Project Manager

Project Description

Afghanistan is one of the high reported PV malaria cases (11%) from the (85%) of estimated vivax malaria cases among six Eastern Mediterranean countries. Malaria continues to be a major public health problem in Afghanistan. The transmission of malaria is seasonal, and its distribution varies largely from place to place, depending on a variety of factors related to parasites, vectors and human populations under different geographical, ecological and socio-economic conditions in the country. 27% of Afghan population lives in areas at high risk for malaria, 50% at medium risk and the remaining 23% live in areas with no risk or very low risk of malaria transmission (WMR 2019).

Due to substantial impact of scaled up interventions (including the distribution of LLINs through mass campaign and ANC, use of new generation of anti-malarial (ACT) and Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT), indoor residual spraying during the outbreaks) along with the mobilized serious commitment of the government and international partners, socio-economic improvements, climate changes and some other factors a significant progress has been made toward control of malaria resulting in decreasing its burden in Afghanistan. Country wide there is a significant reduction of malaria deaths from 47 to zero death and malaria cases from 384,943 to 174,893 (54.6%) comparing 2016 to 2019.

The malaria project is implemented across the country with the biggest operation in the endemic eastern region. UNDP will contract BPHS implementers to deliver the project as an integrated package with the BPHS grants. The BPHS implementers will use its offices across the country, storage facilities and health centers. To ensure sustainability of malaria control efforts, malaria case management and surveillance are integrated into BPHS/EPHS health service delivery and the services are delivered through community engagement (CBMM). The use of CHWs to deliver services at the communities ensures efficient coverage of population in remote areas.

Purpose:

The position aims to lead the project management processes, being prime responsible and ensure effective and efficient management of assigned project(s) according to the organization’s standards and terms & conditions stipulated in the project(s) signed agreement, excellent and on time internal and external coordination and ensure full compliance to donors and organizational terms and conditions.

Responsibilities:

Project(s) Planning:

• Develop project(s) planning in coordination with finance coordinator and other support departments to ensure timely availability of resources and support for implementing the planned activities.
• Organize and lead the project kick off meeting and follow up of the plan at all levels.
• Support financial annual planning of the project(s).
• Plan daily work extracted from the project work schedule and/or logical framework, and delegate tasks/assignments to subordinates according to their skills, interest and aptitudes.
• Revisit project financial and technical plans in case of variances between forecasts and expenditures, and backlog of indicators/activities to ensure project expenses are in-line with the forecasts, and project indicators/activities are on track/achieved according to targets.
• Support finance manager to amend quarterly financial planning in view of expenditure incurred and to carry forward unspent budget to next quarter strictly adhering to the terms/conditions of the contract.
• To trigger and lead any amendments and changes to the project work plans ensuring compliance to donor and internal organizational policies and procedures.
• Lead the process and prepare project close out plan in close coordination with financial coordinator and other departments.
Filed Supervision and Technical support:
• Conduct regular supportive supervision in line with developed supervision plan to field offices/project sites and provide information, guidance, direction, and on the job support to project team.
• Develop field visit reports and share with program director and senior management for required support and decisions and close follow up of the meetings findings with relevant departments and field office(s).
• Ensure submission of written feedback to provincial management team within one week of the field visit, and develop remedial action plan to timely address findings of the supervision/monitoring visit.
• Identify potential disputes among team members and timely resolve potential conflicts among team members that are harmful and affect smooth implementation of the project.
Financial Management
• Work closely with finance coordinator and ensure financial management of the project(s) is in-line with the budget and donor requirements.
• Develop working budget for field operation in consultation with senior management and do monthly follow up with field
• Strictly follow deadlines and timely submit the project report to donors and support finance coordinator in regular follow up of the financial status of the projects, and provide feedback and recommendation to line manager, finance department and provincial management team.
• Support finance coordinator to ensure the project expenses are within allocated budget and budget codes.
• Follow up of the project instalments with donor to ensure instalments are received according to the payment schedule.
• Support finance coordinator to timely submit financial reports to donor.
• Ensure the disbursement of money to field based on need and follow up of salary payments to field staff.
• Participate in the budget development meetings.
• Review the monthly BCRs and coordinate with field, finance and other relevant departments to ensure project expenditures are according to the forecasts and variations are timely managed.
Human resource management
• Support HR department Kabul in recruitment through proper procedures and according to proposed staffing.
• Prepare draft job descriptions for technical staff and submit to HR and subordinates on the first day of joining the job.
• Orient new hired staff on project activities and contractual requirements.
• Ensure staff annual performance appraisals are carried out in timely manner.
• Identify potential conflicts among staff if any and timely resolve them.
• Build capacity of project staff through formal & informal trainings, coaching and mentoring.
Procurement & Supply management
• Develop procurement plan, supported by procurement/logistic department to ensure all procurements are done according to project procurement plan.
• Support procurement/logistic departments to ensure that medicines, medical and non-medical supply for relevant project(s) are made available in timely manner.
• Ensure Goods Receive Notes (GRNs) are returned to Kabul office right after the goods & supplies dispatched to provincial office(s).
Coordination and Representation
• Strongly represent the organization in meetings with donor and relevant stakeholders.
• Collaborate and liaise with the MoPH, relevant ministries on the issues related to the project.
• Prepare and submit summary notes and decision/discussion points of the meetings attended to line manager.
• Collaborate and liaise with the MoPH, donors, relevant ministries, NGOs and international organisations on the issues related to the project.
• Active participation in the meetings with donor and technical departments within MoPH, other relevant meetings at central and provincial level and strong representation of the organization in these forums.
Project Reporting:
• Ensure technical reports (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, end project and ad-hoc) are prepared in line with the donor requirements and reporting calendar and submitted timely to donor.
• Ensure project financial reports are timely submitted to donor and MoPH.
• Risk analysis of the reports and notification to Programs Director for timely mitigation and support.
Filing System:
• Ensure proper filing system is available and maintained.
• Make sure the soft and hard copies of the technical documents are kept in an organized manner.
• Make sure that regular back up is obtained and IT manager is encouraged to store the back up on reliable hard disks
Staff capacity building and better performance:
• Support the process of Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and plan trainings to staff in the basis of TNA and budget availability.
• Prepare annual training plan for subordinates taking into account the availability of budget.
• Conduct orientation sessions to field management on different technical topics during the supervisory visits.
• Ensure the planned trainings are conducted as per agreed project training plan.
• Ensure training reports are developed subsequent on completion of training.
• Ensure availability of the proper records and filing system for trainings carried out.