1. Organizational Context
The Department of Policy at the Ministry of Finance is the leading national policy-making, planning and
program in the country. The Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS), the national plan and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Afghanistan provides direction and foundation for the development activities in Afghanistan. It has three pillars namely security, governance and socio-economic development covering about 17 sectors. In July 2009, the Government reviewed first year of the implementation of ANDS and found that progress was limited in the absence of clearly defined priorities. It was realized that there was a need for prioritization of ANDS in view of the limited resources and implementation capacity within the government. The Government outlined its ANDS prioritization plan at the London Conference through a framework to “cluster” ministries in the same or related sectors and development of National Priority Programs. The goal of the Cluster mechanism is to increase collaboration between Ministries, remove over-lapping and duplication and to develop and implement a clear, prioritized agenda aimed at addressing the key development challenges of the sector. Each cluster is having a certain number of National Priority Programs (NPPs), The Kabul Conference approved the concepts of these NPPs and directed the Government to report progress on the implementation of these NPPs every 100 days. The concept notes of the National Priority Programs are being developed into full-fledged proposals with situation analysis, identification of gaps, interventions needed and their details, implementation plan for 3 years, implementation constraints and plan to overcome them, budget and costing. These programs need to be worked upon continuously to improve their costing at the appropriate levels, integrate them with the national budget structure, organizing funding, etc. The Policy Department has an ANDS Directorate, that is responsible for all mentioned above. The Civilian Technical Assistance Program (CTAP) is an Afghan government program that aims to create stronger government institutions with more effective structures, efficient processes and skilled personnel. It assists Afghan government organizations to implement capacity development and performance improvement programs by providing them with skilled international technical experts and capacity development advisors. On behalf of the Ministry of Finance, CTAP is now seeking to fill the position of Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor to work in the Policy Executive General Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, under the supervision of the Director General of Executive Policy Affairs. This position is open to international passport holders only: Afghan expatriates and nationals of regional countries are especially encouraged to apply.
Position 2.1 Nature and Scope of Assignment
This assignment involves supporting a government-led capacity development program within Ministry of Finance and Policy Executive General Directorate. The successful candidate will provide technical advice; management support and capacity inputs to the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation under the supervision of the Director General Policy Execution to fulfill their responsibilities related to the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the NPPs and the cluster processes. The successful applicant will be expected to work with and through his/her Afghan national counterpart, and to progressively transfer skills and responsibilities to them. This position does not involve management or line responsibilities.
2.2 Duties and Responsibilities
Working with the Director General of Executive Policy Affairs/Director of Monitoring and Evaluation , with assistance from the CTAP Capacity Development team and other relevant staff and advisors, the Monitoring and Evaluation advisor will:
• Provide assistance in developing a work plan, after studying the current system, to support the operations and maintenance of the current Monitoring and Accountability System (MAS) in agreement with the General Directorate.
• Provide assistance in preparing a plan for increasing depth and reach of the MAS by decentralizing it to other ministries and including provincial/financial monitoring.
• Provide assistance in preparing a plan for technical up gradating to a web-based System and create an appropriate database.
• Provide assistance in developing a plan to evaluate the work of the NPP/Cluster mechanisms.
• Develop manuals, guidelines and other documents for smooth functioning of MAS and capacity building.
• Prepare a plan to build capacity for monitoring and evaluation within MoF and the cluster ministries with special focus on the activities of the MAS. Also Prepare and implement capacity building action plans for smooth and effective introduction and working of new elements in MAS.
• Assist the Director to Monitor the generation of periodic monitoring reports both quantitative as well as qualitative, and also the synthesis report for NPPs/clusters.
• Assist the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation in aligning the quarterly action plans with the implementation plans of NPPs and ensuring necessity, sufficient and relevant activities leading to expected deliverables in the action plans.
• Assist in donor consultation mechanisms for monitoring reports.
• Assist the General Directorate and relevant departments in all M&E related affairs.
• Design documents for information management process that enable the Ministry of Finance/Policy Department to fulfill its obligations to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the NPPs and national plans as outcome of Kabul Conference.
• Assess the availability of the required data in information systems presently in use in Afghanistan including the donor assistance database of the MoF (DAD), the Afghan Financial Management Information System of MoF (AFMIS); the Afghanistan Development Database MoEc (ADD); the Provincial Mapping of United Nation Activities (PMUNA) of UNAMA.
• Assist the M&E and database department designing and launching training programs to directorate staff and stakeholders.
• Make sure that all M&E tools, national indicators, M&E framework, data flow and MIS are consistent with modern day-to-day operation of ministry of Finance.
• Liaising with stakeholders, Ministry of Economy, Central Statistics Office, Donors, and other National and International organizations and make sure the mutual consistency of monitoring and evaluation, data flow/management and reporting mechanism.
• Baseline data and capacity need assessment in MoF/ Policy Department.
• Coach and mentor the Director General of Executive policy Affairs, M&E and database departments.
• Carry out other relevant tasks, which the Director General might allocate for achievement of department goals and objective
2.3 Deliverables The deliverables of the Monitoring and Evaluation advisor are:
• A Directorate able to effectively carry out operations and maintenance of the current Monitoring and Accountability System (MAS).
• The depth and reach of the current MAS increased
• MAS decentralized to other ministries including provincial/financial monitoring.
• An upgraded web-based system put in place and appropriate databases created. A Directorate capable of evaluating the function of the NPP/Cluster mechanisms.
• Manuals, guidelines and other documents for smooth functioning of MAS and capacity building in M&E developed.
• Staff at the directorate level fully trained in order to have the capacity for proper monitoring and evaluation process within the MoF and the cluster ministries with special focus on working with MAS.
• The Directorate acquiring the capacity for smooth and effective introduction and working with new elements in MAS.
2.4 Skills, Experience and Qualifications Required
The successful candidate should have the following skills, experience and qualifications:
• Having at least a master degree in policy development, organizational development, human resource development, business administration, public administration and other related subject
• Having 5 to 7 years experience in monitoring and evaluation and capacity development, policy, strategic plan development.
• Having excellent command of English language and knowledge of local languages is an advantage
• Having excellent command of common Microsoft Office programs
• Having excellent communication and interpersonal experience
• Having prior experience of working in a post conflict country
Afghan expatriates and nationals of countries in Afghanistan’s region are especially preferred for this position.
Afghan expatriates who currently hold MCP Employment Contract are not eligible to apply for CTAP Positions.
How to apply:
Application should be completed online via www.ctapafghanistan.org only short listed candidates whose background and experiences corresponds to the above criteria will be contacted for further consideration. CTAP is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Closing Date: Saturday, 24 March 2012
