Procurement Specialist (m/f/d) – Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Grant Agency in Mozambique

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a global service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. Owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, GIZ has over 50 years of experience in providing technical assistance, capacity development and project management services for a wide variety of specialized development areas, including education, health, governance, public finance management, agriculture, social development, gender equality etc.

In February 2024, GIZ was selected as Grant Agent for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in Mozambique. GPE is a major multilateral fund supporting education systems in developing countries by improving access to quality education, strengthening systems, and promoting equity.

GIZ assists Mozambique’s Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) in implementing the GPE System Capacity Grant (USD 3.3 million), the System Transformation Grant (USD 107 million), and the Girls’ Education Accelerator (USD 10 million). The majority of funds are channelled through FASE, the multi-donor education sector financing facility for education, governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between MEC and contributing partners (France, Portugal, Ireland, UNICEF, Canada, among others).

The World Bank has been providing fiduciary oversight for the FASE fund. As of January 2026, GIZ will take over this role. However, GIZ is already starting to gradually step in to ensure continuity and a smooth hand-over, especially for multi-annual procurements extending beyond 2025.

Description of tasks

The Procurement Specialist will provide technical expertise on procurement supervision under FASE. He/she ensures compliance with national procurement rules, the FASE MoU, and GIZ procurement policies and procedures, working in close collaboration with the National Assistant Procurement Specialist, MEC procurement staff at central and provincial levels, and donor partners.

The role focuses on procurement planning, process compliance, safeguards integration, and procurement-specific risk monitoring, while also building MEC’s procurement capacity at central and provincial levels.

This position complements, and reports to, the Head of the FO Unit, who holds overall fiduciary oversight responsibilities for financial management, internal controls, and institutional risk management.

Key tasks include

Procurement Oversight

• Review annual FASE procurement plans (PdP and Provincial Procurement Plans) for technical and procedural compliance and alignment with activity plans, in close coordination with the FO Specialist and in consultation with the Expert in Public Finance Management and Grant Administration.
• Accompany MEC in the monitoring and updating of procurement plans at central and provincial levels.
• Provide technical advice, review and issue non-objection for MEC procurement processes exceeding defined thresholds.
• Ensure procurement documentation (tender documents, evaluation reports, contracts, addenda) meet required standards.
• Regularly produce analyses and statistics on the monitoring of the Procurement processes (length of phases, personnel workload and distributions, Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC).

Procurement Audit Support

• Provide technical input on procurement-related findings in annual audits as well as recurrent issues and their inherent risks.
• Advise MEC on corrective actions and compliance improvements.
• Support the FO Specialist in audit follow-up by contributing procurement-specific expertise.

Risk Monitoring

• Identify and analyse risks specific to procurement processes (e.g. delays, non-compliance with rules, weak evaluation committees, etc.).
• Design, organize and oversee ad-hoc reviews or sample checks of below-threshold procurement processes.
• Provide technical recommendations to MEC for risk mitigation.
• Regularly produce statistics on the risks related to the findings of the FO activities (frequency and magnitude of non-compliances) with regards to Procurement processes.
• Feed procurement risk analysis into the fiduciary risk assessment (FRA) led by the FO Specialist.

Safeguards

• Ensure integration of environmental and social standards in procurement processes, including clauses on Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH/GBV).
• Monitor inclusion and compliance of safeguard provisions in tender and contract documents.
• Produce analyses and statistics on non-compliance with or lacking safeguards, in tenders and contracts.

Capacity Support

• Provide technical advice and on-the-job training to MEC procurement staff at central and provincial levels in coordination with other cooperating partners (FCPs).
• Support MEC in the use of procurement monitoring systems and TDABC, including problem-solving and training.

Coordination & Liaison

• Participate in the Working Group for Public Financial Management (GMPGF) of MEC and FASE partners when procurement issues are on the agenda.
• Provide procurement-related technical inputs for FO reporting and donor dialogue.
• Channel communication with GIZ HQ fiduciary experts through the FO Specialist, contributing technical content as required.

Your Profile:

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in public procurement management and supervision, with experience in international development projects.

Required:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Procurement, Law, Public Administration, Business, Economics, or another relevant field.
• At least 10 years of professional experience in public procurement oversight and verification, ideally in government institutions or donor-funded projects (World Bank, UNICEF, EU, etc.).
• Experience with:
  • Designing and managing procurement systems and compliance with safeguards.
  • Reviewing and supporting complex procurement processes.
  • Monitoring procurement-related fiduciary risks and implementing mitigation measures.
• Supporting digital procurement reforms (e.g. e-procurement).
• Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa; Mozambique or Lusophone Africa is a strong asset.
• Fluency in Portuguese and English (spoken and written).
• Demonstrated experience in risk monitoring, and safeguards integration.
• Strong report-writing skills and ability to present findings to different stakeholders.
• Experience working in international and interdisciplinary teams.
• High integrity and commitment to transparency.

Desired:

• Direct experience with Mozambique’s national procurement system.
• Experience with fiduciary oversight of pooled funding mechanisms (basket funds, budget support).
• Experience in organizational learning and capacity building in international development.
• Certification in procurement (e.g. CIPS, World Bank certification).
• Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Solution-oriented and pragmatic approach to challenges.

Maputo, Mozambique  

This position is allocated to salary band 4 and is suited to a full time position.

Please understand, that we can only accept and process applications via our E-recruiting system. Following the confirmation of your successful application, kindly check your spam / junk mail folder on a regular basis, since some provider classify emails from our recruiting system as spam.

Your professional and personal development is important to us. At GIZ, you will be offered global work opportunities and an atmosphere that is characterised by diversity, respect and genuine equal opportunities. Gender equality promotion is a matter of course for us. Our benefits are also impressive in terms of work-life balance and family friendliness. Flexible working hours that fit your life situation, comprehensive onboarding and internal health management are an integral part of our corporate culture, along with the opportunity to use childcare facilities and parent/child offices.

GIZ is a signatory of the Diversity Charter. Recognition, appreciation and inclusion of diversity in the company are important to us. All employees shall be valued - regardless of gender and gender identity, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, social background, age or sexual orientation.

We support equal opportunities and welcome applications from people with disabilities.