, and other relevant factors; identify performance gaps; adjust programming approaches and supports; and schedule and coordinate input and support as needed. S/he will ensure strong, ongoing coordination with cross-cutting State2State teams, such as Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and Gender, Equality, and Social Inclusion (GESI). S/he will support the approval and development of a State Transformation Committee (STC) aimed to design and oversee the implementation of annual sector-based reform plans. S/he will assist the STC in developing an overall M&E strategy to support and improve upon public service delivery, including its funding through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and increased federal budget allocations, and governance by identifying evidence-based needs, including gender analysis, technical capacity, system requirements, and roles and functions. S/he, with the support of experienced consultants, will initiate the Political Economy Analysis (PEA) and Conflict Analysis Framework (CAF) for incorporation into work plans and interventions as well as reports.
Responsibilities:
The State Team Lead serves as the principal point of contact in the state for technical and operational matters, serving as the key staff for facilitating interventions at the state level and developing and maintaining positive relationships with key stakeholders. This role oversees a state-based team that will manage outreach and support engagements and handle the development and monitoring of grants. This role spearheads state work plans and interventions ensuring timely and appropriate state interventions – all of which align with the State2State goal, objective, sub-purpose (s), and respective indicator(s) and provides task oversight to ensure high-quality implementation within the state. More specifically, the STL will:
- Work closely with relevant staff members to ensure that reports, concepts, and briefing notes from the state are of acceptable quality and ‘speak to’ the State2State goal, objective, sub-purpose (s), and indicator(s).
- Work closely with the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) to ensure timely and proper technical resourcing of state interventions.
- Ensure that interventions identified for implementation in the state are implemented and reported on time and on schedule.
- Work closely with the DCOP and other states’ STLs to ensure there is ongoing integration of learnings from one intervention to another and across all target states.
- Work closely with the State Transformation Committee (STC) and other key government officials, including at the local, state, and federal/national levels, as appropriate, to ensure that state counterparts (and stakeholders) are undertaking appropriate sector-based reforms that support the achievement of the overall goal of State2State Activity.
- Work closely with the DCOP and Technical Team Leads (TTLs) to ensure that sub-purposes and crosscutting issues like Conflict, Capacity Building, GESI, Monitoring, Evaluation, and learning are incorporated into interventions implemented by State2State and or the state counterpart(s).
- Work closely with the DCOP, the technical team, Grants, and MEL teams to ensure that grantees working in the state are provided adequate and ongoing technical supervision.
- Work closely with senior management to ensure that the state team members maintain the right work ethic and culture and in engaging with stakeholders, counterparts, et al.
- Work closely with the Project Security Manager to ensure that security issues and breaches involving staff, counterparts, or of concern within the state, are escalated appropriately including within a timely manner.
- Work closely with the Operations Manager to ensure that the state team and office(s) receive the needed operational and logistics support, etc. to function effectively.
- Other responsibilities of a reasonable nature as assigned by the DCOP or Chief of Party.
Reporting: The State Team Lead will report to the Deputy Chief of Party.
Line Management: State2State operates the matrix management system, and the State Team Lead has administrative and joint technical supervision oftheir respective state-based teams, including Public Financial Management (PFM) Specialist, Citizen Engagement/Capacity Building Specialist, GESI Specialist, MEL Specialist, Local Government Area (LGA) Manager, and Finance and Accounting Specialist (FAS), Administrative Officer (AO) and others associated with the state office, including STTA consultants working within the state in support of State2State Activity.
Minimum Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as international development, social sciences, law, development studies, etc. Master’s degree preferred.
- At least twelve (12) years of relevant professional experience. At least nine (9) years of demonstrated experience in the successful implementation of international development activities, with preference given to democracy and governance activities under a USG instrument – three (3) years of which must be in senior program management, including direct supervision of professional and support staff.
- Experience working in the democracy and governance sector in Nigeria.
- Prior experience in overseeing the awarding and managing grants to local organizations to promote democracy and governance goals preferred.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
How to apply
CLICK HERE TO APPLY
Interested and qualified candidates should click on the link to apply on or before the close of work on September 30, 2023.
Note: Applications from women, people with disabilities, and young people who meet the above qualifications are encouraged.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.