Country Director-Abuja Nigeria

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa is a not-for-profit organization registered and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with teams in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Zambia. TaRL Africa began as a joint venture by Pratham and J-PAL in 2019, with the goal of supporting governments and organizations across Africa to accelerate children’s foundational skill learning using the evidence-based TaRL approach. TaRL Africa’s mission is to support every child across Africa to build foundational skills for a better future. We support governments and organizations in over 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to design, deliver and scale impactful TaRL programs while learning and sharing how the approach can be improved for different contexts. Together with partners, TaRL Africa reached over four million children with TaRL programming by 2022.

About the TaRL Programmes in Nigeria

In Nigeria, our team works directly with federal and state government to effectively scale and sustain TaRL. TaRL Africa first began supporting TaRL programming in Borno, in the North East in 2018 in partnership with the state government and UNICEF. The small-scale pilot, which reached over 9,000 children, demonstrated the potential for TaRL to rapidly improve children’s learning outcomes in the Nigerian context. The proportion of children who could read a basic Hausa paragraph increased by 31 percentage points and the proportion who could do a simple subtraction problem increased by 48 percentage points over an 8-month period. Today, TaRL is active in over 2000 schools across 7 states in Nigeria.

Role Summary

TaRL Africa has made tremendous gains in Nigeria over the last 6 years , but there is much more to be done. TaRL Africa is looking for a passionate, creative, solutions-oriented Country Director to strengthen and grow the team; enhance the impact of the programme, and enable state and federal systems to own and integrate TaRL programming into education systems so that children have the opportunity to acquire foundational skills in perpetuity.

The Country Director will:

• Oversee programme operations and reporting, ensuring compliance with TaRL Africa’s policies, donor rules and regulations, MoE policies, and Nigerian law;
• Guide overall administrative and fiscal management of TaRL Africa’s programme.
• Travel to programme locations within the country;
• Work with TaRL Africa global team and key stakeholders to mould the strategic direction for TaRL Africa in Nigeria and oversee simultaneous government-led TaRL programmes across multiple states;
• Guide review processes, innovation, and learning to optimise impact and sustainability in the country;
• Lead continued expansion of TaRL programming in Nigeria by initiating new partnerships and projects;
• Represent TaRL Africa in the Federal Government of Nigeria, donors, NGOs, private companies, Academia, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Spearhead Country Office fundraising and donor management;
• Monitor, evaluate and report on all program activities and progress as required
• Will oversee a national team of Content and Training, Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation, Programmes and Partnerships and Finance and Operations sub-teams, and state teams across Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano and Kebbi; and
• Will report to the Director, Programme & Partnerships They will oversee operations.

Responsibilities

1. Oversee impactful government-led TaRL programming (50%)

• Become an expert in TaRL programme delivery and methodology and the evidence behind the TaRL approach, including familiarity with related academic papers.
• ensure that the Nigeria programme provides technical services of the highest quality.
• Oversee and manage a team whose responsibilities include programme design, teaching-learning content development, innovation; programme management, and monitoring, learning and evaluation – all in close collaboration with government partners.
• Strengthen current systems and structures to ensure that TaRL programming remains impactful.
• Identify key concerns for programme impact and sustainability in Nigeria and initiate and manage the development of corresponding innovations and research in collaboration with the Global Measurement, Learning & Evaluation team.
• Coordinate skills training and provide mentorship to staff.
• Incorporate best practices and lessons learned from experience and research into programming.

1. Ensure sound operations and finances (20%)

• Create and monitor an annual budget for the Country Office and ensure that country office structures are supported by incoming revenue through country office budget planning and management.
• Supervise and support administrative staff, overseeing human resources, IT, procurement, operations, and finance.
• With support from the Global Finance and Operations teams, ensure compliance with financial procedures, approve expenditures, make accurate spending projections and ensure overall compliance.
• Oversee the management of project budgets and donor reporting, with support from the country office management and finance team and in coordination with Global Programmes and Partnerships.
• Coordinate office and country-wide meetings and trainings and oversee performance and salary reviews and contracting for locally-hired staff.
• Ensure application and compliance of security protocols and policies
• In collaboration with the Security Associate, monitor the security situation in the country and its implications on TaRL programming and take necessary mitigation or responsive measures

1. Guide programme sustainability and fundraising (10%)

• Develop country objectives and plans in line with organizational strategy.
• identify opportunities for scaling up and improving TaRL programming in collaboration with state and federal government.
• Lead programme design, budgeting and partner engagement (where applicable) for fundraising proposals in Nigeria.
• Manage grants and donor reporting for country-specific programming.
• Lead the development and execution of country-specific fundraising strategy.
• Build and lead relationships with local and global donors and partners focused on Nigeria.
• Coordinate the development of proposals for in-country donors.

1. Create and maintain strong government and external relations (20%)

• Maintain relations with the government and their partners and coordinate the work of the Ministry of Education/UBEC with other partners.
• Work with partners and political actors to take ownership of TaRL pedagogy and support the adaptation of TaRL in the Nigerian context.
• Develop and maintain relationships with the government, donors and implementing partners for the country office to maximize its impact.
• Oversee targeted dissemination, and encourage scale-up or strengthening of TaRL programming.
• Represent TaRL Africa in Nigeria.

Qualifications

• A Masters Degree in Public Policy, Education, Management, Economics or other related disciplines
• 10-years of professional experience of a similar nature is required, especially on programmes involving multiple actors
• Perfect command of professional English is essential, oral and written good and speaking in public
• Excellent managerial skills, including the ability to work with a diverse, dynamic team comprising professionals with varied skill sets and functional expertise
• A good understanding of the importance of scientific research for effective public policy development and the ability to communicate academic data to a non-specialist audience
• Experience working with government
• The ability to create and manage budgets
• Good adaptability to a changing work environment
• Professional experience in West Africa is advantageous
• Ability to embody TaRL Africa’s organizational and managerial culture: team spirit, creation of a thriving and empowering working environment for the teams, and dedication to the improvement of children’s education

TaRL Africa Values

1. We put children’s learning first.
2. We are always learning, improving, and innovating.
3. We are locally rooted for high-quality delivery and sustainable impact.
4. We are kind, respectful and collaborative.
5. We are proactive, committed to integrity and doing our best each day.