Historique

League of Arab States (LAS), European Union (EU), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recently agreed on a second phase of a regional project on “Strengthening Early Warning and Crisis Response Capacities of the League of Arab States".  The project builds on the 2009 and 2015 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) between the EU and the LAS and 2012 MoU between UNDP and LAS.

The project aims to fulfil the following objectives:

• Enhance the LAS Secretariat's technical and institutional crisis management capacity for the response to crisis, conflict and post-conflict situations, and extend existing capabilities to other LAS Departments and Member States;
• Contribute to the development of an Arab Cooperation Framework in the field of early warning and crisis response and support the building of crisis response capacities in national crisis response entities of LAS Member States;
• Deepen the policy dialogue and increase policy coordination between the LAS, the EU and possibly other regional and international organizations in the field of crisis response.

This assignment pertains to the second phase of the project that would aim to consolidate, deepen and further institutionalize the early warning and crisis management capacities established within LAS and Member States.

Within this context, League of Arab States and UNDP-Regional Bureau for Arab States are seeking to hire a Chief Technical Advisor/Project Manager (CTA). The CTA will be responsible for the timely delivery of the regional project and associated outputs in accordance with agreed timelines, standards and budget.

While the CTA will work under the overall guidance and supervision of Regional Programme Coordinator at UNDP-Bureau for Arab States, he/she will regularly report to the League of Arab States on project activities and their implementation status and will ensure that the day to day project activities effectively contributes to the relevant LAS mandates and mission as guided by the CMD secretariat. The day to day supervision of the CTA will be with the League of Arab States under the overall supervision of LAS ASG of Media and Communication.

The overall policy supervision and support will be provided by the Regional Director and the Senior Strategic Advisor in New York. He/she will also coordinate work with the relevant cluster teams at the Regional Hub- Amman.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Summary of key functions:

• Project management and implementation;
• Substantive and advisory support;
• Coordination;
• Partnership Building.

Ensure effective project management and implementation:

The CTA will be responsible for the project implementation, under the guidance and in agreement with LAS, and contribute to the achievement of its results.

The CTA will take a key role in the planning for the project’s activities and guide and support the project team to ensure timely allocation and utilization of resources through approved budgets and with observance of appropriate financial and budget controls. The CTA will lead reviewing of resource allocation in the light of the project’s strategic goals and outcomes and identify opportunities to attract or leverage resources. The CTA will contribute to the identification of all significant risks and take a lead role to undertake appropriate action including the implementation of a risk management strategy.

S/he will have the responsibility to plan, oversee and ensure that the project is producing expected outputs at the right time, to the right standards of quality and within the allotted budget and report regularly to the Project Board as envisaged in the Project Document. The main tasks of CTA will include:

• Plan activities of the project and monitor progress against the initial quality criteria;
• Mobilize goods and services to initiate activities, including drafting TORs and work specifications;
• Monitor events as determined in the Project Monitoring Schedule Plan, and update the plan as required;
• Manage requests for provision of financial resources by UNDP, using advance of funds, and direct payments;
• Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports;
• Prepare and submit financial reports to UNDP, the LAS and the European Union;
• Manage and monitor the project risks initially identified, submit new risks to the Project Board for consideration and decision on possible actions if required;
• Update the status of these risks by maintaining the project risks log;
• Prepare annual work plans (AWP) for the following year, as well as quarterly plans if required;
• Update the Atlas Project Management module if external access is made available (training will be provided as necessary).

Provide substantive and advisory support:

The CTA will provide technical and substantive advice to the project partners and guide the project team accordingly. He/she will:

• Lead the technical delivery with focus on results and ensure the timely and quality delivery of its components;
• Act as a resource person for the project in the field of early warning and crisis response in the Arab region ensuring LAS, EU, and UNDP’s credibility in delivery on a highly visible programme;
• Provide guidance and policy advisory services to the project’s target countries and regional partners (government, private sector, NGOs, etc.) on related issues;
• Prepare and review information and communication materials, supporting the adaptation of relevant documents and tools, and promote a broad inter institutional collaboration and networks of expertise;
• Provide guidance, coordinate and capitalize on the tools in other fields of focus in order to ensure a cross-practice approach;
• Provide advice to the project partners, including through the respective UNDP country offices, in shaping their related strategies, policies, norms and standards;
• Provide substantive and managerial leadership to other project personnel;
• Support the development of a knowledge management system;
• Be responsible for the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, progress reports, briefs and other required documents, including those required for the project board meetings;
• Supervise outsourced research and dissemination of research findings;
• In line with the project work plans, prepare technical specifications and ToRs for and recruit and manage the activities of the consultants and experts, in close collaboration with the Regional Hub;
• Mobilize advisory support from the UNDP Regional Hub as necessary for the project’s implementation, with continuous guidance from the related thematic cluster teams;
• Ensure timely production and submission of all partial and/or progress reports by all members of the project team, contractors and project partners.

Based on the above, the following lists the area of responsibilities for the Project CTA:

Area of Work 1: LAS Crisis Management Department (CMD) organizational support: This includes:

• Assisting the CMD restructure and drawing up TOR for units/team and job descriptions;
• Accompanying the recruitment/selection process of staff;
• Facilitating the CMD to get the required infrastructure in place and working;
• Backstopping the CMD on relevant issues, as necessary.

Area of Work 2: CMD and Member States capacity building support: This includes, in close collaboration with the Regional Hub:

• Assessing the capacity-needs of restructured CMD team;
• Drawing up TOR for CMD staff trainings;
• Helping the CMD prepare new standard reporting formats and disseminate their products;
• Overseeing Task Force capacity-needs assessment and preparation;
• TOR preparation for Task Force training programs;
• Overseeing capacity-needs assessment of pilot countries;
• TOR preparation for simulations;
• Ensuring all training is done to high standard.

Area of Work 3: Research, writing, and analysis support: This includes:

• Assisting the CMD in preparing high quality media monitoring and early warning products;
• Helping the CMD prepare other products (Arab League Directory of National Crisis Management Institutions, etc.);
• Helping oversee the preparation of consultant outputs for the project (crisis response capacity benchmarks, lessons learnt on crisis response, etc.);
• Preparing background notes required for annual policy dialogue events.

 Ensure proper coordination:

• Advise League of Arab States and UNDP regional programme management on matters of strategic coordination with project stakeholders including beneficiaries and partners, and undertake related action as needed;
• Under the guidance of LAS, coordinate with the project partners on key activities for their active engagement and continuous feedback;
• Under the guidance of the related thematic cluster leaders, coordinate and collaborate with the Regional Hub related practices and policy advisors as necessary;
• Coordinate with UNDP country offices to support the implementation of the project activities where relevant;
• Contribute to the advocacy process for the project in line with the UNDP and LAS related policies, norms and standards around related key issues, as well as sharing best practices in the region;
• Lead the preparations for the project board, project review and/or evaluation meetings; follow-up on the implementation of the project board decisions and recommendations;
• Ensure the coordination of the work of consultants/experts hired through the project and facilitate and monitor their engagement with the partners.

Support partnership building:

• Provide advice on the development and mobilization of resources and partnership building with international, regional and local institutions and agencies working on related fields;
• Ensure the visibility of the project partners, i.e. LAS and EU, including through implementation of the EU visibility plan;
• Support LAS for managing strategic project relations through liaising with individuals and institutions including government officials, UN agencies, international organizations, civil society, media, the private sector, and private foundations, (under the supervision of the senior management of LAS and regional programme coordinator and in close coordination with relevant thematic practices and partnership advisers );
• Serve as a public advocate for the project in international fora;
• Identify and nurture key strategic alliances as well as identify opportunities to attract or leverage resources;
• Ensure timely and adequate reporting to donors.

Impact of Results:

The key results have impacts on the overall success of the EU strategic objectives, League of Arab States relevant plans and programs, and UNDP’s Regional Programme for Arab States and the delivery of the Results Framework as foreseen in the Regional Programme Document. In particular, the key results have impact on the design, operation and programming activities, creation of strategic partnerships as well as reaching resource mobilization targets in relation to the critical programme area of energy and environment. The results would also guide the LAS and UNDP country offices for supporting their national counterparts for collaboration across the region on cross-country issues related to early warning and crisis response.

Compétences

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional:

• Strong substantive gender and development issues and ability to link knowledge to UN/UNDP global policies, treaties, processes and frameworks;
• Capacity to interact with senior officials and credibly influence senior decision makers in UNDP Programme countries and other international development organizations;    
• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality reports and knowledge products.

Managing Relationships:

• Demonstrated well developed people management and organizational management skills;
• Strong ability to operate in teams; creating an enabling environment, mentoring and developing other staff;
• Excellent negotiating and networking skills with strong partnerships in academia, technical organizations;
• Strong resource mobilization and partnering skills and ability to accept accountability for management of large volume of financial resources.

Managing Complexity:

• Ability to address global development issues;
• Substantive knowledge and understanding of development cooperation with the ability to support the practice architecture of UNDP and inter-disciplinary issues;
• Demonstrated substantive knowledge and ability to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives;
• A sound global network of institutional and individual contacts.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Ability to strongly promote and build knowledge products;
• Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from within and outside of UNDP;
• Provides constructive coaching and feedback;
• Demonstrates a strong capacity for innovation and creativity in providing strategic policy advice and direction.

Judgment/Decision-Making:

• Mature judgment and initiative;
• Proven ability to provide strategic direction to the project implementation process;
• Independent judgment and discretion in advising on handling major policy issues and challenges, uses diplomacy and tact to achieve result.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

• Post graduate degree in a development related field of study, preferably with an early warning and crisis response focus on crisis related social or economic fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years experience of progressively responsible experience in programme management, project oversight and preferably partnership building in the UN, or other international inter-/governmental or non-governmental organizations at the regional and national level;
• Extensive knowledge of the Arab region and its crisis and development related challenges and priorities;
• Relevant professional experience and knowledge at the global and/or regional levels;
• A track record of national and regional working experience with increasing managerial responsibilities in the development arena and knowledge on LAS and UNDP’s practice areas, regionally and globally.

Language Requirements:

• Fluent in English and Arabic are required;
• French would be an asset.