Project Manager-Rural Roads & Local Governance

Project Manager-Rural Roads & Local Governance

CARE Australia
International humanitarian aid and emergency response

Closing date: 13 Sep 2010

Location: Timor-Leste - Based in Maliana with travel to Covalima & Bobonaro Districts

About CARE Australia: CARE is an international humanitarian aid organisation fighting global poverty, with a special focus on working with women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities. As a non-religious and non-political organisation, CARE works with communities to help overcome poverty by supporting development projects and providing emergency relief. We believe supporting women and girls is one of the most effective ways to create sustainable outcomes in poor communities. We are primarily dependant on support from the Australian public to carry out our work.

CARE Australia is a member of the CARE International confederation. We strive for a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

For over 20 years, CARE Australia has earned an international reputation for our ability to respond quickly to emergency situations in countries as diverse as Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar. We are also renowned for our innovative, sustainable and effective long-term development projects. All our projects are designed to equip the people we support with skills and resources so they can take charge of their lives and work towards a better future.

CARE Australia is directly responsible for program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as management and contractual control of all projects. As a consequence, we have a high degree of accountability and transparency. Over 88 per cent of CARE’s resources support our work in poor countries, making CARE one of the most efficient of all charitable organisations.

About the Country Office: CARE International has been operating in Timor Leste since 1994, originally as part of CARE Indonesia and as an autonomous Country office since 2000. In that time we have been involved in two major emergency responses – after the violent events of 1999 and since April 2006 after violence erupted in Dili. CARE in Timor Leste focuses on long-term sustainable development projects in agriculture and drought preparedness, education, community health and nutrition, capacity building, urban community outreach and peace building, micro-enterprise and employment generation and women’s participation and gender equality.

About the Role: CARE Timor Leste is currently submitting a proposal to the Asian Development Bank for a rural road rehabilitation and maintenance and local governance project in two Districts of Timor Leste. The project supports the Ministry of Infrastructure (MOI) and District Authorities (DA’s) to implement a labor based road rehabilitation and maintenance project. The project entails working closely and collaboratively with the MOI and DA’s to manage related procurement and oversight of The project aims to support vulnerable households in Covalima and Bobonaro districts by providing improved and year round road access for selected rural communities. The project will support CARE Timor Leste’s integrated program approach to address the underlying causes of poverty. The program builds on CARE’s past experience working in the target areas.

- The Program Manager is responsible for providing overall planning, management and implementation of the project in collaboration with the MOI. This includes providing technical guidance.

- Provide strategic and operational recommendations within programs and ensure that all activities are in accordance with the overall strategic direction of CARE Timor Leste.

Key Responsibilities:

PROJECT PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION

- Together with the team of local staff and in consultation with the stakeholders, prepare detailed project implementation plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, and annual work-plans.

- Oversee implementation of project activities based on the approved project documents from donors, ensure the quality of program activities and incorporate processes and procedures which are based on good/best practices.

- Oversee any program corrective actions and mitigate any project risks and ensure continual improvement of CARE Timor Leste’s performance and standards as they relate to rural road rehabilitation, maintenance and local governenance.

- Support partner NGO’s in assuming responsibility for relevant project activities while improving their technical capacity. Work closely with the local government to maximize their involvement in the project.

- Ensure that gender and women’s empowerment are integrated into all program activities.

- Ensure that community resilience is central to all program activities.

The Project Manager will specifically support the MOI in the following:

- Assist counterpart staff at each district administration to manage and monitor community labor contract(s) on the basis of the specified outputs and minimum labor conditions while ensuring the output-based contract(s) of the contractor(s) specify

- the quantity and quality of the works-related services to be provided over the contract period;

- the minimum labor conditions under which the communities will be engaged (this will include, but will not be limited to, basic issues like minimum daily wages to be paid and maximum working hours per day); and

- how any contractual dispute will be arbitrated, be it between the district administration and the contractor(s) or between the contractor(s) and the communities involved.

- Draft the contractual arrangements between the district administration, contractor(s) and communities, whereby the technical specifications will be prepared in close consultation with the district engineers.

- In consultation with district administrations and MOI, monitor land acquisition and resettlement activities being undertaken by the governments and the provincial authorities, and report on the activities through the monthly progress report.

- Recommend a model for labor-based community contract management and a

STAFF MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING

- Supervise the team of Timor Leste staff and short-term international consultants. Develop job descriptions, lead staff recruitment, and provide timely performance feedback and on-the-job capacity building. Conduct on-going team building. Contribute to the learning of other program managers and senior staff

- Develop training materials and conduct training on contract management and monitoring in consultation with district administrations for the financial unit at each of the three districts.

- Develop training materials and conduct training for communities to become small contractors in consultation with local NGOs.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

- Ensure a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation plan is in place for all program activities and ensure that the M&E plan is followed and program activities are updated as necessary.

- Develop a monitoring system for district administrations and MOI.

- Support the project staff in measuring the progress of the projects against the indicators in approved project documents and M&E plans.

- Through on-going presence at the project sites, oversee implementation of the project activities and provide regular and timely feedback to staff and other stakeholders

REPORTING, BUDGETING AND PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT

- Prepare monthly financial and quarterly physical progress reports with inputs from engineers, supervisors, and contractors and submit these within 10 days of the end of every month or quarter to the PMU and district administration.

- Prepare the final report with inputs from engineers, supervisors, and contractors

- Using Costed Work Plans, plan, monitor and review program expenditures and spending against the donor budgets and activity plans.

- Liaise with the project donors and CARE headquarters. Prepare donor narrative and financial reports.

- Together with the programme development team, write donor proposals for funding for new projects as required.

OTHER

- Participate in CARE Timor Leste Senior Management Team meetings and strategic/programme planning workshops.

- Coordinate closely with other projects, in order to ensure maximum synergy among the projects

- Play proactive at the national level through participation in relevant coordination meetings EC INGO

Selection Criteria:

- Masters degree International Development, Rural Development or another related area.

- At least 5 years of project/contract management experience in a context comparable to Timor Leste, including preferably management experience with ADB funded projects.

- Demonstrated skills and experience within contract management preferably from infrastructure sector

- Experience in writing proposals for new projects demonstrated ability to lead the design and implementation of projects with a focus on community empowerment, integrating aspects of local governance, community health, and gender equality and demonstrated ability to effectively monitor and evaluate projects..

- Demonstrated experience in capacity building and skills-transfer to local organizations and on-the-job training for local staff.

- Experience in managing multi-year budgets, including preparation of quarterly and annual budgets, and finalisation of financial reports.

- Strong communication skills including the ability to maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, excellent written and spoken English, knowledge of Tetum or Bahasa Indonesian.

How to apply

Applications should provide a statement addressing the Selection Criteria contained within the Position Description, a current CV and completed CARE Australia Application Form to jobs@careaustralia.org.au by 13 September 2010

Reference Code: RW_89589N-66