Project Manager at AVSI RWANDA: (Deadline 6 April 2023)

Project Manager at AVSI RWANDA: (Deadline 6 April 2023)

1. Background

AVSI Foundation, created in 1972 in Italy, is a not-for-profit organization which carries out development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects throughout the world. AVSI started intervening in Rwanda in 1994 after the genocide against Tutsi with emergency operations. Now its affiliate body AVSI Rwanda transitioned to long-term development interventions that contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the country and registered at Rwanda Government Board (RGB) as local NGO under Reg. N°:717/RGB/NGO/LP/12/2020. Its mission is to promote the dignity of the person through development cooperation activities.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Rwanda (MOE) and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security on 11 November 2021 aiming at strengthening bilateral collaboration on sustainable development, AVSI and REMA have developed together in with REDO and IPRC Tumba (local organizations) and RFA (Rwanda Forest Authority), a project called ‘Improved green culture and climate change resilience within Rwandan rural communities’, whose primary objective is to mitigate GHG emissions, improve living conditions and strengthen resilience to climate change of Ruhango district population through cleaner and energy- efficient cooking solutions and agro-forest sustainable development.

And whereas the project was approved for funding and implementation under this partnership, during the first meeting of the joint committee between the 2 ministries held on 11 November 2022 on the sidelines of COP27; the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security being the funder of the project (the funder).

In order to achieve this, AVSI Rwanda is recruiting of a competent Project Manager to be part of the implementation of this project.

2. Summary of Key Functions:

The Project Manager will be part of the Program Team (PT), under the overall supervision of AVSI Rwanda Legal Representative. The main role of the Project Manager is to provide overall project management with technical expertise to all activities relating to the implementation of the project, mainly direct collaboration with local authorities and donor, manage good collaboration with other key stakeholders (project partners), coordinate the organization of trainings to local cooperatives, sales agents and other tasks related to this position. The selected candidate will demonstrate commitment to AVSI’s mission, vision and values; and methodology, and ensure the provision of the highest quality and standards of services to project beneficiaries and all project stakeholders.

3. Purpose:

The purpose of this position is to raise households and community awareness about clean cooking and its environmental, social, health and economic benefits; to strengthen clean cooking sustainable value chain and promote the adoption of Improved cook stoves by households and institutions (schools), to promote afforestation/reforestation and availability of forest resources.

4. Responsibility

• Ensure all projects results are well coordinated around the achievement of the intended objectives;
• Ensuring donor compliance and project reporting on regular basis (Narrative and Financial), to inform the progress of the project;
• Support the project start up and all tasks related to project start, including:

• Prepare memorandum of understanding between AVSI and its partners for project implementation,
• Participate in project staff members selection, hiring and training,
• Prepare documents to be used while managing the project (procurement plan and operational plan),
• Organize steering committee meetings on regular basis,
• Coordinate project baseline survey and project final evaluation, develop Project M&E plan and tools to be used,
• Ensure quality and sustainability of project(s) results through strategic and operational planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (continuous improvement);
• To raise households and community awareness about environment protection and promote greener and healthier behaviors especially through the adoption of sustainable clean cooking methods (efficient cook stoves and fuels) and afforestation practices. Promoting green culture dissemination
• To strengthen ICSs sustainable value chain and promote the adoption of cleaner cooking solutions by households and institutions (schools) reducing biomass fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions, indoor air pollution and consequently women and children intoxications, families’ expenditures with cooking fuels, deforestation and forest degradation.
• To promote afforestation/reforestation and availability of forest resources by facilitating the creation of seedlings cooperatives and ensure technical skills of the created cooperatives in seedling production, nursery development and maintenance.

5. Skills required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Environment studies, Rural Development, Economics, Management, Entrepreneurship, Development Studies or other related fields of study from a recognized university with minimum of five years of experience in relevant domain. Master’s degree in relevant field would be an added advantage,
• Experience in community-based approaches in project implementation,
• Strong organizational skills and able to coordinate and manage a diverse array of activities and stakeholders,
• Excellent communication skill. Fluent in Kinyarwanda, English or French (both oral and written). Knowledge of both languages would be an added advantage,
• Strong negotiation and mediation skills and ability to work independently
• Report writing and computer skills in word processing, spreadsheets, power point presentation and Internet,
• Experience in conducting surveys, managing data and statistics is desirable
• Experience in working in rural economic development or business development is desirable
• Commercial and technical knowledge of clean cooking protocols is desirable
• Willingness to travel and work in rural areas for most of the times

NB: The project is part of a larger regional programme on Clean Cooking (Rwanda, Burundi and DRC), hence the call for applications is open to interested applicants in the region.

PREFERRED START DATE: April 2023

JOB LOCATION: Kigali – Rwanda with extensive field travel and interaction with various people living in rural areas; 

DURATION: One-year renewable based on performance and availability of funds 

6. How to apply

Interested candidates are requested to submit their application by email. The email must include the position title in the subject line. The attached application must be in PDF format (hard copies will not be considered at this stage).

Applicants must submit a single document that includes:

• A cover letter
• An updated CV
• Copies of academic degrees
• A statement of service from the last employer.
• Contact information for at least 3 reference persons (phone number and email address) according to their most recent professional experience in the targeted fields
• A current criminal record certificate

The deadline for submission is April 6^th, 2023 at 5:00 pm, by e-mail to [email protected], with a copy to the AVSI Rwanda HR: [email protected].

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for test and interview. 

Lorette Birara

Legal Representative