West Africa Manager at Seefar 72 views0 applications

The West Africa Manager has responsibility for implementing projects in West Africa while continuing to build our capability regionally. You will be working on some of the most important issues of our time, including refugees, displaced people, violent extremism, social inclusion and human trafficking. You will have demonstrated project management experience in conflict affected and developing countries, including West Africa. You will have a track record of managing people from multiple countries, be someone donors trust, be results focused, and be fluent in English. You will be based in Nigeria and will have the opportunity to travel. This is a permanent full-time position.

Job Description

We are a social enterprise with a mission to work with vulnerable people to build a better future. We specialise in justice, migration and social inclusion. Our expertise is in strategic communications, counselling, consulting, monitoring and evaluation, and research. We work in East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, East Africa, North Africa, the Sahel and Europe. For more information about us, please visit http://seefar.org/about-us

This role demands someone who is smart, has deep program management experience, is intrinsically motivated, has a strong capability for people management and is interested in hard challenges.

To get a sense of the services we specialise in at Seefar, please visit http://seefar.org/services

To get a sense of the issues we work on at Seefar, please visit https://seefar.org/themes/

We are looking for someone who:

• Is a resident in Nigeria
• Is fluent in English (both written and oral)
• Has a track record of delivering projects in conflict affected and developing countries including West Africa
• Has had demonstrable success building donor relationships

RESPONSIBILITIES

The following are the primary responsibilities of the role, with estimated allocations of time and attention.

DELIVER: PROJECT AND MISSION IMPLEMENTATION

Approximately 70% of your time and attention:

• Support and guide Seefar to advance our mission and deliver projects.
• Implementing projects and managing other project managers in West Africa.
• Manage and develop personnel and support services.
• Ensure donors needs are met and expectations exceeded where possible.
• Provide regional inputs to programs relating to migration, displaced people, human trafficking and modern slavery.
• Liaise with donors and partners to report on projects and manage relationships. For example, this would include briefing donors on progress and spending time talking with relevant teams in our partner organisations.

DEVELOP: CAPABILITIES AND PROGRAM PORTFOLIO

Approximately 20% of your time and attention:

• Develop the West Africa team. For example, this would include mentoring your team and leading recruitment.
• Lead fundraising for Seefar in West Africa. Build and maintain contacts and networks with potential supporters. This includes identifying new opportunities and creating new projects, as well as supporting existing fundraising activity.
• Liaise with partners and donors to identify how the Enterprise can assist, and manage proposals or other processes to initiate projects. For example, this would include visiting donors to explore opportunities and leading proposal writing or working on proposals with partner consortia.
• Strengthen the Enterprise’s reputation and profile in our areas of expertise in West Africa, potentially including demonstration projects if you assess them to be valuable.

DIRECT: GLOBAL MANAGEMENT

• Represent and demonstrate the Enterprise’s values.

Approximately 10% of your time and attention:

• Cooperate with other areas of the Migration Program and Enterprise, including to communicate substantive and administrative information that supports corporate management overall. For example, this would include ensuring effective internal reporting at the project and region level.

Your leadership of the region will require you to travel. The minimum travel schedule for the past 12 months is provided as an indication of this commitment:

• Attending twice-yearly all permanent personnel meetings of 3-5 days. In 2017 these were in Amman, Jordan and Dubai, UAE.
• Attending meetings of Program personnel of 2-4 days, approximately every quarter. In 2016-17 these were in the UK, Turkey, Spain and Italy.
• Traveling to meet donors and potential donors to the program, mostly in Western capitals. This will likely be several times a year for one to three days at a time.
• It is likely this position will also need to travel to project implementation locations in West Africa quarterly.

Working with Seefar

Current and former personnel have noted the points below as positive features of Seefar’s work environment and culture:

• The Enterprise combines entrepreneurialism with a focus on social impact.
• You work with highly diverse people and across a diversity of contexts.
• There is a high level of trust that supports you to work autonomously.
• The people in the Enterprise encourage innovation and experimentation.
• Achieving results is prioritised over rigid structures and workflows.
• You are never bored and always challenged.

Current and former personnel have noted the points below as negative features of Seefar’s work environment and culture:

• Collaborating with geographically dispersed teams requires flexibility and patience.
• Working remotely can make you feel isolated and so requires you to invest time in communication.
• Travel schedules can sometimes be heavy.
• A high-growth phase means problem-solving as the Enterprise’s systems evolve quickly.
• It can be fast paced so you need to be productive and able to prioritise effectively.

An Excellent Candidate

To excel in this role, you will start with extensive experience working in West Africa with some of that experience relevant to migration, security and justice or social inclusion issues. You are based in Nigeria. You are looking for your next leadership role, like the idea of having autonomy to pursue a vision and have experience fundraising. You have a track record of supervising others effectively. You have ideas about what works well in this industry and you have seen opportunities to to do much better. You look forward to leading an entrepreneurial region as it grows – you will have a diverse set of tasks that demands a regional vision while requiring your focus on activity delivery as the team develops. You will be motivated by an Enterprise performance framework focused on social impact.

How to apply:

On or before 1 November, complete our online application form. Before you start, you should do the following:

1. Confirm you meet these minimum requirements:
   1. You are based in Nigeria.
   2. With a track record of delivering projects in conflict affected and developing countries including West Africa
   3. Who has had demonstrable success building donor relationships.
   4. Motivation to lead a growing region to achieve social impact.
   5. Complete fluency in oral and written English.
2. Prepare a CV in Word or PDF format. You will upload this in our online application form.
3. In Word or PDF format, prepare an introductory letter that includes only the points below. You will upload this in our online application form.
   1. One paragraph explaining what you have learned is a necessary attitude or approach when delivering successful projects in East Africa. What experiences taught you this?
   2. One paragraph giving an example of a fundraising process that you have led. What was the context? What happened? What were the most important contributors to success?