Partnership and Innovation Specialist - Nigeria Strengthening Civic Advocacy & Local Engagement at Palladium Group

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact - the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Partnership and Innovation Specialist - Nigeria Strengthening Civic Advocacy & Local Engagement

Job ID: req19261
Location: Abuja
Duration: One year, with the possibility of extension for an additional year

Project Overview and Role

• SCALE is a USAID-funded 5-year project (Oct 08, 2020 - Oct 07, 2025), implemented by Palladium in collaboration with the local resource partners.
• The objective of the SCALE project is to strengthen the financial, management, and advocacy capacity of local civil society organizations (CSOs) and Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) in Nigeria to create a more accountable, transparent, peaceful, and democratic Nigeria with more effective and efficient public service delivery. 
• SCALE supports civil society organizations (CSOs) and business membership organizations (BMOs) across all of USAID/Nigeria’s programmatic sectors with a basket of managerial, business strengthening, and advocacy capacity-building interventions aimed at advancing Nigerian CSO sustainability combined with targeted grants to advance mutually agreed upon priorities.
• The project is designed to enhance local civil society organizations’ ability to be positive and responsible change agents in Nigeria.
• The SCALE project is looking for a highly driven and creative Partnership and Innovation Specialist to join its technical team to provide support to SCALE CSO/BMO and private sector partners.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities
Program Management:

• Oversee and monitor implementation of sub- awards of select SCALE partners including support to develop advocacy strategy, campaigns, progress monitoring tools and action plans for influencing selected priority topics of national and regional importance.
• Work with SCALE innovation partners to establish work plans, activities, budgets, and milestones for measuring progress and results.
• Track and report progress in implementing innovation activities i.e process, timelines, and outcomes against objectives and set results.
• Lead efforts to coordinate and share achievements and learning from the implementation of innovation activities including promoting opportunities for adoption, adaptation, and scale-up of successful innovations.
• Track and report progress in implementing partners’ activities i.e process, timelines, and outcomes against objectives and set results, success stories and project highlights to reflect project achievements.

Partnership and Relationship Coordination:

• Lead development, adaptation and implementation of effective, innovative partnership engagement approaches and methodologies for the project components and field team.
• Lead efforts to share achievements and learning from partnership engagements for SCALE including private sector engagements and promote opportunities for adoption, adaptation, and scale-up of successful partnership relationships.
• Coordinate SCALE efforts with other USAID partners for leveraging, sharing and learning purposes.
• Maintain a future focus, looking ahead to developing information products on SCALE achievements, learning and sustainability.

Cross-cutting:

• Provide monthly, quarterly, and annual reports and other reports as requested.
• Document and share impactful stories to reflect achievements with collective impacts, campaigns,  partnerships and collaborations.
• Work collaboratively with other SCALE teams in the delivery of SCALE goals, objectives, and results.
• Carry out other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Degree in International Affairs, Public Administration, Policy, Social Sciences, Law, Development Studies, or related field.
• Demonstrated relevant experience in civil society engagement, policy reform and partnership engagements in Nigeria.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in the design and implementation of development programs, partnership, and collaboration initiatives.
• Good organizational, verbal, and written communication skills as well as ability to multi-task. 
• Experience in engaging with government, civil society, and the organized private sector.
• Experience in multi-sectoral coordination and networking with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Good experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Experience in integrating gender, social inclusion, and conflict sensitivity in programming.
• Demonstrated strategic ability, diplomacy, written and oral communication, and negotiation skills.
• Strong organizational skills and strategic thinking; attention to detail; flexible and able to work efficiently with multiple tasks.
• Strong in written and spoken English.
• Competency in MS Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint required.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.