Project Analyst

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Job Description

Today Ukraine is facing its most serious challenges since achieving independence in 1991. The ongoing war has already resulted in significant loss of life, unprecedented displacement, internally and towards neighboring countries, and devastating destruction of infrastructure. The UN Ukraine Flash Appeal shows that at least 15.7 million people are in immediate need of emergency assistance and protection. Early projections indicate that if the war should continue in the medium to long term, up to 90% of the Ukrainian population could face poverty and extreme economic vulnerability, and the country’s socio-economic progress could be set-back by almost 20 years. In the short-term, 62% of the population is at high risk of falling into poverty. Ukraine’s economy is set to shrink by 45% this year due to the war and even with a moderate recovery in the next few years, by 2025 the GDP would still only be two-thirds of the pre-war GDP in 2021.

In addition, the country faces losses of many people’s lives and devastative destruction of infrastructures and economic bases. Currently, more than 50% of the energy infrastructure damaged, causing the massive disruption of energy supply nationwide with millions of people experiencing power outages and challenges in heating. Extensive scale of destruction of infrastructure, rehabilitating or constructing infrastructures and installing equipment with necessary supply of the materials is urgently required to restore or maintain life-line and key basic services, followed by removal or mines and explosives as well as debris.

In 2020, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine signed a €300 million loan under Ukraine Public Building Energy Efficiency (UPBEE) Programme. The primary goal of the UPBEE Programme is to fund extensive energy efficient upgrades in public buildings across Ukrainian cities, with a focus on small and medium-sized municipalities, and local governments. Beyond energy improvements, the Programme also allocates funding to repair war damages and modify public buildings, including hospitals, schools, kindergartens, cultural centres among others, ensuring they cater better to the needs of Internally Displaced Persons and their host communities.

The UNDP provides technical assistance to support the UPBEE Programme implementation and compliance with the EIB standards. This support includes assistance to local municipalities within all the phases of the sub-project cycle, including planning, design, procurement, construction work, evaluation and monitoring. The UNDP technical assistance performs anti-corruption assessments and sanctions screening, enhance due diligence, improve compliance and financial management, as well as provide regular consultations to the final beneficiaries and local stakeholders.

More than 30 municipalities applied for UPBEE Programme within two rounds of Calls for Proposals in 2023. Currently, the selected municipalities are at different stages of the sub-projects development – from finalizing technical designs to signing the loan transfer agreements. The UNDP technical assistance team provides technical consulations during the sub-project development, perform compliance check to ensure compliance of technical measures with the UPBEE Programme requirenmnets, conduct regular site-visits to the municipalities for capacity building and monitoring purposes.

In this regard, UNDP Ukraine invites applications from highly qualified and experienced Ukrainian professionals for the post of Project Analyst/Officer (including M&E Functions).

The overall objective of this assignment is to provide operational and administrative support of the technical assistance project. The Project Analyst will be responsible for coordinating technical assistance team to final beneficiaries under the UPBEE Programme, reporting and administration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Project Management Support

Coordinate preparation, implementation and regular revision of annual work plans, monitoring and reporting plans and other documents;
Develop and refine Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, ensure that Project components have results-based indicators, baselines and targets, established at the outcome, output, and activity levels;
Under the overall oversight of the Project Manager, assist with coordination of work of the teachnical team members, including the preparation of the terms of reference, facilitation of recruitment, distribution of work, monitoring of the performance and deliverables;
Support in performing of the project budget management, including planning, monitoring and controling project resources; ensure that disbursements are achieved as per the work plans and cost-sharing agreements;
Ensure appropriate recording and accounting documentation as required by UNDP and European Investment Bank (EIB) and support in the preparation required financial reports.
Ensure project compliance with UNDP Project Operational Policies and Procedures and UNDP Standard Operating Procedures as well as EIB Standard Operating Procedures;

Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting

Facilitate collection, analysis and interpretation of sector-specific data on the delivered technical assistance (including information related to construction, procurenment and compliance, energy audit, anti corruption screening, environmental and social aspects, etc.);
Prepare result-based reports, including monthly operational, quarterly progress reports, annual finalncial report, as well as ad-hoc technical reports, as required by the Project Manager;
Prepare regular updates on the progress of the UPBEE Programme, specifically the contribution of the UNDP technical team;
Facilitate project monitoring and evaluation, as well as audit activities; ensure that evaluations, assessments, and other M&E products are designed and implemented in accordance with established UNDP quality standards;
Consolidate lessons learned and recommendations from the completed evaluations to ensure continuous learning and implementation of best practices by UNDP in the design of interventions;

Knowledge sharing, communication and capacity building

Maintain close liaison with national partners, ensuring effective participation and promoting ownership of the local authorities in project implementation;
Coordinate preparation of methodological and knowledge materials to support implementation of the UPBEE Programme by final beneficiaries at local level;
Maintain regular communication and co-ordinate the activities with the UPBEE Programme partners and other stakeholders;
Present the updates of the technical assistance (TA) activities at relevant working group meetings;
Support the establishment of project implementation units at municipal level and contribute to operational guidelines for their functioning;
Represent the UPBEE Programme and the UNDP technical assistance at various meetings;
Provide technical advisory support to the Project Manager and UNDP in engagement with Government of Ukraine, line Ministries and other relevant governmental institutions to support the capacity development and implementation of initiatives in the area of energy effeciency;
Facilitate the establishment of the professional platform for networking and partnership building with the regional authorities, civil society organizations (CSOs), private sector and international development organizations or projects in the field.
Facilitate dissemination of project deliverables to the stakeholders for improving performance and contributing to wider learning;
Contribute to the strategic planning for energy efficiency sector in energy and environment portfolio and support integration of relevant initiatives;

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education requirements

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Management, Economics, Finance, Social Sciences or other related fields is required, or
A first-level university degree (Bachelor`s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of relevant experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master’s degree.

Min. years of relevant work experience

Minimum 2 years (with Master’s degree) or 4 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience at national or international level in the field of administration, finance, programme/project support or other relevant fields.

Required skills

Experience of work in project management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting is required;
Experience of work with local communities, capacity building and community development is required;
Excellent computer skills (including MS Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

Experience of work in constructural/buildings’ rehabilitation projects would be an asset;
Excellent planning, organizational and coordination skills;
Prior experience working with IFIs and donor funding projects would be an asset;
Experience with UN/UNDP procedures, including UNDP M&E requirements and M&E Framework, would be an asset.
Experience of working in international organizations/projects will be considered as an advantage.

Required Language(s)