Description

Chief of Party, Food Basket Activity- Abuja, Nigeria

**Contingent upon Donor Funding**

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every member feels they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have a long-term impact.

The Program / Department / Team

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and its influence spreads across the continent. Yet, inequality and insecurity have consistently undermined Nigeria's development. Mercy Corps Nigeria was established in 2012 to respond to these challenges. The Nigeria team is headquartered in Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with programming across 16 states of Nigeria. Mercy Corps works with communities to build economic opportunities, enhance water security, drive peace and good governance, and ensure food security. Our activities aim to build resilience through an integrated approach, helping communities, and the most marginalized within them, cope, adapt, and thrive in the context of numerous shocks and stresses. With a strong and growing team, Mercy Corps works to achieve the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient, and secure.

The Position

Mercy Corps is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) to lead the implementation of the anticipated five-year USAID/Feed the Future-funded Food Basket Activity. The Food Basket Activity will increase the productivity and competitiveness of selected value chains (rice, maize, and horticulture) and market systems in targeted areas of Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Plateau states of Nigeria.

The COP will provide overall leadership, management, and strategic vision for the implementation of the anticipated activity, ensuring that the program meets its targets and deliverables on time and within budget. The COP will supervise all program staff and ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies and all donor rules and regulations. The COP will be the primary representative for the program with donors including USAID, government entities, and other partners and stakeholders.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

● Provide overall technical and administrative leadership and expertise. Responsible for administering and managing the implementation of the Activity with the overall responsibility for assuring that all assistance provided is technically sound and appropriate to meet activity objectives.

● Lead the development of a vision and strategy for the program shared with the program team, partners, and key stakeholders.

● Integrate and embrace all voices into shared strategies and foster an inclusive culture of systems thinking, collaboration, learning, and adaptation.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

● Oversee program management and administration of the activity. Ensure implementation is on time, target, and budget, using effective M&E systems to assess and reflect on progress and understand impact.

● Develop partnership frameworks, partner agreements, Memorandum of Understandings, and capacity strengthening for partners.

● Integrate cross-cutting approaches including locally driven, shock-responsive, climate-adaptive, social and gender inclusion, youth empowerment, and nutrition sensitivity.

● Ensure interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, program participant accountability standards, and program management minimum standards.

● Ensure program strategies and activities are evidence-driven and represent global good practice in livelihood, climate-resilient agricultural development, market systems development, resilience, and food security and nutrition programming.

● Coordinate with procurement, logistics, security, administration, and human resources teams to ensure operational systems support field activities.

EVIDENCE AND LEARNING

● Provide strategic oversight of MEL systems, ensuring they are responsive to the program’s technical strategy and learning needs.

● Facilitate collaborations with partners and programs to contribute to USAID and Mercy Corps’ evidence and learning priorities.

● Promote a team culture of evidence-based decision-making and regular use of diverse data sources for continual learning and adaptation.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

● Oversee recruitment and onboarding of the Activity staff and consultants.

● Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect and learning where team members strive to achieve excellence.

● Provide team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance, enhance technical and partnership management skills, and reach objectives.

● Promote staff accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.

REPRESENTATION

● Liaise with and represent the Activity to USAID.

● Establish and maintain strong relationships between the Activity and the Nigerian Government, ensuring implementation drives development gains in line with key policies.

● Identify, build, and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments, and other stakeholders.

● Ensure collaboration between the Activity and complementary activities, including other Mercy Corps programs, to scale influence, enhance learning, and drive collective impact.

● Represent Mercy Corps and the Activity at government, donor, NGO, and other relevant forums.

● Serve as an active contributor and collaborator with regional and global counterparts to promote best practices.

FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE

● Ensure compliance with USAID and Mercy Corps’ regulations.

● Create and maintain systems to ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with program, donor, and Mercy Corps’ needs.

● Ensure sound financial management, including programmatic budgeting, spending projections, and monitoring of payments in compliance with USAID standards.

SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT

● Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.

● Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.

● Ensure that activities are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

Supervisory Responsibility

Supervise Activity Team. The number of direct and indirect reports will be determined at a later stage.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Mercy Corps Nigeria Director of Programs

Works Directly With: Mercy Corps Nigeria Country Director, the Activity Team, Program Performance and Quality Director, other COPs / Program Directors, HR, Finance and Operations teams, Regional Programs and Technical Teams, and HQ Technical Resources and Quality Unit

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

● Advanced degree in agriculture, economics, business administration, or related field.

● At least 10 years of international experience in management positions, including being a Chief of Party for large programs (preferably $20 million and above).

● Demonstrated experience in livelihood, agricultural development activities, market systems development, and/or food systems programming in the African context preferred.

● Strong interpersonal and communication skills, and a proven ability to network and maintain effective working relationships with diverse actors.

● Experience managing diverse teams in dispersed geographic locations including inspiring staff and developing a shared vision with staff and stakeholders.

● Knowledge of Nigeria’s governance and conflict dynamics preferred.

● Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

● Familiarity with USAID rules and regulations required.

Success Factors

A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members and other stakeholders of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. This position requires an ability to be curious and think creatively to achieve sustainable impact and enhance long-term resilience. They will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results. They will understand the larger picture while remaining focused on problem solving and effectively navigating complex and sensitive political, conflict, and security dynamics. The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The CoP is based in Abuja. This position requires at least 40% of time traveling by flight or road to field offices in areas with varying degrees of insecurity.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Keywords

Chief of Party Food Basket Activity Nigeria USAID Feed the Future Agriculture Market Systems Livelihood Resilience Governance Conflict Dynamics USAID Rules Regulations Security Compliance