Office/Unit/Project Description

Over the last decade, Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth and human development. Despite progress, fragile employment and the growing frequency and intensity of disasters and climate hazards are impeding progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality and forced millions of people into poverty in Bangladesh. Women are facing the burden of these complicated issues, and the pandemic primarily had gendered consequences, slowing or even reversing much of the progress made toward gender equality.

SWAPNO (Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities) is a gender-based social security project that aims to lift poverty-stricken rural women (divorced/separated/widowed/having husband with disability) out of economic insecurity by providing them with productive and sustainable livelihood opportunities. In addition to self-employment, SWAPNO also helps place women in local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and private sector companies in the formal and informal sectors.

Since its inception, SWAPNO has benefited 12,492 beneficiaries in five districts. Among them, SWAPNO II has covered 3564 in Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat and Gaibandha districts. The project has aided economically disadvantaged women in developing their talents, linking them to services and the local market, and ensuring their financial inclusion. This has ensured their survival, improved their resilience to shocks, and provided them more power.

Based on the success of the project and the experience gained, SWAPNO II aspires to implement the project across the 12 poorest districts of Bangladesh – Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Gopalganj, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Cumilla, and Chandpur. SWAPNO will specifically targeted women group from 18 to 30 years and 31 to 45 years to ensure employability and sustainability of project outcomes. The project will maximize the possibilities for financial inclusion while also emphasizing future employability by improving industry skills for job placements in the formal sector and local SMEs. Additionally, SWAPNO will aim to attract investors for social enterprises that offer commercially viable solutions for social problems, encourage environment-friendly business, create employment, and collaborate with the private sector. The project will put further emphasis on the importance of disaster resilience and climate change adaptation and train women to develop their life and soft skills.

SWAPNO’s strategy to support women’s access to decent employment, ensure a discrimination-free environment in public workplaces, develop adaptive livelihoods, establish localized Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), access to financial services for sustainable graduation from extreme poverty, and develop local government capacity to implement pro-poor projects. SWAPNO II will contribute to achieve the following results:

• Outcome 1: Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Sustaining SWAPNO Benefits
• Outcome 2: Increased Income and Assets Engaging Local Economy and Skill Development
• Outcome 3: Strengthened Human Capabilities and Resilience Capacity

• Assist in designing and implementing an effective Management Information System (MIS);
• Under the guidance of an M&E Officer, devise the process of feeding MIS data from Union Parishad up, ensure implementation of effective MIS reporting and facilitate capacity development training as required;
• Collect MIS data from the field, feeding such data into quarterly and annual progress reports and assist in report writing;
• Participate in finalization of the design of studies and identification of samples;
• Participate in the deployment of data collectors for surveys/assessments;
• Undertake/provide training of data collectors;
• Train, guide and supervise data collectors;
• Supervise and organize logistics of data collection;
• Be responsible for quality of data collection and supervise quality data entry;
• Arrange for accessible storage of data records and documentation;
• Provide assistance to scheduled Baseline, Mid-Term and End-of-project Evaluation;
• Ensure all electronic devices at the project and field offices are kept in good working conditions;
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The MIS Associate will work under the leadership of the National Project Manager and direct supervision of Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Associate of SWAPNO project and liaise with project team and NGO staff involved in the programme. This position is Dhaka-based with monitoring visits to project implementing locations.

Competencies

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements
• Learn Continuously:  LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
• Adapt with Agility:      LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
• Engage and Partner:  LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies: 

• Business Development-Human- centered Design-Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. Knowledge and understanding of human centered design principles and practices.
• Business Management-Working with Evidence and Data -Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making.
• Business Management-Digital Awareness and Literacy-Ability to monitor new and emerging technologies, as well as understand their usage, potential, limitations, impact, and added value. Ability to rapidly and readily adopt and use new technologies in professional activities, and to empower others to use them as needed. Knowledge of the usage of digital technologies and emerging trends.
• Data – Data analysis  Ability to extract, analyze and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.
• Digital Data collection-Being skilled in Data Sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey Administration, Presentation and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g. mobile data, satellite data, sensor data).
• Information Management & Technology- IT Research and Development-Regular following new technologies and technical trends, research the technologies that are applicable and beneficial to the organization and develop the systems
• Ethics  UN policy knowledge – ethics-Knowledge and understanding of the UN Staff Regulations and Rules and other policies relating to ethics and integrity

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