Economic Recovery and Market System Team Leader at Danish Refugee Council (DRC) - 4 Openings

Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a Danish international non-governmental organisation, which promotes and supports durable solutions to the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced people all over the world. DRC is present in more than 30 conflict territories around the world assisting displaced people with shelter, food, income-generating activities, and a wide range of other assistance. It is of utmost importance for DRC to work in compliance with the DRC Accountability and Quality Management system and national legislations. Smooth, reliable and effective operational systems are preconditions for DRC to maintain its position as a trustworthy and reliable partner for our donors and an accountable organisation towards our beneficiaries.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Economic Recovery and Market System Team Leader

Location: Monguno, Konduga, Mafa and Nganzai - Borno
Supervised by: Economic Recovery Manager Borno State
Reporting to: Economic Recovery Manager Borno State
Employment Period: 6 months with possibility of extension

Purpose

• We are looking to recruit an experienced, highly- qualified and enthusiastic professional to join the Economic Recovery team in Nigeria.
• Coordinate with partners and other stakeholders in the implementation of food assistance , livelihood programming through supporting market systems development (MSD), improved production practices for farmers’ associations, cash transfer programming (CTP) and village savings and loans associations (VSLA) while developing the social cohesion between members of the target communities.

Duties and Responsibilities
Team Leadership:

• Produce work plans for the sector staff in accordance with annual planning cycle
• Train staff and provide regular updates of work planning and reporting against SMART objectives.
• Oversee the performance of the Economic Recovery team.
• Provide field supervision to Economic Recovery and Market System Officers and Assistants, Agriculture Officers and Assistants
• Represent the Economic Recovery team at base level and participate in facilitating and coordinating activities within the team and with other DRC’s departments

Implementation and Planning:

• Coordinate with the Finance, Procurement Officers and other sectors of DRC to ensure proper management of Economic Recovery sector planning and implementation.
• Serve as the main contact for Economic Recovery and Market System activities in DRC Maiduguri operations, and work closely with State Government Technical Line Ministries and departments in ensuring high quality standards in DRC Economic Recovery sector operations.
• Ensure team adoption of technical guidelines, SoPs, handbooks and other programme guidance provided by the Economic Recovery Manager and the Economic Recovery Coordinator
• Ensure that Economic Recovery and Market System Officers and Assistants implement Economic Recovery and Market System project activities within the budget limits and in line with good budget management and accountability procedures in consultation with Economic Recovery Programme Manager
• Support Economic Recovery and Market System Officers and Assistant in ensuring activities implementation is done in compliance with DRC/Donor quality procedures
• Closely monitor the implementation of Economic Recovery and Market System activities to timely identify any problems that may affect the achievement of intended outputs and results; by pragmatically and constructively dealing with them early enough
• In coordination with field staff, ensure that vulnerable groups (especially women and youths) are actively involved during group discussion and the decision making process;
• Organize and manage workshops, trainings and meetings that are hosted by the sector with relevant partners—beneficiary households, line ministries and CBOs.
• Provide agriculture livelihood guidance, on an individual, group or association basis, to increase beneficiaries’ awareness of different agricultural value chain options based on market assessment and beneficiary interests.
• Provide information to beneficiaries about agricultural livelihoods and post-harvest value chain opportunities.
• Organize agricultural training on micro gardening and small farming management activities with beneficiaries
• Provide information to the beneficiaries on, market opportunities, and facilitate business linkage for improved agro-inputs vendors to increase ease of access and availability of inputs for smallholder farmers enterprise creation.
• Train, coach and mentor farmers on improved agricultural (livestock and crop) production practices
• Facilitate the implementation of Cash Transfer Programmes (CTP) at ward level, Conditional Cash Grants
• Work with line manager to plan for agricultural inputs distributions using MSD approach and ensuring distributed inputs accountability.
• Linking bulk agriculture produce buyers with farmers’ associations and input sellers with farmers.
• Work closely with Ministry of Agriculture Extension workers in facilitating crop farming/poultry production trainings for beneficiaries.
• Work with existing agricultural cooperatives or formation if not in the local government of implementation to easily access agricultural opportunities like lending and available information on learning good agronomic practices.

Sector Reporting & Documentation:

• Provide regular internal reports and other relevant information on general policy matters and programme activities to the sector staff and other relevant persons.
• Ensure that a sound documentation procedure is adhered to, including relevant beneficiary database is developed, maintained and updated regularly.
• Ensure update-to-date records (disaggregated by gender/age/diversity) are maintained for all beneficiaries of the Economic Recovery and Market System interventions.
• Ensure the use of developed relevant manuals/tool kits and training curriculums that can be used in training beneficiaries
• Ensure that a sound complaints handling and feedback mechanism is in place in the project area so that beneficiaries have easy access to DRC and that the Do-No-Harm principle to persons of concern/beneficiaries at the point of delivery is upheld.
• Lead weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting processes of Economic Recovery activities in Maiduguri.
• Actively contribute to project planning, development of proposals and documentation of lessons learned, best practices and success stories.
• Lead the identification of beneficiaries needs using both technical skills and knowledge of the operational context
• Engage and build strong and better relations with all community leaders, Local Government Council structures and State Government line ministries for the enhancement of DRC/ Donor overall program objectives.

Coordination:

• Represent the Economic Recovery sector during coordination meetings with stakeholders such as local communities, local government officials, Early Recovery and Livelihoods Sector Working Group, Food Security Sector Working Group, Cash Working Group and donors.
• Be proactively seeking for new partnerships for SME, VST, Internship, and LH activities
• Promote and ensure at all times a pragmatic and efficient dialogue as well as networking with Local Institution, Private Institutes, workshops, National and international NGOs and local authorities
• Coordinate with the rest of the country team whenever needed
• Liaise with relevant line ministries during project implementation i.e. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Animal resources and Fisheries, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade etc.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Actively participate in monthly Budget Follow up review meetings and ensure all livelihood activities status are updated and submitted to Economic Recovery Programme Manager/ Economic Recovery Coordinator
• Work with M&E to manage all Economic Recovery and Market System component data collection exercises including the conduction of assessment and surveys (e.g. baseline surveys, yield assessment, do-no-harm surveys etc.) in close coordination with the Country M&E unit to monitor and evaluate food security and Economic Recovery and Market System projects activities.
• Work closely with M&E unit to identify, document and disseminate relevant project success, challenges and follow up on implementation of project’s action points
• Support the undertaking of detailed situational analysis in collaboration with relevant stakeholder and propose appropriate project implementation approaches
• Supervise the implementation of all participatory needs/vulnerability and capacity assessments of affected communities
• Participate in project evaluations and assist in the analysis of results
• Work with M&E to conduct post-distribution monitoring to ensure that beneficiary entitlements have been adequately accounted for and reconcile the results with those issued by the warehouse manager/cash distribution agent and line manager for the supply of goods, cash and vouchers.

Administration & logistics:

• Ensure compliance with donor requirements regarding programming implementation and asset management.
• Support sector team with logistics arrangements to facilitate effective programming.
• Provide timely expenditure planning & budget follow-ups with guidance from the Economic Recovery Programme Manager and the Economic Recovery Coordinator.
• Ensure DRC financial procedures, guidelines and corruption control is maintained among the team.
• Initiate procurements and ensuring adherence to correct procurement and logistical procedures and in coordination with the Logistics department. Support the timely procurement of project materials.

Personnel Management:

• Directly responsible for supervising Economic Recovery Officers, Assistants and any casual workers hired to facilitate implementation of sectoral activities.
• Responsible for contributing to recruitment planning, actual recruitment of required field staff in consultation with the Economic Recovery Coordinator, Economic Recovery Programme Manager, Area Manager and HR.
• The responsibilities listed in the JD are not exhaustive and may be readjusted according to operational needs but will remain in line with the overall purpose of the role.

Experience and Technical Competencies
Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree or higher in Agriculture, Economics, Business Management, Sociology, Psychology, or other relevant field
• Professional experience of at least two years, including one year working with a humanitarian organisation;
• Proficient with standard software tools (Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power-Point);
• Ability to work in a team, independently and under minimal supervision;
• Good communication, analysis, and writing skills;
• Excellent negotiation and diplomacy skills;

Desirable:

• Understanding of rights and protection issues of IDPs, children and women
• Experience working with displaced populations.
• Previous experience working on Market Systems Development approaches.

Essential:

• At least 3-4 years of relevant professional Economic Recovery and Market System components experience with a humanitarian aid organization
• Understanding of Economic Recovery and Market System programming issues in the country and the North East Nigeria region
• Experiencing of managing teams
• Good computer skills (especially Ms. Office).

Application Closing Date
1st October, 2024.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online