Deputy Chief of Party & Head of Programs.

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 Deputy Chief of Party and Program Lead (DCOP) will serve as a key member of the State2State senior management team. S/he will be responsible for the harmonization of supply-demand activities to help secure traction for change in partner states. In coordination with the Chief of Party (COP), s/he will lead efforts with the State Team Leads (STLs) to harness reforms within states through their own facilitation, convening, and collaboration skills. S/he will provide leadership in the design and implementation of technical activities, including leading annual work plan development process and regular review of project results in coordination with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team for ensuring lessons learned, best practices are applied as appropriate. S/he will supervise STLs and the design of state-level programs of work. S/he will play a significant role in coordination with key counterparts, including with USAID/Nigeria and with other USAID and donor-funded programs.

Responsibilities:

The DCOP, with formal redelegation of authority from the COP, acts on behalf of the COP and serves as the principal point of contact in Nigeria for procedural and substantive matters in the absence of the COP. The DCOP will be responsible for all day-to-day technical activities and implementation of the activity, which includes timely engagement with State2State colleagues at the state level as well as with Technical Team Leads (TTLs), among others, to ensure robustness and appropriateness of State2State interventions.

Scope of Work:

• Working closely with the Chief of Party to provide technical and managerial oversight for the Activity, including the development and implementation of the Activity’s annual work plans, quarterly/semi-annual work plans, quarterly and annual reports, and other requests from the client of DAI.
• Managing the development, design, and implementation of technical component interventions in the the six core states. This includes responsibility for short term technical assistant (STTA) scopes of work (SoWs), supporting the recruitment and selection of STTA consultants, scheduling and mobilization, and final acceptance of the work completed.
• Working closely with STLs, TTLs, and managers to ensure that the Activity consistently employs its programming guidelines and strategic approach, emphasizes the principles of critical and strategic thinking and working politically impartially and cognizant of conflict sensitivity (including Do-No-Harm programming), ensures gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) mainstreaming, promotes collaboration with other donor-funded projects and activities, adheres to USAID and DAI technical guidance, and directly contributes to the attainment of the Activity’s contractual deliverables in a timely and quality manner.
• Working closely with the Chief of Party, coordinate and provide leadership for the successful implementation of all Activity interventions, including grant award process interventions, grant implementation due diligence, grantee monitoring and evaluation, and will be a member of the Grant Evaluation Committee.
• Responsibility for final technical review and approval of intervention concept notes and budgets before implementation.
• Working closely with STLs, ensure harmonization of supply-demand interventions across the Activity to secure traction for behavior change (including capacity building and competency development) in partner states, and ensure that learning from interventions informs subsequent interventions.
• Works with the COP, Director of Finance and Administration (DFA), and the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Director to continuously learn from and improve implementation processes throughout the Activity.
• Undertakes other duties as assigned by the Chief of Party.

Reporting:

• The DCOP will report to the Chief of Party.

Line Management:

• The DCOP will directly supervise the State Team Leads (STLs), Technical Director Public Financial Management (TD PFM), Citizen Engagement and CSO Director (CE/CSO Director), Federal Component Lead, and relevant Short Term Technical Assistants ((STTAs).

Qualifications and Specifications:

• A minimum Education: A post graduate degree in international development, humanitarian/emergency, public policy, or other relevant social science field.
• A minimum of 15 years work experience and demonstrated technical expertise with substantial developing country context experience, governance preferably with USAID funded programs.
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience of managing large complex projects in a similar function in complex, volatile, and uncertain contexts and developing collaborative working relationships with external stakeholders, such as NGOs, other contractors, and international organizations, civil society, governments, and donors and relevant cluster working groups.
• Demonstrated experience successfully managing USAID-funded contracts preferred.
• A track record of leveraging data-driven insights to improve decision making.
• Experience supporting thought leadership, including writing about and/or presenting findings to diverse stakeholders to encourage uptake.
• Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Effective planning, time management, and execution capabilities.
• A demonstrated ability to facilitate training, integrate capacity strengthening, gender inclusiveness, and knowledge generation into work approaches.