Project Officer Vacancy at SWAAYAM, UNDP

Job Title: Project Officer (SWAAYAM)

Location: Ahmedabad (Gandhinagar)

Company profile: UNDP in India is implementing a women’s empowerment programme SWAAYAM across four states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The programme funded by the IKEA Foundation applies an integrated approach to women’s empowerment combining social, economic, political, legal and environmental dimensions. From Uttar Pradesh, where the programme has worked with 50,000 women from poor and marginalised groups, the programme is now being scaled up to reach an additional 2.2 million poor and marginalised women across twelve districts in four states – Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar and Sonbhadra (in U.P.), Banaskantha, Patan (in Gujarat), Durgapur, Udaipur (in Rajasthan), Jalna, Wardha and Yavatmal (in Maharashtra).

Job Description:

Under the direct supervision of the State Manager and overall guidance of the Programme Coordinator, the Project Officer will monitor and manage partners to ensure the achievement of the programme’s goals at the field level. S/he will undertake the following functions:

Field work (75%)

Field monitoring:

1. Monitoring of partners, contractors and project activities
2. Gathering regular feedback from beneficiaries on the progress of the project, maintain updated contact lists
3. Regularly inform UNVs at District level on progress and issue of project and gather feedback from them

Partnership building:

1. Liaison with local authorities including District, Block Panchayats and Gramsabhas and major economic players such as banking and credit institutions, relevant production companies, etc.
2. Organize public events, workshops, competitions, training and other events that may be necessary to implement or improve the impact of UNDP’s interventions.
3. Suggest and, if agreed by supervisor, develop innovative partnerships that can boost the impact of the programme.

Communication and public accountability:

1. Ensure that beneficiaries and all key local stakeholders are regularly updated on the programme’s goals and status including commitments and status of implementation of partner and contractors.
2. Take pictures and maintain updated photo data base of ongoing project activities
3. Interpretation support to State Manager when needed

Office work (20%)

Planning and reporting

1. Prepare and update field deployment plans
2. Support the State Manager in developing Annual and Quarterly Workplans
3. Prepare inputs to risk and issue logs and documentation of lessons learned
4. Prepare other written inputs to plan and implement the programme such as specific field reports, terms of reference, etc.
5. Translation support to State Manager when needed

State level liaison (5%)

Liaise support for programme at State level

1. Leverage continous support of State Government, UNICEF and other counterparts for programme
2. Update counterparts on status of programme
3. Provide any other networking and logistical support that may be needed for supervisor or Programme Coordinator

Eligibility:

Education: Masters degree in relevant fields- political science, public administration, rural development/ management, law, public policy or social sciences.

Experience:   

1. Minimum 5 to 7 years of relevant experience in contributing to medium to large scale social mobilization projects with poor communities
2. At least 2-3 years of substantive engagement with projects focusing on women’s empowerment at state/national level
3. Knowledge of gender in development issues and sensitivity to deal with diverse sections of the society
4. Experience in gender, inclusion, gender based planning, campaign management is an asset
5. Familiarity with the work of CSOs/NGOs in the field of livelihood promotion and enterprise development.
6. Experience of working in a multi-sectoral team and as a team worker
7. Relevant experience in documentation and preparation of reports/ communications material on relevant issues
8. Specialized experience in the area of social mobilization, gender inclusion and women’s empowerment is desirable
9. Relevant project experience in Gujarat is strongly desired
10. Prior experience of working with government, international development agencies and/or national NGOs will be an advantage

Knowledge and Skills

Corporate Competencies:

1. Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
2. Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDPDisplays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
3. Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

1. Knowledge of Results based management tools and quality assurance of field based large programmes
2. Strategic planning, strong leadership and effective team player.
3. Sound knowledge of relevant legislations and constitutional provisions/amendments, especially in the context of Gujarat.
4. Focuses on impact and result and responds positively to feedback
5. Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
6. Demonstrates strong oral and written documentation and communication skills.
7. Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors.
8. High interpersonal skills, and ability to remain calm and in control under pressure.
9. Ability to prioritise assignments and requirements, and multitask as needed.
10. Good interpersonal skills and ability to work with people and multi sectoral teams to achieve results.
11. Usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, Power Point etc).
12. Monitoring aptitude in rural context.

Language Requirements: Fluency in spoken and written English and Hindi

How to apply: Apply online by visiting http://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/operations/careers/ (Copy and paste in your browser)

Last date for the application: 6 Oct, 2013

Reference: UNDP