Begining The Year with a Bang!!!

Ijeoma 26 January 2017 0

A new year presents a sea of new possibilities, especially for our works, lives and careers. It’s a time for making resolutions and setting goals. To kick-start our work for the year at Connected Development (CODE), an internal mentorship class was organized between January 16 – 20, 2017. The training was conducted to ensure that the team is guided at the work to be done and learn more about the inner workings of the organization that aren’t often spelled out in the organization chart and policies and also provide us a chance to attack our work with new vigor and passion.

The first day began with Oludotun Babayemi who was our mentor taking the first session on the concept of creativity, he highlighted the things that influence creativity. The session established that a project must challenge the statuesque as the most successful ones do not live on default and that there is also need for having the right attitude, gaining actual knowledge and connecting and combining with people or network for a project to run successful.
After the break, he took us on what Problem statement, mandate, scope and stakeholders analysis were, after which he asked that the team be divided into groups, with each person identifying a project he/she would want to carry out and state their goals, objectives, problem statement and scope of it.
Following the presentations and debrief, the training class was closed for the day.
Day 2 began with a presentation on Action plan which is an activity carried out throughout the project lapse. He also stated that it is measured by number of people carrying out the project, timeline and roles of people executing the project. He also did not fail to let us know what strategies, activities and execution of a project entails.

The focus on the morning of Day 3 was analyzing the funding ecosystem and coming up with budgets for projects. The team was then identified to present short summaries of what had gone on in the first two days of the training-workshop where we were all asked to work and pitch and pitch a project at the end of the training.

The fourth day which happened to be the last day of the training class happened to be the best day for me. We were asked to write what we would like to see on our tombstones. Tunde a colleague went overboard and said he wants to be” remembered as that who was able to solve world challenges” this got everyone interested to know how he intend to do that when identifying activities, input, output and outcome towards achieving that. Another outstanding experience was Chambers, who I believed was going to awesomely do well owing to the fact that he is our amiable office professor, unfortunately he was given the lower belt when it was clear that he didn’t understand the task given.

The day came to an end with Dotun reminding us of our presentations the next day. The presentation day offered us all an opportunity to review what we learnt the past days and where the strength of each member lies.
I am most grateful to the organization for giving us such a wonderful start for the year, through the training, I was able to get a clear understanding of a grant proposal and what each activity entails. Now is the time for me to define not just long-term goals but also short-term milestones that are both aspirational and achievable within the organization.

Ijeoma Oforka is a Program Officer at Connected Development, with a background in Public Health. She is passionate about advocating for the plights and issues surrounding women and girls health and education. She tweets via @ijoforka

Connected Development [CODE] is Hiring!

codepress 22 July 2015 0

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NOTE: These positions are no more available

Connected Development [CODE] is a non government organization whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local and marginalized communities in Africa. We strengthen local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building capacities of marginalized communities which will bring about social and economic progress within communities, while promoting transparency and accountability.

CODE is looking for  committed, motivated and dynamic persons to join the team to contribute and enhance their activities in a professional, efficient and effective manner.

Applications are hereby invited from suitable qualified persons to fill the three full term positions below:

  1. Administrative and Finance Officer
  2. Digital Marketing and Communications Officer
  3. Programme Officer

 

Administrative and Finance Officer

Under the supervision of The Chief Executive, the Administrative and Finance officer will be the overall responsible for running the administrative, finance and logistics functions of Connected Development. The Administrative and Finance officer will work closely with The Chief Executive to ensure smooth day-to-day operations as well as overall office management. The Officer will also work with our various donor agencies, clients, beneficiaries and service providers.

Work Hours (8am – 5pm) from Monday – Friday except during public holidays and sometimes might need to be present at our events during the weekend

Gender: Female only

Job Purpose:

This position will perform scheduling, meeting logistics, guest receiving, and general administrative assistance for multiple experts and team as a shared resource. This role takes an administrative to juggle priorities, understand requests and needs and deliver clear and professional communications and support. This role will participate on administrative projects, deliver and track proposals, and will partner with all levels of staff, experts and the full administration team.

Responsibilities Include

Support and coordinate schedules and administrative requests for multiple CODE projects.

Anticipate and respond with quality, professional administrative support

Prepare expense reconciliations for team and volunteers

Prepare budget plans in line with work plans and financial rules and regulations and ensure that costs are reasonably estimated. Prepare budget plan revisions as required

Support implementation of activities in accordance with the budget plans and available funds

Shepherd contract or proposal process, orientation schedule, onboarding and offboarding when requested

Monitor expenditures against financial authorizations;

Prepare financial reports and updates for donors in consultation with the management.

Work well with all levels of the organization; editors, volunteers, staff, technical staff, contractors, Experts etc.

Provide administrative solutions and quality support at all times.

Hold confidentiality and ability to work with sensitive matters and information.

Ability to work with colleagues who do not have English as primary language.

Special projects as assigned including working on small to large events with other team members

Required Qualifications

A year of administrative and financial support in a medium organization/ voluntary organization/ academic institution.

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting/Finance or Administrative courses.

Demonstrated technical aptitude and savvy, ability to adjust, learn and use new and different open source s/w.

Excellent calendar management and meeting preparation skills

Excellent accounting and financial planning skills

Setting up Teleconference and video conferencing meetings

Comfortable and experienced with technology, various a/v equipment, and s/w.

Excellent writing and communication skills.

Expert in the use of Microsoft Office Suites especially Excel

Expert in the use of QuickBooks

Excellent organization and planning skills

Superior attention to detail and ability to anticipate needs and provide solutions

Excellent ability work with all levels of staff including a wide range of diversity of staff

Ability to learn, adapt and thrive in changing technical environment

Must enjoy supportive, service oriented administrative work within a team of professionals

 

Additional Desired Qualifications include

Experience in event planning, local or international travel and speaking additional languages (Hausa is a priority)

Open Source knowledge and strong desire to learn and be part of free access and open source movement

Working with Spreadsheets as a Travel and Expense system

International time zone and virtual community experience

Working with virtual communities

Experience with editing on Wikipedia, Google Documents or other wiki projects

 

Digital Marketing and Communications Officer

Under the supervision of The Chief Executive, The Digital Marketing and Communications Officer will maintain our blog, twitter handles, Facebook pages and other social media platform for several of our project. The officer will make our online platforms function as a way for us to show how our ideology to contributing to change in our small world. In doing this, he/she will actively seek out stories from our community engagement, capacity building, meetings, courtesy visits, data literacy sessions to highlight the human side of our projects and document more fully the effect that these projects have on the real world.

Work Hours (8am – 5pm) from Monday – Friday except during public holidays and sometimes might need to be present at our events during the weekend.

We are seeking a writer, transcriber, creative artist and researcher who can assist with various storytelling-related tasks to bring these stories to life.

Gender: Female applicants will be given priority for this position

Responsibilities include

Working with the Communications team to research potential stories.

Authoring of captivating Press Releases

Prepare reports in form of blogs, and stories for other traditional media

Frequent posting of relevant messages on our various Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin Pages

Management of the online platform that CODE develops in managing its project and programmes

Lead and advise on all Knowledge Management sharing tools at CODE

Online, Offline and telephone interviewing.

Transcribing audio or video interviews.

Writing and formatting unedited interviews and stories into publishable content via new media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

Required Qualifications

A minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in the Arts, Social Sciences or Humanities or other relevant field

Ability to understand and translate languages.

Photography, graphic arts or video production skills.

Great understanding of using blogs as reports

Excellent use of Twitter and Facebook as a social media tool for social change

High energy for and commitment to the CODE’s open knowledge and empowerment mission.

Ability to turnaround content on a tight schedule.

Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and interpersonal skills.

The ability to excel in a fast-paced, multitasking environment that demands fast turn-around.

Intellectual curiosity and flexibility that makes you enjoy tackling difficult and ambiguous problems in creative ways.

The ability to flourish in a highly transparent and collaborative environment and work on a team with diverse demographic and cultural characteristics.

Must have access to a personal computer and internet connection outside the office space.

+1 Ability to speak and understand Hausa Language and experience in planning stakeholders meetings, rural community outreaches, local or international travel and speaking additional languages

+1 Knowledge or involvement in the Connected Development [CODE] community

Programme Officer

CODE’s Strategic Plan has sets out some ambitious new directions for its work. In particular, there is an emphasis on scaling our work around Follow The Money. A key role of the Programme Officer is to spearhead and support the implementation of various components of these programmes in the northern region across the network of journalists, and activist embedded in other NGOs. In this context, the Programme officer will implement programmes and multi-national projects which we refer to as “activations” in several states in the northern region and in some case the west African region.

Work Hours (8am – 5pm) from Monday – Friday except during public holidays and sometimes might need to be present at our events during the weekend

Gender: Female applicants are encouraged to apply for this position

Responsibilities include:

The main function of the programme officer will be coordination of projects in Northern Nigeria, any part of the country and West African region.

Specifically, the Programme Officer will:

Lead community outreaches, stakeholder meetings, and other events as it relates to projects executed by CODE.

Ensure the timely and cost-effective execution of project activities, including the coordination and supervision of sub-grants and contracts with local partners and external service providers.

Strive for high-quality outputs and the greatest possible impact of project activities in order to advance the transparency and accountability agenda in the states.

Ensure that all donor contractual obligations (financial management, fund transfer requests, procurement regulations, financial and narrative reporting, etc.) for the project are met in a professional, transparent and timely manner

Work in close collaboration and ensure ongoing communication with project partners

Coordinate and monitor the implementation of project-wide work plans, budgets, reporting cycles and information systems across CODE

Work in close collaboration with the CODE team members, volunteers, consultant, and contract staffs in particular, the relevant stakeholders in each target state.

Any other tasks identified by the line manager necessary to ensure that CODE’s projects are implemented successfully.

 

Required Qualifications

A minimum of university degree or professional qualification in business administration, management, finance, social science, public administration, economics, or another relevant field

1/2+ years of project management experience with an NGO or International Organisation, with demonstrated in-depth knowledge on project management best practice

Knowledge of, or considerable interest in, the work of CODE and the field of anti-corruption; solid understanding of and experience in the area of corruption in the public sector and/or of political realities in Nigeria are a distinct advantage

Experience with the implementation of advocacy activities and/or advocacy training

Fluency in English; knowledge of Hausa Language would be an advantage

Highly developed teamwork and intercultural communication skills

Willingness to travel to any part of Nigeria (most especially Northern Nigeria)

Other Information about the positions and the location

CODE offer an inspiring work environment with real learning opportunities and support and all position will be based at our office in the Central Area District of Abuja

To apply:

If you will like to join our team of dedicated professionals, working in a dynamic and international environment, and you meet up with the above requirement for any of the 3 positions,

kindly send an email to apply@connecteddevelopment.org with the attachment of the following document (in Word Document format or PDF) on or before August 7, 2015.

 

  • your cover letter (why you think we should hire you), in not more than 1 page
  • your CV or resume in not more than 3 pages

 

Please include the role you are applying for in the subject of the email e.g Digital Marketing and Communications Officer.

All qualified applicants will be contacted on or before August 12, 2015 , as such if you do not hear from us, please consider that we cannot admit you into our team this time, nevertheless we will add you to the list of our prospective team member.