Senior Specialist at Pact Nigeria

Background

At the heart of Pact is the promise of a better tomorrow. A nonprofit international development organization founded in 1971, Pact works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to improve the lives of those who are challenged by poverty and marginalization. We serve these communities because we envision a world where everyone owns their future. To do this, we build systemic solutions in partnership with local organizations, businesses, and governments that create sustainable and resilient communities where those we serve are heard, capable, and vibrant. Pact is a recognized global leader in international development. Our staff have a range of expertise in areas including public health, capacity development, governance and civil society, natural resource management, poverty, fragile states, monitoring and evaluation, small-scale and artisanal mining, microfinance and more. This expertise is combined in Pact’s unique integrated approach, which focuses on systemic changes needed to improve people’s lives.

Department

Programs – Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Position Overview

Pact is part of the consortium implementing the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, a five-year global funded USAID project to provide targeted Maternal Newborn Child Health, Family Planning and Reproductive Health (MNCH/FP/RH) and Technical and Capacity Development Assistance to countries to facilitate countries’ journeys to self-reliance. MCGL aims to contribute to global technical leadership and learning, and USAID’s policy dialogue for achievement of global MNCH/FP/RH goals through support to globally endorsed MNCH/FP/RH initiatives, strategies, frameworks, guidelines, and action plans. Pact contributes to the MCGL consortium through its approaches in Capacity Development and Governance.

Pact seeks a Senior Specialist to support Pact’s capacity development and governance work for MCGL in Nigeria. This position will be Pact’s focal point in Nigeria, responsible for quality design and delivery of all MCGL activities. Successful applicants will work closely with Pact and other consortium partners, ensuring that activities are implemented in compliance with all donor, consortium, Pact, and project-specific policies.

This includes support to local partners through Pact’s approaches such as the Integrated Technical and Organizational Capacity Assessments (ITOCA), Organizational Performance Index (OPI), Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and others, as well as the application of the Behaviorally Focused Applied Political Economy Analysis (BF-APEA), a methodology aimed at analyzing the drivers of stakeholder behavior and mapping the behaviors required to achieve sustainable development outcomes.

Job Responsibilities

Technical support

• Develop and implement Pact’s strategy for capacity development and governance for MCGL Nigeria
• Provide technical and management leadership for the delivery of high-quality activities in the workplan
• Design or adapt capacity development methods and tools for implementation under MCGL Nigeria
• Facilitate ITOCA, OPI and ONA with local partners
• Develop materials and processes for topics identified for capacity development of partners, including training, mentoring, coaching, peer learning and other methods
• Provide comprehensive, customized, and documented mentoring and technical assistance to local partners in the identified areas of the program
• Consolidate assessment results across the cohort of partners to identify and analyze organizational capacity patterns and identify new strategic directions for support
• Conduct periodic review/mapping of the organizational strengths/assets that exist among the partners so that best practices and expertise can be exchanged locally
• Manage Pact’s Capacity Solutions Platform for partner organizations
• Work with Pact, partners and local researchers to design, conduct, and apply results of the BF-APEA
• Contribute to analyses, development of recommendations, and workshops/presentations to relevant stakeholders as necessary and appropriate
• Contribute to the collaborating, learning, and adapting processes of the program
• Remain up to date with latest methodologies, best practices and donor requirements and ensure that the project results are consistent with the best practices of the sector
• Perform other duties as needed, as the workplan evolves during this period

Management and coordination support

• Lead all aspects of activities planning, monitoring and implementation in collaboration with relevant stakeholder
• Supervise at least one staff member in Pact’s MCGL Nigeria team
• Provide regular updates on project progress and participate in relevant working groups, meetings, and workshops
• Document effective capacity development approaches, methodologies and activities for sharing as best practices with Pact, including active participation in Pact’s Community of Practice for capacity development and governance

Job Requirements

• BA with 8+ years or MA with 6+ years of experience in international development, public health, organizational development, or related fields
• Demonstrated strong research, analytic and presentation skills to a diverse range of stakeholders
• Demonstrated leadership in implementing technical and organizational capacity building programs with grassroots organizations, civil society organizations, governments, private sector
• Excellent facilitation skills and knowledge of approaches and methods relevant to capacity development
• Demonstrated flexibility, adaptability, and the ability to perform and collaborate in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to steer collaboration with a consortium of partners to produce timely and high-quality results
• Must be local to Nigeria

Other Requirements

• Preference for candidates with experience implementing and/or overseeing complex qualitative research
• Preference for candidates who have demonstrated understanding of the complex governance issues affecting health sector performance
• Experience managing a small team with direct reports
• Prior experience managing USG projects is a plus