Job Overview
BACKGROUND
The USAID Accountable Governance for Improved Service Delivery (AGIS) project seeks to strengthen the accountability and transparency functions within the Zambian Ministry of General Education (MoGE) and Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve health and education outcomes. It is premised on the hypothesis that if targeted government institutions adopt more transparent and accountable practices, service delivery will be more efficient and effective, leading to improved development outcomes. The project is operating in three provinces (Muchinga, Lusaka and Eastern) covering six districts. Project activities are being implemented in line with Zambia’s 7th National Development Plan (NDP) 2016 – 2021, the Zambia Education Sector National Implementation Framework 2011 – 2013 and the Zambia National Health Strategic Plan 2017 – 2021.
RTI International’s primary role in the AGIS Project is to roll-down or link central level interventions to target districts and provide technical assistance to district personnel to effectively implement transparency and accountability functions. RTI is therefore implementing Task 4 of the AGIS project, which is focused on (1) developing six district-level capacity development plans for the health and education sectors, (2) developing new or revised templates and protocols for stream-lining and improving identified transparency and accountability functions of district level health and education service delivery entities; (3) providing capacity development assistance to the MoH and MoGE at the district-level, based on the capacity development plans. To strengthen accountability and transparency functions in these ministries, the project is targeting primary Public Financial Management (PFM) functions including internal audit, internal controls, and public procurement.
RTI seeks a short-term consultant with strong internal control expertise to contribute to the capacity development assistance sub-task. The consultant will assist in developing and finalizing materials for training (a)non-financial managers and (b) technical staff in the targeted districts in the area of internal controls.
SCOPE OF WORK
The consultant will support RTI in developing training materials through the following tasks:
- Review already developed training materials for the two groups in internal control to identify gaps and ways of strengthening them.
- Revise training materials in consultation with project team.
- Develop case studies, scenarios and exercises to make the training practical and relevant for non-financial managers in the Zambian sub-national context.
- Support other areas of preparation for the training workshops as needed.
DELIVERABLES
- Revised PowerPoint presentations
- Relevant case studies, scenarios and exercises for internal control training including training guides(Incorporated into the training slides)
Maximum LOE:10 days
REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants should :
- Have relevant University degree or equivalent (at least at master’s level), preferably in economics, finance or accounting.
- Have at least 10 years of practical experience in internal control systems with at least 5 at a senior level.
- Have a strong grasp of PFM systems and reforms in Zambia.
- Have a working knowledge of internal controls at the central and sub-national levels for procurement, accounting and human resources/payroll.
- Have ability to produce thorough, high quality work within tight timeframes
- Have ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and to work independently is required
- Be proficient in English is required.
- Have excellent skills in oral and written communications.
- Have excellent interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to work as part of a team;
- Be proficient in standard office IT applications (such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)
- Experience in organizing and conducting internal control training courses and workshops is desirable.