Civil Engineers

Terms of Reference

Gaunpalika Infrastructure Planning and Monitoring Engineers

GEOCE Consultants (P) Ltd is a multidisciplinary consulting company, specialized in various sectors and providing services since 1986. GEOCE is a consortium member of Post- Earthquake Recovery in Nepal Project (PURNIMA)managed by Mott MacDonald, UK.

PURNIMA is a five-year programme funded by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-UK aid which will run until September 2022. The objective is long-term positive change in the lives of people in earthquake-affected regions of Nepal. The programme is working in four of the worst-affected districts (Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, and Rasuwa) and includes five Output Areas: 

• Support and capacity building to Government agencies at federal, provincial and local level in reconstruction planning and implementation. 
• Reconstruction of rural infrastructure, including water supply, foot trails, bridges, and schools.
• Interventions to address constraints to the private sector in relation to construction, including access to finance, innovation and skills.
• A Challenge Fund to ‘leave no-one behind’ in the reconstruction effort, and to restore and improve livelihoods, food security and access to services (including housing grants and related support services) for the most vulnerable.
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.

The key role of the Infrastructure Engineer is to build the capacity of the assigned Gaunpalika/Nagarpalika (GP/NP) for planning, delivery and management of infrastructure, and especially the long-term system strengthening and ensuring sustainability of infrastructure. The incumbent is primarily to contribute to Output Area 1, whilst making asignificant contribution to Output Area 2 to ensure palika ownership and commitment to management of infrastructure built by Purnina. S/he should also align his/her actions for linking construction private sector component and ‘leave no one behind initiatives for vulnerable people. The engineer will be stationed in the assigned GP/NP. S/he will work closely with the Purnima planning & governance advisors and GP/NP staff and will report to Senior Infrastructure Engineer for technical matters, and to District Coordinator for administrative matters.

Job description

Specific job descriptions will be as follows:

Supporting in planning and standardization

1. Support the Gaunpalika/Nagarpalika in rigorous and robust planning and budgeting of infrastructure projects.
2. Facilitate in developing infrastructure related sectoral master plans, Detailed Project Report (DPR)preparation, feasibility studies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders 
3. Support in developing various infrastructure related guidelines, manuals and procedures for endorsement from the GP executives.
4. Facilitate and ensure building codes are developed and applied.
5. Ensure local governments set aside matching funds for Purnima activities 

Support in Implementation 

1. Support Gaunpalika’ selected officials and staff in infrastructure related issues, for setting criteria and selecting and prioritizing sub-projects based on the agreed criteria.
2. Identify needs and facilitate technical training to the Gaunpalika technical team to increase efficiency of the Gaunpalikas
3. Support Purnima programmes for improving data management and visualization, including GIS and palika websites
4. Ensure GIS is used for vulnerability mapping and planning processes
5. Support to strengthen ongoing GIS, e-procurement systems 
6. Contribute to strengthen policy and practices for construction private sectors
7. Contribute to economic inclusion initiatives under ‘leave no one behind’ component, specially through interventions related to infrastructures 
8. Facilitate in identifying and mapping industrial zones in respective GPs

Supervision and Monitoring

• Participate in field activities for selection, quality assurance, monitoring of activities of Purnima’s directly implemented infrastructure and also Gaunpalika/Nagarpalika regular infrastructure projects
• Establish a system of regular monitoring of various infrastructure sub-projects whether funded by GP, Purnima or other partners including NRA and develop mechanism for feedback.
• Participate in supervision of Purnima infrastructure
• Long term sustainability strengthening
• Organize meetings /workshops for the GP/NP and other stakeholders to develop long term arrangements for sustainability of infrastructure specially developing capacity of the local government
• Support to develop, disseminate and implement sustainability guidelines, policies, directives.

Coordination

1. Play proactive role for organizing regular meeting of stakeholders on progress update and planning of various development agencies in the GPs in coordination with GP officials and Planning advisors 
2. Ensure coordination of Purnima activities across all output
3. Foster integrated approaches between various activities in economic development, vulnerable communities and infrastructure
4. Promote links between the various Purnima outputs in an integrated manner to support coherent decision-making.

Learning, documentation and reporting

1. Collaborate with Purnima palika-level advisors, and ensure effective knowledge-sharing and lesson-learning (between and within palikas)
2. Maintain up-to-date information of various infrastructural development in the Gaunpalika
3. Introduce innovative actions and capture real time learning from success and failures
4. Ensure the timely submission of financial and operational reports
5. Participate in program review meetings;
6. Perform other duties as required by the programme

Candidate Specification

• At least Bachelor’s Degree in civil engineering;
• At least 4 years' experience in rural infrastructure in Nepal, including survey, design, estimate, construction supervision, preparation of bill of quantities, tender documents, technical training, users committee formation and training to them;
• Experience in implementation and management of small-scale rural infrastructure, preferably on a donor-funded projects(DFID experience an advantage);
• Knowledge of GIS, Autocad and other standard engineering software an advantage;
• Experience in infrastructure system strengthening and long-term sustainability
• Good experience with private sector, and economic inclusion initiatives
• Goodexperienceworkingwithminorityordisadvantagedgroupsin the hills, and a strong sensitivity to the challenges of social inclusion;
• Demonstrated understanding of the challenges of post-earthquake reconstruction and recovery;
• Strong communication, interpersonal and leadership skills, but also a team player with the willingness to learn and support the learning of others;
• Proven ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with local Government;
• Abilitytoworkeffectivelyinremoteareas, and willing to travel extensively through out the project area, including on foot as well as by jeep and motorbike;
• Fluency in written and spoken Nepali and English is essential, and fluency in relevant local languages spoken in the project area would be a strong asset;
• Preference will given to the candidates from the Purnima districts;
• Female candidates are encouraged to apply. 

Application Procedure: Interested candidates can submit their CV/RESUME at geoce.recquirement@gmail.com