Background

The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was a completely new phenomenon in West Africa. It has placed a heavy burden on the three affected countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) since its outbreak in 2014. The socio-economic impact of the EVD outbreak on the three West African countries and on the region was tremendous. The epidemic outbreak has reversed the impressive socio-economic performance these countries have achieved in the last 10 years. As underscored in the Ebola Recovery Assessment (ERA) report from January 2015, “the Ebola EVD severely impacted on human lives, livelihoods and social cohesion, health, the economies of the West African Region in general, and on the three countries in particular, leading to humanitarian, peace and security threats. Many people have lost employment, and agricultural activities have been abandoned in the most-affected rural areas. Livelihoods of households and communities have deteriorated. The education of an estimated 5 million children and youth has been set back as schools closed at the peak of the outbreak. The EVD has strained the finances of governments. Additional expenditures to contain the EVD crisis amidst drastic shortfalls in domestic revenue has increased national deficits in the respective countries”.

In addition, reports and analyses released highlighted that the epidemic has also disrupted progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), curtailing the three countries’ governments’ ability to raise taxes, invest in infrastructure and social services and improve the lives of their citizens. “There has been large losses in terms of economic growth for the Ebola affected countries (…) in the medium term (2014-2017), the gains in economic growth of the past decade seem to have been reversed. The loss ranges an annual average of 4.9 percent (low Ebola scenario) to 9.6 percent (high Ebola scenario) for Guinea, 13.7 to 18.7 percent for Liberia, 6.0 to 8.0 percent for Sierra Leone. The actual loss in GDP for the low Ebola scenario is highest in Sierra Leone (US$219 million), followed by Liberia (US$188 million) and Guinea (US$184 million).  For the high scenario, it ranges from US$315 million (Guinea) to US$245 million (Liberia), while Sierra Leone could lose as much as an annual average of around 7.1 percent between 2014 and 2017. The loss in per capita income is highest in Liberia”.

The epidemic has seriously affected the service delivery infrastructures and capacities of the affected countries, particularly in the health sector and social sectors. Hospitals and clinics were not equipped and prepared to handle disease emergencies of this nature and magnitude which was previously not experienced in the sub-region.Technical abilities to cope, coupled with weak service delivery mechanisms at the local level, slowed down support for and response to the epidemic. Also the lack of coordination between the affected countries speeded up the spread across borders. 

The United Nations response on Ebola in the sub region has been coordinated by the Inter-agency Collaboration on Ebola since the official closure of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) on 31 July 2015. UNDP, as the lead UN Agency on Ebola recovery, has been at the forefront in emergency responses and initiatives to tackle the EVD, working with national, regional and international partners and across the UN System to bring about a shift in approach towards building resilience by addressing the humanitarian and integrating development aspects of the crisis at the same time in a coordinated fashion, through sustainable and regionally as well as nationally-led responses. 

Following the July Conference, the Government of Japan approved a post-Ebola recovery regional project on ”supporting and strengthening sub-regional post-Ebola medical surveillance and socio-economic recovery initiatives in West Africa” for one year which aims at accompany regional initiatives as well as local level initiatives in the four MRU countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). The overarching goal of the project is to supporting and strengthening capacities for post-Ebola medical surveillance beyond the frontiers of the Ebola affected countries and recovery initiatives. The project will strengthen the operational and coordination capacities of regional institutions such as ECOWAS, West African Health Organization (WAHO), the Manu River Union and other specialized African institutions to address medical surveillance and will assist communities, local authorities and civil society for livelihood, economic opportunities and promotion of rapid local development, peace building, social cohesion and resilience interventions. It is worth noting that the planned interventions of this project are linked to UNDP Strategic Plan 2014-2017, the Regional Programme for Africa; to UNDP’s agreements with other regional organizations and development partners involved in the Ebola recovery efforts. 

To support implementation of this project, UNDP is recruiting a Project Officer as part of a broader Post-Ebola regional project team. The incumbent will directly report to the Regional Conflict Prevention and Recovery Advisor, under the overall supervision of the Dakar Platform Coordinator and the technical guidance of the Regional Cluster Director for Governance and Peacebuilding in Africa.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Conflict Prevention and Recovery Advisor, and the overall guidance of the Dakar Platform Coordinator and the technical guidance of the Regional Cluster Director for Governance and Peacebuilding in Africa, the Project Officer is responsible for the following expected results:

Strategic and technical guidance 

• Provide advice and technical support on project implementation and delivery ;
• Assess program impact and oversee the appropriateness and accuracy of methods used to verify progress and results.
• Develop project’s reports (midterm and final) ;
• Development of project documents  and concept notes ;
• Monitor progress in activities implementation and develop regular progress reports on implementation.

Building strategic partnerships

• Maintain dialogue and assist regional implementing partners and national stakeholders to advocate, promote and advance organizational issues, priorities, interests and competencies for a successful programme and project delivery ;
• Coordinate and collaborate with clients, partners and stakeholders to link and harmonize approaches and to promote common interests and achievement of results.

Support to Regional Institutions

• Provide strategic support  on the implementation of activities undertaken by regional institutions ;
• Liaise with the regional institutions to ensure timely and quality delivery on activities and achievement of results.

Support to Country Offices

• Ensure that actions regarding the needs of the project are taken in a timely manner ;
• Ensure provision of expertise to assist COs and the regional institutions in project implementation and delivery
• Provide direction and guidance to CO project focal and responsible parties ;
• Monitor the timely response of the Country Offices involved in project implementation and follow up when delays are detected ;
• Responsible for horizontal sharing of good practices between the COs to increase the efficient implementation of the project ;
• Advise the Country Offices on the application of the rules and regulations for the implementation of the project ;
• Advise the Country Offices on procurement issues ensuring transparency, accuracy and cost-effectiveness. Actively support knowledge building, sharing and applying in the project ;
• Liaise with the project board/project assurance to assure the overall direction and integrity of the project and organizes meetings of the Project Assurance and the Project Board.

Programme management

• Responsible for the full compliance with UN/UNDP rules and regulations and policies on financial activities, financial recording/reporting system and follow-up on audit recommendations ;
• Responsible for donor reporting and any other reporting ;
• Ensure that all monthly, quarterly reports from the entire COs are consolidated into an integrated narrative and financial project report ;
• Responsible for financial management of project ;
• Submits monthly financial reports to the Supervisor.

Building knowledge and capacity

• Introduce innovation and best practices, access to knowledge and expertise and promote its application ;
• Access UNDP’s worldwide and regional knowledge, best practices and lessons learned, distill best practices and ensure its dissemination for organizational and stakeholders learning and sharing ;
• Develop media and communication materials on the project, ensuring visibility for the project donor and ensure widest distribution of the materials ;
• Liaise with other departments within UNDP as needed.

Resource mobilization 

• Support the identification of new opportunities and strategic entry points for resources mobilization ;
• Use knowledge of donors and successful programmes and projects to contribute to fund raising and resource mobilization strategies.

Impact of results:

The key results have an impact on three levels: on West African regional institutions, local and border communities of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) affected countries and the Regional Service Center for Africa (RSCA). The post improves significantly RSCA ability and capacity to support those regional institutions and assist local border communities of EVD affected countries in the Manu River Union. It will strengthen coordination within the RSCA and provide a coherent and integrated strategic, programmatic and operational support to regional institutions and the MRU country offices in an efficient manner. The regional institutions and the concerned country offices will have an increased capacity to respond to post-Ebola recovery situations. It affects the overall quality of programmes or operational services. It will have substantive impact on the performance of a functional unit and the reputation and success of team.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values ;
• Exerts strict adherence to corporate rules, regulations and procedures ;
• Familiarity with the internal control framework and results-based management tools is a must ;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability ;

Functional Competencies:
 

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Good knowledge of the West Africa region and of the Manu River Union, including the political, economic and social dimensions, and their relation to the main engines of instability and conflict ;
• Sound knowledge and exposure to a wide range of post-conflict, peacebuilding, good governance, human rights, recovery and development-related issues ; 
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting ;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills ; 
• Ability to advocate and provide timely policy advice ;
• Ability to identify issues and to use sound judgment in applying technical expertise to resolve a wide range of problems.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results-Based Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of programme, managing data, reporting ;
• good knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines pertaining to small arms conventions, recovery and development issues, peace and security and sound knowledge of the institutions of the UN system ;
• Ability to establish and maintain contacts with senior-level officials of the host government required. Excellent interpersonal skills are essential part of the job. Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, for effective advocacy and influence on policy makers ;
• Ability to analyze is required to obtain, evaluate and interpret factual data and to prepare accurate and complete reports and other documents ;
• Solid knowledge and experience in programme management and financial resources management.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Excellent communication (spoken and written) skills, including the ability to draft/edit a variety of written reports and communications and to articulate ideas in a clear and concise style ;
• Ability to plan own work, manage conflicting priorities and work under pressure of tight and conflicting deadlines.
• Fully proficient computer skills and use of relevant software and other applications ;
• Very good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations ;
• Very strong leadership capacities to guide a multi-cultural team in difficult circumstances.

Required Skills and Experience

Education :

• A Licence degree in political or social sciences, international studies, management and development related field. 

Expérience :

•  A least 6 years of progressively responsible experience in programmes/projects management, in crisis prevention, recovery, livelihood and local socioeconomic development, peace building support and other related areas at the programmatic and operational levels in a multicultural environment at national or regional level. 
• Ability to use computers and office software packages and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and experience in handling of web based management systems.

Languages :

• Fluency in French and English is required for this position.