Program Development Officers, Location Краматорськ

1. Project Background:

The purpose of the USAID Economic Resilience Activity is to improve the overall economic resilience of eastern Ukraine in response to Russia’s aggression, which has disrupted critical market linkages, catalyzed the economic decline of previously dominant industries, and caused massive population disruption. This activity aims to improve the economic resilience of eastern Ukraine through accomplishing the following objectives:

• OBJECTIVE 1: Provide assistance to stabilize the economy of eastern Ukraine
• OBJECTIVE 2: Support the sustainable development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in eastern Ukraine
• OBJECTIVE 3: Build confidence in the future of the eastern Ukrainian economy

By accomplishing these objectives, the economy of eastern Ukraine will be more diversified, more integrated with the rest of Ukraine, less dependent on Russia, and the region’s residents will be better equipped to compete for the jobs of the future, thereby improving the economic resilience of the region.  The activity will work primarily in the oblasts most affected by Russia’s aggression, Donetsk and Luhansk, but will also be active in the surrounding oblasts and throughout Ukraine as required to achieve the objectives.

The project is implemented by DAI, which works at the cutting edge of international development, combining technical excellence, professional project management, and exceptional customer service to solve our clients’ most complex problems. Since 1970, DAI has worked in 150 developing and transition countries, providing comprehensive development solutions in areas including crisis mitigation and stability operations, democratic governance and public sector management, agriculture and agribusiness, private sector development and financial services, economics and trade, water and natural resources management, and energy and climate change. Clients include international development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and host-country governments.

DAI seeks 5 Program Development Officers for a 5-year, USAID funded “Economic Resilience Activity”.

2. role’s Purpose:

The Program Development Officer (PDO) will support the project in building community reach in communities where project activities take place serving as a contact to counterparts, assisting in building community trust, and improving the project’s ability to gather data, monitor activity implementation, and identifying issues and problems before they derail progress. The PDOs will serve as front-line activity and relationship manager on the ground, using activity cycle methodology and the conflict-sensitivity and scenario-aware planning tools to build relationships with local stakeholders to identify opportunities and constraints, support the development of grant applications and identify priority construction projects.  

3. Objectives and Duties:

The PDO will be responsible for the following:

• Utilizing and leveraging existing network of government officials and key stakeholders in civil society, private sector, and government to recommend opportunities for activities and grants;
• Monitoring conflict-related developments, gathering data about activity progress and lessons-learned, and identifying where a given activity or grantee requires technical support.
• Working with Community Liaisons to monitor opportunities in the communities where PDO is based, serving as a first point of contact for local beneficiaries with questions, and reporting raw data to the MEL team for analysis;
• Supporting the development and monitoring of grants;
• Collection, analysis, and basic reporting on Ukrainian political, economic and legal situation;
• Assisting with identifying and implementing problem solving approaches as appropriate;
• Assisting with developing reports, presentations and trainings, as needed;
• Overseeing partners’ and grantees’ recordkeeping, mentoring toward preparedness for data quality assessments and external evaluations;
• Updating assessment data annually as part of our regular implementation;
• Assisting the infrastructure team assessing key infrastructure needs to identify areas where repair or refurbishment will support longer-term economic growth;
• Working with the infrastructure team to develop scopes of work for construction or refurbishment subcontracts
• Leveraging networks and those of our local partners, as well as information from the rapid assessment, to identify clusters of conflict-affected SMEs that could benefit from grants.

4. Qualifications:

• Equivalent of a BA/BS in economics, international relations, or related field required; Masters preferred.
• Previous USAID or other donor work on development projects.
• At least two years of experience working in eastern Ukraine.
• Fluency in Russian and Ukrainian.
• Fluency in English preferred.
• Experience working with local government, CBOs, and the private sector.

Submission Instructions: Please submit CVs in English to [email protected]. Submissions are accepted until October 26^th. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No email or phone inquiries, please. When submitting your CV, please include position title in the email subject line.