Zonal State Coordinators at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) - FCT, Kaduna, Rivers and Lagos States

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Zonal State Coordinator

Locations: Abuja, Kaduna, Rivers and Lagos

Job Summary

• The Zonal State Coordinators will be based in select IP offices and will provide technical assistance and accompaniment to multiple PEPFAR Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Programming Implementing Partners (IPs), SMWASDs, SACAs and other Government of Nigeria (GON) entities related to supporting an HIV-sensitive social service system within their assigned zone.
• The Zonal State Coordinator’s main role is to promote and support positive changes from within relevant GON structures in order to support a HIV-sensitive social service system.
• The Zonal State Coordinators will accompany PEPFAR OVC IPs during costed sustainability plan development and implementation as they strengthen key technical and organizational capacities of the GON entities with whom they work.
• Key areas of focus will be improved leadership, planning, coordination, budgeting and intragovernmental advocacy to increase financial support for a HIV-sensitive social service system to support OVC and their household who have graduated or transitioned.
• Zonal State Coordinators will support GON entities to develop, implement and monitor costed sustainability plans.
• S/he will support quality improvement processes and on-the-job training within the select offices of GON entities in their Zone.

Specific Responsibilities

• Support the conceptualization and implementation of 4Children Nigeria’s harmonized, standardized, and contextualized approach to holistic, costed sustainability planning at the PEPFAR OVC Implementing Partner, government, civil society, community, household and individual levels to support OVC and household graduation/transition and social service system strengthening; ensure alignment with national graduation strategy and criteria; promote the use of the harmonized Nigerian Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) tool to assess and prioritize institutional capacity strengthening efforts, as needed.
• Support GON entities to carry out baseline organizational capacity assessments and use the results of this (or previous) assessments to develop, implement and track progress on sustainability plans and associated capacity strengthening plans designed to support an HIV-sensitive social service system.
• Facilitate with PEPFAR OVC IPs, Zonal or State costed sustainability planning workshops; participate in National level sustainability planning workshop.
• Provide technical assistance and accompaniment to PEPFAR OVC IPs and States to implement and monitor costed sustainability plans.
• Collaborate with the Advocacy Technical Adviser and PEPFAR OVC IPs to strengthen the ability of key GON entities to conduct intragovernmental advocacy to increase the timely financing of activities that support a HIV-sensitive social service system.
• Lead Zonal/State level organizational network analyses (ONA) to strengthen referral networks and promote linkages between community, facility and State-level protection and HIV services in collaboration with the Case Management and Referral Technical Advisor, States, PEPFAR OVC IPs, health facilities, networks and CSO/CBOs and other aspects of a HIV-sensitive social service system.
• Provide technical assistance to States in social service system strengthening including, but not limited to governance/leadership, coordination/networking among OVC service providers, human resources, financing and information management/use.
• Support States to enhance/introduce systems to improve the planning, coordination and communication among social service system actors across the State and among LGA, State and Federal levels and other sector ministries; support SMWASD to effectively manage all OVC service providers in the State.
• Implement, with support of PEPFAR OVC IPs, leadership, supervision, and performance improvement processes and training within the SMWASD and SACA offices with the zone.
• In collaboration with PEPFAR OVC IPs, provide mentoring, coaching and on-the-job training to key State entities to implement effective systems for planning, coordination and monitoring of the OVC response; work with the SMWASD to improve monitoring and evaluation systems that feed into the National-level system.
• Provide technical assistance to the SMWASD to develop LGA capacity to coordinate community-level OVC interventions.
• Provide guidance and technical assistance to PEPFAR OVC IPs on the use and adoption of the latest tools and methodologies to support all aspects of project management related to capacity strengthening and sustainability plan implementation.
• Establish systems for monitoring and evaluating capacity to measure progress and generate an evidence base for successful and sustainable approaches to organizational capacity strengthening for State-level entities involved in the OVC response.
• Ensure effective data collection of all activities implemented at the State level.
• Provide timely inputs to 4Children Nigeria annual planning, monitoring, reporting and budgeting processes in their Zone.
• Document project results and impacts in various forms, including media stories, lessons learned, case studies, client satisfaction, etc.
• Represent the 4Children Nigeria Project at the State-level, including attending meetings on behalf of 4Children, making presentations at professional meetings and conferences on matters related to the 4Children Nigeria project related to capacity and system strengthening.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Public Policy, Public Administration, Social Work or equivalent degree with proven partnership and capacity strengthening experience.
• Minimum of five years’ experience in organizational/institutional development and provision of technical assistance to government entities at the Federal and/or State level(s) and/or international non-governmental organizations or civil society (including faith-based) organizations preferably related to the HIV and/or OVC response.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain positive relationships with and accountability towards diverse actors including donors, PEPFAR OVC, government, and civil society partners.
• Demonstrated ability to motivate and inspire teamwork among diverse partners, without direct supervisory responsibilities.
• Excellent project management skills including the demonstrated ability to conduct assessments, analysis, monitoring, and reporting as well as the ability to develop practical solutions within set deadlines.
• Experience in quality improvement science, using data to inform decision-making and sustainability planning/monitoring a plus.
• Excellent negotiation and analytical/problem-solving skills.
• Strong interpersonal, partnership, and training, facilitation and mentoring skills.
• Excellent understanding of GON systems and procedures as it relates to planning and budgeting.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills in English.
• Knowledge of GON OVC service delivery standards and PEPFAR programming, process, guidance and frameworks is strongly preferred.
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, Power-Point and Outlook.
• Experience in organizational network analysis a plus.

Application Closing Date
4th February, 2016.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should download the CRS Application Form below and send with a detailed 3-page resume in a one-word document to: [email protected]

Click here to download the CRS Application Form