Regional Project Manager

The Central Asia region has a long history of disaster impacts, which on average cost $10 billion in estimated economic losses and affect more than 3 million people annually. The region has a complex risk profile, with growing impacts of climate change, high environmental degradation, and pollution, conflicts, as well as new and emerging security risks and threats. The population of the region, especially in urban areas, is highly exposed to the impacts of these hazards, and urbanization is outpacing risk reduction and adaptation efforts of governments in the region.

The project “Enhancing Urban Resilience to Disaster Risk and Climate Change in Central Asia” is funded by the Government of Japan and expected to be implemented by UNDP in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The overall objective of the project is to support all five Central Asian countries in building climate resilience, focusing on urban areas. The project will specifically focus on enhancing regional cooperation and partnership through the existing coordination platforms, while introducing innovative approaches in urban planning based on practical experiences from other countries, including Japan. 

New approaches to integrated climate and disaster risk assessment will transform urban planning from resilience lenses, while considering future intensity and magnitude of natural hazards due to the changing climate. Knowledge base and capacity building efforts will be institutionalized in the region to ensure sustainability of interventions beyond the project cycle. The project will promote a people-centered, gender sensitive and climate risk-informed holistic approach to break siloes in urban planning efforts.

The RPM’s prime responsibility will be to ensure that the project produces the results specified in the project document to the required standard of quality and within the specified constraints of time and cost. 

More specifically:

Coordinate overall management and implementation of the Project  for the achievement of project targets and results:

• Liaises with the Project Board to assure the overall direction and integrity of the project in line with the decisions and recommendations of the Project Board;
• Plans the activities of the project in line with the approved project document and monitors progress against the project results framework and the approved annual workplan; reviews and appraises detailed project plans, including the multi-year work plan and Quantum entries/reports covering activity definition, updated risk log and the monitoring schedule plan;
• Mobilizes personnel, goods and services to initiative activities, including drafting terms of reference and work specifications, and overseeing all contractors’ work;
• Provides strategic guidance and management oversight to the project team, reviewing and clear on a regular basis progress reports from partners, deliverables, disbursements and budgets to ensure implementation is on track;
• Carries out regular follow-up and monitoring of implementation activities as well as regular monitoring and reporting on risks and mitigation measures;
• Coordinates preparation and provide technical inputs and consult work-plans for implementation of the project in close consultation with key partners incl. UNDP Country Offices and the national governments involved as per the Project Documents. Implements the project monitoring plan/timetable, and update the plan as required;
• Manages requests for the provision of financial resources by UNDP, through advance of funds, direct payments or reimbursement using the fund authorization and certificate of expenditures;
• Monitors financial resources and accounting to ensure the accuracy and reliability of financial reports;
• Is responsible for preparing and submitting financial reports to UNDP on a quarterly basis;
• Manages and monitors the project risks initially identified and submit new risks to the project board for consideration and decision on possible actions if required; update the status of these risks by maintaining the project risks log, while ensuring UNDP’s Social and Environmental Screening Standards;
• Prepares the annual workplan for the following year; and update the required Quantum entries as well as Project Management module, and others necessary fields;
• Prepares the annual progress reports and submits the final report to the Project Board;
• Ensures the mid-term review process is undertaken as per the UNDP guidance, and submits the final MTR report to the Project Board;
• Identifies follow-on actions and submit them for consideration to the Project Board;
• Ensures the terminal evaluation process is undertaken as per the UNDP guidance, and submits the final TE report to the Project Board;
• Ensures timely and quality implementation of safeguards management measures, including tracking assessing and managing social and environmental risks during the project implementation;
• Addresses project issues as raised and/discussed by the Project Board;
• Performs the financial reporting and control mechanisms;
• Shares relevant information on the project achievements with all interested parties;
• Ensures that all project deliverables have been produced satisfactorily and in accordance with the approved Annual Work Plan;
• Notifies operational completion of the project to the Project Board;
• Upon finalization of a project, ensures reimbursement of the remaining balance of funds deposited in the UNDP accounts for the project activities to the Donor or re-programming if so agreed with the Donor;
• Provides direction and guidance to the project team and the consultants;
• Secures any support and advice required for the management, planning and control of the project;
• Identifies sustainability and follow-on actions and submits them for consideration to the Project Board.

Technical guidance for the overall management of the project:

• Ensures a proportional approach, cohesion and coordination between different components of the project;
• Provides quality assurance of the technical work (reports) commissioned under the project;
• Provide direction and guidance to project team(s)/ responsible party(ies);
• Identify and obtain any support, technical expertise and advice required for the management, planning and control of the project;
• Supports the national project coordinators in managing delivery of the project results;
• Ensures good coordination and collaboration with suppliers, beneficiaries and key stakeholders and partners.

Providing expert knowledge to lead and contribute to the consolidation and positioning of outcomes and outputs of the project:

• Lead development and implementation of the project’s communication and visibility measures/plan;
• Contribute relevant input to UNDP publications, presentations, websites, newsletters, and other outreach products as required;
• Organizes regional technical events and disseminates project technical findings, results while informing audiences about opportunities provided by the project;
• Participate in national and international fora and disseminate lessons learned;
• Ensure consistency between the various project elements and related activities provided or funded by other donor organizations;
• Collect and analyze lessons learned and best practices, and design replication strategies within the countries of work.

Partnership building, strategic advocacy and knowledge management:

• Harness effective partnerships for the implementation of the project with national, regional and international institutional partners;
• Maintains regular contact with partners and enables regular coordination and exchange of information regarding project progress, between country offices and national counterparts in respective countries;
• Builds partnerships with relevant on-going initiatives;
• Organizes and provides leadership to various learning and knowledge exchange under the project;
• Ensures management and administrative requirements (technical, financial, communications, audits, evaluations, etc.) of the different partners/donors  are adhered to and coordinate preparation and submission of respective progress reports, as per requirements of the donors;  
• Provides quality assurance to project’s deliverables and knowledge management products; Effective communication, advocacy and dissemination of the project results and relevant knowledge products at international and national conferences and meetings, relevant fora and international processes.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Institutional Arrangement

Project Management Unit (PMU) will be established and hosted by UNDP Country Office in Kazakhstan and co-located in Almaty to support project planning and implementation of activities on daily basis. PMU will be led by a full time Regional Project Manager (RPM) reporting to the IRH Regional Programme Chief, with matrix reporting to the Climate and Disaster Resilience Team Leader in Istanbul, and will be supported by a Regional Project Assistant, and Chief Technical Advisor. The RPM will guide National Coordinators (NPSAs) in all participating countries, and will supervise Project Assistant (NPSA), and Technical Consultants (ICs) hired by the project.
 

• Project Management:   
  • Ability to plan, organize, priorities and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Partnerships Management:        
  • Build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
• Communication:             
  • Communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
  • Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
• Climate:               
  • Climate change adaptation: urban resilience.
• Effectiveness:   
  • Programmatic Risk Management and Analysis. 
  • Project Quality Assurance.
• Systems Thinking:           
  • Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.