Project Manager Job at Cooperazione Internazionale

Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) is an Italian humanitarian non-governmental organization founded in Milan in 1965. COOPI aims to help the world’s poorest to improve their access to healthcare, food, and financial security, and to overcome their special vulnerability to wars, civil conflicts and natural disasters. For 50 years of long-term support and constant presence in the field, COOPI has been engaged in breaking the cycle of poverty and responding to specific emergencies in numerous sectors, including Food Security, Humanitarian Aid, Health, Socio-Economical Services, Water and Sanitation, Human Rights, Education and Training, Migrations and Sustainable Energy.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Position: Project Manager - DRR

Job Location: Sokoto with field visits to Kaduna
Donor: ECHO
Duration: 12 months (renewable)
Reports to: The Head of Mission / Program Manager

Company Overview

• COOPI started its operations in North-East Nigeria in July 2014 to carry out a rapid evaluation of the most relevant constraints suffered by the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) displaced by the food crisis and the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin.
• COOPI’s aim is to support the most basic and pressing needs of communities affected by the conflict. COOPI is providing a multi-sectoral emergency response to the IDPs, returnees and host population focused on food security, nutrition, protection and education. COOPI main area of intervention is Yobe State and Borno state and expanding our programs to North West of Nigeria.

Purpose of the Role
The Project Manager/Consortium Coordinator is:

• Responsible for the overall activities’ planning, execution and reporting of the ECHO Disaster Risk Reduction projects ;
• Directly assigned to, and responsible of the supervision of all logistics, HR, financial and overall functioning aspects for his projects.

Responsibilities
Project Management:

• Under the direct supervision of the Head of Mission and in link with the Program Manager, provides overall managerial oversight to the ECHO funded Disaster Risk Reduction project and supports project implementation team;
• Leads the effective implementation of the Consortium's governance, ensuring clear communication and reporting relationships between COOPI and external partners, including the donor;
• Ensures cross departmental coordination including consortium partners’ components such as conflict, protection and early warning systems;
• Works with consortium partners to maintain and update project implementation plan;
• In cooperation and synergy with the project staff, plans and monitors the Disaster Risk Reduction activities’ progress, in compliance with the donor regulations with donor’s and COOPI’s procedures, and with the specific Project Structure and Reporting Lines definition, making use of the financial instruments provided by the organization;
• In collaboration with the Program Manager and Head of Base, prepares all the formal communication and contract modification requests (ex. budget modification) of the project;
• Works closely with Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning head to ensure oversight for all monitoring and evaluation across all activities and implementation.
• Monitors the accuracy and efficiency of activities;
• Puts in place and follows in accountability beneficiaries feedback's mechanism.

Admin / Finance and Logistics Aspects:

• In collaboration with the Administrative and the Logistics team, plans and monitors the expenditures in line with the project’s implementation needs;
• Ensures compliance with the fund and timely fulfilment of project’s reporting requirements;
• In cooperation with the Program Manager, finalizes the data provided by the team and supports the preparation, in compliance with the deadlines, of the narrative reports expected by the donors and by the partners;
• Liaises with logistics/procurement team to ensure the goods purchased for the project, support updates of the inventory and guarantee the respect of the policies and guidelines.

Institutional Relations:

• Represents COOPI with the local / State authorities and partners;
• In collaboration with the Program Manager and in synergy with the specific reporting lines of the projects, promotes and manages relations with the local government institutions, NGOs, and other local partners available in the area.

Human Resources:

• In coordination with the Administrative team, supports in hiring of new staff directly related to the project and conducts staff appraisals;
• Upholds COOPI’s mission and Charter of Values;
• Supervises the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the staff.

Others:

• Ensures safety of staff and beneficiaries and work closely with COOPI Security Manager and Logistic team;
• Works closely with Social Protection expert to drive critical assessment during inception phase including baseline, market and value chain assessment and mapping exercises;
• Works closely with Protection Program team to ensure protection mainstreaming;
• Ensures smooth management of COOPI base in Sokoto;
• Follows and enforces all COOPI codes of conduct and policies (globally and in-country).

Requirements
Education / Experiences:

• Master's degree in Humanitarian/Development Studies/Social Sciences or any related field;
• At least 5 years with INGO on Disaster Risk Reduction, Social Protection, Conflict Management & Peace Building;
• Experience in managing ECHO funded projects;
• Excellent in written and spoken English;
• Expertise in climate change, conflicts, social cohesion, safety nets programs;
• Data collection, analysis, and report writing;
• Demonstrated success in community resilient programs and technically sound capacity building and  community based DRR components;
• Excellent Microsoft Office applications skills (Excel, Word, Power point, Emails, Skype, Web researchers).

Soft Skills:

• Excellent communication skills, calm, with a good sense of working in inter-cultural environment ;
• Team player, effective communicator, successful negotiator, creative and analytical thinker and active learner;
• Proven interest & commitment to humanitarian and development principles and a demonstrable understanding of conflict/post conflict development contexts;
• Proven ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines;
• Ability to function effectively under stressful conditions such as heavy workloads, and deadlines;
• Knowledge of and adherence to COOPI Code of Conduct, understands other international development guidelines.

Note

• We encourage international staff already in the country to apply.
• We reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the application closing date, once a sufficient number of applications have been received.