Project coordinator (H/F)

The Horn of Africa (HoA) project, financed by the European Union (EU) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Expertise France (EF), aims to support the member states of the Horn of Africa (HoA) region to enhance their public sector service delivery through improved and secure digital delivery channels that contribute to a harmonization of policies and initiatives and the creation of a single digital market in the HoA region.

Indeed, the Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) was launched in October 2019 by the governments of Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to identify and harmonise regional approaches that address common challenges in the region. The present six member states of the Initiative (including Sudan as newest member since May 2021) have set ambitious goals for a coordinated regional approach on issues ranging from regional connectivity and infrastructure, economic integration and employment promotion, to resilience building and human capacity development. The adoption of digital technologies, especially those that enable digital public service delivery, have been identified as bearing strong development potential and is a strategic priority for the HoAI.

The Action therefore aims to support the HoAI member states in developing the necessary strategic, institutional, regulatory, and human capacities needed to establish regional digital government services. To be able to offer secure digital services, the Action also focusses on strengthening an efficient, effective and sustainable cybersecurity in the region. It complements national related programmes and regional intitaives, notably those supported by other development partners supporting HoAI.

The overall objective of the Action is to harmonise the regulatory, technical and legal initiatives in the HoA towards a single digital market.

The specific objectives of the Action are to enhance the digital service delivery of the HoAI through:

implementing regional e-government building blocks;

and to develop and improve national and regional cybersecurity in the HoA region.

General objective

A Project team (including a Project coordinator (for cybersecurity thematic), a Liaison officer, a Cybersecurity expert and a project assistant) will be based in Nairobi to implement a Cybersecurity project. They will work smoothly with relevant partners in order to reach the following result:

• Activities are implemented in line with the logical framework and follow-up is ensured;


• Circulation of information is fluid, both internally and externally;


• Achievement of the results outlined in the project proposal in coordination with the experts to complete in a timely and successful manner deliverables.

Short-term experts will contribute to the project on an ad-hoc basis, depending on needs expressed by project partners and activities to be implemented.

The Project Coordinator will be the “bridge” between the Project’s team in the field and the management team based in Paris.

He/she is responsible of the smooth daily functioning of the project’s office. He/she supervises and plans the work of the office managers.

He/she contributes to the development of the project strategy and ensures that the work plan of activities proposed by the long term experts is consistent with the project strategy. He/she is charge of consolidating the project progress report, to be then submitted to EF Head quarter (HQ).

He/she is in charge of the operational management of the project in the field. He/she will support the team of experts in planning and budgeting activities and will ensure the follow-up and coordination of activities. He/she is in charge of the management of all logistical, financial and administrative aspects related to activities.

He/she supervises the development and implementation of the project communication and visibility plan.

He/she is also responsible for ensuring the project’ compliance with the European Commission (EC) requirements, notably with regards to reporting, audit, procurement and visibility, and with EF internal procedures.

• Description of the task to be assigned

Go-between the project and EF HQ:

• Ensure adequate level of information of EF HQ;


• Ensure periodic follow-up through regular team meetings;


• Ensure that all relevant documents are saved on EF shared folders and that channels of communication and information sharing, amongst experts on one side, and between experts and HQ on the other, are efficient;


• Build up a database of short term experts and contacts in the region;


• Coordinate the preparation of annual narrative reports and provide final inputs for submission to EF HQ;

Management of the project team in the field:

• Coordinate the work of the team in the field;


• Supervise the local staff in the field (work objectives, daily management);


• Supervise the local office (relationships with service providers notably).

Definition of intervention strategy:

• Support the Key Experts with the elaboration of a project strategy;


• Contribute to the development of the project logical framework;


• Ensure that indicators of performance set in the logical framework are monitored and updated;


• Participate in the inception phase of the project and in the formulation of the work plan and ensure that the work plan developed by the Key Experts is consistent with the project strategy;


• Design, develop, steer and adjust, when necessary, activities;


• Ensure quality control and appropriate implementation of the activities under her/his responsibility;


• Ensure regular high-quality reporting on project activities and annual reporting.

Coordination and support to the implementation of activities to ensure the global coherence of the project:

• Ensure planning, budgeting and coordination of activities with experts and support staff;


• Ensure that logistic needs are met and the organization of activities goes smoothly;


• Supervise the submission of ToR related to short term expertise needs, according to the timeline set in the planning of activities table.

Project’s and EF’s representation towards the EU, technical and financial partners and other key stakeholders:

• Together with the Key Experts, establish regular and fluid circulation of information on activities, with EU Delegations, French embassies, and any other relevant key stakeholders;


• Network with relevant stakeholders in partner countries and maintain a closed working relationship with local administrations, and relevant regional and international organisations;


• Contribute to the organization of kick-off and closing events, as well as steering committees.

Follow-up of administrative, financial, logistics, security and communication aspects of the project:

• Contribute to the elaboration of administrative and financial rules for the project and ensure that the rules are followed by the field team;


• In particular, ensure that EF processes, including procurement processes are met, and be responsible for documenting the processes (contracts, invoices);


• Draft contracts with partners, service providers and experts for submission to EF HQ;


• Draft ToRs and involve short-term experts where appropriate and in coordination with EF;


• Implement a security plan and ensure that all experts act in conformity with security rules;


• Plan and incur expenses related to the field office and to the implementation of activities in the region; be responsible for the management of the project’s cashier;


• Supervise the development and implementation of the communication and visibility plan and ensure that the EU visibility requirements are met.

Any other task requested by Expertise France

Methodology

The final methodology will be fine-tuned during the inception phase. An initial meeting will take place at the beginning of the inception phase, with representatives of implementing organisations and the project team, to discuss the mission objectives, expected methodology and results.

Inception phase

These Terms of Reference (ToR) shall be revised on the basis of the strategy developed during the inception phase.

The first six months of inception will be dedicated to an in-depth situation analysis through a series of fact-finding missions in each of the target countries to develop a project strategy tailored to the beneficiaries needs and complementary to existing initiatives.

To contribute to the inception report notably in relation to:

• The mapping of existing initiatives and stakeholders in the region in relation to cybersecurity;


• The needs assessment at HoAI and Member States level in relation to cybersecurity;


• The analysis of the working relationship between HoAI and Member States;


• The work plan, including the strategy and methodology to adopt and a list of activities to be implemented.

Implementation phase

• Periodic reports as per the methodology developed during the inception phase;


• Missions reports as per the methodology developed during the inception phase;


• Final report as per the methodology developed during the inception phase;


• Any additional deliverables requested by EF in relation to this project.

How to apply

Period of implementation: January 2022 - December 2024

The indicative implementation period is 38 months. It will start with a 6-month inception phase, followed by a 32-month implementation phase.

Place: Nairobi, Kenya, with field missions in the HoA region

Documents to submit:

• CV


• Cover Letter

Apply to the link below:

https://expertise-france.gestmax.fr/7027/1/project-coordinator-h-f/en_US