United Nations Jobs: Project Director - USAID Enhancing Resilience

Position Title:	Project Director - USAID Enhancing Resilience Project	Application Deadline Date:	24 Jan 2014
Position Location:	Doolow - Somalia	Position Start Date	01 Jul 2014
Region:	Africa\East Africa	Position End Date:	30 Jun 2016
Requisition Category:	International	Recruitment Priority:	Need Immediately
Country Name:	Somalia	Program/Office Name:	Somalia Program
City/Province:	Doolow - Somalia	Employee Type:	Contract
Job Grade Level:	17	Recruitment Status:	Actively Recruiting
Is this a family post?	Non-family - Staff only
		Requisition Num:	2014AFETNIL-9F6GYQ

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

To provide strategic and operational oversight of all activities to achieve project objectives for 3-year USAID-funded resilience project—including frequent, high-quality reporting to the donor and capacity building and coaching for implementing partners (local NGOs) to ensure timely progress and impact. The position is responsible for all aspects of implementation, and will supervise the project’s M&E Coordinator to ensure excellent execution of the project’s monitoring and evaluation plan, learning plan, and research agenda. The position will also be responsible for technical leadership, coordination and collaboration with other USAID-funded resilience implementing partners, and with the Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) consortium agencies.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Operational leadership and strategic oversight:

Supervise project implementation by local partners and community structures, leading to impact and quality results which meet or exceed donor expectations.
Leadership, guidance, and coordination with WV field staff and implementing local partners.
Project management to ensure on-time, on-budget, on-quality performance to donor standards.
Ensure quality Monitoring and Evaluation Plan is designed and followed by implementing partners, regular field monitoring is completed, and project indicators tracked.
Mid-term reviews and evaluations undertaken and lessons learnt applied to redesigns as required.

Technical Leadership:
Responsible for technical support for project through planning and coordinating technical support team to ensure adequate training, planning and monitoring of SomReP partners:
Comprehensive capacity building strategy for local partners developed and implemented.
Monitoring and evaluation plans developed and implemented for each partner based on relevant activities and interventions.
Support innovation and learning with other SomReP implementing agencies by organising exchange visits, joint learning events, technical briefs and sharing of training materials.
Maintain a database of key learning from partners’ work, and build up an evidence base of effective/less effective approaches.

Learning & Research:
Establish WV and SomReP as champions of USAID’s resilience agenda in Somalia by collaborating with other USAID-funded NGOs, USAID partners and research organizations and proactively contributing lessons and research from this project.
Lead the project’s research agenda by completing research plans, facilitating external researchers, and coordinating with other resilience partners.
Oversee execution of project learning plan in collaboration with local partners, WV staff, SomReP consortium agencies, donor, and other stakeholders—and ensure clear linkages with community-level learning plans.
Participate in periodic review meetings at WV, SomReP, and donor levels to facilitate dialogue and learning on Project Implementation.

Program Planning & Reporting:
Serve as the project’s primary donor contact at Nairobi and Somalia levels—in closely coordination with SomReP Chief of Party and WV’s US office—to ensure donor receives both informal and formal reports of project progress and any challenges.
Ensure high quality and timely submission of all required and requested plans to donor, including annual work plans; planned activities; knowledge management plans; research and learning event plans; research studies/protocols; and other planning documents as required.
Review Consolidated Monthly Performance Reports based on partners’ submissions and lead partners and WV field teams to correct course, apply learnings, and take other necessary steps to ensure excellent performance and impact.
Draft and submit Quarterly Donor Reports as well as periodic Donor reports to ensure compliance with recommended guidelines, formats and standards.
Ensure all donor guidelines and instructions adhered to, including for monitoring and evaluation, reporting, use of financial resources, and other USAID regulations applying to the project.
Collaborate with SomReP Deputy Chief of Party to ensure project progress is reflected in wider SomReP program reporting to multiple donors.

Field Liaison and Capacity Building:
Train and mentor LNGO partner agencies leadership and staff in programming approaches, donor standards and regulations, and impact reporting.
Train and mentor WV field staff as required for quality resilience program implementation.
Serve as project representative to key field and national stakeholders, including district, village, and national government bodies and individuals; locally operating INGOs and LNGOs and UN agencies; field-level OCHA sectoral clusters; other USAID-funded resilience projects; civil society organizations, and others.

Budget monitoring and control for efficient use of donor resources:
Timely financial reporting to donor and World Vision entities as required.
Effective internal controls in place and functioning to facilitate partners activities.
Policies and procedures followed to ensure resources used as per donor requirements.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

Required:

Masters’ degree in Community Development, Social Science, International Studies, etc.
Preferred in training and experience in Livelihood programming, preferably in HoA.
5+ years of experience in progressively responsible work in the design, management and implementation of resilience oriented programming in the Horn of Africa, preferably in Somalia or similar context.
Technical expertise in one or more sectors—Livelihoods, Food Security, WASH, Health/Nutrition, or Gender/Protection.
Experience coordinating a variety of stakeholders.
Strong leadership skills.
Skilled in negotiation, diplomacy, networking and external engagement.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including facilitation skills. Ability to communicate cross-culturally and be cross-culturally sensitive.
Strong computer and Internet skills including MS Office for word processing and data analysis.
Work environment: Office-based with frequent travel to field locations.
Position is field based with regular travel to a second field location plus additional time spent in Nairobi and Mogadishu for donor and stakeholders consultations as required by the project.
Able to lead diverse teams in multiple locations to in a way that fosters team work, drives quality results, engenders trust by communities and stakeholders, and meets or exceeds all donor requirements.
Demonstrates highly developed interpersonal skills, strong communication skills, both verbal and written, be a self-starter, and professional maturity.
Must have exceptional project management skills and experience leading both operational and reporting aspects of major projects.
Must be able to build collaborative relationships, network and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders to facilitate and negotiate mutually satisfactory outcomes.
Must be highly organised, detail oriented, and able to creatively solve problems.
Must have solid understanding of USAID donor requirements, regulations, and global resilience agenda.
Must be able to maintain flexible hours when circumstances require it, arriving early or staying late to support deadlines or donor requirements.
Must adhere to set security standards.
Ensure a gender perspective in the scope of work.
Perform other duties as required.
Field based with 50% travel (field travel in Somalia (other locations) and Nairobi).