Project Officer (ECHO)

II. Summary

Welthungerhilfe (WHH),

Welthungerhilfe (WHH), founded in 1962 under the auspices of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is one of the first global initiatives aimed at eliminating hunger and today one of the biggest aid agencies in Germany.

WHH has initially established as a support office for Afghanistan during 1997 in Peshawar, Welthungerhilfe initiated its programme in Pakistan in response to the 2005 earthquake to provide support to the effected districts in Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). WHH wound up its office in March 2010, only to resume its programming in August 2010 in response to the 2010 Mega floods that hit Pakistan. Between March and August 2010, WHH continued its interventions in Pakistan through its Alliance 2015 partners. In 2012, WHH implementation methodology, saw a paradigm shift, from self-implementation to implementing all projects with local partners. Today Welthungerhilfe Pakistan is working with national partners in Baluchistan,and Sindh as well in cooperation with international partners e.g. Alliance2015.  Welthungerhilfe is largely supported by the German public, but also through institutional donors such as the European Union, the German Foreign Office, Department for International DeveloProject Coordinatorent (DFID) and others. Welthungerhilfe Pakistan aims to support the most vulnerable and marginalized population of Pakistan affected by natural and man-made disasters by building resilience at household and community level.

Background of the project:

Alliance2015 (A2015) partners in Pakistan will pool their operational resources and sectoral expertise to deliver an emergency flood relief and early recovery programme in two severely flood-affected districts (Sindh and Baluchistan). Through an integrated multi-sectoral package, ACTED (lead agency), Welthungerhilfe, and local partners, will deliver life-saving Food Security; WASH; Shelter; and Education in Emergencies support to 70,800 flood-affected individuals. The project will cover immediate humanitarian needs of displaced households (HH), while also facilitating safe returns to flood-affected areas.

The overall aim of the project is to reduce the adverse impact of recent floods on the lives and livelihoods of poor and marginalized communities in Sindh and Baluchistan to mitigate the nagative impacts for particularly vulnerable people. The multi sectorial project will focus on delivering Food Security, WASH, Shelter, and Education assistance through integrated approach to minimize the adverse effects on most vulnerable groups of floods affected areas with respect to Early Relief and Recovery. These are the people most affected by socio-economic effects of recent floods but also the fact that most were already at risk and threatened in terms of poverty, insecure food and nutrition.

Overview of the Post: The role of the Project Officer is to support Project Coordinator in quality and timely execution of flood relief and early recovery project in Sindh and Baluchistan by supporting the WHH efforts to deliver Food Security, WASH, Shelter, and Education assistance multisectoral joint approach provision of Food Security and Livelihoods assistance in the form of cash for food, livestock fodder, and livestock vaccinations. The Project Officer under the supervision of the Project Coordinator ensures that project activities goals, and objectives are successfully implemented and monitored; the prioritized technical sectors/areas are well coordinated into the overall programming and project is being implemented appropriately. Project Officer supports the partners in oversight of the implementation and support in coordination functions with ECHO funded project. S/he Ensures that all project management roles are covered properly including Supply Chain, Finance, Program Administration, and Implementation under the guidance of project coordinator.

III. OBJECTIVE & RESPONSIBILITIES 

Objective:

The overarching objective of the position is to assist the Project Coordinator in the implementation of Integrated multi-sectoral flood relief and early recovery project in Sindh through facilitation of implementing partners in the targeted areas with certain engagement of stakeholders and authorities in the provinces, technical assistance to the partners in Emergency response, early recovery, rehabilitation, and developmental with additional knowledge of recent approach in emergency and developmental projects.                                            

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: 

1.   Planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the project activities

• Prepare annual, quarterly, and monthly plans for the effective execution of project activities related to Emergency response, early recovery, rehabilitation and developmental projects in provinces with better preparedness and capacity include but are not limited to skills, practices and capacities, to manage resources and skills particularly of the poor and vulnerable, and institutional strengthening Emergency Response.
• Manage and mobilize the available resources within the available time limit for maximum results by allocating and distributing them properly across the all-project activities in line with the project documents.
• Assist Project Coordinator in Identification of strategic areas of intervention concerning resilience, emergency, and WASH for WHH. The intervention strategy devised based on needs and rights of affected population (beneficiaries) in conjunction with government of Pakistan’s policies.
• Assist the Project Coordinator, other provincial office staff and implementing partners to break-down and elaborate the interventions strategies when necessary to integrate emergency response in targeted areas with vulnerable communities.
• Ensure the effective and timely implementation of the planned and approved activities and strategies for the target communities
• Assist Project Coordinator and WHH MEAL team for finalization of monitoring plans and to roll out regular monitoring visits on sites and partners offices to review technical and financial standards and efficiency of activities to produce expected results.
• Assist and join the Project Coordinator to manage and mobilize human, financial and material resources and assess the resource needs for the activities.

2.   Coordination and Communication

• Communicate relevant information regularly to the Project Coordinator, project staff, consortium members, partners and other relevant stakeholders in Sindh and Baluchistan.
• Mobilize partner organizations, stakeholders, and target communities as per the agreement reached with the consortium to fulfil the objectives Emergency response, Early Recovery, Rehabilitation.
• Maintain good relations with project beneficiaries, partners and stakeholders and monitor the agreements reached with them where necessary
• Assist the Project Coordinator to follow up on terms and conditions and any agreements signed or agreed with other third parties including communities, local authorities, service providers, or material suppliers, to achieve the project objectives timely and with the desired quality.

3.    Influencing Policies

• Liaise with different organization, programmes and projects, and organize actions to influence policy at district and provincial level.
• Engage with taluka or district relevant networks and alliances for influencing and scaling up best practices learnt from the projects, particularly on technical issues of Flood Response and dealing with post floods pandemics by following the SOPs.
• Support implementing partners in the development of beneficiary selection criteria, beneficiary verification tracking sheets, support to follow core humanitarian standards, WHH code of conduct.
• Support Project Coordinator and country office CRM lead to ensure complain response mechanism is properly followed in project areas.

4.   Management of Project Activities

• Ensure the consistency and implementation of the Emergency flood response and early recovery efforts and manages the project partners to achieve the expected results, in coordination with the relevant departments.
• Support partners to reach out most vulnerable community and households for accomplishment of project objectives and make possibilities for maximum results in food and nutrition security.
• Close coordination and liaise with Project Coordinator for project related progress, bottle necks and conduct trouble shooting under his/her guidance.
• Closely engage and capture innovative and impactful stories that can be highlighted within country and abroad.
• Capture periodic progress of entire programme in creative forms like brochures, booklets, newsletters, and specific reports in close collaboration.
• Support and innovate where required to ensure grants and reporting mechanism is aptly capturing the information for partners and donors.
• Coordinate with partners provincial offices teams that donor and partner compliance is ensured in programme delivery, transactions, and reporting.
• Lead technical working groups and maintain its regular meetings with partners for trouble shooting in activities planning and design.
• Support partners for identification and reasonable and recognized vendors in procurement and purchase of agriculture inputs.
• To support in preparation of weekly/biweekly updates, monthly and quarterly, biannual and annual report and submit on timely manner before submission.
• Conduct field visits at partners field offices and areas for monitoring of activities and measure its results timely and arrange feedback meetings with partner management.
• Carry out regular communication with Emergency Working Groups and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities Sindh and Baluchistan at district and provincial level.

5.    Other responsibilities

Project officer may be assigned other tasks and responsibilities of projects on the need of Project Coordinator Sindh in both provinces as and where required.

Qualification and Skills/Competences required:

• Excellent professional track record with at least 3-5 years of experience in the NGO sector working in Emergency response, early recovery, rehabilitation and development programming/implementation in Pakistan Context.
• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field or minimum has 04 years of overall experience with 03 years in relevant supporting role in the sector including monitoring, partners support and facilitation role in development sector.
• Able to analyze and summarize complex technical and contextual information
• Fluent in English, reading writing and speaking and/or local language of the program implementation area
• Excellent computer skills
• Strong coordination skills with the ability to manage information (report writing and presentations and having skills to work in team
• Substantive experience in developing and promoting collaborative partnerships
• Excellent demonstrated communication and negotiation skills Excellent writing skills (assessments, reports.)
• Problem-solving and organizational skills in day to day and crisis situations Flexibility, and able to adjust to changing context and situations

Desirable:

Proficiency and experience in the planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of projects, including as a part of multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations

Sensitive and responsive to gender, ethnicity, disability and other social issues and other core values of WHH.

Have a participatory and team-centred approach to work and behaviour

Proactive in liaising and problem solving

Excellent computer skills including navigating email, internet and MS WORD and PowerPoint

Proficient knowledge of Core Humanitarian Standard

Excellent proficiency in English, Urdu and in other local working languages (Sindhi and Balochi is desirable).

Position time is 80% in the field and extensive travel in the Sindh and Baluchistan is also a requirement with long stay and field trips. Initially position will be based in Sukkur and partially work from home and WHH Partners office.

Welthungerhilfe values diversity and ensures an inclusive, non-discriminatory working environment. We welcome applications from suitably qualified people from all sections of the community."