Consultant – Registration Project Leader, Beirut, Lebanon (Local Or International)

Consultancy – TERMS OF REFERENCE

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5.7 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance. UNRWA is the largest UN operation in the Middle East with more than 30,000 staff. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.

Consultant – Registration Project Leader, Beirut, Lebanon

(Local Or International)

BACKGROUND

UNRWA will be modernizing its Refugee Registration Information System (RRIS) to align with updated international standards for civil registration to ensure unhindered, secure, and protected access to UNRWA’s services. This entails the creation of an individual client-based registration system with an integrated online portal for secure access to and updating of registration records by clients that will constitute the master database for all UNRWA service provision and verification of service eligibility. The current system holds the active files of 5.7 million Palestine refugees and 0.7 million other service eligible persons. The system will re-organise existing registration files to link these with historic archival records and prepare the same for an online platform making available documentation for publicly accessible documentation on displacement of Palestine refugees from 1948 to date. The project will be guided by a team of civil registration and data protection experts and implementation of the new system design is foreseen through an external IT service provider.

Legacy RRIS was developed in C# .NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The consultancy will be responsible for providing project management support to the Relief and Social Services department in modernizing its refugee registration information system.

Under the direct supervision of the Director, Relief and Social Services and in close collaboration with the Head of Registration and Eligibility, the Project Manager will ensure tracking of project implementation and resource allocation and availability, will maintain coordination between internal individual consultants and an external consultancy company in designing and implementing the new registration system. Coordination will also extend to liaise with donor provided technical support functions to the project as well as the UNRWA Information Management Department.

The Project Manager will be responsible for the following:

· Develop a project management process, set milestones and monitor progress against set timelines and resource availability and requirements throughout the project period;

· Maintain track of resource allocations to the project (personnel, funding, other) and support management of the same;

· Support liaison between conceptual development of the new refugee registration information system by civil registration system specialists and translation of requirements and specifications for development of the design of the new system by IT consultants and an external IT service provider company

· Support engagement with external support institutions that may contribute to the development of the system (specialized external institutions such as statistics offices and academic institutions)

· Participate in the procurement process to identify a suitable external IT service provider company, that meets UNRWA requirements and/or specifications;

· Manage the external IT service provider in meeting requirements and targets as per the signed service contract;

· Support communication processes with stakeholders for resource mobilization purposes and testing and implementation of the new system;

· Undertake other tasks, as requested.**

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

· University degree from an accredited educational institution in computer science, business administration or a related field;

· At least eight years of progressively responsible experience in the management of complex and resource intensive projects of which three years should relate to the development and implementation of large-scale IT system/software application projects;

· For internationally candidates, a 2 years’ of relevant international experience outside of the candidate’s home country is required.

· The candidate holds a project management certification (PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL

· Experience in coordinating teams towards implementation of complex projects;

· Experience in development of modern IT applications, systems platforms and databases;

· Experience in System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies.

· Excellent written and spoken English.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

· Understanding of humanitarian and development contexts including prior programme or project management experience;

· Understanding of civil registration systems and processes;

· Experience in building applications based on Containers, Docker, Orchestration Docker Swarm;

· Experience in cloud architecture and implementation features;

· Knowledge of the Arabic language.

COMPETENCIES

· Planning and Organizing: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies, identifies priority activities and assignments, monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary.

· Teamwork: Works harmoniously with others to complete tasks; communicates critical information with everyone involved in a task; coordinates work with others; seeks opinions; values working relationships; facilitates discussion before decision-making processes are complete.

· Detail and Quality Orientation/ Methodical Work Practices: Maintains high standards and encourages colleagues to strive for excellence, systematic work patterns, attention to detail and quality conscious, avoids cutting corners.

· Critical Thinking/Analytical Skills: Examines and interprets a wide variety of data/ information and makes recommendations or decisions; develops results-oriented conclusions; able to apply specialised knowledge with good judgment and to relevant issues; and conceptualises and designs strategic frameworks to overcome problems.

· Problem Solving Skills: Identifies the existence and cause of a problem; takes and defends collaborative decisions, brainstorms potential solutions, identifies conditions that solutions must meet and stakeholders, evaluates the alternative course of action, implements solutions and evaluates results, seeks help when appropriate.

· Communication: writing and presentation skills.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

• The incumbent will be based in Beirut. Remote working modalities may be considered.
• The duration of the consultancy is 11 months with possibility of extension subject to availability of funds.

• Remuneration:

• If the selected candidate was locally recruited, he/she will be remunerated at equivalent of grade 17/18 of area staff salary scale of Lebanon.

• If the selected candidate was internationally recruited, he/she will be remunerated at the P4 level of international staff salary scale.

· Remuneration will depend on qualifications and experience of the candidate.

• One and a half day annual leave days per month.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

· This vacancy is open for local and international qualified applicants. The condition of service will depend on whether the selected applicant is a local or international.

· The consultant should be willing to reside at the duty station (Beirut). Working from home will be considered.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Applicants should submit a cover letter and CV or UN Personal History Form demonstrating clearly the knowledge and experience required to meet the consultancy requirements via [email protected] clearly indicating the title of this consultancy “Consultancy – Registration Project Leader” subject line of the message. The deadline for the submission of applications is 18 February 2021.

UNRWA is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from both women and men. UNRWA encourages applications from qualified and experienced female candidates. Only those applicants short-listed for interview will be contacted. UNRWA is a non-smoking environment.

*25 January 2021***