Duties and Responsibilities
1. General Statement of Purpose of the Contract
USAID/Kenya and East Africa (KEA) invests in population and health programs at regional, national, and county levels that aim to improve the survival, well-being, and productivity of the Kenyan and East African population by reducing the burden of major infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and addressing the main causes of maternal and child illness and deaths. This includes cross-cutting work to strengthen healthcare systems and build capacity, and to support national governments to formulate key policies and guidelines, while assisting sub-national units such as counties to better plan, manage, and finance quality health services to meet local needs. The Health Population and Nutrition (HPN) office is USAID/Kenya and East Africa’s (KEA) largest office, managing a portfolio valued at over $400 million annually. USAID/KEA’s regional program is responsible for providing assistance and technical support to Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) and implements health programs across the East Africa region consistent with its Regional Development Cooperation Strategy (RDCS).
The primary purpose of this position is to: coordinate, manage, and complete a range of project management, monitoring, and evaluation reporting requirements for the assigned Team, including operational plans, annual reports, and other projects as assigned; and, to serve as an activity manager for certain assigned activities within the HPN Office. Each position is generally assigned to cover specific projects/activity management sections; however, incumbents may be assigned to assist with overall project support to the HPN Office, depending on the needs of the Mission. Each PMA operates independently of any other such position in the HPN Office to which they are assigned, although cooperation in specific circumstances may be required, as directed by the Supervisor or Office Director.
The PMA’s primary responsibility is to provide project support and coordination with Project Management Specialists and/or AORs/CORs who manage a project or projects in the HPN Office. This may include assistance with management, implementation, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, and helping to direct any of the program/project activities within the HPN Office, contributing to the preparation of various reports, including results reporting and data quality assessments (DQAs), coordination of project/program activities including liaising with implementing partners, government and county officials as well as other external stakeholders, preparation of presentations on IPs performance and other topics as needed, conducting pipeline analyses and accruals, and managing close-out actions. The PMA may be responsible for project management duties depending on the mission’s needs.
The large HPN portfolio requires flexibility in staff time to support teams to meet required goals and unplanned taskers. The incumbent may be called upon to support other teams when staff are away, to participate in joint site visits, or represent the team in meetings, among other tasks. The Project Management Assistant is not a dedicated administrative position. However, the incumbent will provide cover during the absence of Administrative Assistants, on occasion and as directed by the Supervisor or Office Director, provide administrative support to the assigned 3 72061525R10006 team and HPN Office. The PMAs are critical members of the HPN Office. The Assistant works under the supervision of the Health Policy and Financing Team Leader.
2. Statement of Duties to be Performed:
Program/Project Management Assistance - 50%
• The principal responsibility of each PMA is to provide support to the administration and oversight of all assigned activities and projects, to identify problems and recommend corrective actions that may be encountered in the implementation.
• PMAs draft and prepare, with guidance from AORs/CORs and Team Leaders, documents related to program planning, implementation and management, including action memoranda/letters, reports, acquisition and assistance requests and pre-obligation documentation, analysis of ongoing/past/planned activities and results, will prepare Fixed Amount Award Implementation Letters, focusing on Program Descriptions and Budgets, Senior Obligation Alignment Reviews (SOARs), action memos and justifications for exceptions to competition, and will contribute to drafting program/project Scopes of Work (SOW), PDDs, etc.
• PMAs participate fully with AOR/COR/AMs in managing and maintaining project records, both electronically and hard-copy, for projects/activities assigned to them or for all projects in their sections following the requirements of the Agency ASIST system.
• PMAs provide administrative input in coordinating aspects of the HPN development portfolio, specifically providing support related to site visits, program monitoring, and implementation, partner communication and coordination, and interfacing with relevant USAID Life-Line offices as well as other USG agencies.
• PMAs participate and have significant responsibility in the development of evaluation plans and assessments, and actively participate in their implementation.
• PMAs provide assistance to the Team Leader and other relevant team members to prepare briefings, presentations, performance narratives, and routine reports, including all sectionspecific annual/semi-annual operational plans and reporting (OP, PPR, PMI/MOP, COP, MER, POART, ER etc.), prepare the portfolio’s input to Mission Resource Requests, Congressional Budget Justifications, and Congressional Notifications, and other requirements as needed.
• PMAs collect information from other sources (implementing partners, donors, host government, etc.) as needed to identify opportunities to strengthen team programs/projects.
• In consultation with the Supervisor and the HPN management team, the incumbent may be selected to serve as an Activity Manager, or alternate, for bilateral implementing mechanisms and field support activities. Activity Manager responsibilities include independent site visits, monitoring and reporting, as well as delegation to clear implementing partner vouchers, accruals and administrative approvals.
Financial/Budget/Procurement Planning and Management - 20%
• PMAs monitor and manage budgets for contracts, grants and cooperative agreements within the assigned team. PMAs are administratively responsible for financial operations, they perform financial audit responsibilities and have primary responsibility for budget forecasting, budget formulation, analysis and control for an annual budget of approximately $50 - $100 Million.
• PMAs assist Teams to budget program funds to priority areas and interventions, while ensuring they are in line with the overall budgets defined for respective areas. Incumbents will be required to prepare internal budget documentation and estimates to process procurement actions and forecast expenditures.
• The incumbents participate fully with AOR/CORs in maintaining project records and status reports, including quarterly technical and financial reports, develops pipeline analysis, accruals, expenditure projections, and budget tracking tables, preparing and updating project documentation, and tracking contractor/grantee expenditures and budgets. Using the PHOENIX financial tracking system, they perform an in-depth analysis and track unobligated pipelines, and in consultation with the SPA office, assist in the correction of any problems noted.
• PMAs, in consultation with OAA and OFM, facilitate the close-out of expired awards and subsequent de-obligations, and any other after action review from the previous QFR meeting.
• PMAs will have procurement-related responsibilities for the HPN Office or for particular projects /activities. Such responsibilities include procurement planning, coordination with the Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA), monitoring and managing procurement processes for the Team, managing obligation and documentation requirements, etc. Incumbent reviews contracts for the Team’s performance management and evaluation.
• PMAs are responsible for procurement requisitions related to their projects/activities. As the Team’s designated GLAAS requester for all procurement actions associated with the Team’s programs, PMA is responsible for preparing requisitions in GLAAS for goods, services, contracts, and agreements, as well as REQs for CCN personnel.
• PMAs prepare and upload financial requisitions into GLAAS and enter data into the Foreign Assistance Coordination and Tracking System (FACTS Info), the Mission-wide Indicator Tracker and other information collection databases utilized per the guidance from U.S. Government Agencies. Monitoring and Evaluation - 15%
• PMAs participate in the Activity Management Teams (AMT) for implementing partner performance monitoring, including supporting the Team during field visits and in the development and revision of standard tools for activity monitoring such as the RMNCAH, SIMS and Surge field monitoring tools.
• PMAs provide substantive M&E support such as taking the lead in monitoring compliance with DQA provisions in awards, FP policy and statutory requirements, environmental compliance, financial management, and fraud risk assessment.
• PMAs assist Teams to manage program/activity/project/development objective indicators, including quality control, collection and reporting, tracking and analyzing targets against actual results/performance, drafting performance evaluations, providing input to portfolio reviews, assist in preparing and maintaining Performance Monitoring Plans, and serving as a subject matter expert for the program evaluation processes and developing new M&E approaches.
