National Project Coordinator - NOB (DC)

Introduction

The vast agro-economy of the central and southern Philippines has been hard-hit by the series of natural and man-made crises at an unprecedented scale. After suffering from the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs and income, 11 regions in this part of the country have been swept by the Super Typhoon Rai (locally named Odette – hereinafter “ST Odette”) in mid-December 2021. Surprisingly, ST Odette’s total damages figure of the six most affected regions (USD 3.9 billion) went substantially higher than that of the ST Yolanda (USD 2.2 billion). This time, the suffering did not stop there. Within four months when the signs of recovery were barely seen, Tropical Storm Megi/Agaton hit almost the same areas, once again destructing the agro-economy of these regions and affecting anew 2.3 million population. Simultaneously, the country was starting to see the impact of the war in Ukraine that accelerated the price hike on food and energy globally to become the largest commodity shock since the 1970s.

The livelihood recovery of the agro-economy in the six regions is slow and deemed heavily constrained by the funding and capacity gaps. Although the Rehabilitation and Recovery Programs (RRPs) have been approved by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) at the end of June 2022 with a USD 7.1 billion total funding requirement, it is expected that only small part of it will be funded by the government considering the unprecedented scale of damages and the tight fiscal space after the prolonged pandemic. The impact and needs assessment conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) noted that, despite the well-developed sector recovery plan elaborated by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) – CARE COCO, the replanting of coconut trees has been slow. The assessment study identified key bottlenecks in the efforts of the coconut sector recovery such as the weak attention to the land preparation (e.g., tillage, harrowing, levelling, etc.); limited value chain linkages to the high-growth economic centres, sectors and value-added products; and the capacity of the local government units (LGUs) to plan and coordinate a multi-year integrated recovery plan and access to available funding such as the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF), rehabilitation and livelihood programmes of NGAs, and private sector financing windows of IFIs. Further, the LGUs are also challenged to operationalize the major devolution that began in 2022 as a result of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling.

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Against this backdrop, the ILO project will support select LGUs of a target local area damaged by Super Typhoon Odette by addressing implementation bottlenecks of CARE COCO and supplementing it with value chain linkages, packaging of recovery support into a multi-year integrated job-rich recovery plan and supporting LGUs’ access to funding. It will generate the following outcomes: Outcome 1: Bottlenecks of CARE COCO programme addressed and the programme implementation accelerated (through cash-for-work); Outcome 2: Farmers better linked to multiple value chains (e.g., construction, urban market, tourism, high value-added coconut products); and Outcome 3: Local economy recovery made more integrated, better funded and experiences disseminated. Through the demonstration effect of this project, ILO aims to contribute to the learnings of other LGUs facing similar challenges across the six affected-regions to follow suit and replicate the model in the context of the significant devolution.

The project will actively seek technical inputs from and synergies with other relevant projects that may include among others: Bringing Back Jobs Safely on OSH and MSME digitalization training; Skills for Prosperity on the coordination with the area-based demand-driven regional skills system; and Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Supply Chains for the possible collaboration in aquaculture. ILO will also closely coordinate with the development partners engaged in the recovery of the coconut and ancillary sectors (e.g., construction, tourism, food processing), in particular the coconut farmers support programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations which may be working with the same LGUs to be targeted through the ILO project.

Reporting lines

The incumbent will be based in the Field Office in one of the severely-affected regions (tentatively assumed Surigao City) and report to and work under the administrative supervision of the Director, CO-Manila. She/he will also be guided by the backstopping officials of CO-Manila such as the Enterprise Development Specialist and the Senior Programme Officer on the implementation of the project, and closely coordinate with the Finance and Administration team of CO-Manila for the internal procedures and financial processing of the project activities.

Further technical guidance will be provided by concerned technical specialists of DWT-Bangkok, particularly but not limited to those who guided the ILO assessment study on the impact and needs of ST Odette on such thematic areas as employment-intensive infrastructure (EIIP), occupational safety and health (OSH), social protection, skills development, and trafficking and illegal recruitment.  The incumbent will regularly inform the donor, the ILO/Japan Multi-bilateral Programme, of the progress of the project. Given that crisis response being one of the priority programmes of the ILO for the next few years the incumbent will also keep updated the Coordination Support unit for Peace and Resilience (CSPR) of the ILO headquarters in Geneva as well as its field representative.

The incumbent will supervise two project staff who will be based in the same Field Office: a Finance and Programme Assistant, and a Driver.

Description of Duties

1. Lead the project and ensure its timely implementation, adopting a results-based approach through management functions, including provision of technical and administrative supervision to the project team in line with the ILO policy, rules and regulations and in according to the final project document.

2. Maintain close cooperation and coordination with government, employers' and workers' organizations both at the national and local levels in the planning and implementation of activities under the project;

3. Establish a coordination mechanism of the project on the basis of any existing mechanism of economic and employment recovery and engaging LGUs and key local stakeholders including those agencies and organizations involved in the regional and local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils as well as the local representatives of farmers, workers and entrepreneurs of the coconut and ancillary sectors and those of the informal sector.

4. Establish effective linkages with relevant projects and activities of the ILO to secure necessary technical inputs from them and generate synergies.

5. Elaborate workplan in accordance with the project document and budget and in consultation with the key stakeholders above mentioned.

6. Provide high quality technical inputs on key activities of the project such as cash-for-work and value chain linkages in close coordination with the relevant ILO specialists and, when appropriate, external consultants;

7. Organize training programmes and awareness raising activities to improve understanding on key thematic areas relevant for the human centred inclusive job-rich recovery such as those covered by the ILO’s assessment study.

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8. Assist the target LGUs in developing and coordinating a multi-year integrated recovery plan and their access to available funding such as LDRRMF.

9. Periodically monitor, report and facilitate the evaluation of all project’s components according to the project’s document and work plan. Prepare required technical progress reports and ad hoc reports on the status of project planning and implementation for submission to the ILO and the donor.  Contribute and provide inputs to the country’s implementation plan and implementation reports under relevant country programme outcomes (CPOs) such as PHL101, 102, 104 and 133.

10. Responsible for the effective administrative management of the office, including guidance and supervision of the personnel assigned to the project;

11. Ensure high-level communications to increase project’s visibility at the national and international levels. This includes the responsibility to liaise with the UN country team, and other key stakeholders to ensure effective coordination with relevant national strategies and related technical projects. Under direct guidance of CO-Manila, including its Communications team, maintain relations with mass media and concerned media groups and make good use of the official project site and social media channels of the office in order to increase the impact of the project in society as a whole.

12. Other related duties as assigned.

Required qualifications

Education

First level university degree in management, engineering, social sciences, or related field and strong knowledge on development issues particularly in the Philippines.

Experience

• Two to three years of experience in project management, supervision, administration and implementation of grant/cooperative agreement requirements (including meeting deadlines, achieving targets, and overseeing the preparation and submission of required reports to the project donor). Project experiences with UN agencies is an advantage.
• Experience and knowledge on project monitoring system adopting a results-based approach.
• Experience in crisis response studies or operations will be an advantage.
• Experience in designing or managing the key thematic areas of this project (e.g., cash-for-work and value chain development) will be a major advantage.

Languages

• Excellent command of English in both speaking and writing. Proficiency in Filipino is an advantage.

Competencies

1. Good knowledge about socio-economic development policies in the Philippines, including the recent trends in the disaster risk reduction & management.

2.  Demonstrated ability to manage technical co-operation projects of international organizations.

3.  Ability to establish & maintain systems for project operations.

4.  Ability to understand and effectively work with Government, organizations of workers and employers, non-government organizations & UN agencies.

5.  Ability to engage & work with LGUs and local stakeholder organizations.

6.  Clear commitment to mainstream gender & social inclusion into project activities.

7.  Ability to conduct policy discussion & national-local level political processes.

8.  Good communication skills, both written & verbal, to successfully mobilize local stakeholders & disseminate the project experiences.

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9.  Ability to lead and work in a team & good interpersonal relations.

10.  Ability to guide project personnel & external consultants/service providers to deliver the expected results of project.

11.  Ability to work under time pressure & meet deadlines.

12. Ability to work in diversified environments.

13. Knowledge of and ability to use computers, including Microsoft Office & the standard communication & group-work applications.

14.  Ability to work independently with a minimum level of supervision.

15.  Ability to work in a multicultural environment & to demonstrate gender-sensitive & non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes.