Team Leader for V4C programme in Nigeria

Voices for Change: Empowering Adolescent Girls and Women (V4C) is an innovative and flagship programme that aims to transform the lives of women and girls in Nigeria by supporting changes to the social, institutional, political and legislative environment. V4C will work with women and men across Nigeria to bring about change, working with local, state and national level organisations and networks committed to tackling discrimination against women and girls. The programme will seek to bring about change through a comprehensive media and communications campaign, research and advocacy, legislation, and empowering women as leaders and agents of change.

The V4C programme is managed by a Consortium of partners – GRM International; Social Development Direct, WRAPA and ITAD. The V4C programme is seeking to recruit a Team Leader to drive this innovative and exciting Programme in Nigeria, funded by DFID/UK Aid. The Team Leader will provide strategic oversight to the programme, while also ensuring smooth operation of a challenging programme to be implemented by a small skilled team working with and through partners to effect change. The Team Leader, with the support of the Technical Director, will have responsibility for the oversight of the technical quality and direction of the programme. The Team Leader will have the support of a Senior Management team consisting of the Project Director, Team Leader, Technical Director and Deputy Team Leader to deliver the programme and will be accountable to the Programme Board.

The Team Leader will bring exceptional experience and commitment as a gender justice advocate with extensive skills in programme development, institutional strengthening, advocacy and networking with various national institutions and development agencies to promote gender equality. Experience in programme management and implementation in a similar programme context will be critical in providing leadership, stewardship and in harnessing the multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary skills of the technical personnel working for the programme. The Team Leader will bring experience of international best practice on gender empowerment and women’s leadership.

The Team Leader will deliver the following key objectives:
•    To manage the DFID-funded Voices for Change programme with overall responsibility for successful delivery of programme outputs and outcome on schedule and on budget
•    To ensure strong financial management and accountability for resources to GRM and DFID;
•    To provide strong internal leadership to the programme team and resolve any issues likely to affect the overall technical performance of the team;
•    To represent the V4C programme externally, providing strong leadership and maintaining excellent collaborative relationships with programme partners;
•    To ensure GRM and Consortium partner’s corporate and professional standards are maintained at all times and that V4C builds on potential synergies with other programmes managed by GRM

The reporting responsibilities include:
•    Ultimate responsibility for progress reporting to the donor, including timely programme management against the agreed outputs and programme deliverables.
•    Submission of the quarterly progress reports that will be prepared and submitted to DFID outlining the view from the Project and GRM as to the progress towards delivering the output level milestones. The Quarterly Progress Report will take into account value for money achievements during implementation by quarter. An update of the risk analysis will also be provided.
•    Annual work plans, procurement plans and budgets. Progress in delivering these plans, especially at activity and output levels, as well as at agreed milestones and other deliverables will be reported quarterly to DFID in an agreed format.

Team Leader profile
•    Master’s degree in a gender or related discipline with at least 10 years working in international development in the adolescent girls’ and women’s empowerment field
•    highly skilled and with proven track record in leading gender programmes of a significant scale, including managing a diverse team of professionals and delivering results on time;
•    ability to function independently and to exercise discretion and judgment in sensitive and potentially controversial matters, ability to commit for the duration of the programme;
•    excellent analytical, communication and writing skills with understanding of how to frame arguments, reason with evidence and ability to promote causes and ideas;
•    preference for candidate to have established networks in Nigeria;
•    preference for candidate to have previous experience managing large programmes in Nigeria/West Africa and/or other subregional countries in Africa;

Location and duration

The starting date of the assignment is scheduled for January 2013 and the overall duration of the assignment is 4 years. The role is based in Abuja with frequent travel to other states in Nigeria.

If this position is of interest to you and you believe you are suitably qualified, please submit an application to vanessa.garcia@grminternational.com before 6 November 2012 following the steps below.

a)    State ‘Team Leader – V4C’ in the subject line and state where you saw this advertisement
b)    State four bullet points to demonstrate why you are a suitable candidate for this role