Program Manager (GIRL-H) at Mercy Corps Nigeria

Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on adolescent girls, boys, young people, empowerment, economic and market development, and conflict mitigation. The organization has built a robust and diverse portfolio working to enable Nigerians affected by poverty, resource scarcity, and conflict to be healthy, productive and to drive peace and development of their communities. To do this, Mercy Corps delivers integrated programming to strengthen market and governance systems, innovate urban youth employment opportunities, address the root causes of conflict, and build the resilience of vulnerable populations – in particular, adolescent girls, boys, young people, women, and marginalized communities.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Program Manager (GIRL-H)

Location: Lagos
Employment Type: Full-time, Regular

Program / Department Summary

• Girls Improving Resilience through Livelihoods and Health (GIRL-H) is a three-year, multi-country program being implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti and now expanding to Nigeria.
• In Nigeria, the program seeks to improve the well-being of adolescent girls, boys, and young people with diverse identities, which makes them have unique and distinctive needs and capabilities, by increasing their access to skills and knowledge, health resources, formal education, and economic opportunities.
• GIRLH also fosters an enabling environment by working with communities to transform unhealthy social norms and create opportunities for adolescent girls, boys, and young people to access education and economic opportunity through an integrated approach to programming.
• Key to GIRL-H is a robust learning and research agenda that reaches across four focal countries to contribute to the evidence-based on what works to secure access to opportunities for adolescent girls, boys, and young people within the most marginalized communities and to better understand their contribution to household resilience.
• This evidence and learning will be shared to elevate Mercy Corps’ influence in the program participants’ space and to bolster fundraising efforts to scale the model.

General Position Summary

• The GIRL-H Program Manager will manage the successful implementation of the GIRL-H program within Nigeria, ensuring that program activities result in positive outcomes for all program participants of different categories and age groups; and driving innovation and learning to refine a replicable and evidence-based GIRL-H programming model.
• The GIRL-H Program Manager will be responsible for leading the GIRL-H program interventions within selected locations in Nigeria, including program start-up, implementation, adaptation, and closeout activities. This will ensure that the program activities are impactful and implemented on time and within budget.
• In addition to direct program implementation, the GIRLH Program Manager will play a key role in refining GIRL-H programming in Nigeria through technical assistance to partner organizations implementing GIRL-H activities, integrating a gender and youth perspective into the program activities.
• The GIRL-H Program Manager will further ensure the effective and timely delivery of all program activities that include the establishment of viable Safe Spaces for adolescent girls and boys, integration of Safe Spaces into relevant programs, management of the Safe Space activities, social capital, and life skills, linkages of participants to formal education, informal and technical education, and promotion of enabling environment for program participants.
• The GIRL-H Program Manager will lead in the design and implementation of training modules while ensuring that the capacity of local implementing partners and team members are well strengthened for effective and quality service delivery.

Essential Responsibilities
Program Management:

• Lead program start-up and implementation within Nigeria, including identification of team members and local implementing partners.
• Manage and oversee program implementation in Nigeria, in cooperation with key program stakeholders, including local non-governmental organizations, local government officials, community-based organizations, other international agencies on the ground, and key donors.
• Lead engagement with local implementing partners within program locations in Nigeria.
• Collaborate with program, finance, and administrative staff to ensure systems comply with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures, including adherence to Mercy Corps program management minimum standards.
• Ensure program implementation are impactful, using effective M&E systems, meeting the approved targets, and remaining on budget and schedule.
• Increase Mercy Corps and partner organization staff capacity by designing and delivering technical training and coaching plans on topics related to building resilience and achieving gender-equitable program outcomes.
• Provide leadership and oversight in all aspects of program implementation, management, and evaluation within program locations in Nigeria.
• Establish and oversee effective program monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems for both internal and external use and ensure high-quality input is obtained from team members.
• Ensure documentation of achievements and lessons learned to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated in monthly, quarterly, and final program reports.
• Lead in the development of local implementing partner’s institutional capacity in resource mobilization, both internally through community mobilization and sensitization and externally through proposal development to source additional funds for sustainability, and to strengthen community participation for sustainability and self-reliance.
• Strengthen Mercy Corps external engagement processes to broaden resource channels for new business opportunities.

Strategy and Vision:

• Collaborate with program leadership in the development of a clear vision and strategy for the program in Nigeria and ensure it is shared with all relevant program team members and key stakeholders.
• Play an active role in identifying and developing new initiatives that foster and/or improve strategic objectives of the program and the country office.
• Support refinement and expansion of GIRL-H programming, specifically through resource mobilization, proposal development, and technical assistance.
• Collaborate with other related Mercy Corps programs to create synergies wherever possible.
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and aligned with Mercy Corps’ principles and values.
• Promote gender strategies across the country portfolio and adapt and improve them as needed.
• Engage support services and risk management resources to enable the program team to execute their respective strategic priorities.
• Collaborate with relevant team members regarding the measurement and analysis of key program performance and quality indicators and metrics to inform strategic decision-making processes.

Team Management:

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one-on-one and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Oversee program staff and partner performance and quality of program implementation and if security context allows, conduct frequent field visits to all program sites.

Finance & Compliance Management:

• Monitor adherence to the donor grant agreement as well as Mercy Corps and donor’s policies and procedures for procurement and compliance.
• Create and maintain systems to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with program, donor, and Mercy Corps’ needs.
• Work closely with financial and operational management to optimize resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, and timely submission of reports to the donor.

Human Resources, Safeguarding, and Diversity:

• Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development.
• Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high-quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development.
• Assist with the on-boarding of senior team members, ensuring they are set up for success and familiar with agency systems, procedures, and protocols.

Risk Management:

• Engage and support program areas across the country to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place.
• Collaborate with country and program leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.
• Participate in the internal audit (IA) process to track findings and ensure program compliance with IA findings and recommendations.
• Work closely with the country team security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.
• Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

Influence & Representation:

• Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO, and other relevant events, in close coordination with the Program Management Unit and country leadership.
• Maintain active and cooperative relationships with all key stakeholders, including government officials, project partners, other implementing agencies, and related institutions.
• Coordinate activities with consortium partners, subgrantees, local government, and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Program Officers in focus states
• MEL Officer.

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: GIRL-H Program Management Unit (PMU) Manager with dotted lines to the Program Director.
• Works Directly With: PMU team, Nigeria country office support team (programs, Finance, Operations and HR)

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work.
• We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Master’s Degree or equivalent experience in International Development, Political Science, Gender Studies, Economics, Sociology or other relevant fields.
• 5-7 years of experience in gender and youth development work including experience developing and conducting gender training, gender/youth mainstreaming, and engaging in gender advocacy.
• Experience in program startup.
• Demonstrated ability to implement a program, manage a team and develop their capacities.
• Demonstrated capacity to lead the collection, analysis, and utilization of information from a broad range of sources to ensure effective integration of gender and youth concerns throughout the project’s duration. In-depth understanding of gender, age, and other socio-cultural factors in the context of livelihoods programming.
• Ability to foster commitment and build capacity among project staff and in-country actors around gender and youth integration.
• Strong public speaking and facilitation skills required.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office.
• Fluency in written and spoken English required.

Success Factors:

• The successful candidate will have an excellent team and interpersonal relationship skills, with demonstrated ability to work effectively in complex environments.
• S/he will combine strong communication skills, creativity, initiative, participatory leadership, and tactful decisiveness to assist in program implementation.
• Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem-solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential.
• S/he must have the confidence and humility to work effectively with a diverse group of people – as well as be sensitive to political and cultural nuance.
• S/he must be able to consistently apply excellent judgment to a variety of demanding and fast-changing situations while working as part of a team and coordinate with program personnel.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions:

• The position is based in Lagos, Nigeria with significant travels to communities within Lagos and Kano state.

Ongoing Learning:

• In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

• Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together.
• Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges.
• We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectivesand authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best workof their lives.
• We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

• Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis.
• We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact.
• We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all.
• We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, colour, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics:

• Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we encounter through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants, or others, are treated with respect and dignity.
• We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC.
• We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times.
• Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Application Closing Date
9th May, 2022.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should
Click here to apply online

Note: Female candidates who are qualified are strongly encouraged to apply.