Business Analyst Job at International Alert

International Alert employs over 200 people of 30 nationalities both in our London offices and in the regions where we work. Most are full-time staff, but we also employ consultants, interns and volunteers.

We are looking for a committed and experienced individual to fill the position below:

Job Position: Business Analyst
Job Location: Borno
Project Title: Hadin Kan Mu Karfin Mu (Our Unity, Our Strength): Reinforcing the resilience and reintegration of conflict affected women and children and promoting community peacebuilding in North East Nigeria
Reporting to:  Project Manager

Project Goal and Specific Objectives

• The project’s overall goal is to reinforce the resilience and reintegration of conflict affected women and children and promote community peacebuilding.

The specific objectives are:

• Community and religious leaders are equipped to understand and address challenges to reintegration
• Stigma against women and children associated with Boko Haram is reduced
• Community members work collaboratively to identify and resolve conflict related to reintegration

Project activities to be implemented are:

• The project will begin with a baseline assessment in new areas of implementation to identify the specific conflict dynamics, stakeholders and entry points. The project strategy and workplan will subsequently be adjusted in line with the findings of the assessment. We will also dedicate time during project start-up for identification of participants for activities, based on the baseline assessment, and consultation with other stakeholders in the activity sites (including camp management, INGOs, UN).

Activities to achieve Objective 1:
Community and religious leaders are equipped to understand and address challenges to reintegration:

• Capacity building for a diverse and representative group of community leaders (men, women, youth, religious, minority, and any other relevant groups):
• Learning and exchange visits
• Coaching to support facilitation of peacebuilding activities
• Capacity-building and policy advocacy for state agencies

Activities to achieve Objective 2:
Stigma against women and children associated with Boko Haram is reduced:

• Support ssessions for women and girls SGBV survivors
• Support sessions for families with women and girls SGBV survivors
• Small-scale initiatives for vulnerable women and girls
• Media programming to engage communities on stigma reduction, reconciliation and peace

Activities to achieve Objective 3:
Community members work collaboratively to identify and resolve conflict related to reintegration:

• Community action committees (CAC)
• Sociocultural and sporting activities
• Peace club activities for children to reduce stigmatisation.

Project intervention Areas

• Borno State: Gubio IDP camp, Teacher’s Village IDP camp, Sulumri host community, and Shehuri North host community in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council; Bulabulin Sallake and Kamchege IDP camp in Dikwa LGA; GSSS IDP camp and host community in Bama LGA

Scope of Work
The Consultant will:

• Conduct a market assessment in all 8 project sites
• Propose viable business activities for women and girls based on outcome of the market analysis
• Support Alert staff to establish cooperatives in each project site to manage business activities
• Develop and implement an appropriate training methodology on financial literacy and business management for cooperative members
• Develop monitoring tools to assess the impact and effectiveness of the economic activities and accompany Alert teams on monitoring missions
• This scope of work will be delivered within a period from November 11th, 2019 to 30th June 2020. Specific dates for each of the above deliverables will be agreed with Alert and formalised in a workplan.

Annex- Market Assessment

• The overall goal of the assessment is to provide viable business options for women and girls beneficiaries of Alert’s Hadin Kai Mu, Karfin Mu project and recommend specific businesses for selected beneficiaries based on the context and their skills, interests and capabilities.
• The market assessment will be conducted across all the 8 project sites for economic opportunities and skills for women and girls.

The specific objectives of the Business assessment in each project sites are:

• To collect data in communities (including markets) from community members on viable businesses within the past 1 year
• To identify challenges and prospects of identified business
• To identify cultural perceptions on business options for women and youths in each site
• To train data enumerators to collect data in a conflict sensitive and gender sensitive manner
• To collect data from a representative sample woman and girls’ beneficiaries on their business skills, interest and capacities
• To recommend business options for project beneficiaries and specific capacity building skills to improve their knowledge and skills in business management and cooperative businesses.

Methodology

• The business analyst will adopt appropriate data collection methods and tools, including desk reviews, surveys, interviews with key informants and focus group discussions.
• The study will collect primary data from selected target sites: Gubio IDP camp, Teacher’s Village IDP camp, Sulumri host community, and Shehuri North host community in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council; Bulabulin Sallake and Kamchege IDP camp in Dikwa LGA; GSSS IDP camp and host community in Bama LGA. The study would be conducted for a duration of 40 days, commencing 11th November.

Assessment Timing and Duration

• The assessment is scheduled to commence on 18th November with desk research, followed by field data collection. Activities to be implemented include: preparatory work (2 days), development/review of tools, training and field testing (6 days), field work (8 days), data entry/report (3 days), analysis and summary of findings (3 days). The workplan is tentative and would be discussed with the consultant and team and adjusted at the beginning of the consultancy if need be. This study will include the following steps:

Development of the methodology:

• The business analyst will review project documentation and have initial conversations with programme staff to ensure that she/he has enough information to refine the study methodology.
• She/he is also expected to conduct desk research/ visit relevant government agency such as ministries of women affairs, poverty alleviation, RRR, youth and sport or any other relevant actors to gather more contextual information.
• Following this, s/he will draft a detailed methodology, work plan and tools, which will be reviewed and finalised together with the team. The methodology will be included in the submission of an inception report.

Field data collection:

• Together with enumerators recruited locally, the business analyst will conduct field data collection using the approved tools.
• Field work will take place in Gubio and teacher’s village IDP camp, Shehuri and Sulumri host community in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council; Bulabulin Sallake host community and Kamchege IDP camp in Dikwa LGA and Bama host community and GSSS IDP camp in Bama LGA. Consultant is expected to supervise data collection.
• Alert’s security Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) will strictly be adhered to throughout the field work.
• International Alert will provide lists of different stakeholders and partners for the lead researcher to select from and will ensure that staff assist and accompany the consultant throughout the study.

Data analysis:

• The consultant would be responsible for developing a data entry template using appropriate software that can check for consistency of data and generate reports indicating missing data, data outside of the accepted ranges and inconsistent answers.
• Coding open-ended questions conduct exploratory data analyses (e.g. frequencies, percentage tabulations, and cross tabulations of key variables).

Quality Control, Data Entry and Data Delivery:

• The consultant will check all completed forms and, where deemed necessary, clarify with respondents any inconsistencies in their answers as compared with answers recorded by the enumerator.  Each survey team would be accompanied by the consultant of a member of the Alert team. This is to ensure quality and provide on-site supervision of data collected.
• The Northeast Program Coordinator (NEPC), Project Manager (PM) and Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Officer (MELO) would work closely with the consultant throughout the implementation of all these tasks. The Country Manager (CM) and Senior Programme Design and Assessment Officer (SPDAO) would provide technical oversight and guidance throughout the study period. Alert would be solely responsible for recruiting enumerators who will work with the consultant throughout the study.

Deliverables
The consultant will submit a first draft report 3 days after completing field work for review and inputs by Alert team and 2 days for completing the final report. In addition, all files used for data entry and analysis would be submitted. The main body of the report will be in Microsoft Word format and will be maximum 15 pages long (without the annexes).  It must include the following elements:

• Content table
• Executive summary (max. 5 pages)
• Introduction
• List of acronyms
• Background/Context (description of the project and the areas where it is implemented)
• Objectives of the business assessment
• Methodology and tools for data collection
• Challenges/limitations
• Analysis of the main results
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Annexes: Terms of Reference, workplan, tools used in assessment (survey questionnaire, FGD guides, interview questionnaires, observation checklist, etc.), list of documents consulted.

Confidentiality, Data Protection and Data Ownership:

• The consultant will ensure the confidentiality of those participating in the survey at all stages.  All data is confidential and is the property of Alert.  No data or other information from this survey will be released to third parties without the written approval of Alert.
• The researcher will submit all data and questionnaires to Alert at the end of the study. 
• All data collected would follow the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  All deliverables and data of the evaluation will be owned by Alert and may be used for both internal and external reporting and communications.
• Relevant International Alert policies on ethics, data protection, dishonest practices and code of conduct will be provided to the successful candidate. S/he is expected to fully comply with these policies.

Consultant profile
The following are required skills and experience:

• A degree or Master's degree from a recognized university or institutions in relevant field (Economics, Accounting, Business Administration, Management, Statistics and Finance)
• Proven experience in conducting similar research exercises.
• Proven experience in conducting grassroots training on financial and economic issues and supporting community economic inclusion programming.
• Excellent skills in quantitative and qualitative data analysis software.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• An excellent communicator and ability to be conflict and gender-sensitive when addressing sensitive issues.

The following are desirable skills and experience:

• Knowledge of Hausa, Kanuri, Fulani or Shuwa
• In-depth knowledge of the socio-cultural, economic and political context of Northeast Nigeria, specifically Borno State.
• Knowledge and experience of gender and conflict sensitive approaches

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their expression of interest to: MHwyere@international-alert.org, bfisa@international-alert.org, and BUmar@international-alert.org 

Note

• Companies/corporate bodies, think tanks, research institutions, CSOs, as well as individuals are welcome to bid.
• Applicants who meet the requirements should submit a maximum of 7 pages expression of interest, which should include the following:
  • A cover letter indicating suitability for the position, including commitment to availability for the entire assignment (1-page max)
  • Updated curriculum vitae that clearly spells out qualifications and experience of the lead consultant (3 pages max).
  • A detailed statement on the proposed market assessment methodology, including a draft work plan
  • A financial proposal containing a proposed daily fee
  • References from organizations that have contracted the researcher proving ability to carry out similar research
  • At least two research reports authored by the applicant (as lead author if joint publication).