Iraq: Project Managers

Feb 6, 2021 | Cooperazione Internazionale
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COOPI Cooperazione Internazionale is a humanitarian, non-confessional and independent organization founded in 1965 in Milan, Italy. For more than 50 years we have been dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty and to supporting populations affected by wars, socio-economic crises or natural disasters in their path to recovery and sustainable development, by making use of the professionalism of local and international operators, and through our partnerships with public and private bodies and civil society organizations.

COOPI is active in Iraq since end of 2016, it is officially registered in Kurdish Region of Iraq since March 2017 and in Federal Iraq since September 2018. Since then, COOPI has implemented a series projects in the sector of Education in Emergency in Al Qayyarah (Mosul district) with funding from AICS (Italian Government) and private donors. In 2019, COOPI started intervening with WASH programming and emergency cash interventions in Salah ad Dihn governorate, one of the most affected by the crisis. In 2021 COOPI will bring education, child protection, and livelihoods programming in the area, in an attempt to provide a holistic response to the needs of the most vulnerable returnees and IDPs, especially those living in informal settlements.

This project represents a step forward in reference to COOPI’s programme in country : the addition of a livelihoods intervention will provide a link between humanitarian programming and durable solutions for the returnee population by promoting the socio-economic re-integration of vulnerable returnees and IDPs in the communities of origin. 

Purpose of the vacancy

The project has a duration of 12 months and is located in Shirqat district (Salah ad Dihn Governorate). The general objective of the project is to promote the resilience of returning populations through socio-economic re-integration in the areas of origin. Specifically, the project aims at contributing to the creation of sustainable livelihoods for the families of returnees inhabiting the informal settlements of Al-Shirqat, in collaboration with the host community. Two results will contribute to this objective:

  • The skills necessary for the professional integration of young people and returnees in Shirqat are strengthened
  • The economic opportunities of the returnee population and the local population have improved
  • The project will target 120 vulnerable young people and women living in the informal settlements of Shirqat, who will benefit from life-skills training and technical management training. In addition to 40 local businesses and 500 host community members.

Refers to: Head of Mission

We encourage international staff already in the country to apply.

Main responsibilities

Activity planning and management 

  • In cooperation with the project staff, he/she plans and monitors the activities’ progress, in compliance with the contract signed with the donor and with COOPI and the donor’s procedures;
  • He/she prepares monthly reports to the head of mission and regularly organizes project review meetings to identify issues and discuss solutions with relevant heads of department;
  • He/she collaborates with the MEAL team to ensure adequate project monitoring, including through the implementation of the AAP mechanism, and the prompt integration of any findings and recommendations into the project implementation;
  • In collaboration with the Head of Mission, he/she contributes at analyzing possible opportunities of project designing/funding.
  • He/she elaborates, writes and prepares all necessary documents to present new projects, in accordance with the organization’s processes and procedures, with particular reference to AICS;
  • He/she cooperates with the Communication and Fund-Raising office for all communication, awareness and fund raising activities implemented in and for the country, also supporting the donor’s visibility.

Staff Management 

  • He/she regularly meets with the local partner to organize joint programmatic activities;
  • He/she consistently monitors partners’ activities to ensure the upholding of the highest quality standards;
  • He/she reviews partners technical and financial reports, in collaboration with the project administrator;
  • He/she plans and organizes capacity building activities for the local partner;

Administrative and financial management

  • In collaboration with the Project Administrator/ Administrative Coordinator he/she plans all expenditures;
  • He/she regularly monitors all incurred expenditures on the project’s budget;
  • He/she supervises accounting and the project cash safe/bank account management and, where there was no dedicated staff, he/she directly manages the accounting and the project cash safe/bank accounts, using the instruments made available by the organization (Desy).

Logistics

  • In cooperation with the Project Administrator and in coordination with the HQ Administrative Coordinator he/she prepares the Purchases Plan;
  • He/she ensures the organization and donor’s procedures respect when purchasing goods and services;
  • He/she is responsible of the correct management of all goods purchased for the project, both directly and purchased by other offices/field offices. For all goods purchased by the project he/she updates the inventory, in cooperation with the Administrative Coordinator;
  • He/she contribute to strengthen the security assessment and ad hoc procedures, specifically applying the general country procedures to the specific context of the project.

Human Resources

  • In coordination with the Head of Mission and in compliance with the country’s rules/laws and with the COOPI’s regulation in the country, he/she selects the local staff to be employed in projects, and manages any other project’s expatriate staff;
  • He/she coordinates and supervises the work done by all the project staff, in compliance with the organization’s security procedures;
  • By making use of the organization’s tools, he/she evaluates the local staff employed for projects and he/she participates to the evaluation of his/her own project, upon request by his/her direct supervisor;
  • He/she is responsible for the initial and continuous training of the local staff under his/her responsibility.

Reporting

  • In coordination with the Head of Mission and with the Administrative Coordinator, he/she ensures the preparation, in compliance with the deadlines, of all financial and narrative reports – interim and final – expected by the project;
  • He/she is responsible for the preparation of all formal communication and contract modifications requests (ex. budget modification) of the project to the donor.

Institutional relations

  • In relation to the project of his/her competence, he/she communicates with the donors’ officers, the local authorities which are competent in the aspects related to the project, the project’s partners and beneficiaries, in compliance with the organization’s guidelines;
  • He/She will be a focal point, in coordination with the Head of Mission;
  • He/She represents COOPI in all relevant clusters and working groups, contributing to raise the organization’s profile and keeping the organization abreast on the latest technical guidance and recommendations;
  • He/she will report on COOPI activities on Activity info and participate in the NHO/HRP process as necessary.

Requirements

Education

  • Advanced degree in Business/Economics, International Development, Agriculture or a related field or equivalent work.

Experiences

  • Minimum 3 years experience in the humanitarian field and in a similar position, with a track record of success and results achieved, including at least 1 year implementing livelihoods programming.
  • Experience of working in project management on one or more among the main donors, with priority to AICS;
  • Experience of working within an insecure environment with responsibility for security planning, monitoring and management;
  • Professional experience in the region is an asset.

Hard skills

  • Certified advanced (or mother tongue) knowledge of Italian is mandatory;
  • Proficiency in written and spoken English;
  • Computer literacy, with high proficiency in the use of standard office software applications (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint);
  • Ability in project management in a comprehensive way (logistics, programme, reporting, staff management); and to use properly the standard project management tools;
  • Ability to conduct sectorial analysis and to understand and transform into possible proposal the policies and strategies of the donors;
  • Ability to organize and supervise a complex team;
  • Ability to organize work efficiently and deliver assignments in a timely manner often under time constraints;

Soft skills

  • Strong analytical and practical problem-solving skills;
  • Institutional relations management and cultural context understanding;
  • Strong supervisory abilities, and demonstrated capacity of teamwork and of coordination with the relevant actors;
  • Very good inter-personal and writing communication skills;

Plus

  • Knowledge of Arabic and / or will be an asset;
  • Previous experience with an international humanitarian NGO in a similar context will be an asset.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the application closing date, once a sufficient number of applications have been received.