Afghanistan: PROJECT MANAGER - AFGHANISTAN

INTERSOS is an independent humanitarian organization that assists the victims of natural disasters, armed conflicts and exclusion. Its activities are based on the principles of solidarity, justice, human dignity, equality of rights and opportunities, respect for diversity and coexistence, paying special attention to the most vulnerable people.

1.Terms of reference

Job title: Project Manager (multisector)

Duty Station: Kandahar with regular visits to Kabul

Starting date: ASAP

Duration of contract: 12 months

Reporting to: Head of Mission

Supervision of: 1 Health-Nutrition Officer (expat), 1 Health-Nutrition Activity Coordinator (national), 1 Protection Officer (expat), 1 WASH Activity Coordinator (national) and 2 M&E/Reporting officers (national)

2.General context of the project

The program’s general objective is to contribute to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with malnutrition, diseases and hazards resulting from deficient (or non-existing) health and nutrition services, environmental health conditions and protection environment in conflict-affected communities in Kandahar province – Afghanistan. The program will target 72.241 individuals > 12% men, 48% women, 20% boy and 20% girls > 23% IDP, 4% documented returnees (DR), 12% undocumented returnees (UR) and 61% is most vulnerable local (host) community (HC).

The proposed program aims, on the health and nutrition side, to address the inadequate coverage and quality of life-saving services (especially for reproductive health and nutrition services) for the most vulnerable communities in Maywand, Spin Boldak and Zheray. The project will also address some of the key determinants of malnutrition and child and maternal mortality through promotion of improved Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, safe delivery and healthy behaviours. Hygiene/WASH promotion is closely linked to health and nutrition, and can further help to decrease mortality rates. Lastly, the project will seek to enhance the psycho-social wellbeing and protective environment of the most vulnerable population groups. WASH and protection components will also be implemented in the informal settlements of Kandahar where IDP and (mostly) undocumented vulnerable returnees are concentrated. Activities include:

• Structural rehabilitation/upgrade of HFs; hire and train (female) dedicated health staff for RH (and/or nutrition services) at HF level (static), run mobile teams to support the outreach capacity of the HFs for provision of RH and nutrition services; identify and train new additional community health workers and supervisors; conduct community awareness sessions on health and nutrition related topics; and secure the OPD nutrition services at HF level by dedicated trained nutrition staff;
• Conduct training in CP, GBV and PSS for different stakeholders, actors and volunteers; conduct awareness sessions for community members on protection related issues; provide individual case management services for individual protection cases (CP, GBV and PwSN ) and run collective PSS for most vulnerable population groups at community level (CP, GBV and PwSN);
• Run WASH – HP sessions for different target groups.

3.Tasks and responsibilities

• Ensure the planning, implementation and monitoring/evaluation and set targets as included in the project description
• Guarantee an efficient financial management for the project in compliance with INTERSOS’ model and donor regulations
• Team management and project integration assurance for 5 separate teams and 3 sectors
• Deliver quality project activities reporting, including findings in terms of impact/changes at the level of beneficiaries achieved

More specifically

• Recruit team, liaise with admin-fin department to secure up to date HR files
• Prepare and organize training for volunteers and mobile teams
• Project kick-off and presentation/sharing of project with teams
• Verify the target of beneficiaries
• Ensure sector SOPs and guidelines are properly applied and adhered to
• Ensure security assessment for teams’ daily movement and report incidents/concerns in a pro-active manner to the Head of Mission and Security Focal point

Financial management and procurement

• Prepare, monitor and implement financial plans, procurement plans and weekly liquidity plans
• Verify on a weekly basis the bookkeeping entries in the INTERSOS accounting spread sheets (PN): verify budget line allocations, budget expenditure status against actual delivery and the financial plan for the remainder project implementation period
• Approve all purchases/contracting and budget line allocations and ensure that INTERSOS procurement guidelines are applied and properly documented (also for the procedures applied by the municipalities), in close coordination with the admin-fin and logistics department
• Hols final responsibility for verification of all support documents’ completeness and correctness

Team management

• Manage team and to provide relevant capacity building and on-job coaching to the project team, evaluating their performance
• Conduct weekly and monthly meetings with the team to review the planning and discuss the main concerns to focus on for the upcoming period
• Ensure use of correct/relevant forms for assessments and reporting by the team and ensure fluent chain of information/data transfer from field to supervisors
• Continuous/fast verification of data quality collected and received from field staff
• Establish a participatory process to develop relevant response strategies for conflict mitigation and enhanced social cohesion
• Undertake (if security situation allows) field visits to provide technical guidance and supervision to the team and to monitor the progress and quality of the different project activities
• Oversee team attendances and authorize holidays, liaise with admin-fin department to secure up to date HR files

Monitoring & evaluation

• Apply a result-oriented approach, monitor the project outcomes, in addition to the outputs and activities, including changes at the household and community level achieved through the project.

Reporting

• Ensure quality reporting on achievements through daily short briefings, monthly and weekly planning presented against weekly and monthly performance reports containing clear quantitative and qualitative information related to the activities
• Secure weekly and monthly reporting per team and compile, review and analyses reports on monthly bases to be reflected in INTERSOS’ PAT reporting tool
• Prepare ad hoc progress reporting for the donor and official required interim and final project reports: prepare interim and final narrative reports for the donor in a timely and qualitative manner, looking into achievements against outcomes and output and reflect lessons learnt clearly into recommendations for future programming. Reporting must at all times be gender and age disaggregated
• Holds final responsibility for all support documents (means of verification) and general project documents

Coordination and representation

• Ensure regular updates to donor representatives
• Coordinate with relevant line-ministries and assure the timely signature of sub-agreement with MoE for the implementation of the project
• Support INTERSOS with the implementation of the Country Strategy, in particular for the development of specific and detailed sector strategies
• Contribute to the coordination between the different teams for the projects in Afghanistan
• Proactively participate in cluster meetings and other relevant working groups for Afghanistan, also relevant inter-sectorial coordination meetings at national level
• Perform any other related duties as required

4.Required profile/experience

• Advanced degree in social science or any related field
• At least 3 years of direct professional experience working as project manager on humanitarian project/programme, including financial management responsibilities
• Prior work experience in INGOs
• Experience in the implementation of multi-sector humanitarian programming in complex emergencies involving displacement, including protection services, WASH assistance and/or health/nutrition services
• Admin, finance and budget management skills
• Demonstrated experience in staff supervision and remote management models
• Strong experience with monitoring tools and systems
• Experience in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships with donors and government counterparts, experience with donor compliance and reporting
• Excellent computer skills (proven computer literacy, in particular Excel knowledge is a must)
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Readiness to move around in Afghanistan
• Strong representation, negotiation, communication and diplomatic skills, demonstrated leadership
• Strong team spirit, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment
• Excellent analytical skills, observation and analysis capacity, problem-solver approach
• Ability to deal with heavy work pressure

Qualified applicants are requested to submit their CV, motivation letter and 2 references to recruitment@intersos.org with subject line: " SR-28-126 Project Manager – Afghanistan”

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the first interview.