Monitoring and Training Coordinator

Advertisement of vacancy:

Monitoring and Training Coordinator

Reference number: IPA 2017/CBIB+3/NKE/011

Western Balkans Region

The project ‘Cross-border Institution Building - CBIB+ Phase IV’ is a multi-beneficiary project funded by the European Union and implemented by a consortium led by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in partnership with STANTEC sa/nv from Belgium. The CBIB+ Phase IV is the extension of the CBIB+ Phase III (January 2019 – May 2022) for an additional period of 3 years (June 2022 – May 2025).

The second generation of cross-border cooperation (CBC) programmes at intra-Western Balkans borders under the 2014-2020 Instrument of Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) is at its zenith of implementation, while the third generation is to commence implementation in a few months, following the recent adoption of the 2021-2027 programme documents. In addition, following the entrustment of budget implementation tasks, some of the programmes are being and will be implemented in indirect management by the IPA II and III beneficiaries instead of by the Delegations of the European Union (DEU). Despite the simplifications introduced under IPA II & III, managing, and coordinating cross-border cooperation programmes remains complex. There is therefore a need for technical and logistical support to a wide network of stakeholders to act in a coordinated, consistent, and harmonised way.

CBIB+ Phase IV will therefore focus on the following areas: 

1. Support and improve CBC performance monitoring and quality tools at all levels
2. Provide capacity building assistance, including for strengthening the participation of local authorities and for communication
3. Support and enhance networking and cross-border management capabilities as well as best practice and sharing of experiences (capitalisation and dissemination) among CBC stakeholders in the WB
4. Develop and make communication/visibility products/narratives based on story telling tailor-made to different audiences.

The consortium is currently recruiting a senior non-key expert to act as monitoring and training coordinator, whose engagement is meaningful under the first area activity of the CBIB+4. He or she must meet the following minimum requirements:

Qualifications and skills

• University degree in a field related to the tasks or equivalent professional experience of minimum 13 years.
• Advanced computer skills
• Fluency in any of the official languages of the Western Balkan Countries, preferably in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian or Montenegrin languages
• Fluency in both written and spoken English
• Reference: 7ZoEA5pUkXMYADZ2Z0_6ti-xJaSkvmBPNF0FlmFIYavkIvI45ysjE8ttB2xE4kJ_

General professional experience

• At least 10 years of general professional experience, including post-graduate studies

Specific professional experience

• At least 10 years of professional experience in the implementation of foreign donors’ funded programmes in the Western Balkans;
• Knowledge of project cycle management principles and methodologies;
• At least 3 years of professional experience in monitoring of EU funded contracts in the Western Balkans;
• Experience in the design and provision of training in topics such as evaluation of calls for proposals, management and implementation of CBC grant schemes and/or contracts in the Western Balkans;
• Experience in the development and/or implementation of information monitoring systems;

In addition to the minimum requirements, experts proving that they have acquired the following qualifications, skills and specific experience will have an advantage:

• Experience working as expert in an EU-funded regional project in the Western Balkans;
• Experience in testing information systems and identifying bugs in their operation
• Experience in IT related tasks such as interaction with information systems, data entry, analysis and processing; and

Tasks and responsibilities of the expert

Primary:

1. Responsibilities as monitoring expert:

• To contribute to the administration and further development of a model for systematic result/impact measurement which functions as a monitoring tool aiming at improving the overall quality of Programmes, their impact, effectiveness and visibility, i.e:
  • To support programme structures in the process of revision of logical framework matrices of awarded projects;
  • To encode programmes, calls and possible projects into the system;
  • To assist the beneficiaries in the submission of data into the system;
  • To maintain user accounts – opening, modification, deletion, password reset;
  • To assist the programme managers (CA, OS and JTS staff) in the extraction and interpretation of reports from the system;
  • To carry-out continuous testing to identify any bugs in the system, report on them immediately and coordinate their elimination with the contractor in charge of the system maintenance;
• To contribute to any future updates of the system, by acting as a primary contact point for the contractors.
• To enhance the harmonisation of procedures and methodologies, as well as the exchange of good practices on aspects of common interest;
• To promote a CBC community of practice;
• To support the creation of a CBC capitalisation platform;
• To contribute to the development and/or revision of IPA III CBC programmes in the region;
• To provide ad-hoc support to national authorities and other stakeholders with regard to aspects of programme management and implementation, with special emphasis on the use of the monitoring system;
• To provide demand driven technical expertise to national authorities (OS, JTS) and other stakeholders with regard to aspects of functioning of the regional monitoring system;
• To contribute to the development and/or update of manuals and/or guidelines on the use of the regional monitoring system;
• To contribute to the preparation of working versions of the project reports;
• To assist in the drafting of reports aiming at highlighting the synergies of CBC programmes with beneficiaries and other donors’ policy and describing the performance framework, dissemination practices and capitalisation at regional level.

2. Responsibilities as training expert:

• To contribute to maintaining a constructive and active dialogue among Western Balkan beneficiaries, fostering sustainable regional coordination and interaction between CBC stakeholders and target groups, and helping with the organisation and proceedings of CBC Consultative Forums;
• To develop and support the CBIB+4 team in delivering tailor-made training to CBC stakeholders in various implementation aspects of grant schemes;
• To contribute to training on programming and indicators to the teams in charge of the development and/or revision of IPA III CBC programmes;
• To organise and deliver other training activities implemented under the CBIB+4 project;
• To develop and deliver training packages in relation to the aforementioned manuals and/or guidelines.

Other responsibilities:

• To contribute to the sustainable regional coordination and interaction between cross-border cooperation stakeholders and target groups;
• To assist in the promotion of a cross-border community of practice;
• To assist to the compilation of a database of best practice examples.
• To assist with translation into national languages, if and where it will be required;
• To support the stakeholders’ participation in ETC or CBC related events in the EU;
• To encourage and propose short-term exchanges of staff of national authorities to increase their knowledge about the programme challenges ahead;

This position will last up to 350 working days, starting from June 2023 and ending by May 2025.

Please note that civil servants and other staff of the public administration of the beneficiary countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as Kosovo*) cannot be recruited as experts.

Please submit electronically your motivation letter (max one page) together with your comprehensive CVonly using the EU format available on the following web page: https://cbibplus.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/230421-Standard-CV-template.doc. All interested candidates should send their CV in English indicating that the position or vacancy is CBIB+4 – monitoring and training coordinator. No other supporting documents should be sent at this stage. The CV should be no longer than 4 pages. In case of CVs longer than 4 pages, only the content of the first 4 pages will be examined. At a later phase, successful applicants will be expected to document the relevant qualifications and experience in their CVs with copies of diplomas and certificates of employers. If the selection panel finds it suitable, only the best compliant candidates may be contacted for an interview.

Candidates submitting their CVs in a format or language other than the ones required in this vacancy announcement will not be considered for the position.