Country Fund Associate, Nigeria

Country Fund Associate, Nigeria

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and
deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the
globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build
enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to
address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over
90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse
staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

This Opportunity:

Palladium is recruiting a Country Fund Associate for a programme
and grants professional with a passion for carbon reductions to join our UK
PACT team in Abuja, Nigeria. The UK PACT programme aims to improve the
effectiveness of key institutions (public, private and civil society) in
partner countries so that they can deliver accelerated emission reductions and
raise the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets.
Specifically, the programme will deliver the following results:

An increase in the capacity and capability of partner institutions (national, sub-national and civil society) to deliver enhanced and accelerated climate actions
An increase in in-country buy-in to urgently facilitate low-carbon development

Location:

The position is based in Palladium's
Abuja, Nigeria office.

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and
doer, and you have expertise in operational management, procurement and grants
management and have experience supporting complex programmes in the development
space, we are interested in hearing from you.

We are a learning organisation and provide growth opportunities
from the start. We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources,
and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting Lines:

This role will report to Nigeria Country Fund Manager,
UK PACT.

Primary
Roles and Responsibilities:

The Country Fund Associate will be
a key in-country member of the Palladium UK PACT team supporting management of
day-to-day activities from project implementation and reporting to stakeholder
engagement and context analysis to ensure overall programme success.

Specifically, the Country Fund
Associate will:

Strategy
Development and Engagement:

• Support on continuous context analysis and assessment of local market capacity to identify the most appropriate avenues for interventions and pathways to climate change impact within each key strategic sector
• Support further demand scoping for UK PACT-funded projects in-country, including stakeholder mapping and engagement, identification of complementary existing programmes (funded by the UK and other donors) to avoid programme duplication, and horizon scanning

Stakeholder
Relationships:

• Support the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager in promoting UK PACT funding opportunities to potential implementing partners, project and programme outputs to intended beneficiaries, and broader UK engagement on low-carbon development where relevant
• Working closely with the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager, contribute to, and where appropriate lead the management of day-to-day interactions with local stakeholders, specifically supporting the relationships with project applicants and grant recipients/implementing partners
• Maintain an excellent working relationship with local FCDO team at Post to collaboratively design and generate buy-in for the programme activities

Project
Management: Identification, Selection and Design of Interventions:

• Support the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager and PMU in coordination of grant funding windows and support market engagement to ensure the right local stakeholders are aware of, and well-placed to apply for, UK PACT funding opportunities
  Contribute to the project screening and selection process, particularly regarding assessing deliverability and impact potential on the ground
• Support the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager to oversee timely implementation of projects and regularly ensure the feedback of results, impacts and learning through quarterly reports to FCDO covering overall progress, progress against outputs, main activities and outputs for the next period, budget, spend and forecast, and risks
• Support the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager and PMU to adhere to any local due diligence required from Implementing Partners and to support initial briefing to potential Implementation Partners
• Support defence against fraud, corruption and safeguarding risks, conducting spot checks and other processes to ensure FCDO grant funding is spent as intended and that Implementation Partners meet FCDO compliance requirements
• Support the UK PACT Nigeria Country Fund Manager in advising on the potential to extend, scale up or replicate successful projects, and work with successful Implementation Partners to do this with FCDO approval

Programme
Reporting:

• Support Implementing Partners on project reporting (technical, financial, results and risk), by reviewing and requesting additional information, where required, to ensure reporting meets FCDO requirements
• Support identification of country and project-specific risk management, working with FCDO in post and in the UK, the Team Leader and PMU

Key
Competencies and Professional Expertise/Competencies Preferred:

• Programme and grant management skills, with experience supporting the deliver and management of projects, grantees or subcontracts
• Strong reporting skills with proven ability to contribute to client formal reporting and ad-hoc requests
• Good knowledge and/or willingness to learn more about the environmental / low carbon sector in terms of policy landscape, relevant state and non-state actors in relation to climate change, and low-carbon economic development
• Some knowledge and understanding of the local political economy and business operating context in Nigeria, including socio-economic context and development challenges and priorities
• Strong organisational, inter-personal administration and communication skills
• Strong financial management and administration skills, with the ability to review and quality assure the financial reports of projects
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English
• Shows flexibility and ability to adapt to changing circumstances
• Highly collaborative and committed to close working and open communication with colleagues in post and in the UK, and other UK PACT partners
• Commitment to neutrality in all dealings with stakeholders, including political stakeholders, to build trusted relationships and ensure maximum effectiveness of the programme
  

Equity,
Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and
inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of
society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity,
success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve
diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive
equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal
characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic
background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity,
sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous
status.

Should
you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or
you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email
our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will
be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define
Safeguarding as "the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our
people, clients and the communities we work with from harm". We are committed
to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium
are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to
an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a
rigorous due diligence process.