Partnership & Strategy Lead - West & Central Africa region

Partnership & Strategy Lead - West & Central Africa region

Permanent. Full time

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Salary: £67,820 per year

If we receive a high volume of applications, we reserve the right to close the advert before the scheduled closing date. Therefore we encourage interested applicants to apply at their earliest convenience. 

About us

Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We are a global movement of people, churches and local organisations who passionately champion dignity, equality and justice worldwide. We are the changemakers, the peacemakers, the mighty of heart.

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and recognise the value this brings in forming strong, creative and high performing teams. We welcome applications from all sections of the community, and from those with experience from outside of the voluntary sector. And no, you don’t have to be Christian to work here – we encourage people of all faiths and none to apply. We just ask that everyone lives out our values of dignity, equality, justice and love. We value a good work-life balance, so we’re open to part-time and flexible working. We also offer hybrid working for our office-based colleagues and the option of being a homeworker for most of our roles too. 

Learn about our vision, mission and values

About the role

Reporting in to the Head of Impact for the Multi-Country Cluster (MCC), the Partnership & Strategy Lead for the West & Central Africa region is s responsible for leading a team working across the cluster and across national boundaries, ensuring that the cluster has a wide and diverse programme portfolio of Civil Society partners contributing to Christian Aid’s global strategy and aligning with organisational values and goals to maximise impact.

The role spearheads the decolonised and localised approach across the cluster and ensures that programme delivery contributes to progress towards Christian Aid’s decolonial journey.

The post-holder will ensure that all work is carried out in line with Christian Aid partnership approach and standards, and ensures demonstrable best practice in programme delivery, including quality and consistency.

As a key member of the MCC Senior Leadership Team, the role collaborates closely with the other leads within the cluster and with global programme colleagues to ensure that advocacy is rooted in community experience for impact, and that learning is carried out in a way that is mutually beneficial to CA and our partners.

Some of the main responsibilities of the Partnership & Strategy Lead includes:

• Lead the cluster programme team to identify, foster and build potential new active and inactive partnerships (e.g. local partners, civil society networks, alliances and relevant government bodies) that can contribute to greater impact in the priority countries.
• Ensure efficient and effective management of Christian Aid’s programmes across the cluster by setting objectives that align to organisational values and goals and ensuring that grants and initiatives are co-designed, strategic and that they connect partners and communities across diverse geographies.
• Oversee both restricted and unrestricted budgets and effectively engage resources required for the MCC partnership portfolio to achieve success.
• Use the decolonised and localised approach as the framework to support cluster-based and dispersed staff to build a diverse portfolio of partners that can deliver locally led responses, be prepared for crises and challenge systems that drive poverty.
• Ensure work is happening across national boundaries, that the local is connected to the global, while horizon scanning and keeping a watching brief for radar countries linked to the cluster.
• Collaborate with MCC Leadership Team, particularly the Advocacy and Policy Lead to ensure advocacy and policy work at national and global levels are connected and rooted in community experience to drive meaningful change.
• Foster a leadership style which reinforces collective responsibility, mutual accountability, open communication, dynamism, interdependence, and organisational learning to support a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Liaise with head of operations to oversee delivery of donor commitments and ensure that contracts are managed by the Restricted Funding Manager to enable funds to be released.
• Lead innovative approaches to supporting Civil Society, particularly alongside the ACT Alliance, in Christian Aid’s thematic areas, building alliances, reaching new audiences (including donors) and working with new and different entities to ensure programmes, partners and communities have what they need to eradicate symptoms and challenge structures of poverty.

About you

Who we are looking for

Essential:

• Degree ideally in Social and/or Political Sciences.
• Significant senior management experience.
• Substantial experience in development and/or humanitarian programming.
• Substantial experience leading strategic development through programme cycles, incl. monitoring and review. 
• Substantial experience of leadership and management.
• Substantial experience working with church, ecumenical and Civil Society organisations in a representational role.
• Substantial experience working with multi-donor fundraising and/or consortium working. 
• Substantial experience of application of organisational development, processes and systems thinking.
• Detailed understanding of development issues and best practice.
• Detailed understanding of thinking and working strategically to improve impact. 
• Detailed understanding of contemporary approaches to the evidencing of impact and monitoring of NGO interventions. 
• Detailed understanding of supporting organisations through change and growth.
• Highly developed analytical ability and the ability to identify innovate new ways or working.
• Highly developed communication skills, both verbal and written, and ability to represent in public and the media. 
• Highly developed problem-solving, creative and strategic thinking, and planning skills. 
• Highly developed interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships with key stakeholders.
• Posts in Francophone contexts, fluency in both French and English (written and spoken) is required.
  
  

Further information

At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognise the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative and high performing teams.

We are actively encouraging racialised minorities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at senior level, and we recognise and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative and high performing teams. 

We have a strong Christian ethos and we encourage applications from all faiths. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of and sympathy with Christian Aid’s faith identity. 

All successful candidates will require a DBS/police check appropriate to the role and location and a Counter Terrorism Sanction check as part of your clearance for commencing your role with us. We also participate in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.  In line with this Scheme, we will request information as part of the referencing process from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

This role requires applicants to have the right to live and work in the country where this position is based and undertake the role that you have been offered. If you are successful and we make you an offer for the role, we will be required to conduct a right to work check on your immigration status in the UK. We will contact you regarding the documentation you will need to provide to evidence this. 

You can expect a wide range of rewards and benefits, please refer to the benefits booklet for your location to see our full list of employee benefits. 

For Salary details for this role, please refer to the Salary band by location.