Project Manager

About organization

After the coup in 27 April 1978, some government officials including military officials, civil servants and low-ranked employees who were martyred and killed in conflicts were provided with their rights without considering their ranks and grades during their tenures through the general directorate of pension. 

As war continued to perpetuate, the process of providing services to the martyred continued, thus in 1990 the authority was separated from the general directorate of pension and started operating as an independent directorate for martyrs and disabled under the office of vice-president. Later, in April 1992 in an effort to pay homage to the holy Jihad of the brave Afghan people the authority was promoted to the status of a ministry which started functioning with the registration of martyrs and disabled addressing needs of martyrs and PwDs across the country. During the Taliban era in 1996, the directorate was merged into the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees where it continued to function as a deputy ministry. In 2002, during the transition period the directorate was once again promoted to the status of a ministry called “Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled”. In 2006, the ministry was merged into the ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and was collectively called Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled “MoLSAMD”. Under the ministry, affairs related to martyrs and people with disabilities were managed through a deputy ministry.  

On 07 October 2019, the deputy ministry was separated from MoLSAMD and became National Support Authority for Martyrs and People with Disabilities through a presidential decree issued with serial number 75. The authority started functioning in the light of the enacted national laws aimed at serving people who have given up on their lives or have lost family members.

Subsequently, the authority was promoted to State ministry for Martyrs and Disabled Affairs through a presidential decree issued with serial number 132 on 19 January 2019 and is currently functional.

MMD in disbursement of financial benefits to heirs of martyrs and (MMD) recipients which includes registration of new MD cases, recertification of current cases, assignment of benefits, and coordination with other line ministries; Collecting aggregated reports from the 33 MD provincial offices in addition to the Kabul province which is managed by the central M & D offices.

The ‘Electronic Registration of Heirs of Martyrs and People with Disability’ project will implement an e-management system at the State Minister office for Martyrs and Disability Affairs (MMD) to simplify business processes and to ensure transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the registration and service delivery to persons with disability, which is one of the top priorities of the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA).

In the current paper-based system all existing registrations for disability and martyrdom related benefits are stored as hard copies across various registration centers in the country, which are not only difficult and ineffective to handle, but the format also makes the detection of duplicate registrations impossible. This means that the double or triple pension payments to the same person are not detected, leading to a constant financial loss. Moreover, due to the lack of a centralized database, the exact number of martyred and people with disability is unknown at the national level, which makes resource allocation to the required services inefficient and difficult.

On the beneficiary side, a large part of the population is not aware of the available services and as such do not benefit from any of the available support.

The Ministry of Martyrs and Disability Affairs (MMD) initiated a reform through the installation of a biometric data verification system for persons with disability on central level. However, the data entry process has been too slow and in its current form it is expected to take a long time to enter around 300,000 records in Kabul, followed by data entry in each province individually.

As a response to these challenges, this project will install more facilities and roll out the biometric registration process into 34 provinces (including Kabul) through a nationwide awareness campaign. The project will build on the progress made

 Duties and Responsibilities:

Reporting to o the Director of Verification and Bio-metrics at the State Minister’s Office for Martyrs and Disability, The Project Manager will be responsible for overall management of project including planning, organizing, managing and controlling activities.

                       General responsibilities:

                     Stakeholder Management:

• Establish solid working relationship with the project board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders
• Manage communications and ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover products
• Advise the client on issues that may impact the achievement of their outcomes (including issues of sustainability and post project requirements such as maintenance)
• Manage the information flows between the Project Board and the project(s)/team(s)

                     Delivery and Performance:

• Develop and maintain project plans
• Implement approved project plans (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the project board
• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life cycle.
• Manage the production of the required products, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary
• Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers
• Authorize Work Packages
• Advise the Project Board of any deviations from the plan
• Identify and manage risks so that maximum benefit to client and stakeholders is achieved
• Manage and review product quality and ensure products are accepted
• Monitor and evaluate performance of service providers
• Demonstrate technical leadership, including the procurement of appropriate sustainable technological solutions and the development of standard operating procedures in line with international data protection and confidentiality principles
• Lead on the recruitment and the performance management of national consultants and personnel
• Lead the documentation of better practices and success stories, better practices, data protection policies.

                     Procedures:

• Follow the Project Management Cycle Instructions and ensure that all organizational policy is complied with
• Prepare/adapt the following plans for approval by the Project Board:  I. Project Initiation Documentation; II. Stage/Exception Plans and relevant Product Descriptions
• Prepare the following reports:

1. Highlight Reports
2. End Stage Reports
3. Operational Closure Checklist
4. End Project Report
5. Handover Report

• Maintain the following: i. Project Documentation; ii. Procurement, HR and Finance files as required
• Ensure that all expenditure comply with the laws, rules and regulations of Afghanistan
• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.
• Manage and remain accountable for expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)
• Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.

                    Knowledge Management:

• Assist with the development and implementation of knowledge management initiatives within the organization in order to develop and maintain a culture of knowledge sharing.
• Complete lessons learned as per reporting format
• Incorporate lessons learned from others as per planning format

                    Personnel Management: 

• Lead and motivate the project management team
• Ensure that behavioral expectations of team members are established
• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted
• Select, recruit and train team as required by project plans
• Perform the Team Manager role, unless appointed to another person(s)
• Perform Project Support role, unless appointed to another person or corporate/program function.

                     Project-specific responsibilities

• Manage, coordinate and maintain a high standard for the State Ministry for Martyrs and Disability Affairs ICT Infrastructure, disability information system and biometric network capabilities at national and provincial level.
• Coordinate and manage the biometric registration activities of provincial offices level.
• Liaison with all relevant military, civil society and other organizations to mobilize all persons with disability and the heir of martyrs for biometric registration. 
• Coordinate the installation of the biometric system, developing the database and making sure that the overall system is operational and meets the needs of biometric standards for Afghanistan, as set by the National Statistical and Information Authority (NSIA)
• Liaise with end users - such as the Deputy State Minister’s Office for Military M&D, Deputy State Minister’s Office for Civilian M&D, the Directorate of M&D Social and Economic Support and the Directorate of Service Organizing and Social Support - on their information/data need and ensure that the database satisfies these requirements.
• Work closely with the ICT section to ensure the operational functionality of the MoMD ICT infrastructure in support of the organizational requirements.
• Develop, maintain and monitor standard working procedures for Biometric Data Registration and data use.
• On a periodic basis visit all provincial offices to ensure a high level of functionality and quality of Biometric Database functions.
• Perform regular checks of the entered data to ensure data completeness, integrity and quality.

      Qualification and Experience:

• Master’s degree in the field of information technology, information management or computer sciences, Economics, Business Administration   with 05 years of relevant experience OR Bachelor’s degree in the above-mentioned discipline with 07 years of relevant experience
• Experience with biometric registration projects in Afghanistan is strongly preferred
• Project management experience is required.
• Administrative and Managerial Experience is Acceptable.
• Possess advanced skills in MS-access, MS SQL server, MS-WORD, MS-EXCEL.
• In dept knowledge of ICT, information management and GIS systems are essential.
• Advanced knowledge of software engineering theory and applications would be an asset.
• Advanced knowledge of programming theory and relational database principles.
• At least two years of work and experience with Microsoft Access and visual basic programming database tables, forms and queries is required
• Experience with disability support programs is highly desired
• Ability to travel to different locations within Afghanistan is required
• Experience with multicultural environments is desired
• Good working knowledge of both written and spoken English, as well as fluency in Dari and Pashtu is required

Submission Guideline:

Interested & qualified candidates should submit their applications along with curriculum vitae (CV) to (hr.mmd1397@gmail.com), indicating vacancy and position title in the subject line of your application within the submission deadline. Otherwise your Application will be not considered for further steps. No other document is needed to be submitted unless invited for an interview. Applications received after closing date will not be considered. 

Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply