Regional Project and Funds Management Specialist - MEESA

ACCOUNTABILITIES
Outlined below are the key responsibilities for this position. 

• Support continuous Project & Fund Management improvement.
• Provide technical support to Country Offices, and the Regional Hub, including to implement the new online project management disciplines and approaches and to provide high quality guidelines, tools and upskilling as prioritised by Country Offices. 
• Enhance project and fund management capacity of different teams across the organisation and an understanding of good project management at senior levels in Regional Hubs and Country offices.
• Support the implementation of SAP 4HANA within rh and Country Offices.
• Work closely with projects teams at country and RH level to ensure timely and proper set up of projects in SAP
• Work closely with BD teams at country level to ensure proper set up of the Grants and Funds in SAP
• Regularly monitor set up and performance of Projects, Funds and Grants
• Work with other teams and teams to organise annual refresher SAP training for Grants and Projects
• Provide technical support to Plan International’s Technical Networks, specifically at Country Office level, including the development and testing of methods and tools for project idea, design and planning.
• Provide ad hoc technical inputs to Regional Hub project management needs e.g. Fund management Programme Quality and Transformation. 

Drive continuous learning: 

• Promote and facilitate active project management and Resource Mobilisation network across the region
• Develop, promote and embed learning processes and practices across Country Offices.
• Contribute to drafting learning papers that capture lessons from Plan International’s work in order to inform better project and fund management to improve programmes and influencing.
• Input into the development of Plan International case studies, to showcase insights and instances of success and failures in order to ensure ongoing learning and use of evidence.
• Provide support to Country Offices, Business Development teams and project managers 
• Be available to provide ad hoc in-country and virtual support to Country Offices and project managers at all stages of the project (Idea, Design, Planning, Implementation, Closing).
• Be responsive to concerns and requests from other stakeholders including partners, donors and Plan’s National Organisations and provide support and problem solving as required.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Country Office Project Managers to provide technical inputs to the implementation of project management. 
• Country Office Business Development teams to provide technical inputs to Fund management
• Head of Programmes to ensure that issues at Country Offices with respect to project management are raised and addressed.
• Country Management Teams and Regional Management Teams including Directors of Sub - Regions on progress, capacity and status of project management.
• Global Technical Leads and coordinators to ensure that projects are well planned and integrate best project management practice, informed by appropriate technical experts. 
• Country Office Project Managers, Business Development and Finance teams to ensure projects and funds are set up and effectively managed in SAP.
• Colleagues at the Global Hub and Regional Hub with responsibilities to or dependent on good project and Funds management. 
• Colleagues from offices from around the Plan federation with responsibilities to or dependent on good project and fund management, with particular reference to GH PDR team, GH Project Finance and National Organisations.
• Colleagues from Plan’s Learning and Development team in support of the Project DPro course and the development of training materials.
• Other organisations and forums externally, for coordination, collaboration, learning.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Essential

Knowledge

• Expert knowledge of projects and Grants Management in development work, across a wide range of technical areas.  
• Strong understanding of rights-based development programming, particularly in relation the major technical areas of Plan’s work. 
• Good understanding of ERP especially SAP will be an advantage.
• Significant experience and a strong understanding of processes, approaches, tools and methodologies that facilitate project management, and organisational learning, that is up to date with best practices in the sector. 
• Strong understanding of the realities of NGO project management and limitations that impact project implementation, financial control, monitoring, reporting evaluation and learning. 

Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities. 
• Able to develop appropriate guidelines, tools and templates for improved project management and implement them at scale. 
• Able to develop regional guidance that is simple and practical for country colleagues to understand and use. 
• Able to analyse large amounts of data and generate powerful reports and information from them. 
• Good trainer
• Communicating complex technical project management concepts and terminology in simple language to non-experts. Writing in plain English. 
• Strong collaboration skills, able to build cooperation and negotiate compromises. 
• Strong attention to detail. 
• Proven experience of using online technology for communication and learning.
• Fluent in English