Project Officer (Deadline: Nov 04, 2022)

The Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission (ENDC) was officially established through Proclamation (No. 1265/2021) that was passed by the House of People’s Representatives in February 2022. The Commission is established to independently lead, coordinate and broker efforts aimed towards an inclusive and participatory national dialogue. Eleven Commissioners were nominated through an open process to lead the process for 3 years.

Since its official establishment, the ENDC, through its commissioners and Secretariate has been engaged in preparatory activities needed to ensure it successfully discharges its mandate by accomplishing the above-mentioned tasks. The major ones include the establishment of its Secretariat – a critical entity that would provide the much-needed operational and logistical support to the work of the Commission; conducting different level preliminary consultations with representatives of various segments of the society (Women, Youth, CSOs, Political Parties, etc) that helped ENDC to listen to expectations, clarify on issues and solicit support and cooperation to launch the much needed genuine and inclusive national dialogue; and the deployment of experts to conduct research, facilitate and lead on participants selection, agenda setting, capacity building, communication, and public outreach, monitoring and evaluation and documentation and other support activities to facilitate a successful national dialogue process in Ethiopia.

As per the basic principles of the ENDC, the national dialogue process is expected to be transparent, inclusive, and trustworthy warranting continuous media engagement and communication to ensure the public ownership and commitment to a constructive engagement of the public in the national dialogue process. This task thus needs the support and contribution of a qualified technical expert who can professionally support the ENDC to reach out and engage multiple stakeholders and partners through the development and implementation of an outreach, communications, and partnership strategies.

It is in this context that UNDP Ethiopia CO is looking for a qualified Project Officer to ensure effective implementation of the Project and to provide hand-on high-quality technical support to the Commission. He/She will also assist UNDP in defining programmatic entry points, monitoring and evaluation and reporting. The Project Officer, alongside the ENDC Secretariat and the UNDP team will support programmatic and operation support to the National Dialogue in Ethiopia. The incumbent will be embedded with the ENDC Secretariat and will be accountable to the Head of the Secretariat and/the Commissioner in Charge of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization. He/She will also work closely with the UNDP CO Team on issues of common interest.

The Project Officer’s primary responsibility would be to serve as a Liaison between ENDC and UNDP towards effective implementation of the National Dialogue Project. As such, He/She will be responsible for facilitation and preparation of work plans and budgets, implementation of planned activities, monitoring and reporting of project activities in collaboration with other technical staff and relevant departments within the ENDC and relevant colleagues in UNDP CO.

Summary of Key Functions:

The Project Officer will be responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the project are efficiently and effectively executed in line with the approved Annual Work Plan and overall project outputs and outcomes. Further, the Project Officer will maintain effective coordination and collaboration with different departments within the ENDC, as well as with external partners towards value-based implementation. Guided by ENDC leadership and Secretariat, and in close collaboration with the UNDP Programme Specialist, and Team Leader, He/she will have overall responsibility for drafting Annual Work Plan (AWP), budgeting, alignment among partners, execution, monitoring, and reporting.

The Project Officer will be the first line of quality assurance and will ensure, in collaboration with other relevant ENDC staff, a coordinated approach to project knowledge management, communication and outreach. He/She will ensure that production of knowledge and communication on the project follow UNDP cooperate requirements and standards and ensures ENDC’s guidelines are considered

The Project Officer will ensure that the ENDC’s Secretariat, Project Coordination Team, and Project Steering Committee have the relevant information and reports to effectively carry out their management functions. In relation to UNDP, she or he will ensure that the technical team is timeously and fully informed on all aspects of the project including any risks and challenges to the implementation of project activities.

Specific Roles and Responsibilities:

Ensuring effective delivery of project activities and results

• Coordinate the project activities including preparation of detailed work plans, budgets, and monitoring plans
• Coordinate the various units/departments/workstreams within and outside of ENDC to ensure submission of reporting on project performance and impact in a timely fashion
• Coordinate with various units, departments/workstreams and/project partners to develop and implement procurement plan for recruiting consultants and procuring equipment and supplies
• In collaboration with others concerned, analyse key developments and emerging issues that may affect project implementation, including regularly updating the Risk Register
• Support the implementation of project monitoring plans to ensure that data collection feeds into project indicative targets as contained in the project Resources and Results Framework (RRF)
• Provide support and ensure that Senior Management of ENDC and UNDP are fully informed of the progress or any challenges of the project implementation.

Team coordination, effective supervision and Management of Project Team

• Guide and coordinate project staff including ensuring that activities and tasks are being implemented in a timely fashion
• Support and coordinate concerned departments and partners to ensure regular internal review of project progress
• Support ENDC Secretariat in facilitating the work of Project Coordination Team as well as the Project Steering Committee and ensure that meeting minutes are produced and shared in timely manner to all project partners
• Ensure assets of the project are managed according to ENDC Policy
• Represent the Project as might be designated by ENDC or UNDP.

Partners support and coordination

• Ensure and maintain linkages, coherence, and synergies among activities under the different components of the project
• Ensure effective strategic coordination among project staff, partners, and other stakeholders
• Ensure good coordination and collaboration with suppliers, implementing partners, beneficiaries, and other key project stakeholders
• Develop initiatives and coordination mechanism to facilitate functional partnerships between Government counterparts and other partners and actors working on areas relevant to the project
• Promote close coordination with other partners and/similar initiatives supporting ENDC and ensure collaboration and synergy as much as possible

Knowledge management, communication, and outreach

• Support the M&E Officer to actively codify, share, and disseminate knowledge, including best practices and lessons learned, through the project implementation
• Identify and assemble lessons learned and generate recommendations for consideration by the ENDC leadership and/Project Steering Committee, feeding into improved implementation
• Support the project partners, particularly ENDC to systematically build national capacities to independently take initiatives towards the realization of project objectives and ENDC’s mission more broadly

Other responsibilities

• Carry out other responsibilities as assigned by the Supervisor.

Core Competencies

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making.

Technical and Cross-Funcational Competencies:

Results Based Management: Business Management: Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results
Project Management: Business Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
Partnerships Management: Business Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide  networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies
Communication: Business Management: Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience
Monitoring: Business Management: Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results
Evaluation: Business Management: Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks – Ability to anticipate client’s upcoming needs and concerns.
Strategic Thinking: Business Direction and Strategy: Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Experience:

•  A minimum of Seven (7) years of experience in project coordination and/or management in governance-related fields, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, national dialogue, and reconciliation in a governmental, multilateral, or civil society organization
• Experience and track record of engagement with and coordinating activities and initiatives that involve senior levels of government, United Nations, and donors
• A proven track record in coordinating and/or managing politically sensitive projects involving multiple national and local political actors
•  Knowledge of  Ethiopian context especially the political development and governance landscape
• Experience in mainstreaming gender equality and human rights in designing and implementing related projects including monitoring and reporting on these cross-cutting themes
• Experience working within a UN agency and/or other international organizations would be an advantage
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills
• Computer skills: full command of Microsoft applications (word, excel, PowerPoint) and common internet applications will be required

Language:

• Fluency in spoken and written English