Senior Project Officer Egypt (fixed-term local contract)

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND:

Asmae is a French international solidarity NGO specialized in child development. It is independent, non-religious, non-political, and open to everyone.

Created in 1980 by Sister Emmanuelle following her experience with scavengers in Egypt’s slums, Asmae keeps on respecting its founder’s values and methods: listening and proximity, pragmatism, respect of the differences, professionalism and reciprocity.

Asmae’s action aims to support vulnerable children and their families through providing tailor-made and long lasting support to local stakeholders working on education and child protection.

Its vision, “A fair world which guarantees that children can live and grow with dignity within their environment, to become free women and men who contribute to society”, is broken down into four missions:

• Stimulate child development through a global approach. To do this, Asmae also works on family support by taking their environment into account;
• Build the capacity of local stakeholders involved in child development, boost cooperation amongst them and maximize their social impact;
• Stand up for children by raising awareness and advocating;
• Experiment, disseminate and share practices.

Nowadays Asmae supports education and child protection projects in six countries and manages a mother and childcare center in France.

In Egypt, Asmae is registered under the Ministry of Solidarity since May 2015. Currently, Asmae works in four thematic areas, namely: Access to quality education, protection, professional integration and promoting co-existence and diversity.

Asmae is currently implementing two projects:

• ”Promoting youth participation, inclusion and protection” project, funded by the French Agency of Development (AFD) and Sawiris Foundation, in which, Asmae supports 2 Egyptian civil society organizations to empower youth to become agents for change in their communities and advocate for the rights of youth with disabilities.
• “Safer Environment for Change” project that works with two local civil society organizations to enhance their child protection mechanisms inside their centers and in four public schools.

In December 2022, Asmae started its new “Youth Inclusive Empowerment Project” that targets the training and empowerment of 300 youth (including youth with disabilities) in 9 targeted areas. The project is implemented in partnership with two local civil society organizations that have experience in the rehabilitation and employment of youth with disabilities and equipping youth with the needed skills for their future employment.

Asmae Egypt’ team is based in Cairo with 9 staff members: Egypt Country Representative, 2 Project officers, 2 Technical Advisors for Protection, 1 Technical Advisor for Inclusion, 1 Administrative and Financial Officer and 1 Admin Finance Assistant and an Operations and Procurement Officer.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF POSITION / WORKING CONDITIONS:

Job Title: Senior Project Officer

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Line Manager: Projects and Partnership Manager

Main functional relationships:

• Country Office: Projects and Partnership Manager, Senior Administrative and Finance Officer, Project Technical Advisors, Procurement and Operations Officer.
• Head Office : Programme Manager, Grants Manager, Education & Protection Technical Advisor

MISSION:

The Senior Project Officer will be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Youth Inclusive Empowerment Project (“YIEP”). S/he will directly work with two local partners to support them in the implementation of the YIEP project. The project foster the social and professional integration of youth including youth with disabilities affected by Covid19 crisis through adapted and inclusive approaches. It empowers 300 vulnerable youth including youth with disabilities through life skills, vocational and business related trainings to facilitate their access to market place and strengthen the links between employers and youth. The project focuses on enhancing the social inclusion of youth in a safer and supportive environment to facilitate their employment.

Youth will be equipped with soft and business skills needed by the job market to increase their employment opportunities and be more responsive to market demands. They will receive on-job training according to their assessed capabilities and preferences, using a participative and gender sensitive approach. Youth will receive life and vocational skills training, support for accessing job opportunities in the open market. For youth interested to be self-employed, whether they are with or without disability a “start your own business” training will be delivered.

The Senior Project Officer follows the local security and safety rules and procedures and participates to and the security context analysis.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Operational Project Management:

• Ensures the smooth implementation of activities within the time frame and in accordance with contractual commitments
• Monitors the administration of partner relationships (partnership agreements, management tools, etc.)
• Develop monthly action plan with the two partners and monitor activities implementation timeline.
• Organizes and/or facilitates regular meetings with the partners (networking, steering committees, etc.)
• Supports partners in the implementation of activities, and strengthens their management-monitoring-evaluation capacities
• Organize project preparation workshop(s) and project events in close cooperation with the partners
• Work with an M&E Officer to develop project M&E plan, with guidance from HO Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning team
• Establish a close collaboration with the Technical Advisor to follow-up the activities implemented during the project
• Manage the work of technical consultants contributing to the project, and facilitate their work with the two project partners.
• Monitor and reports to management on the progress of all project activity within the program, including significant milestones, and any conditions, which would affect project cost or schedule.
• Gathers and centralizes information on project activities & complete the project tracking indicators sheet on the project database. Consolidates the information and share it with Asmae Headquarters in order to prepare for the Steering Committee meetings with the project team.
• Prepares narrative progress and final reports in line with the format and time schedule indicated by the funder(s) / co-funders
• Prepare the communication plan for the project and ensures its realization within the timeline of the project and as per the work plan.
• Ensures that our project promotes inclusion, gender mainstreaming, and youth participation and follows a rights based approach in all our activities.

2. Budget Management of the project:

• Ensures compliance with the procedures and budgetary framework of the EU and Asmae.
• Informs all personnel involved in the projects of the procedures and requirements of the donor(s)
• Manages project budgets together with the Senior Administration and Finance Officer: allocation of expenditure for Asmae, and validation of partner expenses
• Supports the Senior Administration & Finance Officer in the financial and administrative monitoring of partners.
• Ensures adherence to the administrative time schedule of financing agreements (transfer of Asmae funds, transfer of partner funds, deadlines for financial reports, deadlines for the performance of financial audits, etc.)
• Validates monthly budget monitoring in accordance with the validation procedure (budget-line spending, flexibility between items, expenditure projections to the end of the project)
• Contributes to budgeting for amendments
• Contributes to financial reports intended for the donor(s)
• Ensures that records are kept in accordance with the established procedures
• Contributes to preparations for, and support the Senior Administration and Finance Officer in financial audits

3. Contribution to the hiring of project new staff and procurement process:

• Drafts Terms of Reference for procurement of goods or services.
• Participates in the interview process of new staff, technical advisors and consultants to be hired for the project.
• Participates in the hiring selection committees for project procurement process to reach the final decision.
• Perform technical induction for the new employees to include Asmae history, strategy, partners and current projects.

4. Provide support to the development of Country strategy and future projects:

• Support in developing new project proposals for potential public and private sector donors
• Conduct brainstorming sessions with partners for collecting data related to future projects.
• Participate in developing Asmae Country Strategy and Annual Action Plan.

5. Contribution to the development of National Office activities:

• Contributes to facilitation of team meetings
• Organizes and participates in monitoring missions undertaken by headquarters
• Represents the organization at meetings and in other activities
• Contributes to the development of communication tools

PROFILE

Education / Experience

• BA/S or equivalent in social science, management, international development or other relevant field.
• Minimum 7 years of professional experience working in development projects, funded by institutional donors, and managing grants with local civil society organizations.
• Strong experience in working with TVET stakeholders, governmental officials and local skilled enterprises.
• Proven experience in gender transformative programming, and inclusion promotion.
• Strong knowledge in project management, and Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Be fully aware of reporting system for EU Projects.
• Provide technical and operational support to the project’s staff and partners.
• Fully aware of protection dimension, and safeguarding programming.
• Experience working with youth empowerment and employment projects is a plus.
• Multi-sectorial knowledge is highly preferred.

Professional Skills:

• Autonomous and proactive
• Strong communication, multi-tasking and reporting skills
• Positive, respectful attitude and collaborative approach to problem solving and for offering support to partners.
• Demonstrated attention to detail; ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently as well as cooperatively with team members.
• Proficiency in MS Office and relevant managerial software and other database applications
• Proficiency in English (writing and oral) and Arabic is essential.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Duration: 1 Year (renewable upon satisfactory performance)

Starting date: February 1st, 2023

Contract: Egyptian fixed–term contract (Full time job)

Annual Gross Salary: 252,000 – 288,000 EGP Gross salary

Location: Cairo