Project Lead – World Bank

Background

Lebanon’s economic, political, and social contexts have been significantly impacted by multiple, concurrent crises since 2019. Already experiencing a financial crisis, a massive explosion in the Port of Beirut (POB) in August 2020 caused considerable loss of life and injury, displacement, physical damage to infrastructure, and further affected the country’s economic standings. The COVID-19 pandemic and political deadlock worked to further deepen this crisis. Consequently, Lebanon’s overall socio-economic welfare has significantly deteriorated, impacting various segments of the population including, but not limited to, the host community, internally displaced persons, forcibly displaced individuals, and migrant workers. Within this context, the NGO sector has been an essential lifeline for vulnerable groups, providing them with critical social services and supporting their immediate- and longer-range social recovery needs while national systems remain unable to fill these gaps.

Project Description: Supporting Lebanon’s Social Recovery Services.

The Project Lead is a senior project management professional and will have complete oversight of a World Bank-funded project which focuses on reducing vulnerabilities of groups who are identified to be significantly impacted by Lebanon’s enduring social, economic, and political fragility:

1. survivors of Gender-Based Violence (SGBV); (ii) those suffering from deteriorated psycho-social wellbeing; (iii) and/or those facing limitations related to being a person with disabilities and older persons. The project’s scope will entail providing grant financing directly to a selected number of NGOs, to enable them to provide social services to reduce vulnerabilities in these groups while strengthening their capacity to participate in the broader social recovery and reconstruction process. The World Bank has selected the IRC to act as the Project Implementing Agency to implement the Supporting Lebanon’s Immediate Social Recovery Services project. The IRC will take on project management, grant provision and/or procurement of services from NGOs and will be responsible for the fiduciary supervision of the selected NGO partners, in addition to improving their environmental & social safeguards capabilities.

Major Responsibilities

Overall Project Leadership and Management:

• Provide overall leadership for the technical, financial and operational management of the project.
• Ensure that the project achieves expected results and outputs and is implemented according to the World Bank agreements and standards.
• Manage project risks by identifying and mitigating risks, monitoring them throughout the project lifecycle, and implementing contingency plans as necessary.
• Monitor financial expenditures and ensure compliance with financial guidelines and World Bank requirements to accurately forecast budget needs.
• Oversee the establishment and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track project progress and outcomes, ensuring data collection, analysis, and reporting are systematic and effective.
• Identify and implement opportunities for improving project performance and outcomes.
• Develop and implement strategies to enhance project visibility, including communication plans, outreach activities, and stakeholder engagement initiatives to raise awareness and promote project achievements effectively.

Partnerships Management and Coordination:

• Co-facilitate and guide competitive partner selection processes to identify partners and review proposals and budgets from applicants
• Manage and facilitate funding opportunities for local and national civil society organizations, making efforts to target women-led and women/girls serving organizations.
• Oversee Partner Identity and Background Review (Vetting) processes, including completion of the report for approval.
• Oversee Partner’s project capacity assessment (PCA) processes, including contributing to and facilitating the collaborative risk analysis and management.
• Determine appropriate partnership agreement type and draft agreement, taking into account the due diligence outcomes and specific project and donor requirements, liaising with HQ for review and approval (and obtaining donor approvals as necessary).
• Oversee Partnership Project Opening, Review and Closing Meetings, together with the Technical Coordinators
• Coordinate and participate in timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring)
• Facilitate systematic partner feedback on IRC’s management of the partnership relationship, including the documentation of, and response to partner feedback.
• Monitor for opportunities to improve IRC’s overall performance as a partner and make periodic recommendations to the Senior Management Team (SMT).
• Lead facilitation and coordination of partnership management processes to ensure well planned, timely, coordinated and coherent partnership management.

Team Management:

• Supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, establishing a supportive environment while emphasizing accountability, providing regular and timely constructive performance feedback, and leading documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.

Internal/External Representation:

• Serve as the primary representative of the project to key stakeholders, government officials, and the World Bank.
• Represent IRC in external forums, meetings, and events related to the project.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Establish effective communication channels with stakeholders, facilitating regular updates and meetings to manage expectations and address concerns promptly.

The role will be supported by a team of full-time and part-time personnel as determined by the needs of the program.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Country Director

Indirect Reporting: N/A

Position directly supervises: Partnership Manager – Partnership Finance Manager – M&E Senior Officer – Environmental and Social Specialist – GBV standards specialist.

Internal Contacts – close collaboration: Program Coordinators – Partnership Coordinator – Supply Chain Coordinator – Deputy Director of Programs – Deputy Director of Operations – Deputy Director of Finance – Policy, Advocacy and Communication Coordinator.

Job Requirements:

The Project Lead is expected to have proven, extensive program design and development skills, as well as solid experience in partnerships management and partner capacity sharing. Wider experience working with the World Bank or in the delivery of social services is desirable.

• Significant experience leading the management of large and/or complex donor funded program.
• Extensive leadership experience in managing a diverse team of professionals and consortium partners.
• Experience and ability to provide leadership and direction in harnessing the multi-disciplinary skills of the technical personnel and consortium partners.
• A proven track record of leading partnership relationships of large and/or complex donor funded program.
• Prior experience in operating effectively within complex and high-risk environments and managing the needs of multiple stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in interpreting and applying statutory and regulatory standards from World Bank awards will be an advantage.
• Demonstrated expertise and experience in Subaward Systems development and maintenance.
• Developed understanding of business and partnering standards required to create a high performing and accountable partnership environment.
• Previous experience in developing donor compliant partnering tools, templates and trainings.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to effectively and diplomatically negotiate with donors, partners and co-workers.
• Very strong problem-solving skills and outside the box thinking.
• Extensive experience working in Lebanon and knowledge of the social assistance sector and its actors, including civil society, government and service providers.
• Fluency in Arabic and English is required.

Working Environment***:*** Staff will be based in IRC’s Beirut office with possible travel to field locations as requested and upon business needs.