Senior Enterprise Officer at Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Full Time

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict – away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.

We are seeking competent, self motivated, hardworking and result driven professional to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Enterprise Officer

Locations: Maiduguri, Borno
Employment Type: Full-time
Reports to: Enterprise Coordinator
Direct Report: Enterprise assistant

Position Summary

• The Senior Enterprise Officers work closely with the Enterprise Coordinator to implement the economic reintegration component of the “Supporting the Socio-Economic Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Groups, and other vulnerable children, in North-East Nigeria” project.
• This will ensure timely and quality implementation of all project activities as defined in the proposal.
• The Senior Enterprise Officer will support and coordinate training for enterprise beneficiary children to ensure they are equipped with technical skills and knowledge.
• Enterprise Assistants will then ensure children of legal age are matched with mentors from their local community to develop skills through informal apprenticeships, before then being supported with seed grants to procure basic items to set up small scale businesses in their area of skills development.
• The senior Enterprise Officer will motivate, inspire and support children in target communities in making informed choices regarding their skills development, to assist them in the future.
• Working Relationship: Case Management Officers, Community Mobilization Officers, Caseworkers.

About the Project

• In the past decade, states in the North East region of Nigeria have faced frequent attacks by Boko Haram militants leading to widespread displacement, violations of national laws, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and a deepening humanitarian crisis. Children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, have suffered the worst impacts as pre-existing problems of access to social protection, education and healthcare increase, new threats emerge, and the systems to protect children fail.
• This project aims to ensure that children verified and separated from CJTF receive a comprehensive child protection package including counselling, psychosocial support and socio-economic reintegration and that their communities understand the importance of their separation and reintegration. Search will work closely with the children, their families and communities, and CJTF to address the psychosocial and economic needs of the children and to influence the attitudes of communities and CJTF so they understand the negative impact of associating with armed groups on children and prevent the CJTF from using children. By increasing the resilience of children associated with CJTF and increasing their employability, this project will facilitate the lasting reintegration of these children and amplify positive narratives around their role in communities as productive civilian actors and agents for peace.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Identify & organize micro-enterprise training courses/workshops to facilitate the development of ‘start your own business skills of the target participants; Work directly with the enterprise beneficiaries providing training in microenterprise and  enrolling them in the apprenticeship programmes
• Develop activity plans, terms of reference (TORs) and Purchase Requests (PRs) for the enterprise activities.
• Support individual beneficiaries to open bank accounts
• Conduct community mapping and maintain a database of artisans who can provide mentorship to the enterprise beneficiaries in various project locations; conduct safety assessment of all the identified artisans.
• Provide support and information to target participants on job-seeking skills through support and referrals to other initiatives to increase their chances of employability;
• Provide necessary support through Business Opportunities and Administrative Support sessions that will help trained target participants in identifying and accessing business startup kits, employment opportunities, and information on available economic resources;
• Conduct weekly and ad-hoc monitoring visits to the beneficiaries under apprenticeship to assess the progress and conditions of their working environment.
• Collect monitoring data from the field in line with program indicators and submit regular updates, reports and case studies on success stories and lessons learned;
• Prepare activities reports on a regular basis and contribute to the period progress reports; Keep proper records of field expenditures when appropriate and report on these to the Project Manager;
• Keep abreast of local context and security situations to provide feedback on Search’s weekly context analysis.

Requirements
Education:

• University Degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Marketing, Business Management, Social Science, or a related field.

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years experience in marketing, livelihood, or a related field.
• Minimum 2 years experience with business and strategy development processes.
• Experience working with Children Associated with Armed Groups.

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Familiarity with principles including best interest of the child, do no harm, humanitarian principles, amongst others.
• Strong cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills.
• Highly organised and systematic, with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience working in emergency settings
• Experience working in different communities in Borno State
• Experience working with refugees, IDPs, host communities, and other vulnerable populations
• Excellent analytical and writing skills

Desirable:

• Native of Kanuri, Shuwa Arab
• Good analytical, problem solving and project planning skills.
• Ability to prioritise, plan, organise workflow to tight timeframes, handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities.
• Community-oriented and respect for local culture.
• Good IT skills, particularly with MS Office – Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
• Strong command of both written and spoken English.
• Knowledge of a local language (Hausa, Kanuri) is a must.
• Holds self and others to account to deliver on agreed goals and standards of behaviour.
• Demonstrates a high degree of professionalism/integrity.
• Provides good administrative and logistical support to the team.
• Strong attitude towards teamwork and collaboration.
• Actively seeks support in addressing difficulties in the execution of duties.
• Strategic thinking and effective contribution to own work and organisational development.
• Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations.
• Strong emotional intelligence including self-awareness.
• Leads by example to motivate high performance of others.
• Strong commitment to continuous learning.

Application Closing Date
7th October, 2021.

Note

• Interested candidates should submit their Current Resume and Cover Letter (which includes expectations of compensation and projected start date).
• The recruitment will be conducted on a rolling basis.
• As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.
• Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please.