Consortium Coordinator at Concern Worldwide

About the role
This is a 24-month role with accompanied terms based in Niamey, Niger with 50% of the time scheduled and spent in the programme areas: 2 regions Tahoua and Tillabery – 9 Departments that also include 6 Health Districts (4 Health Districts in the region of Tahoua and 2 Health Districts in the region of Tillaberi). You will have a salary Grade 4 €43,268 – €48,076 and benefits.

You will report to the Concern Niger Programmes Director and will line manage the CMAM Surge Manager, the CMAM and Nutrition BCC Manager, the Early Warning Early Action Manager and the Protection Manager. You will lead the consortium, in close collaboration with ERNE focal points of INGO and local partners.

You will closely coordinate with the Concern Niger Health & Nutrition Advisor, the Global CMAM Surge Advisor, the ERNE Global Programme Coordinator who leads the Programme Coordination Unit in HQ and the Niger Desk Officer based in HQ.

You will liaise with the Concern Niger Country Director, the Livelihoods Advisor, the MEAL Coordinator, the Grants Officer and the Tahoua Regional Coordinator and other key staff from local and INGOs and implementing partners in Niger.

You will work in close collaboration with the government’s technical partners, notably the Early Warning Office (CC/SAP) and the Ministry of Health (Nutrition Office) in Niger.

Enhanced Responses to Nutrition Emergencies (ERNE) is a three-year, five-country ECHO-funded global programme, part of the ECHO Programmatic Partnership Pilot (PPP). The objective of ERNE is to increase the scale, efficiency and effectiveness of nutrition emergency responses by working with local services and communities, linking proven and innovative solutions in fragile, conflict-affected and disaster-prone countries. The three-year programme will target those most nutritionally vulnerable through three pillars: response, preparedness and prevention of acute malnutrition combined with context specific considerations of conflict and inequality.

In Niger, this programme is implemented in consortium with two other international NGOs and a number of local partners, with Concern as the lead agency. We are seeking an ERNE Consortium Coordinator with strong coordination, planning and communication skills, preferably with a background in Early Warning/Early Action, DRR or rapid response cash-based programming, and familiarity with health & nutrition programming.

We would like you to start ASAP.

Your purpose:
To manage and coordinate Concern Niger’s ERNE consortium based on the overall programme strategy and in line with grant management and monitoring systems established. You will also ensure accountability and learning within the programme. You will be the principal liaison between Concern HQ-based ERNE Programme Coordination Unit, consortium members, the donor (ECHO) in Niger, the government, and other stakeholders.
You need to be dynamic and experienced in coordination and project implementation, managing partnerships or consortia and coordinating with government entities and program stakeholders.

You will be responsible for:

Project Management
• Providing overall leadership, management and strategic direction for the ERNE consortium in Niger
• Responsible for ensuring the ERNE consortium achieves agreed outputs, outcomes and targets;
• Oversee the ERNE consortium administration, implementation and financial management to ensure that activities aligns with programmatic approach, budget allocations, Concern policies, and ECHO regulations and procedures;
• Provide direction and guidance to the ERNE consortium staff (both Concern and consortium member staff) on compliance issues, procurement standards/requirements, and other administrative questions related to the project.
• Ensure consistency in understanding of the project logframe, monitoring, funding and reporting requirements for the ERNE Project.
• Lead the implementation of the work plans and ensure project responds to changing conditions and operating environments;
• Coordinate and liaise with other INGOs implementing partners to align their individual plans to the overall project plan. As and when necessary, meet with partner managers individually to support this process.
• Work closely with the Global CMAM Surge advisor, Concern Niger Health and Nutrition Advisor, and Concern Niger Livelihoods and Resilience Advisor to ensure a comprehensive integrated approach to meet the program objectives.
• Coordinate the development and implementation of the project operational procedures, adapting the technical resources and tools as needed in line with the local context.
• Responsible for monthly and quarterly project reporting, including progress on indicators and objectives reported internally and by implementing partners and for ensuring consolidation of Niger reporting based on HQ Programme Coordination Unit and donor’s requirements.
• Represent the ERNE project at conferences, working groups, and meetings and maintain positive relationships with implementing partners, local authorities, and the various office teams;
• Identify technical assistance needs and training resources among project staff, partners, government counterparts and beneficiaries and coordinate the provision of technical assistance;

Human Resources
• Manage the Concern ERNE team and support implementing partners’ teams.
• Ensure the direct management of Technical Managers under your responsibility by ensuring that the leave plans, objectives, evaluations (PDR) and training are consistent and up to date
• Identify technical assistance needs and training resources among project staff, partners, government counterparts and beneficiaries and coordinate the provision of technical assistance.

Financial Management
• Ensure conformity with agreed Concern Niger ERNE project budget, including co-funding commitments.
• Responsible for reviewing monthly management accounts including transactions, providing monthly feedback by the deadline on any corrections, missing transactions and justification for over/under spends and preparing monthly forecasts.
• Responsible for quarterly analysis of the Project budget, target settings and reviewing spends with Concern staff and consortium partners, especially on burn rate and variances.
• Assist in the preparation of the consolidated financial report as pert the contractual obligations.
• When necessary, take the initiative in leading the proposal/budget revision processes with the other implementing partners.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
• In collaboration with the Niger MEAL Coordinator and the HQ PCU MEAL Advisor, support the development of strong M&E mechanisms, project monitoring tools and efficient systems to ensure high quality implementation
• In collaboration with the MEAL coordinator, contribute to the production of capitalization reports including lessons learnt and recommendations for future capacity development based in project experience
• In collaboration with the MEAL Coordinator, write learning papers based on the project implementation and share with partners and stakeholders, to be incorporated into future preparedness and responses.
• Coordinate with the implementing partners to ensure M&E system of all partners is consistent and will measure achievement against indicators of the project log-frame.
• Ensure that the crosscutting issues (conflict, DRR, gender, disability, ethnic consideration, etc.) are prioritized while implementing project action plans.
• In collaboration with the MEAL coordinator, ensure monitoring data is regularly collected, analysed and reported to the HQ PSU.
• Ensure the work plans are on track and report any amendment or significant changes to the line manager and/or to the Steering Committee as required.
• Ensure appropriate reporting tools are developed, if not already in place to ensure reporting formats are understood and used by staff and partners and provide the information required for high quality donor reporting purposes. Provide regular feedback on reports.
• Undertake monitoring visits to the field sites locations covered by Concern and partners and provide feedback to partners.

Liaison and Coordination
• Serve as overall communications/liaison with the Niger ERNE Project Management Unit (PMU), implementing partners, and key stakeholders including government representatives of project area. (The ERNE PMU under the leadership of the Programme Director will be composed by the Country Director, Programme Director, Health and Nutrition Advisor, Livelihood and Resilience Advisor, MEAL Coordinator, Grant Officer and Tahoua Regional Programme Coordinator)
• Liaise with other NGOs, relevant government agencies and the ECHO country office to ensure coordination and learning across partners.
• Be responsible for the representation of Concern to consortium partners, donors, government, UN agencies and other NGOs in relation to the project

Accountability
• In collaboration with the MEAL team and Technical Advisors, be responsible for coordinating and documenting project activities (includes case studies, etc.)
• Ensure the programme is in line with Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) by ensuring the roll out of accountability plan.
• Ensure that a robust Complaints Response Mechanism is in place for the ERNE project, in alignment with overall CRM processes in the programme area, included documented consultation and participation of communities, documented information to communities on appropriate behaviour and how to report, appropriate mechanisms to report, and active monitoring and response to complaints.
• Ensure implementing partners have appropriate CRM mechanisms in place.
• Communication, information sharing within the programme and promoting participation of staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders to all the steps of the programme cycle.
• Create relevant and secure spaces to archive good documentation (Server Folders, Yammer etc)

Your skills and experience will include:
• Master’s degree in a relevant field or advanced degree in Public Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Economics, International Development, or other relevant subjects;
• Experience with Early Warning/Early Action, DRR activities or rapid response mechanisms
• Familiarity with health and nutrition programmes, in particular CMAM and CMAM Surge
• At least five years overseas experience and at least 3 years in similar coordination/programme management position
• Experience in building relationships with governmental organizations as well working with partners and in consortia;
• Experience of achieving results within difficult working environments;
• Strong communications and interpersonal skills and ability to interact productively with partners and stakeholders (community, government technical services and institutions).
• Experience in emergency contexts, preferably in the Sahel region
• Experience in security management in an insecure context

We would like you to:
• Be fluent in French and English.
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills in French and strong capacity in English
• Be able to work under pressure and to strict deadlines;
• Travel frequently to rural field locations and spend periods of time away from the capital in fairly basic conditions
• Have strong interpersonal, writing and oral presentation skills in French and English
• Be able to work independently and manage a high workload
• Have relevant computer software skills, including at a minimum, MS Office, etc.