VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

I General Information

• Post title: UN Senior Expert on Civil Society
• Duty Station: Kyiv, Ukraine
• Level: commensurate with experience and professional track record of a successful candidate (negotiated)
• Contract Type: Special Service Agreement
• Duration: Initially six months with a possibility of extension
• (possibility of part-time employment)
• Apply To:vyacheslav.egorov@undp.org
• Deadline: 4 March 2007

The UN Development Assistance Framework for Ukraine defines the following priority areas of UN assistance to Ukraine in 2006-2010: (1) Institutional Reforms; (2) Civil Society Empowerment; (3) Health Care and Health Services; and (4) Prosperity Against Poverty. For each priority area, the UN has established a Thematic Group chaired by one of the UN agency heads and composed of staff working on respective themes in each of the UN agencies.

For each of the thematic areas, the UN has developed a set of policy recommendations and suggestions addressed to the Ukrainian authorities and civil society partners and aimed ad advancement of reforms in respective thematic areas. These recommendations were presented by the UN Resident Coordinator in a written form to the Ukrainian leadership and are consistently followed-up by respective thematic groups in their area of work.

The Institutional Reforms and Civil Society Theme Groups are chaired by UNDP (with support of UNHCR in coordinating the work on civil society). Both in the area of Institutional Reforms and in Civil Society Empowerment, active participation and strong involvement of NGOs and civic groups are critical.

In order to define the strategy of UN’s work with civil society and on civil society empowerment, the UN(DP) is hiring a Senior Expert on Civil Society who will assist the UN System in Ukraine in defining the strategy and workplan of UN’s support to- and engagement with the civil society.

The senior expert will report to the Chair of the UN Theme Groups on Institutional Reforms and Civil Society Empowerment, and through the Chair, to the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine.

III Description of Responsibilities

1. The Senior Expert will provide support to the UN Theme Group on Empowering Civil Society and the Theme Group on Institutional Reforms, and in particular to the Chair in facilitating the work of the Theme Group. In this regard, the Senior Expert will:

• Ensure proper preparation of meetings of the UN Theme Group on Civil Society Empowerment (prepare agenda and presentations, distribute documents for discussion, arrange for guest speakers, present draft decisions, ensure circulation of minutes) and relevant follow-up on decisions taken;
• Serve as expert adviser to both Theme Groups on advocacy strategy and procedures to follow in UN’s effective ‘lobbying’ with the Parliament and Government for the adoption of good policies on civil society empowerment and civic involvement in government decision making;
• In line with UNDAF, identify areas for UN joint programs and based on discussions with individual agencies, prepare fully-fledged project proposals
• Facilitate special initiatives of both Theme Groups related to Civil Society (training sessions, advocacy events, preparation of advocacy materials and public statements of the UN Resident Coordinator and other UN agency heads on civil society).
• Ensure that Millennium Development Goals and crosscutting issues like gender equality and human rights as well as HIV/AIDS are effectively mainstreamed into all the activities of the institutional reforms and civil society development components of UNDAF
• Propose a set of indicators to measure UN’s progress in engaging in closer collaboration with civil society.

2. The Senior Expert will facilitate contacts and networking between UN agencies and Civil Society Organizations; In this regard he/she will:

• Establish and maintain partnerships with all stakeholders;
• Facilitate the establishment of and then functioning and work of the Civil Society Advisory Committee to the UNCT in Ukraine;
• Visit leading Ukrainian NGOs and Think Tanks, as well as governmental structures, to assess the current practices / level of cooperation with the UN agencies and programs;
• Develop a database of NGOs working with the UN in Ukraine;
• Liaise with non-governmental stakeholders and other partners to ensure proper coordination and partnership in common advocacy and project efforts.

3) The Senior Expert will assist UN agency management in providing direction and oversight of joint programmes on civil society empowerment, involvement in government decision making and delivery of services. In this regard, he/she will:

• Once identified and approved, assist UNRC and relevant agency heads in monitoring of the implementation of joint programmes in the area of civil society empowerment;
• Advice agencies involved in implementation of joint programmes on substantive focus of project activities, in line with UNDAF and UN Advocacy agenda on civil society and practical collaboration with NGOs and civic groups;
• Guide and orients establishment of the technical group for the projects;
• Provide assistance in recruitment, selection and training of local civil society experts (if needed).

4) The Senior Expert will represent the UN in public events, donor coordination work and in relations with external partners, providing the necessary inputs on behalf of one or both Theme Groups; In this regard he/she will:

• Assist the UN agency(ies) responsible for co-chairing of the Government-Donor Working Groups in the area of human rights, gender empowerment, civil society development and media;
• Assist the UN representative(s) participating in meetings of the other Government-Donor working groups, with particular focus on civil society empowerment and civil society involvement in decision making and delivery of public services
• Inform the UNRC on the progress of overall donor coordination in the area of civil society development and empowerment.

IV. Qualifications and competencies

• Advanced degree in political sciences, social sciences, public administration, law and/or related discipline, or an acceptable combination of experience and education
• Minimum 4 years of professional working experience in the area of civil society development and governance issues;
• Experience working for civil society organizations or representing civil society stakeholders
• Eexperience in assessing technical work in the filed of civil society development;
• Previous experience in operationalizing policy as well as the ability to develop strategic policy measures
• Demonstrable experience of working with civil society organizations in areas such as project design, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and leadership development;
• Possess good programme management skills, including administrative and financial aspects and must be computer literate;
• History of collaboration and communication with a variety of stakeholders at different levels-from government officials to community-based organization level;
• Proven excellent verbal and written skills in English and Ukrainian. Russian is an asset.

Applications (most recent CVs) in English language are to be submitted to the e-mail address vyacheslav.egorov@undp.org Please indicate "UN Senior Expert on Civil Society " in the Subject line of your message. Please also mention the minimal salary level expected in your application/CV.

UNDP will use a transparent and competitive screening process, though will only contact those applicants in whom there is further interest. Applications may only be submitted for specific vacancies. We regret that we will not be able to acknowledge all unsolicited general applications for employment.