QUDRA 2 PROJECT ASSISTANT

Expertise France (EF) is a public agency created on 1st January 2015 under the supervision of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Finance with a strong inter-ministerial vocation. EF offers programme engineering and technical assistance by developing and implementing international cooperation actions worldwide. Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance.

EF designs and implements cooperation projects addressing skills transfers between professionals. The agency also develops integrated offers, assembling public and private expertise in order to respond to the partner countries' needs. With a business volume of 148 million Euros, a portfolio of over 500 projects in 100 countries, and 63,000 days of expert missions every year, Expertise France promotes French and European development policy goals.

EF operates in various fields of development and institutional cooperation including safety and security reform, public health, human rights, strengthening of institutions and NGOs and governance. Carrying out large-scale, multi-stakeholder programmes, EF can ensure the cooperation between individuals, teams and institutions with very different statuses, cultures and specialties. EF has acquired a sound experience in administrative and financial management of large-scale international programmes. www.expertisefrance.fr

Context

The multiple crises that have impacted Lebanon for several years have led to a serious deterioration in the standard of living of the population and increased the risks of economic, social and political instability in the country. With the start of the Syrian crisis in March 2011, more than one million people had to seek refuge in Lebanon. This influx of refugees has had significant human, social, economic and political repercussions and has weakened the structures of assistance to fragile populations. The last two years have been marked by the collapse of the economy, the October 2019 protests, the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosion of the Port of Beirut. This accelerated succession of economic and social humanitarian crises has led to a dramatic increase in poverty levels among displaced populations and vulnerable host communities.

Stabilisation and Resilience background

In Lebanon, the Stabilisation and Resilience Unit of Expertise France ensures the consistency and the coordination of two projects in the field of crisis management. The first project is a second phase of the QUDRA project funded by EU and BMZ, for the benefit of both Syrian refugees and Lebanese host communities.  The second project is funded by AFD (Agence Française de Développement) and aims at helping local and international Lebanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) become lasting, key players in mitigating and ameliorating the effects of the Syrian refugee crisis on Lebanon.

’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, has been 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, the project seeks to improve social stability between communities in Lebanon through a comprehensive and local approach of protection for children and adults. To do so, activities 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) campaigns and communication activities. Expertise France works 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 second phase of the programme will end in 2023. The programme is implemented in 14 areas of Lebanon, in collaboration with NGO partners, Social Development Centers (SDCs) and the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA).

Job Description

 Under the supervision of the QUDRA 2 Project Manager (PM), the Project Assistant performs administrative tasks related to Qudra 2 design, planning, implementation and monitoring,  and acts as the interface between the Project Manager and the project finance, procurement and logistic teams. His/her tasks and responsibilities include:

Project Administration Support

• Collect and compile inputs to administrative documents related to project governance.
• Draft routine correspondence for project implementation.
• Handle phone calls and guests with high level of professionalism schedule and coordinate appointments.
• Establish and regularly update project contact database.
• Support preparation of inputs to implementation processes such as recruitment of experts, procurement and contracting; in co-ordination with the logistics department.
• Assist in procurement processes for conference/seminar services or other procurement actions foreseen in projects, in co-ordination with the logistics department.
• Assist in organisation of movement, support to visitors and booking services, in co-ordination with logistics.
• Support organisation and follow-up on periodic internal budget review meetings, in co-ordination with the finance department.
• Support organisation of partner meetings, including NGO partner meetings, CAC meeting and high level bilateral and multilateral meetings.
• Carry out specialized administrative tasks (e.g., translate, type, proofread, and/or format documents; record and transcribe meeting minutes) and related processes.

Project implementation support

• Assist in implementation of project activities in line with the work plan and as instructed by the PM.
• Support project officers in collecting, compiling and organising background materials, documents and other materials for meetings.
•  Support information collection for project reports.
• Prepare inputs to reports, summaries, graphs and inputs to presentations in support of various project activities.
• Support, in co-ordination with logistics department, the organisation of project related field visits.

Project information management support

• Improve and maintain the project filing systém.
• Co-ordinate timely updates of the filing system by all project-related functions and departments.
• Disseminate relevant information internally and externally as requested by Project Manager.
• Support implementation of project-related communication activities.

Perform other duties as required by the Project Manager.

Profile

Degrees & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a directly related field

• Three to five years of experience working in an office environment in an administrative and finance supporting role

• Experience working with major international public donors within a local or international NGO/IGO/private company 

Requirements

• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), information management systems and understanding of financial management systems and tools

• High organizational skills

• Ability to integrate Expertise France rules and regulations

• Excellent command of English and Arabic, French is a plus

• Communication and problem-solving skills

• Organised, rigorous, methodical, and accurate

• Strong sense of responsibility and adaptability