International Individual Consultant – Advisor, Policy and Programme Planning Job Vacancy in Afghanistan

NSP consists of four core elements:
ï® Facilitation at the community level to assist communities establish inclusive community institutions known as Community Development Councils (CDCs);
ï® Building the capacities of CDC and community members;
ï® Providing direct block grant transfers to fund approved subprojects; and
ï® Linking CDCs to government agencies, NGOs, and donors to improve access to services and resources.

NSP proposes to cover an estimated 39,200 rural communities to achieve full national coverage. In addition to its core structure comprising over 800 national employees, the NSP contracts an international firm to serve as its Financial Management Agent (FMA) and other individual international and national consultants to provide technical assistance to its various departments. The NSP also contracts around 30 firms (including UN agencies and NGOs) to serve as Facilitating Partners (FPs).

II. Roles and Responsibilities:
1. Programme Strategic Management and Development
• Assist the Executive Director’s Office in strategic management of the programme by outlining long, medium and short term programme implementation plans.
• Assist the Executive Director’s Office with formulation and implementation of overall programme policies, as and when required.
• Assist the NSP senior management, by providing substantive advice and information, on translating strategic goals and vision into operational planning and activities.
• Assist the NSP senior management with the development of fund raising strategy for the programme.
• Review NSP and CDCs role in ANDS ARD sector strategy and provide policy recommendations to MRRD/NSP management.
• Review NSP’s role in building local governance systems and/or institutions in this country, and contribute to discussions with the IDLG and other partners on strengthening the NSP CDCs roles.
• Assist the Executive Director’s Office in over-seeing the services provided by the NSP Management Support Consultant team (MSC) in the MRRD/NSP management structure.
• Assist the Executive Director’s Office in reviewing and providing feedback to proposed policies, proposals and project documents submitted from the Operations Office.
• Ensure that activities of the NSP are coordinated with other national development programmes and are in line with MRRD’s strategic approach and plan.
• Focus on NSP III, including program design such as linkages outside of NSP, sustainability of institutions, etc.

2. External Relations:
2.1 Donors and other Non-Governmental Actors
• Assist the Executive Director’s Office to initiate proactive donor engagement and for briefing donors on the progress of the programme on a regular bases, and as and when requested by specific donors or potential donors.
• Organize the regular Donor Working Group Committee meetings, seeking donor input for agenda items.
• Organize and facilitate the donor supervision missions.
• Prepare project proposals in the required formats for potential new donors and/or potential new grants or additional funds to existing grants.
• Support the Executive Director’s Office in responding, on behalf of the MRRD Minister, to queries and/or concerns from non-governmental NSP stakeholders such as Facilitating Partners (FPs), the PRT, ISAF, Coalition forces, etc.
• Assist the NSP senior management in preparing and/or making presentations to these external parties on the Programme, as per the requirements of the occasion/event and/or requesting entity. 2.2 Government
• Help plan, organize and conduct national and/or regional CDC conferences with donor and other NSP stake holder participation.
• Advise on the development of a strategy to advocate and increase engagement with all relevant government ministries, including advocacy with other ministries to further utilize the CDCs and promote their sustainability.
• Support the Executive Director’s Office, in serving on behalf of the MRRD Minister, as the secretariat of the NSP Steering Committee.

3. Programme Information Dissemination
• Establish close relationship with the NSP MIS department, to take program information from the database for use as the central planning and reporting tool to MRRD, other government ministries, including the Parliament and donors.
• Support the NSP Public Communications Department with the development of a programme communications strategy aimed towards increasing political engagement and resource mobilization .
• Support the NSP Public Communication Department with the development of communication and relationship strategy with other Ministries, Donors, FPs, Media community and concerned parties.

4. Miscellaneous
Perform any other duties related to the programme, as may be reasonably requested.

III. Time Schedule
The assignment is expected to start in April 2012 and is for a period of Twelve (12) months, with an additional possible extension of 6 months if mutually agreed between both parties. The contract could be phased if so agreed between both parties during the contract negotiations.

IV. Qualification Requirements
V.A Academic Qualifications
The incumbent will have a post-graduate level degree in program management, development studies, community development, engineering, business administration or a closely related field and a proven management experience of a large development operation. V.B Work Experience
A minimum of 10 years working experience is required, a significant portion of which should have been gained in program management design, rural development and project implementation. Excellent interpersonal, analytical and report writing skills are essential. V.C Other Requirements
• Considerable knowledge in development and development partnerships.
• Fluency in English is essential (listening, reading, writing, speaking) and knowledge of Dari and Pashto would be an asset
• Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing.
• Ability to listen and ascertain the needs of various NSP stakeholders, especially donors and community members.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all related stakeholders.

VI. Duty Station and Reporting Requirements:

VI.A Duty Station: The duty station shall be the NSP HQ Offices located within the MRRD Compound in Darul Aman, Kabul, Afghanistan.

VI.B Reporting Requirements: The consultant reports to the NSP Executive Director(ED) on all work related issues, including HR issues (such as leave days, time sheets etc) of his/her contract.

How to apply:
Submission of Expression of Interest: The NSP/MRRD now invites eligible consultants to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested eligible candidates must provide both a cover letter and Curriculum Vitae (CV) as their Expression of Interest (EoI). The EoI should include clear information on the applicant’s key qualifications, employment history (including description of similar assignments, experience in similar programmes/conditions, previous remunerations etc), availability of appropriate skills, at least 2 professional work references (preferably from current or immediate previous employer), any specific conditions required by the applicant for the potential services, and statement on any disabilities or other factors that may hinder or affect the performing of the services. A consultant will be selected in accordance with ‘Section

V: Selection of Individual Consultants’ procedures set out in the World Bank’s Guidelines:
‘Selection and Employment of Consultants by World Bank Borrowers, version May 2004’. Interested consultants may obtain further information a) in person at the address below (from 08:00 to 16:00 hours from Saturday to Wednesday) or b) from the website indicated below or c) by email to the contact person indicated below.

Expressions of interest (EoI) must be delivered to the address below or by E-Mail to the ID shown below no later than 16:00 Hours on 19 March,2012. The subject line (of the email or the cover letter if submitted in person) should refer to the position being applied both by title and by the reference number stated in this document.

Note: No telephone inquires will be entertained.

Address of Focal Person for Enquires and Submission of EoIs: Mr. Abdul Mutalib Hanifi National Solidarity Program (NSP), Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), Afghanistan Address: NSP HQ Offices, MRRD Compound Tashkilat Street, Darul Aman Road, Kabul, Afghanistan E-mail to: m.hanifi@nspafghanistan.org with cc to d.hadi@nspafghanistan.org and j.anto@nspafghanistan.org Website: www.nspafghanistan.org

Closing Date: Monday, 19 March 2012