Project Manager

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the UN agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

The project “Enhancing the resilience inclusive and sustainable eco-human settlement development through small scale infrastructure interventions in the coastal regions of the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam” is financed by the Adaptation Fund – AF in the period of 2020-2023. To align with a government request to promote sustainable eco-human settlement in Viet Nam, this project aims to improve (as a pilot model) for the poor and vulnerable communes that climate change produce the negative impacts . It is structured around the following components:

Component 1: Institutional and community capacity building toward eco-human settlement development for supporting enhance local climate response actions

Component 2: Action plan and strategy development for eco-human settlement, and integrating into planning and policy with participatory approach

Component 3: Sustainability built through small-scale protective infrastructure

Component 4: Awareness Raising and Knowledge Management

The project will be executed at three levels: 1) national level; 2) provincial level (with support from the districts); and 3) commune level. At the national level, the overall coordination of the project’s execution will be led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. UN-Habitat is the multilateral implementing entity of the project and will then provide project management support, oversight, management of fund flow and executing partners’ delivery, and secretariat of the Project Steering Committee. UN-Habitat will have Agreement of Cooperation (AoCs) with PMU under the MONRE.

UN-Habitat Vietnam is looking for a Project Manager. The Project Manager will work under the direct management of the HPM and the technical supervision of the international Chief Technical Advisor of the project. He/she will provide support to the project planning, management, oversight, management of fund flow and executing partners’ delivery to ensure compliance with the UN-Habitat’s mandate and the agreement with AF, and ensure close collaboration between the project and co-implementing partners (MONRE, DONREs) and other relevant stakeholders in the project sites. The incumbent will coordinate/provide necessary information in consultation with HPM and CTA to regional office and units in Head Quarters on request.

The incumbent will also support the coordination with other UN agencies, national and international institutes and organizations to align the project with the UN’s priorities in Vietnam, contributing to the development of Habitat Country Programme in Vietnam.

Contact email: hr@unhabitatvietnam.org

Responsibilities

1. Management of of Climate Adaptation project

• Support to HPM and UN-Habitat team to mobilize the internal and external resources (e.g expertise, knowledge, funds) to help to achieve the expected project outputs and outcomes.
• Act as focal point person to assist CTA in daily managing all project activities:

• Work closely with UN-Habitat project team, internal and external project partnership to develop the project implementation strategy, TORs, detailed plan of each activities, set up the local institutional implementation framework based on project design and assumption;
• Work closely with project teams of co-implementing partners and project consultation team to conduct the project component activities as project design and agreed schedule;
• Cooperate with programme support staff to manage the project budget, procurements and financial authorization, actual disbursement report to AF, HQ and ROAP, and UNCT;
• Being responsible to set up the result based monitoring framework of the project implementation and substantive quality of activities and expected outputs and report to ROAP and AF Secretariat  for project implementation and report to ROAP/HQ in PAAS system and directly to AF through templates;
• Work closely with UN-Habitat team to supervise and provide the comments/inputs to the deliverables of implementing partners;
• Ensure gender mainstreaming in project activities, promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in project implementation;
• Ensure the project documentation compilation and dissemination of project outputs in the UN-Habitat, UN system.

2. Contribution to UN-Habitat country programme development

• Ensure project implementation quality and further develop the country program in line with UN-Habitat’s strategic direction and long-term planning;
• Ensure the linkage between Climate Adaptation project with other projects/programmes of UN-Habitat, UN agencies and other strategic development agencies as well as HQ/ROAP;
• Actively participate in, and provide inputs to, developing new concept notes/proposals and program strategies to ensure the maximize the potential resources and synergy to support to AF project achievements;
• Build and maintain effective partnerships and networks with relevant technical groups, civil society groups, NGOs, and UN agencies for effective implementation and scalability of the project;
• Regularly coordinate and collaborate with other sector/thematic teams to strengthen programmatic synergies and impact;
• Assist HPM to ensure the effective coordination of policy dialogues and advocacy with stakeholders.

3. Other tasks

• The job duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience, including adjustment on job description, and also in cases of any humanitarian emergency.

Expected Output

The final product will take the form of the services (described in section 3- Responsibilities) satisfactorily delivered by the selected contractor.

Qualifications

Education:

Minimum advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in urban development planning, management, construction engineering, environment  and climate change adaptation in developing countries. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience:

Minimum 2-3 years of relevant work experience in project management, project development and implementation, preferably in areas related to urban planning, infrastructure development, urban environmental management and climate change related issues (i.e., climate change adaptation) in developing countries, especially Viet Nam; with experience and exposure to participatory and community base climate change adaption. A combination of academic and public sector experience would be considered an asset. Working experiences with MONRE and UN system are preferable.

Technical Knowledge:

• Project development and management related to urban environmental engineering, infrastructure development, environmental management in developing countries
• Knowledge about climate change adaptation and community-based project development and implementation
• Research and analytical skills combined with good communication skills, including drafting skills and writing skills, in English and possibly another UN language;
• Able to work independently and as part of team and deliver on time under pressure.

Language Skills

For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge  of other languages (using in the UN) will be an advantage.