Project Operations Officer, NPSA-9, DS-Кyiv (Nationals Only)

The Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy and members of the Interdepartmental Working Group on combating sexual violence are implementing the Action Plan with a focus on five critical areas: (i) trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, (ii) provision of comprehensive assistance to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, (iii) access to justice and accountability, (iv) strengthening the capacity of the security and defence sector to prevent and address CRSV, and (iv) reparations and compensation. The Office of the SRSG-SVC co-chairs each of the inter-agency working groups dedicated to these themes together with UN agencies present in Ukraine.

While driving the plan forward in a volatile conflict-affected environment, the national authorities have sought strategic and technical support to coordinate and assist with the roll-out of the Implementation Plan. To bridge these gaps, the present project responds to this request, outlining the provision of technical support and expertise to Government institutions and relevant UN entities, which will work in collaboration with civil society organizations and first responders in implementing the FoC through: (i) policy development, (ii) training/awareness raising, and (iii) support to survivors.

To this end, a Joint Secretariat comprising representatives of the Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy of Ukraine and relevant UN entities will be established to support the Government’s Interdepartmental Working Group in developing and coordinating activities within the Implementation Plan. As a critical component of this project, the Government of Ukraine identified the need to be supported by 6 national experts on conflict-related sexual violence to be deployed in four government institutions, namely: the Deputy Prime Minister’s office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, the Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality and Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Social Service of Ukraine. Concurrently, a team of Women Protection Advisers, will be deployed to support the UN Country Team in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions, especially resolution 2467 (2019), in support of the Joint Secretariat that is responsible for coordinating the overall implementation of the Framework of Cooperation, as co-signatories of the agreement, and its Implementation Plan.

Since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24th, 2022, the total number of verified civilian casualties were 11,862, including 5,110 killed, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU).1 The scope and scale of damage to critical infrastructure caused by the conflict has also been devastating, including residential housing, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and other civilian targets damaged or destroyed. The number of people with disabilities (PwDs) caused by the war – both combatants and civilians – has led to increased special demands on services, specifically medical and psycho-social, which are expected to continue to grow substantially over time. The Government of Ukraine has a wide set of policies regulating the sphere of social and medical services and a wide range of rehabilitation centres, nevertheless, the rehabilitation system lacks capacities, funds and is in dire need of modernisation and face difficulties in terms of dealing with war inflicted injuries and traumas. Responding to this, UNDP launched an 18 months project, responding to the immediate needs in terms of service provision as well as economic integration of PwDs caused by the war, by enhancing capacities of rehabilitation facilities across Ukraine and partnering with Civil Society for increased livelihood opportunities, while underpinning the Governments long-term rehabilitation agenda for PWD’s and continued work for a Barrier-free Environment in Ukraine.

In this context, UNDP is recruiting the Project Operations Officer, who will be responsible for the overall strategic administrative, finance and human resources project management, efficient project procurement and logistical services, and consistency with UNDP rules and regulations within the project ensuring high quality and accuracy of work. The Project Operations Officer will work under the direct supervision of Project Manager and in close coordination with UNDP Programme Specialist, Democratic Governance (Team Leader), as well as with all project’s and Democratic Governance projects’ personnel and  UNDP Country Office (CO) team to ensure relevant requirements are fulfilled in a timely manner with required quality, following the highest standards in line with UNDP guidelines and procedures.

The incumbent will promote UNDP’s mandate as a gender-responsive organization with zero tolerance to any kind of discriminatory and abusive behaviour, including sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.

1) Ensures effective and accurate financial services:

• Implementation of proper planning, expenditure tracking and audit of financial resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
• Provide day-to-day financial management, and financial operations support to the project in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations and relevant Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs);
• Elaborate the internal expenditures control system which ensures that all financial actions for project are properly reviewed and made on a timely basis, payments processed and completed, transactions are correctly recorded in ERP system; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed, receipting of goods and services are properly done in compliance with UNDP policies and procedures on a timely basis;
• Preparation of financial reports and forecast, including monthly and quarterly disbursement reports and financial reports for donors; ensure the reports are prepared in accurate manner;
• Preparation of budget modifications and revisions, and monitor budgets in collaboration with Project and Event Management Associate;
• Control and monitoring of use of funds and other resources and maintenance of necessary budgetary controls and records;
• Timely response to requests to resolve financial data issues, timely accounts closure;
• Follow-up with partners on any financial issues and resolve them in proper and timely manner;
• Assuring smooth operation of the project by following established operational rules and procedures, including preparation of the supporting documentation for contracts and payments;
• Contribution to the project annual and quarter detailed implementation work plans preparation in a timely and quality manner based on the requirements of the UNDP and project donors;
• Assistance with the project audit, monitoring, and evaluation;
• Participation in data collection, analysis and maintenance of projects related database and files;
• Providing oversight and necessary guidance for Project and Event Management Associate;
• Providing consultations and conduct trainings for Civil Society Organizations on financial rules and procedures of UNDP as well as monitor implementation and facilitate verification of purposeful utilization of funds and compliance with the financial and non-financial terms of the LVGAs.

2) Ensures effective procurement services:

• In collaboration with the project operations and programme teams, and CO elaborate and oversee the overall procurement strategy for proper project implementation;
• Provides guidance and supports the procurement processes related to the implementation of project to ensure that it is fair, competitive, transparent, ethical and provides best value for money;
• Ensuring full compliance of procurement activities with UN/UNDP rules, regulations, policies and strategies;
• In collaboration with the project team, Procurement Associate and Procurement Analyst(s) support the development of the request for quotations (RFQs), requests for proposals (RFPs), TORs, project descriptions and other written materials on any procurement cases as needed;
• Monitoring of procurement to ensure timely advertising and collection of quotes;
• In collaboration with Procurement Associate and Procurement Analyst coordinate development and management of the rosters of suppliers, elaboration of supplier selection and evaluation, quality and performance measurement mechanisms;
• Organizing and ensuring efficient collaboration with relevant counterparts in identifying standard services and/or standard equipment, their costs and potential vendors; advise on the most effective procurement services to resolve the cases;
• Providing oversight and necessary guidance for Procurement Associate and Procurement Analyst(s).

3) Ensures effective human resources activities:

• In collaboration with Project and Event Management Associate support the recruitment processes of the project personnel in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations, appropriate use of different contractual modalities, contracts management;
• Ensures the preparation of required documents to initiate recruitments, processing of the competitive selection processes and administration of contracts as per UNDP rules as well as support for contracts extension, promotion, separation and other related functions;
• Act as a focal point for the on-boarding schedule; ensures staff is provided with all office tools to facilitate rapid start up of their work; including requests for staff registration in the HR system, coded UNDSS CO passes provided, IT access established (including Quantum and SharePoint), workstation, laptop, email address and other administration needs are provided for; communicates and follows up on timelines for colleagues to implement their part of the on-boarding process.

4)  Other:

• Ensuring that administrative support functions for the implementation of project activities are properly provided and on a timely basis, including personnel matters, attendance records, travel arrangements, facilitating missions, office maintenance, reception/registry, procurement, contracting, communications, inventory;
• Ensure technical support and guidance in establishing a project cycle profile with simple milestones for each phase of a project;
• Support the project team with effective coordination and working relations with relevant internal and external clients and partners, including final beneficiaries/government counterparts, donors and other project stakeholders;
• Participate in relevant meetings and share information with the project team and project stakeholders where needed;
• Participate in project activities (meetings, roundtables, conferences, other public activities) preparation;
• Synthesis of lessons learned and best practices in operations areas;
• Organise and deliver training to new project staff within operations-related areas;
• Closely liaise with UNDP Operations team to ensure proper coordination of actions and activities related to finance, procurement, administration, IT and human resources;

Perform other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement 

Under the direct supervision of Project Manager (Programme Coordinator) of JP CRSV and the overall guidance of UNDP Programme Specialist-Democratic Governance (Team Leader), the Project Operations Officer provides overall strategic administrative, finance and human resources management, efficient procurement and logistical guidance, ensuring high quality and accuracy of work and coordination of project operations team. 

Business Direction & Strategy – System thinking – Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system. 

Digital & Innovation – Data analysis - Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.

Finance – Financial planning and budgeting – Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP’s long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analysing and reporting.

Finance – Budget management – Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets.

Finance – Financial reporting and analysis – Understands changes in regulatory, legal and ethical frameworks and standards for financial reporting in the public sector. Ability to extract, evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful and coherent manner to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring. Understands the benefits of integrated reporting, including non-financial resources such as human, social and intellectual capital, and environmental and governance performance.

HR -People strategy and planning – Workforce planning - Knowledge of theories, mechanisms and tools to analyse the current workforce, determine future workforce needs, as they align to the needs of the business, identify the gap between the present capabilities in the workforce and the organizations needs, and design and implement talent acquisition and development solutions so that an organization can have the required capacity to accomplish its mission, goals, and strategic plan.

Procurement – Procurement Management - The ability to acquire goods, services or works from an outside external source.

Required Skills and Experience