Project Assistant (NPSA 5_ – Institutional Strengthening for Promoting Accelerated Transformation (ISPAT)

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UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) under the Prime Minister’s Office is the organization that steered being behind all the success rendered by the NGOs in Bangladesh. At the beginning, there were only 347 NGOs registered with only 67 human resources to deal with. But coming in 2023, the number of registered NGOs under NGOAB are 2554 (2289 are national and 265 international NGOs) with the same 67 human resources. NGOAB has been facing constraints to effectively perform their responsibilities due to lack of adequate staff, required skills of the employees and smart system that can deliver timely services and ensure oversights to significant number of NGOs and projects. NGOAB receives millions of foreign donations every year and clears those amounts through NGOs’ proposals as well. If the results and progress can be captured and reflected in a complementary manner, it will reveal a true picture of SDG progress with GO and NGOs’ contributions.

Given the context, the country is economically progressing and graduating to the Middle-Income Country by 2026. Therefore, NGOs in Bangladesh have scope to revisit their working modality, and the way of engagement in addressing development challenges and in this regard NGOAB has an important role to play. As UNDP Bangladesh has been working with several government agencies to support sustainable LDC graduation and achieving SDGs, UNDP considers its engagement with NGOAB for targeting valuable improvements in service delivery through digitalization and online process. This is in line with UNDP’s mandate which is to engage with our partners to support achieving the long-term development vision of the government of Bangladesh. 

UNDP in collaboration with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and NGOAB designed a 2.5 year’s project entitled “Institutional Strengthening for Promoting Accelerated Transformation (ISPAT)” for the overall improvement of NGOAB/NGOs service system by next two and half years. The overall objective of the project is to make NGOAB fully capable of providing fast, efficient and effective services to NGOs in managing foreign donations and supporting them to contribute in attaining SDGs by 2030. the project will consider three-prong strategy to strengthening system and improving work-culture by- i) improving the institutional capacity through digitalization of services; ii) augmenting professional skills and competence of NGOs and NGOAB officials to implement the gender responsive digital services with greater efficiency; and iii) providing technical assistance for enhancing policy support to ensure wider convergence of sectoral policies as well simplification of services with necessary policy guidelines.

In this backdrop, this Implementation plan outlines ISPAT’s strategy to capacitate with digital innovation for improving service delivery system. This project will contribute to achieve the following results:

Outcome 1: Ensuring effective and efficient utilization of foreign donations to improve the socioeconomic status of the poor, women, and other marginalized sections of the people.

Outcome 2: Recognizing and documenting contributions of NGOs in the attainment of global goals and national priorities of reducing poverty, improving governance and service delivery aligning with women and human rights.

Outcome 3: Strengthening policy formulation and fostered innovation of NGOs by showcasing and scaling-up nationally. 

The Project Assistant will be responsible for assisting Project Manager/Project Team by providing secretarial, logistic and other supports, e.g. preparing note to file, official letter, preparing list of asset/supplies/documents/procurement, etc., arranging logistics for office and any other event as required, support to manage vendor/supplier and expenditure of annual and multi-year budget, support audit, etc. 

i. Support administrative management of the project’s implementation

• Pro-actively contribute to day-to-day project implementation and ensure conformity to expected results and project work-plans.
• Provide secretarial, logistic and other support to the NPD, Project Manager, Project Team, UNDP and consultants/firms for the implementation of work plans.
• Prepare routine correspondence and general reference documents, organize data and collect information for relevant partners.
• Assist in procurement of office supplies and equipment, maintain appropriate inventory records.
• Maintain in-coming and out-going documents, files, reference documents, organize data and information and maintain records and files.
• Typing letters, documents, reports etc. and applications of information and Communications Technologies.
• Maintain records on all project personnel/consultants/firms and their respective status in accordance with accepted policies and procedures. 
• Prepare and issue contracts for consultant and firm.  
• Draft minutes and prepare note to file for approval.  
• Assume overall responsibility for administrative matters such as registry and maintenance of project files and records. 
• Arrange external and internal meetings/workshops and communicate with the relevant participants as needed. 

ii. Support financial management

• Prepare note to file including official letter and detail budget to get approval from NPD. 
• Support for booking venue, accommodation and arrange food and other logistics for effectively organize events/project programs.  
• Assist preparing program schedule, participants’ list and ensure external facilitators by timely coordination and communication with relevant resource persons/officials. 
• Collect and preserve all bill-vouchers whenever the event completed on the ground. 
• Follow the bill-vouchers are prepared in line with the financial policy and procedure of government and UNDP. 
• Prepare requests for advance of funds and/or direct payments.
• Prepare proposals for budget revisions.
• Prepare and submit expenditure and programme budget status reports.
• Undertake other financial and administrative tasks on an ad hoc basis.

iii. Support procurement management

• Arrange procurement of equipment, supplies and services as per Annual Work Plan (AWP). 
• Hire transport from companies if required for official purpose. 
• Create and mange e-requisitions in Quantum. 
• Arrange for equipment maintenance and insurance as required. 
• Ensure that contractual processes follow the stipulated UNDP procedures.
• Physically clear and ensure delivery of equipment and supplies procured for the various programme sites. 
• Maintain an equipment and spare inventory including verification and transfer when required.

iv. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

4. Institutional Arrangement

The Project Assistant will work under the leadership of the Project Manager (PM) and liaise with project team, UNDP, NGOAB and respective regional offices and NGO staff involved in the programme. 

Administration& Operations    Documents and record management    Overall document(hard and electronic) management; registry and retention policy including storing and archiving
    Registry & correspondence management    Ability to collect, resister, maintain and deliver mail and UNDP pouch; ability to manage archive.
    Event management (including retreats, trainings and meetings)    Ability to manage events including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation and cash disbursement etc.
Ethics    UN Policy knowledge-ethics    Knowledge and understanding of the UN staff Regulations and rules and other policies relating to ethics and integrity.