Program Officer at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Program Officer

Location: Abuja
Role Type: Business Delivery
Pay Band: G/6
Duration: Fixed term 3+ years
Reports to: Operations Manager

Role purpose

This is a fiexd role to support with the implementation phase of the Agents for Citizen-Driven Transformation (ACT) Programme. The post holder will be responsible for managing the administrative and logistical support to programme activities to ensure quality and timeliness of delivery; good control of resources and compliance with agreed programme management systems and processes; ensuring full and complete budgets are prepared and met for all activities with variance reports prepared as and when required; utilize M&E tools for measuring results during the programme implementation phase.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview

The British Council in Nigeria is implementing the European Union Conflict Management in Nigeria programme under their Trust Fund (EUTF) and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption programme in Nigeria under their Development Fund programme (EUDF).
We are implementing the Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) Programme under the European Union development fund. In partnership with COFFEY, we are delivering the Policing work under their Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and are managing the Programme Coordination Office for DFID’s Deepening Democracy in Nigeria Phase 2 (DDiN2) Programme. To support our existing contracts as well as future contracts, we are developing flexible structures that meet the global British Council standards to provide support to our FCR (Justice, Security and Conflict) work in Nigeria.
The Conflict Management programme in North Eastern Nigeria is a €21m EUTF-funded Programme (2017-2021) and works with the overall aim of enhancing state and community level conflict management capability to prevent the escalation of conflict into violence in a number of locations in North-Eastern Nigeria. The Programme has an annual turnover of around £5-£6m and work in 3 states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe as well as in Abuja. The programme is being delivered alongside a partner (International Alert) with the British Council leading the contract. The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) programme in Nigeria is a €25m EUDF-funded Programme (2017-2021) and has the overall aim of enhancing good governance in Nigeria by contributing to strengthening of the rule of law, curbing corruption and reducing impunity. The programme has an annual turnover of around £5-£6m and work in 4 states – Adamawa, Anambra, Kano, Lagos, as well as in Abuja. The RoLAC programme will be extending to Edo State.
The Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) programme is an EU funded programme being implemented by the British Council. The programme is funded under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and will be implemented over a period of five years from July 2018, with the first 6 months serving as the programme Inception Phase for the development of strategies for full programme implementation. The ACT programme will contribute to the progressive achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to the national development priorities identified in the Nigeria Vision 20:20 Economic Transformation Blueprint. The Overall Objective of the programme is to contribute to more inclusive, effective, accountable and gender-responsive development in Nigeria; while its specific objectives is to enhance the credibility and role of CSOs as drivers of change for sustainable development in Nigeria. The programme has an annual turnover of around £3-£4m and will be implemented at the Federal level and in selected states where EU programmes concentrate.
The Nigerian context is generally challenging, having poor infrastructure and currently facing a volatile security situation. There is still a significant reliance on the cash economy, corruption is high and the regulatory and compliance structures that exist are highly ineffective.
The overall economic situation is not good with the low oil prices leading to high unemployment, increasing inflation and a shortage of foreign currency causing the value of the Naira to weaken considerably. This makes Nigeria a very challenging environment in which to deliver programmes. The Programme Support Office is located in Abuja, but in an office that is separate from the main British Council office. The post holder must therefore have the ability to work in an ambiguous and difficult environment in which British Council processes need to be adapted or developed to cope with unusual requirements and difficult context.
The post holder will work closely with the programme delivery and management teams as well as having significant interactions with the technical teams and Nigerian partners.

Main Accountabilities
Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties:

Project management and delivery:

To provide support for projects and manage and organise events to a high standard and within deadline.
To liaise with support units to manage the arrangements for visitors including booking travel, accommodation and preparing programmes.
Provide administrative and logistic support to consultants who deliver programmes.
To support financial and technical reporting to internal/external clients and customers, ensuring reporting standards are in accordance with client and corporate standards.
Produce monthly work plan for end client, useful for planning and monitoring of programme implementation.
Support with review of consultant deliverables against Terms of Reference to ensure agreed outputs and outcomes are delivered.
Build and manage output folders and database of key contacts and stakeholders to ensure regular growth in engagement of key audiences, with the aim of increasing awareness and impact.
Ensure the provision, collation and analysis of participants and stakeholder feedback on all events and programs to ensure quality and effectiveness can be assessed and recommend improvement.
Actively builds professional networks and information channels that maintain an excellent understanding of relevant developments, stakeholders and opinion formers in the development sector to support the creation of high quality programs and events.

Finance Administration:

Responsible for project procurement in line with established corporate policies and guidelines.
To provide financial support to the Programme Manager and Finance team, including the detailed budgeting for planned events, raising advances, issuing payments to workshop participants, processing of workshop claims, retirement of advances in a timely manner.
To ensure risk is minimized by strict application of corporate BC financial principles in all programme related activities.
Monitoring expenditure against set budgets for an agreed portfolio of projects to ensure financial targets are met.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E):

To support initiatives led by M&E technical lead developed to monitor activities and interventions.
Document lessons learned to improve the quality of events and their outcomes for the implementation phase of the programme.

Knowledge Management:

To provide support to Knowledge Management consultant to broaden the reach of programme impact and improve its sustainability.
Support activities to facilitate replication of interventions (Demonstrate ‘value for money’).
Liaise with Knowledge Management team to provide summary reports and stories that feed into the quarterly impact reports, newsletters and other knowledge management products.
Provide up-to-date information and share stories of live events on social media networks such as twitter, Facebook, Flickr with the wider audience.

Team Support and Contribution:

Ensure professionalism is demonstrated in own work area and that customer / client needs and perspectives are reflected in own behaviours and focus.
To support the embedding of continuous learning and improvement into the team.
To seek to understand the interdependencies and connections programme team has with other functions and teams within EU programmes and the wider organisation.
To proactively share best practice and learning across the wider EU programmes team.

Other Administrative Work:

As required.

Key Relationships
Internal:

Programme Managers, Technical Lead, Operation Managers, State Teams, Procurement and Estate Manager, HR Manager, Finance Manager, Other Programme Officers, Admin and Resource Assistants.
All Visiting National and International Consultants
Other Project Teams

External:

External relationship management where appropriate (i.e. linked to function of role), to include: EU, consultants, Civil Society Organizations, MDAs, etc.

Qualifications
Essential:

Graduate level education
Evidence of continuous professional development

Desirable:

Project management qualification aligned to P&P professional standards (APM) at the appropriate level of the role.
Other project / programme management qualification

Assesment Stage: Shortlisting

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience
Essential:

Minimum of 3 years’ experience with an international organization
Experience of working as part of a successful team/function.
Experience of scheduling and supporting meetings with internal stakeholders / external partners.

Assessment Stage: Shortlisting

Desirable:

Experience of work in an FCR project.
Experience of operating in a complex, multi-cultural context

Assessment Stage: Shortlisting

British Council Core Skills
Planning and Organising (Level 2):

Plans ahead – Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people. – Shortlisting and Interview

Managing Projects (Level 2):

Analyses project data – Examines project data and performance, reporting on progress and recommending corrective action as needed. – Shortlisting and Interview

Managing Accounts and Partnerships (Level 2):

Works with stakeholders and partners – Communicates regularly with diverse stakeholders, customers and/or partners to build mutual understanding and trust. – Shortlisting and Interview

Managing Finance and Resources (Level 2):

Uses financial systems and processes – Uses corporate financial systems and processes appropriately as part of the job and on behalf of a team. – Shortlisting and Interview

Using Technology (Level 2):

Operates as an advanced user – Works as an advanced practitioner in the use of office software and/or British Council standard and social media platforms and trains or coaches others in their use. – Shortlisting and Interview

British Council Behaviours
Being accountable (More demanding):