Project Manager

Background/IRC Summary:

International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war and disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been working in Pakistan for approximately 40 years, managing and delivering large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, safeguarding, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities. With the support of the federal and provincial governments, and generous donors like FCDO, ECHO, USAID, GAC and Australian Aid Agencies the IRC is currently implementing projects across the country.

Job Overview/Summary: The Project Manager in conjunction with the Health Coordinator and required management ensures that program technical goals, objectives and policies are successfully implemented and monitored; the prioritized technical sectors/areas are included into the overall programming and if needed developed appropriately. The Project Manager oversees the technical or sector aspects of the health programme/response, ensuring that technical programs are adequately addressed and integrated.

Major Responsibilities:

Actively participate in all aspects of the overall IRC health program with a focus on timely and quality results, teamwork, participation, empowerment, accountability, and client focus. The incumbent will work with numerous counterparts, implementing partners, and technical experts. Major duties as well as technical, programming, and management responsibilities are described below;

Management Responsibilities

•        Act as a technical support representative managing health care activities as required to ensure performance: review annual work plans, narrative reports and sub-contractor/grantee documents; develop/monitor budgeting and fiscal accountability; monitor short term technical assistance; prepare analyses and documentation required to obligate funds, and initiate and/or make any necessary amendments required for activity implementation.

•       Create harmony and improve team dynamics in all team members.

•       Act as Activity Manager for IRC working in family/planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) as required: develop/review scopes of work, annual budgets, and work plans; monitor program performance; prepare analyses and documentation required to obligate funds.

•        Ensure timely progress towards planned outputs and results; keep supervisor and other staff appraised of progress and issues; make recommendations to solve problems, and take the lead in implementing agreed upon actions.

•       Participate in activity conceptualization and design; write and edit activity approval documents, program descriptions and statements of work; prepare activity memos and justifications; lead or participate on technical evaluation committees as and when needed.

•        Assist in the development and refinement of benchmarks and indicators to assess the family/planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and program progress and impact.

•        Monitor all aspects of family/planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) implementation including holding regular meetings with implementing partners/stakeholders, reviewing and providing comments on annual work plans and semi-annual reports and annual reports, and undertaking regular site visits to ensure quality and performance.

•        Ensure effective implementation of planned activities

•       Ensure that assets are well kept (with appropriate record maintained) & safeguarded against waste, loss, unauthorized use, or misappropriation

•        Check validity of performance data acquisition, and ensure that the data to be reported to HQ/TU fulfils quality standards for validity, integrity, precision, reliability and timeliness

•        Lead in preparing written analyses, trip reports, briefing materials, activity descriptions, press releases, speeches, success stories, and other documents as required.

•        Overall programming responsibilities

•        Collect, review, analyses and report Health projects’ data for annual planning and reporting documents; respond to information requests from all sources; guide drafting public affairs materials as needed with relevant sectors.

Technical Responsibilities

•       As IRC’s project manager, serve as principle support advisor to health management and the Health Coordinator for all relevant health program issues.

•       Stay up to date with international and local state-of-the-art health’s technical approaches; analyze and interpret policy, strategy, and technical documents to ensure IRC’s health activities are aligned with.

•       Develop and maintain an extensive network of key public health contacts with a focus on FP/RH

•       Represent IRC in sectorial technical working groups and coordination meetings in support to Health Coordinator; inform the development of FP/RH policy, strategy, and technical documents as required

•       Serve as the link between IRC’s FP/RH activities and the District/Provincial teams.

•       Regularly coordinate with partners and stakeholders

•       Ensure synergy and linkages between FP/RH activities and other program elements including Maternal and Newborn Care, Child Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation; ensure synergies and linkages with other IRC programs.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Health Coordinator

Position directly supervises:  Quality Assurance Manager, Community Mobilization Officers (s), M&E Officer, and relevant    program staff

Other Internal and/or external contacts: With IRC sector managers, partners, representatives of the Department of Health, PPIF, and partners in the health cluster.

Job Requirements:

A.      Education

·         Development sector & health professional – Degree in MD/ MBBS recognized by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council is essential while MPH (preferred) for this role.

B.       Work experience:

·         Work Experience: Strong Public health background with 4-5 years’ experience in health program management in medium-large scale health programs with INGO’s, UN agencies.

·         Prior experience of reproductive healthcare and PHC programming and emergencies

C.      Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·         Capacity to develop, implement and analyze health assessments, develop and implement work plans, program/project budgets in excel sheets and financial management

·         High quality skills in training, monitoring and evaluation of health interventions.

·         Strong coordination skills with the ability to manage information (report writing and presentations).

·         Team players and has experience of managing field team(s)

Language Skills: 

·         Fluent, professional level speaking, reading and writing in English and Urdu. At this level, applicant should have:

·          The ability to speak using sufficient, structured and accurate vocabulary in formal conversation.

·         The ability to use the language to satisfy professional needs

·          The ability to read and write at a normal speed and with almost complete comprehension of a variety of materials, unfamiliar subjects, styles and forms pertinent to the job needs

Certificates or Licenses:

Tips to Consider:

·         Excellent knowledge of Government structure, institutions and procedures (Particularly in Punjab – South Punjab);

·         A good knowledge of Government legislation relating to development assistance, health, and FP/RH programming, as well as IRC programming policies, regulations, procedures and documentation and of the objectives, methodology and status of the programs and projects to which assigned;

·         Familiarity with capacities and constraints of NGOs active in Health activities in Pakistan;

·         Working experience with International NGOs or similar set-up

Working Environment: Works well in and promotes teamwork, flexible and ability to handle pressure well.

The IRC Core Values and Commitments.

·         The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Adult Safeguarding, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

·         IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy as well as Adult Safeguarding Policy.

• • Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children.              

·         IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

·         IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates, minorities group, and person with disability are highly encouraged to  apply.