Deputy Project Manager

Expertise France is a French public agency under the tutelage of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Finance with a strong inter- ministerial vocation. Expertise France offers project engineering and technical assistance by developing and implementing international cooperation actions worldwide. EF operates in various fields of development and institutional cooperation including safety and security reform, post-crisis/ stability, public health, human rights, strengthening of institutions and NGOs and governance. Carrying out large-scale, multi-stakeholder projects, EF can ensure the cooperation between individuals, teams and institutions with very different statuses, cultures and specialties. Besides, EF has acquired a sound experience in administrative and financial management of large-scale international projects and is accredited by the European Union for the management of delegated Community funds.

 Context

The Middle East is currently experiencing a profound crisis. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq are both a reflection and a transmitter of this crisis, with growing
potential to further destabilise neighbouring countries and the wider region. These crises have resulted in a humanitarian disaster affecting more than 13.5
million people who were forced to flee their homes from Syria, and more than 17 million people in need of humanitarian aid (12.2 in Syria and 5.2 in Iraq).

Lebanon is now home to the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita relative to its total population, putting a severe strain on the country’s fragile
infrastructures, economy, and security. The population of Lebanon was estimated at about 4.8 million (including almost half a million Palestinian refugees[1]) in 2013. Even though Lebanon has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, up to date it has taken in about a fourth of its own population. According to UNHCR, in September 2016 about 1,017,433 persons from Syria were registered as refugees in Lebanon.[2] In the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017- 2020 (2018 update) (LCRP), the total number of people living in Lebanon is estimated at 5.9 million, with 3.3 million people in need.
Among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon, which today comprises over 1.5 million people.[3]

 Background information on Qudra Specific Objective 3

’Qudra – Resilience for Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises’ is a regional action financed by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the Madad‘ Fund and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), seeking to strengthen the resilience of Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises.  The programme launched in June 2016, is being jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Expertise France (EF) and Spanish Agency for
International Development (AECID) in programme partner countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Iraq.

In Lebanon, ExpertiseFrance ensures the consistency and the implementation of the SpecificObjective 3 of Qudra. The project seeks to improve social stability betweencommunities in Lebanon through a comprehensive and local approach of protection for children and adults. To do so, activities will revolve around four pillars: (i) support to Social Development Centers (SDCs) of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), (ii) Child Protection activities, (iII) protection activities and (iv) dissemination of information. Expertise France will work within the framework of the LCRP and MoSA National Plan for Safeguarding women and children in close partnership with Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA). The programme will be implemented in the SDCs of the MoSA and if needed in annexes that might be developed during the project’s lifespan. Expertise France will select local NGOs as partners to implement the activities, these NGOs will hire the necessary staff and implement the activities following a precise programme drafted with the MoSA.

 Expertise France is looking for a Deputy Manager to support on the programme implementation and the 3 first pillars of the project. The position is based in Beirut with frequent travel to all regions of Lebanon where the activities will be implemented.

Description of the Tasks:

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager and in coordination with the Senior Technical Advisor and the Protection Consultant.

(1) Support to PM

-  Provide contextualized inputs to help steering the program;

-  When raised by partners, reports programmatic needs;

-  Support the integration of technical inputs, vision, conceptualization of the strategy, and planning into day-to-day programming activities;

-  Participate in all preparation phases: workplans (and achievable timeline) and budgets as well as in progress reports;

- Support the recruitment of implementing partners’ programme staff

-  Attend technical regional working groups and other coordination meetings in Beirut as agreed with the project manager; 

(2) Liaison with MoSA

- Under the supervision of the Senior Technical Advisor liaise with MoSA Beirut technical departments, MoSA Regional Focal Points and SDC directors toensure a smooth programme implementation;

- Provide MoSA with regular updates on programme implementation;

(3) Support to MoSA

-  Provide technical and programmatic support to MoSA regional offices, implementing partners and SDCs directors through regular field visits, or help recruiting relevant expertise to perform the tasks

- Identify programmatic and technical capacity building needs with MoSA regional offices, implementing partners and SDCs directors;

-  Support EF M&E officer in providing the relevant quantitative information to MoSA Beirut;

Requested Profile

-         Candidate must comply with the Lebanese law and be allowed to work in Lebanon.

-         Master degree in a relevant field such as, international relations, public policy, project management, protection;

-         5 years successful experience in management of social protection projects for vulnerable groups ideally refugees, IDPs, youth, women;

-         Experience in capacity-building project and a real commitment to supporting staff and organisations in their learning processes;

-         Capacity to source, find and disseminate information, expertise, and advocacy services;

-         Experience with public agencies/ public offices, European programmes is a plus;

-         Excellent knowledge of the Lebanese political context as well as of the relationship between host and refugee communities;

-         Diplomacy, patience and negotiation skills;

-         Computer skills: office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and database packages

-         Excellent reporting and writing skills 

-         Professional working knowledge of English & Arabic are required. French is an asset.