Country Director - Nigeria

Job Description

Focus Of This Role:

The Country Director role is one of the most important in the TBI Governance pillar: it provides leadership and management to the Africa teams, sets and delivers project goals, maintains relations with top counterparts in partner governments, up to and including the President’s office, manages the project budget and impact work, drives in-country fundraising, and provides the link between the Africa teams and the rest of the organisation. The key competencies that we look for in our leaders are set out below within the five duties:

The Duties

Understand and engage with principal stakeholders

• Build a clear understanding of wider context, including role of development partners, private sector and other players;
• Build relationships with the President’s office, their direct team, and other senior stakeholders to understand the country’s priorities, build TBI’s credibility, and spot and exploit opportunities;
• Deploy resources outside of the team – wider TBI colleagues, including Mr. Blair’s office, the TBI sector practices and strategic partnerships within TBI’s network etc – to support partner governments where appropriate.

Set the strategic direction of the project and, together with executive management, lead the annual project strategy setting, quarterly performance reviews and measurement of impact

• Develop a strategic direction for the project based on TBI’s mission and approach within the particular country context;Lead the annual strategy setting process for the country project and the quarterly review process
• Using the organizational Theory of Change and impact tools ensure the project has a clear measurement framework that it regularly collects data for

Contribute to wider leadership and development of TBI

• Contribute to the wider leadership and development of TBI as an organisation by contributing to corporate decisions both within the Governance pillar and the wider organisation;
• Contribute to organisational learning by identifying innovations and factors which contribute to or inhibit success and impact.

Maintain a license to operate

• Ensure that risks to the project and staff are spotted and managed adequately and emergency protocols are in place to maximise the safety and well-being of their team;
• Set and manage the project budget, including putting in place appropriate financial controls.
• Ensure policies, procedures and the Code of Conduct are adhered to at all times

Delivering through your team

• Recruit and lead a team that is bought into the shared strategy, is aligned across workstreams, solves problems together and holds each other accountable for impact;
• Performance manage staff effectively, including building a culture of feedback and nurturing the next generation of TBI leaders;
• Put in place a planning and evaluation cycle in order to regularly assess whether the strategy is ‘working’, and adapt rapidly in response to new challenges and opportunities;
• Be the interface between their team and the rest of the organisation by representing their team’s views, and communicating issues and priorities from the rest of the organisation to the team.

Fundraising

• Understand your country fundraising and business development market by mapping donor opportunities amongst a wide group of stakeholders (predominantly: Foundation offices; bilateral and multilateral donor agency offices and staff; development contractors and INGOs – both not-for profit and for-profit)
• Build and maintain intelligence and relationships to inform project and/or pillar-wide fundraising strategies and ultimately to secure project funding.
• Input to the development of marketing materials, presentations and bids as required. Input to the development and implementation of donor trips/meetings etc as required

For the Country Director role in Nigeria, over and above these core competences we are particularly looking for someone with the ambition, skills and networks to build our organisational presence at both a Federal and State level, as well as to represent the Institute across the range of our interests in Nigeria.

What We Look For in Our People:

• We are looking for outstanding individuals with a proven track record of leadership and delivery in the public or private sectors. We seek to create international and multi-disciplinary teams and are looking for individuals with a background in: public/civil services worldwide; strategy consulting; relevant industry experience; private equity and finance; and international development.
• All candidates will be required to have at least 10 years of experience in a leadership role, managing teams and project budgets.

Above all, we are looking for individuals with high levels of enthusiasm, resilience, and a can-do attitude. Experience of living and working in developing countries is strongly desirable.

About the Organization

About Tony Blair Institute for Global Change:

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making globalisation work for the many, not the few.

We offer new thinking and new approaches to addressing some of the most intractable problems leaders today are wrestling with.

The Institute works to provide policy, strategy and practical support to advance a vision of globalisation designed to improve the well-being of the people, economically, politically, and socially. Our focus is on tackling the big challenges which hold such a vision of globalisation back:

• Weak governance which prevents governments from delivering for their people and seizing the benefits of a globalised economy;
• Extremism which stops the co-existence and cultural open-mindedness essential for social integration;
• Conflict which entrenches sectarianism and paralyses progress, particularly in the Middle East;
• Western politics which is in urgent need of a new agenda to provide radical but practical answers to the new challenges presented by globalisation, technology, and the rise of a new false populism.

TBI in West Africa

Over the course of 2017 TBI expanded its presence in West Africa, building governance programmes in Togo, Ghana, the Gambia and Sao Tome alongside existing work in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. We are also in discussion with other countries in the region and are likely to launch further new work in 2018. We are therefore now seeking exceptional candidates to lead our work in Ghana and Nigeria specifically, as well as other candidates interested in future leadership positions. For future roles we are particularly interested in hearing from francophone candidates.

Our existing work in Nigeria comprises:

In Nigeria: we have been working with the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2011, focussed previously on support to e.g. the Economic Management Implementation Team under the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the establishment of the new Development Bank for Nigeria. Our current work is focussed on the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, a programme funded by the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation to support their strategic planning and leadership framework. We are also in discussion with a number of States as well as Federal Ministries, and have ambitious plans to grow our presence and footprint in Nigeria. Our Co-existence team also provide leadership training to religious groups in northern Nigeria, and this senior leadership position can expect to play a broader advocacy role on behalf of the Institute.