Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Current Vacancies [2 Positions]

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and a European office in Brussels, Belgium, SFCG’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. SFCG seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. With a total of approximately 600 staff worldwide, SFCG implements projects from 55 offices in 34 countries, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

The organization is an exciting and rewarding place to work, with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff that is committed to its mission and values. You will be joining a highly motivated staff with a good team spirit and there will be opportunities to grow in the role.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Office
Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Position Summary

• We are looking for a Head of Office for our North East program currently covering Borno and Adamawa states. Based in Maiduguri, with frequent travel to Yola and other field offices, the position will be responsible for all aspects of programmatic, financial and administrative coordination and leadership of the office and various programs.
• Principle tasks will be to oversee the entire North East regional program portfolio, determine appropriate implementing mechanisms to achieve projects’ strategic goals, serve as the primary program liaison for donors, partners and stakeholders in the region, oversee regional-level planning and budgeting, and reporting/evaluations, ensuring compliance with management and financial procedures and overseeing and managing security of teams and organizational assets.
•  The position will report to the Country Director, and work closely with the West Africa Regional Program Manager. Working language for this position is English. The Head of Office is a Senior level position and is a members of Search Nigeria’s Leadership and Management Team (LMT).

Key Responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities include:

Representation:

• Represent SFCG at the regional level with partners, donors, local and international organizations, and government authorities and ensure SFCG activities are visible. In accordance with SFCG advocacy policy, advocate for common ground solutions to various conflict situations in the region;
• Represent SFCG in strategic meetings, conferences, forums and other public events and contribute towards consolidating and raising the profile of SFCG;
• Develop and strengthen relationships with local organizations and networks and establish national and regional strategic relations and alliances with partners and civil society working in common cause with SFCG objectives; and
• Promote SFCG’s organizational identity and capacity to all stakeholders and partners in the North East and ensure SFCG remains relevant to the changing needs of the people who most need it.

Program development and Management:

• Ensure a conscious program approach in line with the “Common Ground” principles;
• Provide leadership and oversight to program staff charged with implementing programs;
• Manage the field-based SFCG operations staff and program staff;
• Contribute creative ideas for program development and provide inputs for technical and financial proposals to local and international donors ;
• Provide content material to the Communications Team for updating the websites, as well as for quarterly program updates, newsletters, and other SFCG literature;
• Lead in the development of the North East program, providing sound methodological and technical support to ensure use of participatory methodologies, human rights and social exclusion framework as per the organizational thematic alignment and programming approach;
• Coordinate the program participatory annual planning and budgeting as per organizational guidelines;
• Promote a participatory approach in programming work and create space in the structure for staff participation and involvement in decision making;
• Oversee and coordinate the program portfolio to ensure the highest level of project quality and accountability, while fostering continuity through building local capacity and developing innovative program interventions;
• Lead the development, implementation and monitoring of research and advocacy plan on issues of relevance in the North East aligned with SFCG’s global programmatic and policy priorities;
• Participate in national and international campaigns in line with the advocacy plan and other relevant opportunities;
• Facilitate trainings, researches, and learning of cross-cutting relevance to programs;
• Ensure that participatory systems and processes for monitoring activities, results and impact assessment at program level are in place and involves the team and partners;
• Provide continuous monitoring and support to field offices and existing projects, coordinate program reviews, evaluations, and follow up implementation of evaluation findings in close collaboration with the Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (DM&E) Manager, Program Managers and Coordinators;
• Coordinate the production of timely and quality program reports in line with SFCG and donor requirements;
• Support monitoring and evaluation work in collaboration with SFCG’s DM&E Manager;
• Verify and analyze work-plans, progress reports, final reports and other data for clarity, consistency and completeness; and
• Ensure close monitoring of the political and security environment and develop contingency plan for the office.

Donor Funding and Grants Management:

• Keep abreast of the trends within the donor environment in the Country and Internationally;
• Undertake diversified local and international fundraising initiatives to strengthen program funding and sustainability;
• Coordinate the production of good quality funding proposals and respond to call for proposal;
• Facilitate donor visits, donor meetings, round table discussions and evaluations as necessary; and
• Be aware of all donors conditionality in the North East programs and monitor adherence to donors conditionality

Financial management:

• Provide oversight to all finance and administrative services in the North East in close coordination with the Director of Finance and Administration;
• Ensure effective implementation and compliance with the overall finance and guidance manual and compliance with procedures required by grant or contract agreements;
• Ensure that the Project Managers and Coordinator carry out monthly budget versus expenditures analysis, make budget projections and keep up with the targeted burn rates;
• Oversee and verify the Monthly Financial Report (MFR) from the North east program;
• Ensure that adequate internal control mechanisms are in place; and
• Supervise monthly financial reports according to SFCG procedures.

Human Resources Management and Organizational Development:

• Provide leadership support to North East region staff and promote best practices in human resources management;
• Ensure compliance with Nigerian law and SFCG procedures in admin and operations;
• Provide leadership support for adequate implementation of the performance management system including performance objectives and planning, review, appraisal and staff development; and
• Provide Coaching and Counseling advice to staff when necessary and lead initiatives to develop staff capacity

Information, Communication and Learning:

• Ensure that all programs in the North East are maintaining a coordinated and agreed information exchange both internally and in its dealing with external parties;
• Ensure that all communication infrastructures are set up in the programme and smooth information flow is maintained; and
• Ensure that experiences, context updates and lessons learnt are documented and shared across the organization

Leadership:

• Attend the regular LMT meetings and contribute to the discussions around overall strategy and direction of the country program and the organization;
• Be part of the management and leadership decision making around programmatic and operational issues.

Accountability:

• Supervision: Works independently under the supervision of the Country Director and within approved strategy and policy guidelines;
• Decision Making: Has full responsibility of decisions at the North East in line with approved policy;
• Responsibility over Staff: All North East staff

Qualifications
You meet the following qualifications:

Education:

• Minimum Master’s degree in Social Sciences/Development Studies, Conflict Management, Strategic/Programme Management, Management Studies or other related discipline
• Additional extensive training in at least one of the areas of SFCG thematic work- Peacebuilding, conflict transformation and resolution;

Experience:

• At least six years of work experience, preferably in conflict sensitivity, protection, development, or communications; Experience in working in humanitarian context will be an advantage.
• At least five years’ experience managing a team of local staff in a conflict or humanitarian contexts, preferably in Africa. Cross-cultural experience and sensitivity, and experience living and working in developing countries; Prior experience working in Nigeria will be an advantage.

Behavioral Competencies:

• Strong background in overseeing budget and financial management;
• Demonstrated ability of raising the profile of an organization, strategically networking with government agencies, donors and other international agencies, and using the media as appropriate;
• Experience living and working in unstable environments;
• Demonstrated ability to undertake high-level representation and advocacy;
• Excellent coordination, communication and networking skills;
• Strong report writing, fundraising and proposal writing skills;
• Ability to work with people at all levels, ranging from high-level officials to community leaders;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Microsoft Excel
• Professional-level competency in French and English, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines.
• Willingness to regularly travel on short notice around the country

Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply

 

Job Title: Developmental Evaluation Consultant
Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Position Summary

• Our Strategic Development department is seeking a results-oriented individual to serve as a Developmental Evaluator. This is a unique opportunity to be a core member of the project team, focusing on capturing innovative, strategic and timely learning, as well as provide ongoing advice and evidence-based program suggestions to the program team and the management.
• S/he shall incorporate findings into reports outlining critical evidence, lessons learned, and adaptive management best-practices. Moreover, s/he shall write case studies/success stories to document project outcomes of critical processes such as: dialogue process and shift in relationships between stakeholders within communities.
• These case studies will be supported with quantitative and qualitative data, and will be shared with communities, local partners, and with DRL.
• As the project is mid-way into implementation, the embedded evaluator will be continuing the DE approach, drawing from and improving upon what previously had been done on DE on the project.

About the Project
It is constructed on existing initiatives of supporting an overarching community-owned peace architecture in North Eastern Nigeria. The project builds on a process of convening and training influential local leaders for community dialogue-to-action processes in order to promote increased collaboration and confidence in insecure areas, supported through a suite of media and community activities, and strengthening structures to work with the state and linking them to civil society groups. A core component is an early warning/ early response system to identify emerging conflict threats and appropriate solutions. The project also develops strategies to increase learning and building capacity of partners engaged in the project.

The goal of the project is: Expanding and strengthening early warning and early response processes to enhance community and state actors’ ability to protect citizens in Borno and Adamawa States. It is supported by three specific objectives:

• Objective 1: Reinforce and expand a community-based early warning and early response system;
• Objective 2: Strengthen engagement between state and local actors to secure communities;
• Objective 3: Strengthen Partners’ Capacity to Support and Monitor Early Warning Systems

Specificity of the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan:

• Given the innovative nature of the project, and the fluidity of the implementation zones, there is an important learning and adaptation approach.
• Through active monitoring and evaluation processes, the project seeks to continually identify and adapt lessons learned to develop activities, identify shortcomings and opportunities to address drivers and risks in the region.
• Lessons learned and best practices will be use to adapt the program design to ensure it is as effective and impactful as possible. Data generated from the monitoring and evaluation will also be shared, when relevant, both at Local Government Area (LGA) level through Community Security Architecture Dialogue and at State level through Peace Architecture Dialogues.
• Lastly, lessons learned from the project shall be used to support the institutionalization of EW/ER systems and inform similar interventions in Nigeria and elsewhere.
• SFCG follows monitoring and evaluation (M&E) best practices based on an inclusive participatory process for engaging and sharing with the State Department, local partners, and the peacebuilding community.  Included in this project are two important complementary and evaluation element that will capture emerging lessons learned and measure the projects’ expected impact, namely a developmental evaluation and a quasi-experimental evaluation.

Developmental Approach:

• A developmental evaluation (DE) approach is apt for the project considering the innovative aspects as well as its dynamic environment.
• The project is part of a highly complex system, and the evaluation shall explain how the issues are embedded in the system and how it can be part of the solution.
• It is critical to incorporate the concepts of systems and observe, document, and discuss, as it is frame through which problems and solutions can be understood.

Roles and Responsibilities
The Developmental Evaluator will have overall responsibility for the design and implementation of the DE within the project and ensure its quality. She/ he will be responsible for the following:

• Collaboratively conceptualize and update the DE design (learning framework, methodology, reporting, etc.) using a participatory approach, including a  re-introduction workshop for SFCG, partners and other stakeholders;
• Update the living work plan for the DE and DE data collection tools;
• Conduct DE data analysis, document findings, and recommendations and share regularly with program staff and management for real-time and evidence-based decision making;
• Maintain a periodic field diary and work with program and DMEL staff to keep individual daily diaries during the project implementation, documenting incremental changes among participants.
• Record decision-making and other cores processes, program changes and/or changes in the environment in report logs (that track details of DE and document events that occur i.e. planned and unplanned and associated outcomes);
• Submit DE findings for incorporation into monthly reports, and elaborate DE reports every quarter which are shared with DRL outlining critical evidence, lessons learned, and adaptive management practices;
• Develop case studies to document project outcomes of critical processes such as: dialogue process and shift in relationships between stakeholders within communities;
• Provide DE related capacity building to SFCG staff and partners;
• Contribute to strengthening SFCG DMEL processes, including coaching of the DMEL team and embedding of DE in SFCG DMEL system.

Deliverables:
Given the nature of the DE, deliverables are expected to evolve throughout the course of implementation and will be adjusted and negotiated on a rolling basis. Preliminary expected deliverables include, but are not limited to:

• The re-introduction workshop and after-action report regarding learnings, key findings, and results;
• Update DE design plan;
• Submission of a work plan for the DE;
• Monthly progress updates and quarterly DE reflection meetings and reports;
• Bimonthly meetings with Deputy Country Manager, the International Learning Team and DE Forum;
• Case studies;
• Final Developmental Evaluation report at the end of the project.

Qualifications
Education:

• Graduate degree in Conflict Studies, International Development, Social Work, or other relevant degree;

Required Experience:

• Experience with evaluating complex systems and familiarity with developmental evaluation;
• Experience in international development, including programming and evaluation experience in peace-building, conflict resolution or other related sectors;

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Technical knowledge, skills and expertise in evaluation design, evaluating complexity, and multi-methods, in particular qualitative and participative methods;
• Analytical skills in qualitative and quantitative research and proficiency in Excel;
• Facilitation skills, particularly design and execution of stakeholder consultations;
• Excellent oral and written communication and report writing skills in English;
• Leadership and strategic thinking;

Added Advantage:

• Understanding and familiarity with North Eastern Nigeria and preferably prior working experience in the region;
• Speaker of Hausa and/ or Kanuri

Timeframe:

• The Developmental evaluator is part of the project and DMEL team, and reports the North East Head of Office. S/he has a close collaboration with the Country DMEL team and Regional Institutional Learning Team, and will provide services on a part time basis for 50 days in a year.
• This includes 5 days of physical work in Maiduguri or Yola as required with the project team every quarter. Other days of work will be required for report writing and participation in virtual meetings on Developmental Evaluation with Search Nigeria, Regional and HQ staff, and with the project donors as required.

Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply

Application Deadline 16th July, 2018.

Note

• Please compile your writing sample and resume into one document as the system only has the functionality to upload two documents per application. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
• Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls please.