NGO Jobs for Infrastructure Co-ordinator at The Millennium Village Project

 Infrastructure Co-ordinator ; The Millennium Village Project(NGO Jobs):2012

The millennium village project is aimed at empowering Africa villages to free
themselves of the shackles of poverty, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals within a period of five years. The community would benefit from a number of development projects to uplift the standard of living of the people. The project has organized a ceremony at Bonsaso to officially inaugurate the Millennium Village project.

Our Profile

The Millennium Villages Project, supported by Millennium Promise Alliance and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a bottom-up approach to lift developing country villages out of the poverty trap that afflicts more than a billion people worldwide. The Millennium Villages' team of experts in agriculture, nutrition and health, economics, energy, water, environment and information technology are working with local communities and governments to apply proven holistic package of interventions to help villages get out of extreme poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

With support from Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, a SADA Millennium Village is to bestablished in parts of the West Mamprusi and Builsa Districts of the Northern and Upper East Regions of Ghana.

The project area covers a cluster of contiguous rural communities with an estimated population of 25,000 people.

Job Description

Unit Sada: Millennium Villages Project

Job Summary
Purpose of the position:
The role of the Infrastructure Co-ordinator will be to act as the focal point for the Millennium Village infrastructure activities in the MVP SADA in the Northern Ghana. Principal responsibilities of this position include: providing planning, implementation and monitoring for all infrastructure activities within the MVP - SADA cluster. These include roads, drinking water and sanitation, irrigation, energy, health and education and other social infrastructure. He/she will report to the Cluster team leader with a technical reporting relationship with the Regional Infrastructure Co-ordinator in Bamako.

Responsibilities/Duties:
The Duties and Responsibilities of the Infrastructure Co-ordinator will be as follows:

1. Project planning and design: Undertake planning and design of infrastructure in relation to meeting the stated MVP project targets. When necessary, the co-ordinator will oversee the activities of external consultants engaged to assist with planning and design activities
2. Project Implementation: The co-ordinator will be responsible for developing implementation plans (with timelines) for all Infrastructure Projects in the cluster portfolio. This will include procurement, contract management and supervision of works
3. Project Documentation: Using all sources of information - local and project-wide - to review projects for each MVP site and provide detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of project progress and outcomes
4. Monitoring and Evaluation: The co-ordinator will be responsible for providing the relevant information for use in the MVP reporting system for the infrastructure sector
5. Partnership development: The co-ordinator will iniate and implement appropriate partnership development activities linked to the infrastructure project portfolio, including the development of agreements with government, private sector partners, and communities. These partnerships will focus on project development and funding or alternatively on arrangements for operation and maintenance
6. Supervision of Staff: The co-ordinator will be responsible for the supervision and coordinating of the activities of specialists in various subsectors (e.g. irrigation, water and sanitation and energy) 

Terms of Offer:

• MVP offers a competitive salary with an excellent benefits package. The employment contract is for a period of one year with the possibility of renewal. MVP prides itself on its collegial, supportive and gender sensitive working environment and believes that staff diversity promotes excellence. Women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Required Skills or Experience

• Degree in Engineering, or other relevant subject;
• At least five (5) years of relevant work experience in a closely related field gained in an international organisation with experience in working with infrastructure development activities;
• High level of computer skills, ability to handle basic accounting and ability to learn new applications quickly
• Knowledge of co-operative laws is an added advantage
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Fluency in English written and Oral
• Excellent oral and written communication skills

How To Apply

Applicants should apply by email, sending a cover letter summarising their relevance to this position, a full C.V. and names and contact information of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate's professional qualifications and work experience to: mp_ghana@yahoo.comwith copy to: petrinaoa@yahoo.com. "Application for SADA MVP all of various positions" should be clearly marked on the subject line of the email message.

We invite you to learn more about us at:

www.millenniumvillages.org
www.millenniumpromise.org
www.unmillenniumproject.org
www.mdgcentre.org

 In western Ghana more than 5,000 people live in a medium-sized village called Bonsaaso. They rely heavily on their small-scale farms to produce crops such as cocoa, oil palm, yams, and cassava. Production output, however, is low and because most of the focus is placed on cash crops especially that of cocoa, growing food crops is neglected. As a result the area is wrought with severe malnutrition. Children's diets are almost entirely made up of starches.