Project Background

Through the Malawi Governance for Solutions (GfS) Activity, USAID seeks to build on the incremental gains in decentralization and associated service delivery improvements, with the understanding that to make the significant leaps now required for Malawi to meet its own development goals—in the face of a fast-growing, young population—a bold, adaptive, and sustainable approach is required. To successfully remove critical bottlenecks and diffuse effective governance practices, DAI will deploy a locally driven approach—Facilitate, Catalyze, and Scale—drawing on Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) as a core methodology. Through the Facilitate, Catalyze, and Scale approach, DAI will help local stakeholders to tackle the root causes of service delivery failures through best-fit solutions and offer demonstrative models based on positive deviance. Through both process-oriented facilitation and the provisions of technical support and grants, GfS will foster stable, resilient, and more self-reliant partnerships that best position local communities to address their own challenges and contribute to the trajectory of Malawi Vision 2063.

Objectives of the assignment

Reporting to the Deputy Chief of party, the G2G TA Specialist will manage the technical activities related to government-to-government (G2G) implementation in the G2G districts. The G2G TA Specialist will provide targeted support to the G2G District Councils to facilitate the implementation of their risk mitigation plan and provide TA to support success in the G2G. The G2G TA Specialist will support capacity development, as well as a joint monitoring plan for issues identified in a USAID-led public financial management (PFM assessment) and subsequent risks identified. The TA will assist G2G District Councils to prepare documents for verification of milestones, support to improve knowledge and skills, practices and behaviors as needed, as defined in the risk mitigation plan and workplan, provide TA during functional reviews, and prepare regular updates with USAID

Tasks & Responsibilities

• Provide targeted Technical Assistance to G2G District Council in G2G focal areas including Public Finance Management, Human Resource, Procurement, and Local Governance.
• Contribute to design and implementation of an index to measure various components of local governance performance, including planning, budgeting, financial management, administration, and internal and external communications and be comparable across districts.
• Design and manage activities to improve capacity of district councilors to serve as effective representatives.
• Collaborate with relevant USAID counterparts to ensure the strong implementation of G2G initiatives and provide capacity development support in weak areas (e.g., procurement, IFMIS, etc.)
• Contribute data and analysis to monthly, quarterly, annual, and ad hoc communications and reports, and to ME&L reports.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

This role is contingent on donor funding.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance,Business Administration, social sciences, economics, public administration or a related field with a Master’s degree
• Minimum ten (10) years of relevant work experience
• Knowledge of USAID’s donor policies and procedures, particularly as related to grants and procurement
• Experience working with local governments in the areas of public financial management and development planning to identify and address capacity gaps
• Experience working with private sector, national and local government, and donor programs to promote integrated solutions to local challenges
• Experience designing performance indexes
• Proficiency with MS Office software
• Excellent English writing, speaking, and reading skills