Project Manager at UNOPS

Organisational Context

• The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world.
• Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organisations.  With over 6,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.
• By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

Multi-Country Office Context

• The UNOPS Ghana Multi Country Office (GHMCO), located in Accra, Ghana is responsible for projects in Anglophone West Africa, covering Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
• GHMCO is responsible for managing strategic and operational risks engagements portfolio, developing and delivering cost effective services contributing to partners’ sustainable results and achievement of UNOPS management results.

Project Information

• The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) is a body under the Department  of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Nigeria. It is vested with the responsibility of formulating and facilitating National malaria policy and guidelines, coordinating the activities of partners and stakeholders on malaria elimination activities, providing technical support to States’ malaria programmes, Local Government Areas (LGAs) and other stakeholders in the private sector; mobilising resources, monitoring and evaluating progress and outcomes in malaria elimination efforts across Nigeria.
• The Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) has received funding to implement a 5 year project pertaining to elimination of Malaria in Nigeria and specific to Four (4) States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory; namely Bayelsa, Edo, Enugu, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory.
• The objective is to improve the delivery and uptake of malaria prevention and treatment activities in Eligible States to achieve at least 80% universal coverage of vector control, Seasonal Malaria Chemoprophylaxis (SMC) both at household or population levels and case management in the public sector of the Eligible States.
• It is anticipated that during the period of the Project implementation, the overall burden of malaria in the country will reduce from current figures of 27% to ≤ 15%.
• The project scope includes (i) acquisition and distribution of Antimalarial commodities (LLINs, RDTs and Antimalarial Drugs) (ii) Capacity building and social mobilisation, (iii) Malaria case management (iv) Monitoring and evaluation and (v) Support to project implementation.
• On Account of the Agreement between Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) and the Financier, the FRN has engaged UNOPS to support the implementation of component 1 (i.e. the acquisition of Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs), Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) and Anti-Malarial Drugs) on behalf of the NMEP. Under the procurement agreement between UNOPS and FRN, UNOPS will procure and deliver the goods using its procurement rules and procedures. The project will be implemented over a 24-month duration.

Position Information

• The Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries.
• The Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage.
• The main responsibility of the Project Manager is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organisation’s performance and delivery goals.
• The Project Manager is responsible for creating the Implementation Plan, use the Project Initiation Documents (PID), Legal Agreement and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders to ensure the project outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partner(s).
• The Success of the project(s), hence the success of Project Manager will be based on the defined Success Criteria.
• She/He will be managing the project whose ultimate goal is to provide implementation services that contribute to the achievement of partners’ goals. Project Management role in UNOPS is quite diverse and can range from development of strategies to delivery of training or providing technical assistance.
• While the complexity of those projects may vary, maintaining high standards in terms of quality, efficiency and sustainability is always expected.

Summary of functions
She/He will be responsible for the following summary of Functions:

• Project Delivery and Performance
• Procedures
• Monitoring and reporting
• Stakeholder engagement
• Quality assurance
• Knowledge management and innovation
• Personnel Management

Project Delivery and Performance:

• Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s).
• Implement the approved plan (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board.
• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life span.
• Manage the production of the required outputs, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.
• Ensure that quality of work packages and deliverables complies with the quality requirements defined in the Implementation Plan.
• Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers.
• Manage acceptance and delivery of work packages.
• Monitor project progress ensuring that work packages are being executed properly.
• Control project and work packages changes.
• Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advise mitigating measures to senior management/ Project Board so that maximum benefit to partner(s) and other stakeholders is achieved.
• Identify and report to the supervisor potential business opportunities for UNOPS.

Procedures:

• Comply with all organisational policy and specifically the Project Management Manual.
• Prepare/adapt all relevant plans for approval by the Project Board.
• Manage the reporting obligations defined in the Legal Agreement(s) and in the Implementation Plan.
• Ensure maintenance of the project files and lessons learned are recorded.
• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.
• Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project.
• Understand the unique structures of the UN and budget appropriately for personnel.
• Manage expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)
• Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.
• For project closure purposes, provide a formal handover of the project to the closure manager.
• Support project audit activities, including planning, preparation and coordination during the audits and follow up on audit observations/recommendations.

Monitoring and Reporting:

• Prepare and issue regular project and/or financial reports in accordance with Partner and UNOPS requirements for reporting.
• Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).
• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by the organization’s standard procedures.
• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system
• Ensure all project team members track and regularly update milestones and targets for the duration of projects’ life span.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies.
• Establish solid working relationships with the Project Board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders.
• Enable the formulation of project communications plans.
• Coordinate internal project communications.
• Monitor the effectiveness of project communications.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications.
• Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover outputs.

Quality Assurance:

• Work with internal stakeholders to ensure projects comply with audit requirements.
• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers’ quality systems.
• Coordinate quality reviews of project documents and deliverables.
• Provide quality control for management outputs (project documents, reports, etc.).

Knowledge Management and Innovation:

• Encourage routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.
• Actively interact with other Project Managers and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices.
• Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner.
• Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice
• Research and logging of lessons learned throughout the project life span.
• Provide feedback to Practice Groups on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies.

Personnel Management: 

• Lead and motivate the project management team.
• Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established.
• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely.
• Select, recruit and train a team as required and taking into account gender parity and diversity objectives.
• Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards.

Impact of Results:

• Project Manager directly impacts on achievement of project results by adhering to project management methods and strategies, reducing risks, cutting costs and improving success rates.
• consequently reinforces the visibility and image of  UNOPS as an effective service provider in project services and management and strengthens its competitive position as a partner of choice in sustainable development and project services.

Education / Experience / Language Requirements
Education:

• A Master’s Degree (Advanced University Degree or Higher) in Project Management, Business Administration, International Development, Public Health, Pharmacy, Regulatory Affairs, or other relevant disciplines in the sciences is required.
• A Bachelor’s Degree (First Level University Degree) in Project Management, Business Administration, International Development, Public Health, Pharmacy, Regulatory Affairs, or other relevant disciplines in the sciences with a combination of additional two (2) years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of a Master’s Degree.

Certification:

• PRINCE2 Foundation and/or Practitioner Certification or equivalent highly desirable.
• MSP certification (Foundation and/or Practitioner) is an advantage.

Work Experience: 

• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience in implementing and delivering projects/programmes for International/Corporate organisations is required.
• Previous experience in pharmaceutical supply management and/or procurement and distribution of medical equipment and medical devices is an asset.
• Previous experience in team management is an asset.
• Relevant experience in project planning and scheduling, stakeholder management and budget management is an advantage.
• Hands-on experience in supporting malaria control and/or other public health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa will be an added advantage.
• Procurement experience with exposure to public procurement processes and experience in assessing critical linkages between procurement and business functions is an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience working with Government on donor-funded projects is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience working with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams is an asset.
• Experience in the use of google software packages (Google Doc, Sheets and Slides) and experience in handling web-based management systems is an added advantage.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in written, reading and spoken English Language is required.