Niger: Program Officer

TheMitchellGroup

About:

TMG is seeking a Program Officer for an ongoing monitoring, evaluation, collaboration and learning support project scheduled to be completed in March 2019. Based in Niger and Burkina Faso, the Sahel Resilience Learning (SAREL) Project assists the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Senegal in carrying out a multi-project initiative to build resilience capacities of chronically vulnerable rural households and communities.

The project’s main objectives are:

• Test, expand and accelerate the adoption of proven resilience-enhancing technologies and innovations already underway

• Develop, test and catalyze widespread adoption of new models that integrate humanitarian and development assistance

• Promote ownership, build the capacity of national and regional institutions, and coordinate humanitarian and development interventions in the zone of intervention;

• Address gender issues key to resilience and growth

• Create and administer an online platform to facilitate the sharing of information and knowledge and the development of collaborative initiatives among resilience practitioners.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The Program Officer (PO) will joining a small team of knowledge management and M&E experts that has been implementing SAREL since 2014. Over three and a half years, the team’s capacity has steadily grown but so have the learning and collaboration needs of the resilience stakeholders (other USAID projects and host government partners) that SAREL supports. The role of the PO Officer is to assist the project in achieving efficiencies that will allow the successful implementation of its ambitious work plan with existing staff and budgetary resources. SAREL has identified three areas in which intensified efforts could generate gains in efficiency: 1) operational planning and coordination; 2) information management and communications systems, and 3) monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting. The principal responsibility of the PO will be to strengthen/develop systems, tools, and procedures for all three areas, and to provide assistance and training as needed to the project team members in Niger and Burkina Faso (including subcontractors and consultants) in implementing those systems. The ultimate result is to ensure that project activities are well-planned and coordinated, executed in a timely fashion and that they generate high-quality deliverables and results in line with SAREL’s approved annual work plans and performance management plan. The PO will play a lead role in the preparation of monthly and quarterly reports, securing the timely inputs of SAREL team members, subcontractors and consultants, and compiling and generating edited, well-formatted draft versions for COP review.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

Work closely with the COP to fulfill the following responsibilities:

• Assist technical team members to translate annual work plans into more detailed quarterly work plans that are clear, realistic, and contain the minimum information necessary for good execution;

• Assist staff and COP to use quarterly work plans to track implementation, signal important obstacles encountered, and to prepare quarterly reports.

• Conduct monthly update meetings with technical staff to assess progress, make required adjustments, and identify actions, deliverables and results for monthly and quarterly reporting;

• Oversee the organization and regular maintenance and adaptation of SAREL’s shared technical files on the project server;

• Assist team members in developing and maintaining simple technical databases (using Excel) to facilitate tracking, retrieval of information and reporting (examples: reports, knowledge products, RISE and non-RISE partners; workshop participants; consultant deliverables, etc.);

• Establish a schedule for receiving inputs for the production of monthly, quarterly and annual reports with indications of activities to be covered. Track the reception of inputs and issue reminders as needed;

• Prepare first draft versions of monthly and quarterly reports. Compile and edit team members’ inputs as needed. Prepare sections concerning most significant achievements and activities planned for coming month or quarter;

• Provide temporary assistance on urgent tasks for technical staff when they are on leave;

• Assist the COP in responding to any ad-hoc requests for project information or support from the client, implementing partners, or the host government.

Education Requirements:

The Program Officer will have at a minimum a Master’s degree in an appropriate inter-disciplinary area such as applied Social Sciences, Development Economics, or Management and Evaluation.

Minimum Requirements:

• Five years’ experience managing and coordinating the implementation of development assistance projects in Niger, Burkina Faso, and/or other West African countries;

• Demonstrated capacity to develop and implement project management systems and tools that allow teams to improve performance and efficiency;

• Extensive practical experience in preparing work plans and using project performance monitoring systems;

• Excellent skills in writing and editing reports; able to communicate at a high level with key stakeholders, including USAID and government partners;

• Strong skills in organizing and managing project-related documents and information, and in the creation of tracking sheets and databases using programs like Excel;

• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills and both written and oral presentation skills; and

• Excellent mastery of French and good command of English (writing and speaking);

• Preferably have experience implementing a USAID-funded project or activity.

How to Apply: Interested and qualified candidates should submit the following documents as MS Word files via e-mail to recruitment@the-mitchellgroup.com. In the subject line, please indicate “Program Officer – Niger”. CV’s/resumes will be reviewed as they are received. Early application is encouraged. No phone calls please. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

• Completed and signed USAID form No. AID 1420-17

• Brief cover letter that includes a one paragraph summary of your key qualifications

• Current CV/résumé with 3 references.