Background on South East Asia and the Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO)
UNOPS South East Asia and Pacific Multi Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered 4 countries South East Asia - 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) and the Philippines. EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises nine EAPMCOs: EAPMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Lao PDR, EAPMCO Philippines and EAPMCO Cambodia.
In 2022, the UNOPS EAPMCO implemented projects worth more than USD 95.7 million, in the areas of Energy Transition, Digital Transformations, Sustainable Environmental Management, Climate Change, Waste Management, Rule of Law and Access to Justice, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Post Conflict Reintegration, Emergency Relief, Post COVID19 Economic Transformations, and Health, through HR, procurement, construction, contract management, fund and program management services.
The Multi Country Office head office in Bangkok provides strategic direction, operational support, delivery oversight and assurance of the excellence of business processes and quality standards across all of the entire Multi Country Office locations. It is also responsible for developing, delivering and managing the portfolio of engagements in the country of the MCO location itself.
The EAPMCO Papua New Guinea was formed in early 2020 to support the implementation of design and construction of infrastructure, sustainable procurement, capacity development to support technical and governance excellence, programme management, and to facilitate access to funding sources in Papua New Guinea.
As an established office since 2022, EAPMCO PNG is demonstrating significant growth and portfolio diversification potential in a short period of time. Working with an increasing number of development partners, in 2023 EAPMCO PNG is quickly being recognised as a responsive and quality partner in climate change resilient infrastructure, sustainable procurement and governance support to the Government of PNG in its service delivery obligations to the people.
Background Information on the Rural Service Delivery Project Project:
The Rural Service Delivery Project (RSDP) is designed to improve communities’ access to basic infrastructure and services in targeted rural areas using inclusive, participatory planning and implementation. The Project is funded by the World Bank and has been implemented by the Government of Papua New Guinea through a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU). The project addresses challenges to service delivery, basic infrastructure and economic integration at local levels through the three components: (i) Preparation and Implementation of Sub-Projects; (ii) Capacity Building of National and Sub‐National Entities; and (iii) Project Management. For the remaining period of project delivery, UNOPS will support the World Bank in the provision of project supervision and implementation across 5 provinces.
The supervision of project activities by UNOPS will cover technical assistance for procedural, physical and financial aspects as well as benefit realization aspects. UNOPS services will include an assessment of RSDP implementation, systems and plans, troubleshooting, oversight on implementation process, with a focus on activities at the provincial level through field missions to assess the current status of project activities, and advise the World Bank on needs to ensure the adequate management of resources to address any programmatic bottlenecks in the implementation of RSDPs objectives.
The expected output of the project, achieved by providing quality program supervision and implementation support of RSDP activities, will result in the timely preparation of new modern critical infrastructure developed across 256 wards which will strengthen public service delivery at the national and local government levels. UNOPS will also contribute to augment the Department of Provincial and Local-level Government Affairs (DPLGA) implementation capacity by identifying procedural challenges in the implementation of RSDP in the areas of health, access to sustainable water resources, and education.
Background information - Job specific:
Under the overall guidance of the Head of Programme and the direct supervision of the Program Manager, the Project Support Specialist will provide oversight of operational processes implemented throughout the RSDP program at a provincial level, with a focus on compliance and operational management of all project components at provincial level. The Project Management Support Specialist, together with the Program Manager will form part of the mobile team which will travel to provinces to work closely with provincial level authorities, beneficiaries, and UNOPS personnel including technical specialists to assess implementation progress for the 9 months of the project.