Вакансія: Project Manager / Specialist, NPSА-10, (Environment)

Northern Ukraine has approximately 3 million ha of wet peat soils, many of which have been drained for agriculture; approximately 1 million ha remain in a natural state. This landscape is a mosaic of steppe forests, wetlands, and river valleys, which sustain rich but threatened ecosystems. Livelihoods are agriculture-based, with livestock farming a key part of the economy. Although the drained peatlands briefly provided rich agriculture lands, over a short time the drained peatlands have become degraded, as mineralization and peat fires take a continuous toll, while emitting GHGs. The water table across the region continues to subside, which causes forest die-offs. Peat fires also have a significant negative impact on human health and local economies. Land use is not optimized, so agriculture continues to encroach on high value ecosystems. However, increased grazing and hay cutting could be beneficial in some abandoned lands in order to maintain biodiverse open peat meadows that are being overgrown by woody vegetation. Underlying drivers of this situation are limited local and national capacity and coordination in land use planning, limited technical knowledge for agriculture on wet peatlands (paludiculture), limited capital access and investment in sustainable agriculture, limited and deteriorating water management infrastructure, and livestock value chains that currently do not sufficiently incentivize sustainable livestock production in peatlands. 

The project will catalyze a transition across the landscape to sustainable livestock farming in peatlands, while restoring key areas for maintenance of ecosystem services to support both vibrant livestock agriculture and biodiversity. This will be achieved through i) implementation of Integrated Land Use Plans (ILUPs); ii) promotion of sustainable livestock production practices and value chains, including a multi-stakeholder sustainable livestock platform; iii) conservation and restoration of natural habitats; and iv) coordination, learning, information dissemination, and knowledge management. Planned project results include more than 9,000 direct beneficiaries; improved status of biodiversity including 18 globally significant species; 150,000 ha under improved agriculture; 40,000 ha of land restored; 240,000 ha of high value peatlands and steppe forest ecosystems conserved; and increased knowledge and understanding of sustainable livestock practices in wet peat soils.

The Project Management Unit (PMU) will be led by a Project Manager/Specialist (PM/S), supported by National Technical Analyst. The PM/S will be responsible for the overall management of the project, including the mobilisation of all project inputs, supervision over project staff, consultants and sub-contractors. 

It is the PM/S’s primary responsibility to ensure that the project produces the results specified in the project document, to the required standard of quality and within the specified constraints of time and cost. The PM/S will inform the Project Board and the Project Assurance roles of any delays or difficulties as they arise during implementation so that appropriate support and corrective measures can be adopted.

• Leads the day-to-day project implementation and ensures achievement of targets as outlined in the project work plan;
• Ensures that the quality of project inputs meets the expected standards and are sufficient to produce project outputs and targets;
• Leads stakeholder consultations related to the project, including those related to specific project activities  at local, regional, and national levels to regularly communicate about project activities, and receives technical feedback from stakeholders;
• Develops and monitors all implementation plans including the gender action plan, stakeholder engagement plan, and any environmental and social management plans, thereby ensuring effective monitoring of project performance, the preparation of high quality and results oriented progress reports including measures to address challenges and opportunities, and of annual project reports (PIRs), in line with the standard template and presents it to the project assurance team on a timely manner; 
• Ensures gender-related economic, environmental, public research and analysis, to contribute to the formulation of policies, programme interventions, procedures, guidelines and tools. 

2. Project Management:

• Executes project activities by managing personnel, goods and services, training and low-value grants, including drafting terms of reference and work specifications, and overseeing all contractors’ work;
• Prepares project’s work plans and organizes project board meetings to obtain their approval;
• Performs Project Manager duties on UNDP’s ERM (ATLAS) in line with the NIM manual and as outlined in the delegation of authority for Project Managers;
• Implements project work plan and ensures that the project remains within the tolerance level of the approved work plan, coordinating the sequence of project activities according to technical requirements;
• Prepares and represents UNDP at the project board, raising with the National Project Director for any issues that require their attention, including issues related to deviation from the approved work plans and its tolerance (e.g. deviation from the approved target, and/or budget); 
• Conducts regular monitoring to ensure achievement of targets in line with the annual work plan and that project implementation at all levels complies with the approved project SoP;
• Ensure that the GEF Core indicators included in the project results framework are monitored annually in advance of the GEF PIR submission deadline so that progress can be reported in the GEF PIR;
• Manages and monitors project risks – including social and environmental risks – initially identified and identifies and submits new risks to the Project Board for consideration and decision on possible actions if required, updating the status of these risks by maintaining the project risks log;
• Through constant engagement and leadership manages critical issues, troubleshoots problems and develops solutions to the overall processes of project implementation;Captures lessons learned during project implementation;
• Monitors financial resources and accounting to ensure the accuracy and reliability of financial reports;
• Prepares the inception report no later than one month after the inception workshop;
• Prepares revisions to the multi-year workplan, as needed, as well as annual and quarterly plans if required; 
• Assures implementation of gender equality accountability framework and Gender equality Results Based management at project level.

3. Knowledge Sharing:

• Ensures coordination of the project with the Global FOLUR Platform, and the integration of the project in relevant regional and global activities organized by the Global FOLUR Platform (including, for example, participation by project staff in the Green Commodities Program Community of Practice to share knowledge with project stakeholders and commodity actors);
• Participates in FOLUR Global Platform trainings and capacity building events;
• Serves as the project Focal Point for communication and linkage between the project and the Global FOLUR Platform;
• Collaborates with the FOLUR Global Platform to identify joint Technical Assistance and training needs to fill gaps or implement innovations, and consider where the Ukraine Project experiences and experts can contribute to global or regional training events;
• Engages with the FOLUR Global Platform on Knowledge Management aspects, such as suggesting relevant topics for reports, contributing case studies, and promoting the FOLUR global outputs in Ukraine through seminars and outreach;
• Identifies best practices and lessons learnt from the project and from other initiatives that can be helpful to the project in achieving its goals and objectives;
• Organizes and delivers trainings for the operations/project staff on project/programme management issues;
• Conducts internal capacity building training for project staff to facilitate appropriate management and timely delivery of project outputs;
• Leads in generating knowledge products such as best practices and lessons learnt for knowledge sharing; and Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Conducts internal capacity building training for project staff to facilitate appropriate management and timely delivery of project outputs including in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming; 
• Effectively contributes to learning and knowledge sharing in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming.

4. Corporate Tasks

• Support UNDP in partnership building and resource mobilization initiatives;
• Design and supervise of outreach activities of the project including participating in relevant seminars, workshops, conferences;
• Ensure full coordination with other relevant projects and initiatives of UNDP Ukraine;
• Provide support for completion of assessments required by UNDP, spot checks and audits.
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor, and UNDP Ukraine management.

Institutional Arrangement

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Team Leader Energy and Environment (UNDP Ukraine), National Project Director, and Regional Technical Advisor, the Project Manager/Specialist is fully responsible for making the day-to-day decisions on project implementation and ensures to achieve the project results (outputs) as defined in the approved project document and in the annual work plans through timely implementation and quality monitoring. The Project Manager/Specialist supports the partners in achieving the results.

Business Direction & Strategy: Strategic Thinking: 

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in lone with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systematic analysis of challenges, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

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.

Business Development: Knowledge Facilitation:

•  Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally.

Business Management: Project Management: 

• Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.

Business Management: Communication: 

• Ability to communicate in a clear concise, and unambiguous manner both trough written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and other appropriate channels.

Partnership Management: Relationship Management: 

• Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.

Thematic Competency: Ecosystems and Biodiversity Environment:

• Conservation and Sustainable use of biodiversity, land, forests and oceans.
• Environmental and social impact assessments and safeguards.

• Proficiency in use of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc).
• Previous experience with international technical assistance and/or donor projects/programmes is an advantage.
• Eperience working with ministries, national or regional institutions that are concerned with natural resource and/or environmental management is an advantage;
• Experience in working with UN agencies, other development partners, the government on programming in sustainable development, environment protection etc. is an advantage;
• Excellent analytical and writing skills;
• Excellent organizational and communication skills.