National Project Manager

In furtherance of UNDP’s programmatic interventions and support to Liberia, a new Country Programme Document (CPD) 2020-2024 was developed and signed with the Government of Liberia. It highlights four major outcome areas which are linked to the country’s medium-term development plan: The Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSCDF) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The new CPD was approved by the Government and UNDP Executive Board in 2019 to address some of the capacity building and development challenges that impedes sustainable development in Liberia. 

To operationalize the 2020-2024 CPD, UNDP in partnership with national institutions is developing projects and programmes to support national priorities. Accordingly, two portfolios have been designed, namely, (i) “Strengthening Inclusive, Effective, Transparent and Accountable Governance in Liberia’’ and (ii) “Green and Inclusive Growth”. The Inclusive Governance portfolio, aimed at strengthening national institutions to become more responsive in addressing the governance challenges by decentralizing essential services, supporting an inclusive, transparent, and participatory electoral processes as well as making justice and security services more accessible to the most marginalized thereby bringing government closer to the people. All of these can only be possible through an enabling peaceful and reconciled environment in which national institutions are strengthened to perform their statutory mandates in a reconciled and peaceful society. Pursuant to seeking funding by UNDP and FAO, with support from the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), a   project titled “Empowering citizens and communities to foster social accountability and transparency in governance and public service delivery.”  has been developed with the aim to support the reconciliation process in Liberia by strengthening accountability and enhancing service delivery in Liberia. The project aims to strengthen the social contract and support social cohesion by enhancing spaces for citizen participation in governance through the deepening of decentralization, bringing citizens closer to their policymakers and service-providers and simultaneously sharpening public demand for accountability and transparency in order to address the major persistent community grievances and sources of mistrust. In particular, the project supports citizen involvement in governance decisions, budgetary allocations, and service delivery through strengthening of the local council structures (County Councils), support to the roll out and implementation of policy and legislation related to accountability and citizen participation, and fostering of dialogue between community members, especially women and youth, with duty bearers for greater inclusion, transparency and accountability. The project will prioritize the implementation of policies and initiatives that are of most relevance to communities, and those which address sources of tensions and enhance peace. 

In addition, the project will strengthen citizenship participation in public accountability and transparency through various initiatives, including promoting collective action among the LACC, civil society and the media to use an innovative e-platform to collect data on corruption and monitor national responses; developing a forum for engagement (between the LACC and CSOs) to monitor the processing of corruption cases reported, and creating incentives through scorecards while providing capacity to ensure that national institutions are better able to ensure accountability. 

To achieve this, UNDP with support from the PBF is collaborating with the Liberia Peacebuilding Office (Ministry of Internal Affairs),  Liberia Anti-corruption Commission, the UN Women and Integrity Watch-Liberia a Civil Society Organization  and  other Civil Society Organizations.

This exercise will require support from development partners, including UNDP to bolster existing peace building initiatives in Liberia, strengthening integrity and service delivery. 

To achieve this, UNDP with support from the PBF is collaborating with the Liberia Peacebuilding Office (Ministry of Internal Affairs), Liberia Anti-corruption Commission, the UN Women and Integrity Watch-Liberia a Civil Society Organization and other Civil Society Organizations will require support from development partners, including UNDP to bolster existing peace building initiatives in Liberia, strengthening integrity and service delivery. To achieve this, UNDP is seeking the services of a National Project Manager to support the Government and UNDP to deliver on the relevant outcomes and outputs of this project. The Project Manager will specifically perform the following tasks:

1. Contributing to the strategic direction of project operations aligned with Country Office (CO) and corporate Operations policies:   

• Contributing to strategic communication, building partnerships for successful project implementation as well as resource mobilization efforts;
• Ensures implementation of sourcing and effective results communication/visibility strategies;
• Ensures facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the CO;
• Gathers and disseminates information on best practice in accountability and results-based management systems;
• Convene stakeholders, including the Technical and Steering Committed, prepares timely inputs to report, management of issues and risks, and ensures financial management and compliance are adhered to.

2. Contribute to programme initiation, project document formulation, programme implementation resources mobilization, reporting, and overall management and coordination of project activities, and team building, and supervision as may be required:

• Manage the day to day functioning of the project;
• Prepare relevant project documents including quarterly, annual, and project closure reports;
• Organize technical project progress reviews with Responsible Parties (RPs), including Board meeting; 
• Coordinate and strengthen partnership with development and national partners;
• Document and follow up on identified bottlenecks/challenges/catalogue lessons learnt during the project implementation;
• Lead Annual Work Plan formulation processes and ensure inclusiveness, through meaningful participation of all the agencies involved, including CSOs consistent with project document; 
• Lead and organize capacity building efforts for CSOs and community members.

3. Ensure effective and accurate financial resources management and oversight, focusing on achievement of the following result:

• Management of all financial resources through planning, guiding, monitoring, and controlling of the resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
• Preparation and monitoring of projects’ budgets in Quantum;
• Regular analysis and reporting on the project budget and the delivery situation of management projects.

4. Coordination with Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs), UN agencies, INGOs  and CSOs on implementation strategy:

• Organize and coordinate training mentoring support for National partners;
• Review and adapt UNDP’s Business processes to the local context and develop best practice approaches for and effective and efficient delivery;
• Coordinate with PMSU to familiarize MACs and CSOs  on UNDP’ Business processes; 
• Identify challenges and find appropriate solutions in consultation with other partners;
• Plan and coordinate activities of the project in close consultation with stakeholders;
• Coordinate reporting per PBF timeline and requirements.

Institutional Arrangement

The National Project Manager works under the direct supervision of the UNDP Team Leader for Governance, and the overall supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative for Programme.