The Project Coordination Unit (PCU) -physically located in the MOEHE - is established by the MOEHE to monitor and assist its World Bank funded projects. Accordingly, the PCU is responsible for fiduciary management of all projects funded by World Bank and being implemented at the MOEHE in both West Bank and Gaza. The PCU provides technical support to ensure that project activities are implemented in a timely and comprehensive manner.

The responsibility for overall oversight and monitoring on the implementation of the project procurement lies within the PCU, which acts as the Bank’s main counterpart for all procurement aspects of the project and ensures that procurement under the project is carried out in accordance with the Grant Agreement and the Procurement Plan.

PCU also is the main responsible for the financial management and disbursement functions of the projects financed by the World Bank. The PCU is staffed with qualified and experienced members and its financial management performance on the ongoing projects is considered satisfactory.

To comprehensively administrate the projects, the PCU is mandated to provide overall monitoring and evaluation (M&E), with the support of the existing staff members and related departments at the MOEHE to manage data collection, aggregation, and periodic reporting on the projects, as well as closely monitoring key performance indicators.

In addition, a technical support team for the Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) is hired and appointed by the MOEHE as part of the PCU. QIF team is a qualified team to assure quality and monitoring and evaluation of the relevant QIF grants. The QIF team is housed within MOEHE and is managed on a daily basis by the Director of the PCU, supervised by the Minister of Education & Higher Education, and accountable to the Chairperson of QIF Board.

As part of the QIF, the Director of the PCU usually participates in the meetings of QIF Board in a consultative capacity (i.e., without vote in decisions concerning the award of funds to proposals) and will supervise and assist QIF team in the assessment of grant proposals. The PCU and QIF have interdependent activities. Specifically, the PCU will:

• Participate in workshops for TEIs and the private sectors related to QIF in coordination with QIF team.
• Provide technical assistance on fiduciary matters (i.e., information related to financial management, reporting and procurement procedures) to TEIs as required to develop QIF grants’ applications.
• Assist in reviewing QIF applications prior to their submission to the QIF Board.
• Provide technical advice related to fiduciary management of the QIF Board and attend all of the Board’s meetings.
• Prepare the grant agreement and oversee the fiduciary aspects of grant implementation, upon QIF Board decision to approve the grant.
• Participate in the review of semiannual progress reports for QIF recipients.
• Suggest pre-active measures in coordination with QIF team and other stakeholders to enhance the implementation of the projects and program.