Project Coordinator for HLITOA

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

KEY INFORMATION

Job Title: Project Coordinator for HLITOA
Sector: Tourism Sector
Position Type: Consultancy
Duration/Level of Effort: 180 person days over nine months (February 2023 to October 2023) 20 days per month on average
Position Location: at HLITOA premises in Jerusalem
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, 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 supports activities that will help Palestinian firms increase their exports by applying 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 benefits to the Palestinian economy are correspondingly lower than for regional counterparts. Palestine currently receives two large streams of foreign visitors: religious tourists visiting Christian or Muslim sites, and 1948 Arabs and Palestinians residing abroad visiting Palestine for various 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 form 10% of Palestine's total number of tourists.

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

Tasdeer and HLITOA seek a project coordinator to coordinate the implementation of all intervention activities to ensure all deliverables meet the required standards and help with the communications between Tasdeer, HLITOA and other stakeholders.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

SUMMARY OF THE POSITION

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

1. Coordinate with all tourism service providers involved in the pre-assigned packages published on Yahalah portals
2. Coordinate, attend and document all meetings
3. Supervise and ensure all hired consultants meet the deadlines
4. Responsible for all logistic preparation for the capacity-building training
5. Ensure proper coordination for the marketing expert to promote the tourism packages with incoming tour operators, hotels, and media outlets, including social media 
6. Coordinate the operations of the tour packages, including time and logistics
7. Participate in all procurement and recruitment processes.
8. Ensure effective and efficient implementation of the interventions, including preparing progress reports, collecting related monitoring and evaluation required information, and preparing final reports

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

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

This is a management position with hands-on interventions to directly edit or add content to HLITOA’s portals.

1. Provide support to HLITOA ‘s director in managing the Yahalah Portals and other needed tasks including:

1. Participate in HLITOA Management meetings,
2. Hold continuous meetings with HLITOA’s members of tour operators to coordinate activities and collect information such as updated profiles of the Members’ services to be reflected in the HLITOA’s portal or the Yahalah portal.
3. Assist the Marketing Expert in identifying channels to sell the services of Yahalah.com such as hotels and jointly hold meetings with the businesses senior management to sell Yahalah services utilizing PR publications created specifically for that channel.
4. Handle all the ground operations related to reservations made through the Yahalah platform such as reserving the local guide who will lead the reserved tour, responding to communications generated through the Yahalah.com platform, inform the registrant of confirmations and changes.
5. Follow up with the Marketing expert to ensure accurate implementation of the activities and report to Tasdeer and HLITOA.

1. Field research and meetings: coordinate, attend and document all meetings between HLITOA, Tasdeer and other institutions/companies.
2. Desk Research:

1. Collect relevant information and documents that can be published on the two portals such as operation hours of the border entries, different churches opening hours, or visa procedures to enter the country or other relevant information and news that can affect the branding of the country as a destination.

4. Local Guides Training coordination:
   1. Responsible for all management of the logistic preparations and documentation of the “Local Guide training programme” and follow up as needed.

5. Write reports
   1. Write status reports to Tasdeer and HLITOA’ directors detailing the current achievements and developments

1. Packages operations coordination: responsible for setting the schedule of all packages, including the guide, sites to be visited, bookings and confirmations.
2. Preparing progress reports, collecting related monitoring and evaluation required information, and preparing final reports

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 the Tasdeer workstream 2 lead. 

The assignment deliverables are

No. 

Deliverable

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

2 Weekly progress report

3 Monthly status report on the activities implementation and performance

4 Monthly status report on the portal, including traffic

5 Desk research report

6 Report on the delivered training to local guides

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• A Bachelor degree in Business management or similar fields
• At least 3-5 years’ experience in project management
• Experience in marketing is preferable especially in the Tourism sector
• Strong familiarity in tourism related products for international tourists is preferred
• Strong coordination skills
• Strong English language abilities to edit content to be published on HLITOA’s portals

Please submit your Full CV and (two-page limit, A4) cover letter explaining why you are the right person for this role, based on your work experience to [email protected]

The deadline for receipt of applications is January 31st, 2023. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview. We will interview on a rolling basis.

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.