Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2021 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Background
At the 2008 Government of Rwanda and Development Partners Retreat (DPR), a communiqué was adopted regarding emerging issues for consideration at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. A key issue raised in the communiqué was the lack of progress on the use of programme-based approaches, and Development Partners and Governments re-committed themselves to develop and utilize Sector-Wide Approach (SWAPs) as a joint financing and programming mechanism. The SWAP is a method of working between Government and Development Partners. According to the Aid Manual of Procedures, “the essence of a SWAP is for Government and Development Partners to work together to implement a Single Sector Strategy.
The Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) and the World Bank are chairing the Urbanization and Human Settlement Sector Working Group, a forum which brings together all key urbanization and human settlement stakeholders in an effort to coordinate their respective sector development initiatives. In order to ensure effective coordination of urbanization, housing and human settlement development interventions in the country, MININFRA has established an Urbanization and Human settlement Sector Working Group (SWG), composed of MININFRA, and affiliated agencies, representatives of Sector Development Partners, NGOs (International and National), Districts, Private Sector, the Civil Society and Sector Media Network. The SWG also benefits from the participation of other Ministries whose mandates are directly or indirectly related to urbanization, housing and settlement development namely MoE, MINICOM, MINECOFIN, MINALOC, MINAGRI, MIGEPROF and RDB and their corresponding implementing Departments and Agencies. MININFRA, as the ministry responsible for urbanization and human settlement is the Chair of the SWG and host of the Urbanization and Human Settlement SWAP secretariat.
Since 2015, the urbanization and human settlement SWAP (U-SWAp) Secretariat has been operational under the support of the World Bank, but the contract for coordinator ended in 2017. From that time, the Bank declared much emphasis on development of urban infrastructure where it started to highlight the need to sensitize and mobilise other donors to tap into the sector especially on strengthening capacities and institutional development. The last two consecutive SWG meetings (2018/19 and 2019/20) stressed the need to re-establish U-SWAp secretariat to enhance the coordination among the growing number of partners in this nascent but strategic sector. In line with re-establishment of U-SWAp secretariat, the Belgium Agency for Development (Enabel) through its Urbanisation Program for Rwanda has committed to support it and will allocate resources to hire and remunerate the Coordinator of U-SWAp secretariat.

Secretariat Objectives
Main objective
Ensure effective coordination and integration of Urbanization and Human Settlement Development Plans and Actions at National and Local Level towards achieving the sector strategic targets aligned to NST 1, Vision 2050, SDGs and other Regional/Continental goals.

Specific objective
• Ensure efficient and effective functioning of Urbanization and Rural Settlement Sector Working Group;
• Ensure horizontal and vertical coordination of Urbanization and Rural Settlement Sector stakeholders and development partners efforts and actions;
• Support the operationalization and functioning of the National Human Settlement (Habitat) Committees;
• Operationalize and coordinate Planning Coordination Meetings related to urbanisation and rural settlements sector at Regional and District level
• Ensure efficient communication of urbanization and rural settlement sector projects and achievements;
• Ensure an effective flow of information among the urbanization & human settlement SWG members and within sector to avoid duplication rather replication of efforts;
• Act as a catalyst and an action accelerator to support efforts to scale up urbanisation and rural settlement operations for the national development objectives;
• Promote research in urbanization & rural settlement technical approaches, knowledge transfer and exchange of best practices, innovations and their replication where appropriate;
• Advocate for the role of planned urbanization and rural settlement in social development and poverty reduction;
• Identify untapped opportunities and mobilise complementary resources to support existing actions and gaps in the sector

Job Purpose
• To coordinate and provide technical support and evidence based recommendations to the Ministry of Infrastructure and its Urbanization & Human Settlement SWG;
• To lead on the harmonisation of technical approaches and interventions of the Ministry’s implementing agencies, other sector Ministries and Agencies, Development Partners and other stakeholders for the effective implementation of the urbanization & rural settlement sector strategic plan in line with government orientation;
• To support preparation of a good mass of bankable project pipeline, concepts and proposals for funding mobilisation
• To identify and mobilise potential Development Partners (National and international), Stakeholders and untapped resources in urbanization and human settlement development;
• To engage private investors in urban infrastructure development, affordable shelter and rural grouped settlement including orienting them on opportunities of where to invest;
• To support the effective monitoring and evaluation; and reporting of sector programme progress and achievements;
• To support the Sector’s public awareness and visibility campaigns through various regular communication and information sharing strategies to the SWG members, stakeholders and the public on the sector’s progress and achievements;
• To organize all activities above and put them into an annual plan with budget and ensure its steady implementation.

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Management
• Developing and maintaining relationships internally between SWG members and externally with relevant actors;
• Management of the urbanization and rural settlement sector Strategic plan (2018-2024) identifying opportunities for increasing impact of the SWG approach, influencing sectorial actors based on evidence and identifying funding sources to implement the strategy;
• Ensure that policies related to urbanization and rural settlement are communicated for their implementation and integration by all actors in respective development plans and at all levels;
• Representation and communication of SWG programme initiatives to relevant stakeholders and monitoring the impact of the strategy;
• Coordination, monitoring, review and sharing lessons learnt from the activities of members to support the achievement of outcomes, and inform policies development and or review,
• Coordinating advocacy initiatives and innovations derived from learning and research according to the advocacy and communication strategy of the SWG.

Management of the Secretariat
• The Coordinator manages all staff employed to this secretariat for the purpose of implementing the strategy of the Sector Working Group in collaboration with members. This is done through ensuring the following:
• Management, supervision and support of the Secretariat to ensure the team fulfils its responsibilities; Providing Secretariat support to the Urbanisation and Human Settlement SWG operations;
• Reporting and making presentations to the SWG activities and on existing opportunities to increase the added value of the SWAP,
• Ensuring effective communication and information sharing between members of the SWG, other relevant actors, stakeholders and the public as a whole according to the strategy of the SWG;
• Development of proposals, activity plans, reports and other relevant SWG Programme documents for SWG members that meet the requirements by external funding agencies contributing the SWG Programme;
• Attendance at appropriate coordination for, representing the SWG at such meetings and reporting back to the relevant SWG groups on the outcomes of such meetings;
• In consultation with relevant technical SWG member staff, ensure that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools established during the SWG preparatory phase are applied consistently by SWG members; that there is effective M&E of all SWG Programme activities, and that M&E reports are regularly sent to SWG members and relevant external funding agencies as appropriate;
• Make recommendations to the SWG for changes to procedures, systems and processes providing adequate justification to allow a decision to be made;
• Conduct regular programme visits to SWG members to ensure thorough understanding of all aspects in their programmes and projects
• Undertake other appropriate duties requested by the SWG Chair or his/her designate.

Finance and Donor Compliance
• Support the host Ministry Accountant to assure the following finance and grant compliance activities:
• Be responsible for overall financial management of the Secretariat including cash management, budget preparation and monitoring;
• Ensure that donor compliance is adhered to within the SWG Secretariat and SWG members.
• Develop and implement work and expenditure plans, and ensure that programmes are implemented within agreed and approved budgets through undertaking regular budget monitoring of expenditure against budget;
• Ensure that internal and donor financial reports are submitted in a timely manner and up to high quality standard;
• Support the host Ministry Internal Auditor and external funding agency(ies) auditors in conducting audits of the Secretariat and SWG members;
• Ensure implementation of recommendations from the Due Diligence assessments and continuous monitoring to ensure controls are in place.

Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)
• Support the coordination of monitoring and evaluation of the SWG Programme:
• Ensure adherence to monitoring and evaluation guidelines, frameworks and indicators for the SWG Programme and provide technical support to embed M&E and accountability;
• In coordination with SWG members, ensure and enhance primary stakeholder ownership of the programme via community participation and consultation and use of participatory approaches in M&E;
• Organise and facilitate meetings with SWG members on progress, learning from SWG programming and innovations, analysing challenges and developing solutions to develop learning points in order to share learning and contribute to the development of best practice;
• Communicate widely within the SWG and externally on best practice developed through implementation and based on evidence.

Advocacy, Communications and Visibility
• The Coordinator is responsible for coordinating advocacy, communication and visibility of the sector and activities of the SWG Programme including:
• Maintenance and updating of the SWG window of the host ministry website;
• Production of briefing papers, press releases and other publications which are approved by the SWG for wider dissemination to influence practice and policy in the sector and promote the work of the SWG;
• Producing high quality translations of documents where required;
• Ensuring that documents produced for external advocacy, communication and visibility purposes are approved by individual agencies and the SWG prior to dissemination;
• Ensuring that the SWG brand and identity is clearly identified on all documents for public consumption.

Accountability
The Coordinator is responsible for coordinating and documenting accountability activities agreed by SWG members and tracking progress against a SWG accountability framework.

Training and Capacity building
• Identification of training needs of staff recruited to support the U-SWAp Secretariat
• In consultation with SWG members, identification of the training needs of the sector;
• Planning and where appropriate the provision of interventions to meet the identified training needs.

Supervision and Reporting
• The Urbanization & Human Settlement Sector Secretariat Coordinator will be working under the direct supervision of the Permanent Secretary of MININFRA whom he/she will be addressing his reports as Chair of the Sector and World Bank as co-chair.
• The coordinator produces monthly and quarterly reports of activities and an annual report corresponding to the end report as the contract is also signed on an annual basis.
• The coordinator shall closely collaborate with the Urbanization, Human Settlement and Housing Development Directorate General staff of MININFRA so that they all together deliver as a team as they are pursuing the same objective.
• A copy of monthly, quarterly and annual report shall be sent to World bank for administrative purposes of the contract

Evaluation of performance
• The evaluation of performance is conducted annually by MININFRA following the public service format. The results of the evaluation signed by the responsible staff could be a basis to renew or cancel the contract.
• A copy of the evaluation report is shared with Enabel by the Ministry for administrative purposes of the contract
• Qualifications and Experience
• Appropriate qualification at least a Master’s degree level such as Urban Planning , Economics , Public Policy , Civil Engineering, Architecture, Development Studies, Project Management option or a relevant social science;
• Proven experience (at least 5 years) in Programme Management and leadership working with Partners (local and international), NGOs, CBOs, Parastatal Organisations and other civil society groups;
• An understanding of the Rwandan Urbanisation and Human Settlement Sector context and experience working in different countries within the East African region is a must ;
• Experience in the project design and monitoring and evaluation is a must
• Experience of working with major international donors;
• Strong coordination skills specifically with the ability to effectively coordinate among SWG members;
• Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with senior representatives of donor, NGO and Government structures and to represent the SWG at national or international level;
• Knowledge of the key tools used by donor agencies, such as logical frameworks, results chains, theories of change, results-based management and financial administration systems.
• Strong analytical, interpersonal, communication and organisation skills;
• Thorough understanding of rights-based approaches (equity & inclusion, gender and protection issues);
• Experience in working or managing a consortium model of working;
• Excellent written and spoken English and/or French language skills;

Contract
The successful candidate will sign a service contract with MININFRA. The contract is concluded on annual basis following MININFRA’s regulations, renewable on an annual basis until funding lasts. General conditions of the work are detailed in this job description while specific contract clauses will be negotiated with the successful candidate within the range defined by the concerned authority of the Urbanisation and Human Settlement Sector.

Detailed Job profiles/Terms of reference can be found on the Ministry’s Website.

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
Interested candidates must submit an application letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Infrastructure, accompanied by updated and detailed curriculum vitae, copy of national identity card, and non-notified copies of academic documents.
Scanned application documents must be submitted in a single file by email to recruitment@mininfra.gov.rw not later than 26/05/2021 by 5 pm Kigali Time. For more details, please call 4247.

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