Office/Unit/Project Description

Lebanon continues to confront an unprecedented financial and economic crisis facilitated by a history of violence, volatility, and social inequality that has undermined the subsistence capacity of already vulnerable populations. The country continues hosting the largest numbers of refugees per capita in the world (almost 1 in 3), estimated at 1.5 million displaced Syrians along with 31,400 Palestine refugees from Syria, 35,000 Lebanese returnees, and a pre-existing population of more than 174,422 Palestine refugees, and risks for new displacement waves are rising with a deteriorating geopolitical environment. This multi-layered crisis has devastating impacts on the social, economic and environmental capital of the country and, increasingly, on its social cohesion and stability as well.

Communities hosting large numbers of displaced populations have to face, with inadequate institutional capacities, fast-dwindling resources, and insufficient collective approach, the lingering consequences of the Syrian displacement crisis, exacerbated since 2019 by a severe economic, fiscal and governance meltdown, while pressure from climate change keeps increasing. This state-of-affairs undermines their capacity to cope with the immediate impacts of the compounded crisis – including breakdowns in essential services, rising poverty and the stiffening of inter- and intra-community tensions – and curtails their ability to overcome systemic challenges through a development approach, including, but not limited to, the protracted presence of displaced populations with no durable solutions in sight.

The Lebanon Host Community Support Project – Phase 2 (LHSP 2.0) Project builds upon the long accumulated experience and lessons learnt of implementing the LHSP since 2014. LHSP 2.0 proposes to anchor more firmly stabilization activities into an integrated local development paradigm, to work more at an area-based level in clusters and unions and to strengthen its support to municipal capacity development, in order to increase impact and sustainability of stabilization support.

At the local level, the LHSP 2.0 aims to help increase coping and sustainable development capacities in host communities and create a more enabling environment for mitigating and preventing tensions by:

1. reducing perceived competition between different population groups over public services, livelihood and economic opportunities by helping to maintain and increase service outputs and create economic opportunities, in a context of acute incapacitation of the public and private sectors to maintain their levels of operations and to mitigate negative crisis impacts over populations, Lebanese, displaced or refugees; and
2. providing conflict-sensitive and inclusive dialogue and decision-making spaces where different components of local communities can explore and agree peacefully on their common interests and build their own pathway to a more sustainable future.

The Project has four outputs:

Scope of Work 

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor, the incumbent will perform the following functions:

1.Provide support for effective administrative and financial control of the project. 

• Administer, monitor and track the project management budget and payments.
• Review & control submitted project management (administrative, logistical and financial matters) payments prior to having it signed by CTA to ensure that all expenditures related to each project are charged to appropriate budget lines ensuring that all UNDP financial rules and regulations are adhered to;
• Administer and track national and area staff salaries and remunerations.
• Prepare and perform budget allocation and revision for all donors’ contributions.
• Follow-up with the project Procurement Unit to ensure that funds are fully reserved/allocated a in line with the Annual Work Plans.
• Follow-up with the project M&E to ensure that all allocation is properly planned and ensure that financial figures’ inputs are properly reflected in the narrative donors’ report.
• Support and assist the CTA in the preparation and finalization of financial proposals to donors.
• Provide substantive inputs to assist the CTA.
• Consolidate financial data for budget estimates and financial planning/forecast.
• Assist the program in all aspects of accounts maintenance and budget control by providing timely and updated reports on financial status, procedures, exchange rates, costs and all other expenditures of relevance, as well as highlight potential funding issues and take preemptive actions to avoid escalation in the future.
• Ensure relevant, timely and accurate monthly and quarterly submission of donor’s financial reports.
• Ensure efficient provision of administrative and financial services in the areas of accounting control, recording, reporting, management and tracking of project assets.
• Follow up on agreements with donors, anticipated funds, & timely donors reporting for timely funds transfer & activities implementation.
• Alert CTA in advance on any anticipated budget shortfall and ensuring that the CTA is briefed about the financial status of the project regularly.
• Follow up on all financial matters of the project with the CTA& UNDP- country office.
• Maintain the financial records related to project management & files in a way that information is up to date and easily accessed.
• Assist the CTA in developing and implementing an Action Plan for the improvement of financial management systems and procedures, including audits recommendations.

2.Support in the Human Resources and General office Administration:

• Follow-up on contracts of staff (extensions, renewals) and maintain various personnel records and files. Make sure all files are in order and updated.
• Ensure systematic briefing to project staff about administrative matters and provide administrative support as/when required.
• Maintain accurate and up to date office assets records.
• Assist with travel arrangements for international travel.
• Support in organizing workshops, training events and so on.
• Carry out other tasks as deemed necessary by CTA Management support.

3.Support knowledge building, knowledge sharing and capacity building relevant to the assigned project. 

• Participate in training and organize briefings on internal procedures for the project staff. Provide support to other capacity building activities, including to the design and delivery of tools, materials for workshops, or platforms that tap into the collective intelligence of communities and mobilize action.
• Provide support in the dissemination and sharing of relevant data and lessons learned within the CO and regionally. Keep pulse on emerging best practices nationally, regionally, and internationally that relate to the work of the assigned project.
• Make sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice. Support compiling and systematizing project knowledge, products and tools as well as their wide distribution to partners.

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

Institutional Arrangement

The selected incumbent will be working under the overall guidance and the direct supervision of the UNDP CTA/Local Development Portfolio Coordinator.

Competencies

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful NPSA