SCOPE OF WORK
COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVE -PROGRAM ASSISTANTS
BASE OF OPERATIONS: The Program Assistants will be based in the following locations:
Maputo, Mozambique;
Lusaka, Zambia;
Lilongwe, Malawi;
Maseru, Lesotho/Mbabane, Eswatini; and
Windhoek, Namibia.
BACKGROUND:
The USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub (the “Hub”) project, a five-year trade and investment program for Southern Africa, in its third year of implementation, is expected to increase global competitiveness and intra- regional trade and improve food security in Southern Africa. The Hub engages with partners across the region to increase sustainable economic growth, global export competitiveness, and trade in targeted Southern African countries. It supports these objectives by increasing exports from Southern African countries to South Africa and the United States (under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), boosting capital and technology flows from South Africa to other Southern African countries, and providing targeted trade facilitation support to Zambia. The Hub works with market actors to identify and resolve enterprise constraints and to implement sustainable solutions through market-based trade and investment facilitation services. The Hub partners with USAID bilateral missions through the USAID/Southern Africa Regional Economic Growth Office in the successful delivery of its objectives.
OBJECTIVES AND DUTIES:
The Program Assistant will work closely with the Country Representative and the technical teams on the management and implementation of work plan activities to achieve key results. S/he will be responsible for providing administrative, communications, event, requisition, writing, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation support to the Hub’s technical components: S/he will also support the country representative by supporting activity data collection, analysis, and entry using the Technical Administrative Management Information System (TAMIS) platform.
S/he will support information management and reporting as well as perform administrative tasks assigned by the country representative.
S/he will:
Support data entry of programmatic activities and reporting in TAMIS
Draft reports or other communication products for review by the country representative/technical staff
Provide coordination support between the Pretoria staff on the communications, monitoring and evaluation teams
Compile data from field reports for the monitoring and evaluation reports
Undertake technical literature reviews, compilation of country profiles, and sector summaries
Attend technical meetings and take minutes of deliberations, including follow-up communications
Assist in conducting performance reflection, learning, and review meetings with technical leads
Maintain records of program and project data, lessons learned, and best practices and share with all concerned
Make appointments and maintain a group calendar coordinating with Pretoria Hub Office.
Handle calls, mail, and electronic communications for the country representative.
Keep office supplies in stock, work with vendors, coordinate events, make sure that office facilities are clean, orderly and safe.
Keep the records of the timesheet and submit them timely for payroll processing
Provides support to all travelers in/out of the country including relevant information required for coordination of country clearance processing and dissemination of field activity information to respective countries for bilateral mission collaboration and participation, hotel reservations, airport pick up, and travel logistics.
Follows up with the country representative to submit technical and trip reporting deliverables, prepare weekly activities and events tracker and ensures compliant with USAID regulations, project policies, practices and regulations. Provides support services to subcontractors especially travel activities.
Oversee and manage the physical office space management in the country.
Monitor aspects of procurement in the country ensuring compliance with policies and standards. Oversees vendor relations, negotiates service contract agreements and maintains accurate documentation.
Work closely with Human Resources and Administration Manager to maintain local staff personnel files, leave and any HR updates, ensuring that the country employee manual is consistent with policies and local laws.
Maintain accurate records and ensure security and confidentiality of data.
Maintain project petty cash as per DAI guidelines.
Maintains inventory records, property allocation and conducts physical checks for accuracy of country office.
Manage relationships with vendors, service providers, and landlord, ensuring that all items are invoiced and paid on time.
Other duties as assigned by the Country Representative.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
Bachelor’s degree in development, economics, business administration, or similar field
Monitoring and Evaluation qualification will be of advantage
Excellent IT and research skills
Two or more years of experience in project monitoring and evaluation
Experience with USAID- or other donor-funded programs preferred
Sound analytical skills
Good organizational and multi-tasking skills
Strong writing abilities
Familiarity with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint required
Fluent English required
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Program Assistant will have no supervisory responsibilities.
REPORTING:
The Program Assistant will report to the respective Country Representative.
Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Interested candidates should submit their CV to [email protected] before December 20,2019.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.