Project coordinator for HLITOA

***Only candidates with the relevant right to work will be considered*** 

Re-Advertised

KEY INFORMATION
Job Title: Project coordinator for HLITOA
Sector: Tourism Sector
Position Type: Consultancy
Duration/Level of Effort: 180 person days over nine months (September 2022 to May 2023) 20 days per month average
Position Location: at HLITOA premises in Jerusalem “The applicant should be a holder of the Israeli ID” Reports to: Workstream 2 Lead

BACKGROUND
The Trade Facilitation and Customs Support programme (Tasdeer) is a three-year programme funded by UK Aid from the British Government and implemented by a consortium led by Cowater International.

The objective of the Tasdeer programme is to improve the Palestinian private sector’s competitiveness and the PA’s capacity in the fields of trade, customs and import policy regulation and administration. The Tasdeer programme aims to increase sustainable private sector-led economic growth and job creation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the PA’s fiscal sustainability while ensuring equitable access to increased trade and improved institutional capacity. Gender Equality and Social Inclusion is a main tool and objective for Tasdeer to ensure the benefits of the programme are equally accessed by the diverse groups of men and women in the supply chain.

Tasdeer is designed to be flexible and adaptive and works politically and technically to make progress across four keys interrelated Workstreams:

• Workstream 1: Support to expedite the movement of goods and reduce transaction costs. This workstream aims to develop systemic interventions that will seek to expedite the movement of goods and contribute to impactful reductions in transaction costs for Palestinian imports and exports.
• Workstream 2: Support to improve Palestinian trade-related institutions and business enabling environment. This workstream aims to improve Palestinian trade-related institutions and strengthen the trade operating environment.
• Workstream 3: Support to improve the private sector’s skills and innovation to export and create jobs. This workstream aims to support activities that will help Palestinian firms increase their exports through the application of a market-driven approach. This market-driven approach will identify potential buyers/markets while exploring the linkages between the buyer, the firms, and its suppliers.
• Workstream 4: Support to improve PA’s Customs readiness to assume functions from Israel to collect revenues from trade-related taxes. This workstream aims to provide technical assistance to enhance the capacity of the PA (Palestinian Authority) Ministry of Finance Customs Department including the possible transfer of additional custom functions from Israel to the PA and to limit fiscal losses from inefficient clearance mechanism of trade-related taxes between the PA.

The interventions implemented by each workstream are designed to take into consideration the roles and needs of women, youth, and people with disabilities, including those in marginalized areas (i.e., East Jerusalem, seam zone, area C and Gaza), ensuring that all interventions and activities are GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) responsive.

Holy Land Incoming Tour Operators Association (HLITOA) is the incoming tour operators’ representative body in Palestine and is considered a major player in organizing the Palestinian tourism industry. HLITOA is a non-profit organization run by an elected board and has a membership of 48 tour operators who sell tour packages not only to visit Palestine but also to visit Jordan and Israel.

Tourism plays an important role in the Palestinian economy. Palestinian areas receive more than one million visitors each year. However, many tourists stay for only a few hours and the revenue and employment benefit to the Palestinian economy are correspondingly lower than for regional counterparts. Palestine currently receives two large streams of foreign visitors: religious tourists visiting Christian sites or Muslim sites, and 1948 Arabs and Palestinians residing abroad visiting Palestine for a variety of family and other reasons. Increasing the economic impact of the tourism sector will require expanding the value added from these two existing streams of visitors, while engaging in strategic tourism promotion to expand the number of visitors and the money they spend in Palestine.

Holy Land Incoming Tour Operators Association (HLITOA) is leading an initiative to improve the tourism sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) with the aim of increasing the number of Free Independent Tourists (FITs) who visit Palestine. Currently, the incoming FITs to Palestine forms 10% of the total number of tourists in Palestine.

Tasdeer and HLITOA plan to utilize an effective tourism message that reflects the diversity and richness of Palestine whether it is religious, cultural or experiential to be used on social media targeting individual international visitors.

Tasdeer and HLITOA are seeking a project coordinator to coordinate the implementation of all intervention activities to ensure all deliverables meets the required standards in addition to help with the communications between Tasdeer, HLITOA and other stakeholders. The expected activities are:

1. Subsidization of 3 tourism packages targeting FITs
2. Updating YAHALAH.com portal
3. Training and building the capacity of 20 local guides.

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SUMMARY OF THE POSITION

Tasdeer is looking for a project coordinator to conduct the following tasks:

1. Manage and maintain the YAHALAH.com portal
2. In coordination with the Director of HILTOA, coordinate with all service providers involved in the pre-assigned packages
3. Coordinate, attend and document all meetings
4. Supervise and ensure all hired consultants meet the deadlines
5. Responsible for all logistic preparation for the capacity building training
6. Promote the tourism packages with incoming tour operators, hotels, and media outlets including social media
7. Coordinate the operations of the tour packages including time and logistics
8. Participate in all procurement and recruitment processes.
9. Ensure effective and efficient implementation of the interventions including preparing progress reports, collect related monitoring and evaluation required information, and prepare final reports

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Based on the scope of work, the hired coordinator will be responsible for:

1. Provide support to HLITOA ‘s director in managing the Yahalah Portal and all activities related to the intervention
2. Diffuse a plan (with the help of an IT/Marketing consulting company) to create content marketing, engagement tactics and linking it to Commercial goals and covers the entire customer lifecycle for different audiences
3. Identify Social Media Channels suitable for Tourism marketing such as: Facebook and Instagram: Create pages, admin pages, design best post, engage fans, create a community, design Facebook ad to targeted audience, create lists, organic reach vs paid reach, provide reports on Facebook Algorithm of the page.
4. Handle all operations related to reservations made through the Yahalah platform such as reserving the local guide who will lead the reserved tour, respond to communications generated through the Yahalah.com platform, inform registrant of confirmations and changes,
5. Field research and meetings: coordinate, attend and document all meetings between HLITOA, Tasdeer and other institutions/companies.
6. Desk Research: support in collecting relevant documents that can be utilised in understanding the sector needs that can be addressed on the website.
7. Website management: handle the management and constant update of the website content.
8. Training coordination: responsible for all logistic preparation and documentation of the local guide training program
9. Packages operations coordination: responsible for setting the schedule of all packages including the guide, sites to be visited, bookings and confirmations.
10. Preparing progress reports, collect related monitoring and evaluation required information, and prepare final reports

Working hours are 8am to 5pm, five days a week maximum with weekend days on Friday and Saturday.  Out of hours work is expected with this role.

The coordinator will report directly to HLITOA’s Director, and their contract will be managed by Tasdeer’s Project Manager. The coordinator will be expected to maintain regular contact with Tasdeer work stream 2 lead

The assignment deliverables are:

No. Deliverable

1 All related reports as per the SoW and main responsibilities. develop plans report on implementation.

2 Weekly progress report

3 Website marketing content

4 Monthly status report on the performance of the packages  

5 Monthly status report on the portal including traffic

Report on the delivered training to local guides

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• At least 5 years’ experience in project management
• Proven experience in content creation especially for Tourism related products or similar services
• Strong professional abilities in marketing and social media
• Strong reporting skills
• Strong experience in marketing preferable in Tourism sector
• Strong coordination skills
• Strong Arabic and English communication skills.

• The applicant should be a holder of the Israeli ID

APPLICATION PROCESS
Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible to [email protected] no later than Thursday, 25th of August 2022.

Candidates must submit the following to be considered:

• A full CV
• A cover letter (two-page limit, A4) which explains their suitability for the role.

For your application to be considered, please upload your documents as follows: Candidate Last Name, First Name, date, Title of the Position.

Cowater International is an equal opportunity employer, basing employment on merit and qualifications as they relate to professional experience and position expectations. Cowater does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender identity, disability, age, or any other basis protected by law.

We thank all applicants, however only those shortlisted will be contacted.

ABOUT US

With more than 35 years’ experience, Cowater International is Canada’s global leader in management consulting services specializing in international development and has managed the implementation of over 800 projects in more than 80 countries around the globe. We work with governments, partner organizations, communities and civil society to design and implement sustainable solutions that generate lasting social, financial, and environmental impacts. Our adaptive approach to management has led to our award-winning work and recognition as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Cowater International also has corporate offices in Montreal, Quebec; London, United Kingdom; Nairobi, Kenya; and Brussels, Belgium, in addition to project offices in a wide variety of other locations across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

We thank you for your interest in building a better tomorrow with Cowater International.