Project Manager (Opened to Nationals of Kazakhstan Only)

Contract

This is a SB-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Service Board / Service Contract. It is normally only for nationals. More about SB-4 contracts.

Background

Position Information

Job Title:

Projects:

Type of Contract:

Location:

Duration:

Employment:

Level:

Supervisor:

Project Manager

• Acceleration of a Digital Social Services Delivery Model to address the needs of the most vulnerable in Kazakhstan;
• Other small projects and initiatives of UN Women Country Office Kazakhstan

Service Contract

Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

6 months (with possible extension)

Full time

SB4 Peg 2

Programme Specialist UN Women Country Office Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected hard-won development gains. The socio-economic crisis triggered by the pandemic is exacerbating the scale of financial hardship among poor families and households and threatens to roll back years of progress in reducing poverty and to leave many, such as children and women from vulnerable groups, deprived of essential services. Never before has the importance of partnership to deliver as one been so important as it is today. In the wake of the first pandemic wave, some lessons have been gleaned. An important one is that the Government, agencies and service providers continued to work with beneficiaries within their own silos, as defined by their individual mandates. The silo mentality resulted in the lack of focus on the most vulnerable in society. Unless these lessons are learned swiftly, the further lockdown measures will further entrench this fragmented approach towards those who need the support the most. Four important observations have been identified during the first wave of the pandemic: Firstly, interventions that urgently and rapidly address the assessment, targeting and delivery of state social services to the most vulnerable groups need to be tackled in an integrated manner. Secondly, these interventions need to be deployed digitally to offset the risks associated with lock downs and other movement restrictions. Thirdly, given the ferocious pace of the pandemic, a robust common learning architecture is required to garner and implement insights during implementation, with a view of adapting the response accordingly, while building resilience to contextual risks. Lastly, in order to augment the efficiency and effectiveness of results attained in the long term, there needs to be a stronger focus on national ownership to facilitate a sustainable shift from a strong reliance on exogenous short-term funding to longer-term national financing modalities. The possible multiple phases of the pandemic mean that digital transformation tools become ever more important. This is consistent with line ministries’ policies related to both responsiveness to the pandemic but also long-term national development aspirations. As a result, this project aims to leverage existing digital tools to deliver a platform capable of rapidly and efficiently collecting, integrating and processing information on the most vulnerable groups in Kazakhstan, to the broader partner ecosystem that analyzes, targets and processes support for vulnerable groups in an integrated manner.

The proposed project is dedicated to creating a holistic, gender-responsive, seamless and efficient system of effective social support for the most vulnerable groups of society in Kazakhstan, mitigating the effect of socio-economic shocks and upholding the UN principle of “leaving no one behind”. The catalytic effect of this project is enormous from a financial and project effectiveness and efficiency perspective. The data-centric approach ensures an integrated, one-stop shop that will improve the mobilization of external and national resources. It also augments the efficiency and effectiveness of the project and partner pipeline initiatives by increasing the resilience of the social protection system during crises and its responsiveness to the real immediate needs of the most vulnerable groups in society. Finally, one of the most valuable aspects of the project is its strong focus on partner cooperation and a shared risk approach. Whereas the Government will have a key role in setting up and implementing the system, NGOs will have an important awareness-raising role among other actors engaged with vulnerable groups, such as the private sector and academia. The later will make use of the data for research purposes to further curate and disseminate knowledge and help widen the evidence base at country level. The strong approach on co-creation through inclusion of the partner end-users from the outset strengthens relevance and utility of the results going forward.

UN Women will support scaling-up of the system of social support services for survivors of violence by integrating electronic database component specifically targeting early prevention and detection of violence in the family and by widening access to special social services for survivors of domestic violence. Digitalization of such services will be essential, especially during the lockdown when access to quality essential services is limited, to help women without recourse to cope or escape situations of violence. Also, given the existing gender digital divide, women and girls, especially those who face multiple forms of discrimination, may not have access to a mobile phone, computer, or internet to access services or be able to safely use these at home as they may be closely monitored by the perpetrator and other family members. Thus, it is important to ensure that the social worker has means of contacting and monitoring such families, and that the protocol for violence survivors' detection is well-designed. UN Women will build on its existing expertise in developing and commissioning electronic database on cases of violence against women, render expert support in developing and integrating specialized module into the social services map and build capacity of stakeholders (local administrations, law enforcement bodies, social workers, civil society organizations etc.) in early identification of social risks, prevention and referral in response to violence against women.

The proposed project is high profile and urgent to implement in order to protect vulnerable groups in time when poverty, inequality and vulnerability are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, width and depth.

The key National partner in project implementation will be the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, which is in charge of social services delivery and leads the Government efforts to address the needs of the most vulnerable.

Outcome: The Family Social Card platform and applications are developed, successfully launched, and tested by the government.

• Output 1. Assessing current business processes in the context of difficult life scenarios within each relevant government agency.
• Output 2. Developing a mathematical model to assess and predict the vulnerability level of the individual.
• Output 3. Creating a scoring model to match vulnerable populations with appropriate support measures.
• Output 4. Developing a mobile/ tablet application for social workers

Organizational Context

Given the importance and profile of this initiative, project will be coordinated by the RCO and implemented by UNDP, UN Women and UNESCO, which will leverage their combined comparative advantages to ensure that this immediate Covid-19 challenge is addressed.

Under guidance of the UN Women Programme Specialist, the Project Manager is responsible for the timely and quality delivery of project outputs and outcomes. S/he will ensure effective implementation of daily activities of the Project and compliance with appropriate UN Women policies and procedures.

The Project Manager supervises short-term consultants providing the services in the framework of the project and works in close collaboration with UNDP and UNESCO focal points responsible for implementation of assigned components of the project. The Project Manager will be supported by the UN Women communications and operations teams

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Manager will be responsible for overall implementation of projects. The Project Manager is expected to closely cooperate with project counterparts: National Information Technologies Joint Stock Company, General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry, Ministry of Education and Science, Human Resources Development Centre JSC, UN agencies and local authorities and other relevant parties involved in project’s implementation.

Project and Financial Management

The Project Manager is expected to:

• effectively plan and implement the Project and ensure attainment of the overall project objectives with participation of all interested parties, in accordance with the project proposal;
• timely prepare, coordinate, approve with the Donor, implement and track the project implementation plans (work and procurement plans, budget and delivery projection, monitoring and other planning and implementation documents);
• ensure timely and quality reporting: UN Women corporate reports through timely monitoring in RMS and Atlas, project progress and final reports, interim and certified financial reports;
• timely preparation and submission of good quality financial reports to the donor and other relevant parties;
• ensure effective communication with partners for delivery of results;
• supervise research activities and elaboration of joint knowledge products to ensure adherence to UN Women standards;
• build partnerships with state bodies and international organizations;
• contribute to work of the UN Women in accordance with the UN Women triple mandate (normative support, UN system coordination and operational activities for results);
• ensure effective application of RBM tools and monitoring for achievement of project results;
• monitor and analyze the project environment and progress, using applicable M&E and risk management tools where relevant, and advise on timely re-adjustment of strategies and corrective actions and measures;
• timely enter project related information into the Results Management System (RMS), Donor Agreements Management System (DAMS) and Atlas in accordance with the delegation of Authority;
• effectively manage, monitor, and track financial allocations/resources, ensure project delivery payments in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, and procedures; regularly generate Atlas reports, including combined delivery reports;
• provide regular inputs to the corporate system Atlas for financial and programme management on project progress, financial status, and various logs; timely and in a good quality conduct budget revisions when applicable;
• ensure effective project non-core funds delivery/spending at 100% by the end of the project;
• prepare procurement plans and oversee procurement and logistics for project implementation;
• organize, conduct or/and contribute to organization of Technical Working Groups and Steering Committees;
• provide inputs to press releases, social media posts and other communication materials;
• collect, structure and share knowledge materials developed in the framework of the project;
• perform other duties as required.

Human resources management and coordination

The Project Manager is expected to:

• manage consultants/sub-contractors effectively by ensuring optimal workload distribution;
• supervise work of project consultants/sub-contractors and conduct performance reviews in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations and procedures;
• develop timely and in a good quality Terms of Reference for consultants/potential service providers and ensure proper delivery of technical services and submission of technical and other reports;
• comply with security and safety requirements and regulations and ensure the same are respected by all consultants;
• provide regular updates on the project progress to the supervisor;
• work closely with other UN Women initiatives to ensure that the project is contributing effectively to overall performance of the UN Women on the regional and global levels;
• ensure regular communication and coordination with project donor and partners and develop and maintain effective mechanisms for integrating and responding to their feedback and insights;
• ensure careful selection of communication tools and tailoring the messages taking into account overall socio-political and development context in the countries of the region;
• provide inputs to the corporate documents as per requests from UN Women Regional Office and HQ;
• contribute to the Resource Mobilization by undertaking horizon scanning and explore opportunities for resource mobilization in consultation with the UN Women regional office for Europe and Central Asia;
• provide suggestions and inputs to projects proposals documents, project documents and project budgets;
• perform other duties as required.

Impact of Results

1. Number of Ministries the databases of which are integrated to the Family Social Card platform. It is expected that the platform will integrate the databases on people with vulnerabilities provided by at least three key Ministries;
2. Number of social workers using the Family Social Card mobile/tablet application. There are over 20,000 social workers in Kazakhstan. During this stage, at least 200 social workers will be targeted to test the application. The targeted value will be calculated by accessing the information on unique log-ins into the application;
3. Number of public sector staff users of the Family Social Card platform - Public sector staff include those on a national level (Ministries) and on a local level (relevant departments);
4. Number of vulnerable individuals mapped into the Family Social Card platform - Population databases that will be integrated into the platform will have national data. During this stage, a subset population will be mapped based on the selected pilot region/ regions.

Competencies

Core values:

• demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards;
• demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
• displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Core competencies:

• excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, both orally and in writing, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences;
• ability to, interact, establish and maintain effective working relations with a culturally diverse team, as a team member, to build trust, and to manage in a deliberate, transparent and predictable way;
• ability to establish and maintain productive partnerships with national partners and stakeholders and pro-activeness in identifying of beneficiaries and partners’ needs and matching them to appropriate solutions.

Managerial competencies:

• ability to develop clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies;
• ability to identify priority activities and tasks and allocate appropriate time and resources for effective and efficient work completion;
• ability to monitor progress against milestones and deadlines;
• ability to handle effectively multiple tasks without compromising quality, team spirit and positive working relationships;
• ability to foresee risks and develop mitigation strategies.

More about UN Women's values and competencies can be found following the link below:

https://unwomen.sharepoint.com/management/Human-Resources/2016%20HR%20Intranet/Values%20and%20Competencies/Values%20%26%20competencies_updated_EN.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University/ Master’s degree in IT, project management, public administration, business administration or related field

Experience:

• At least 8 years of substantive experience working in or directly related to project management;
• proven record of theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women, ending violence against women, economic empowerment of socially vulnerable women;
• proven communication and advocacy skills, and ability to work in an environment requiring liaison and collaboration with multiple actors including government representatives, donors and other stakeholders;
• maturity, excellent interpersonal, negotiation and team leading skills required;
• proven project management skills, including managing large scale initiatives;
• ability to work to tight deadlines and to handle multiple concurrent project components and competing priorities;
• excellent computer skills with ability to use information technology as a tool and resource.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in Russian/ Kazakh and English with proven drafting and presentation skills;