Project Analyst (NPSA-9)

Background
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The main objective of the project is to enhance the capacities of the Government of Uzbekistan in addressing socio-economic inequalities and multidimensional poverty, reducing social protection gaps through the promotion of the care economy aiming at inclusive and gender-balanced growth, and supporting job creation and employment opportunities through the prism of the Future of Work systems approach. The relevance of this project is enhanced by the ongoing cycle of political, economic and epidemiological instabilities that are hitting the region, disrupting economic growth, slowing down sustainable development and putting thousands of marginalised groups into poverty. The project will address this by strengthening the resilience of the systems to address and mitigate the ongoing and emerging threats, enhance social safety nets and ensure equitable and future-proof development.

The project covers three main intervention areas, contributing to reducing socio-economic inequalities and prevention of extreme poverty among the most vulnerable, first of all women: (i) Supporting poverty eradication efforts, including guidance, good practices and tools to promote integrated, inclusive policy approaches to poverty reduction in Uzbekistan, (ii) Unpacking opportunities of the “Future of work” paradigm through evidence-based policymaking, stronger poverty-employment nexus, supporting formalization of informal employment and promotion of the social entrepreneurship; (iii) Filling the gaps of the social protection systems by amplifying social investment and development of market-based solutions, including PPPs that recognize, and reduce, redistribute and reward unpaid and paid care and domestic work that will mainly focus on creating an enabling environment for boosting care economy businesses and capacitating self-employed women.

The main partner of the Project is the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction (MoEDPR). The Project will also cooperate with the Center for Economic Research and Reforms under President’s Administration (CERR), Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), State Statistics Committee (SSC), civil society organizations and media.
Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Inclusive Growth Cluster and Programme Manager on Inclusive Employment, as well as overall guidance of the Project Board, the Project Analyst will be responsible for the operational management of the project according to the project document, UNDP corporate rules and procedures and for fulfilling the following duties and responsibilities:

Responsible for day-to-day management, administration and decision-making for the project;
Oversees strategic planning process for the project and ensures its implementation in accordance with the project document;
Responsible for ensuring 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;
Manage the realization of project outputs through activities;
Ensures that project contributes to the promotion of gender equality by reaching, involving and benefiting both women and men in its activities (gender mainstreaming);
Provide direction and guidance to project team(s)/ responsible party (ies);
Identifies partnership strategies with regard to providers of specialized expertise and possible co-financiers, and leads resource mobilization for project components;
Identify and obtain any support and advice required for the management, planning and control of the project;
Liaise with any suppliers;
Plan the activities of the project and monitor progress against the initial quality criteria;
Mobilize goods and services to initiative activities, including drafting TORs and work specifications;
Manage requests for the provision of financial resources by UNDP, using advance of funds, direct payments, or reimbursement using the IPSAS;
Manage and monitor the project risks as initially identified in the Project Document/Concept Note, submit new risks to the Project Board for consideration and decision on possible actions if required; update the status of these risks by maintaining the Project Risks Log;
Be responsible for managing issues and requests for change by maintaining an Issues Log;
Prepare the Quarterly Project Report (progress against planned activities, update on Risks and Issues, expenditures in UNDP format) and Quarterly Operational Report (AF format) and submit the reports to the Project Assurance team;
Prepare the Annual Review Report (UNDP format) and Project Implementation Report (AF format) and submit reports to the Project Assurance team;
Based on the ARR, prepare the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and Annual Plan of Activities and Procurement Plan for the project years;
Monitors the implementation of project components, analyses problems that hamper their implementation and takes appropriate measures to ensure timely delivery of required inputs and achievement of project-wide results;
Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports, including proper utilization of funds and delivery, budget revisions, availability of funds, reconciliation of accounts, establishment of internal control mechanisms. Acts as a focal point to liaise with auditors and ensures follow-up actions. Ensures the accuracy and reliability of financial information and reporting;
Monitors and facilitates advocacy and mass media outreach activities, writing of success stories, newspapers coverage, PR campaigns;
Organize workshops, seminars and round tables to introduce project outputs to all stakeholders involved. Render support to related UNDP thematic activities such as publications, sharing of knowledge and group discussions;
Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports, including proper utilization of funds and delivery, budget revisions, availability of funds, reconciliation of accounts, establishment of internal control mechanisms. Acts as a focal point to liaise with auditors and ensures follow-up actions. Ensures the accuracy and reliability of financial information and reporting;
Monitors and facilitates advocacy and mass media outreach activities, writing of success stories, newspapers coverage, PR campaigns;
Organize workshops, seminars and round tables to introduce project outputs to all stakeholders involved;
Render support to related UNDP thematic activities such as publications, sharing of knowledge and group discussions;
Undertake resource mobilization activities to be built on the project achievement that contribute to project scaling-up and replication;
In cooperation with the UNDP CO and national project experts, develop a suitable project exit strategy during the last year of the project;
Ensure proper operational, financial and programmatic closure of the project;
Prepare Annual Project Review Report and Final Project Review Reports to be submitted to the Project Board;
Identify follow-on actions and submit them for consideration to the Project Board;
Manage the transfer of project deliverables, documents, files, equipment and materials to national beneficiaries;
Prepare final CDR for signature by UNDP and the Implementing Partner;
Perform other duties related to the scope of work of the Project Manager as required.

Programmatic and analytical functions:

Coordinate project activities aimed at promoting integrated, evidence-based, inclusive policy advice on tackling multidimensional poverty;
Monitor the development of new gender-responsive poverty and inequality metrics and tools for measuring multidimensional poverty, adjusted to the local context;
Provide assistance in the enhancement of sex and age disaggregated poverty-related data analyses and monitoring for improved policymaking and effective policy implementation, as well as systematize analysis and reporting of non-monetary deprivations at the national level;
Manage in building national capacities to integrate multidimensionality and gender-sensitivity angle into national policy discourse by cultivating the community of practice on multidimensional poverty and inequality;
Formulate Integrated employment and social policies aimed at addressing the needs of the poor and the most vulnerable (women and People with Disabilities) to adapt to the emerging risks of exclusion and inefficiencies in the national service delivery.
Coordinate the preparation of innovative data and metrics to identify the multidimensional vulnerability profiles and risks of exclusion of unemployed or informally employed for the development of integrated policy solutions;
Preparation in establishing the one-stop shops on integrated social service delivery and piloting tailored innovative and holistic solutions for social and economic empowerment of the vulnerable population.
Coordinate reshaping the model of delivering integrated social and employment services through digital transformation;
Mnage in developing evidence on the scale of care economy, existing gaps in addressing the needs of those employed and increasing investment in social protection;
Engage in identifying specific needs of women employed in care economy and provision of integrated services piloted within the project;
Promote the creation of decent work opportunities for women engaged in the care economy (through up-skilling and re-skilling, skills recognition, etc.) and formalization of employment among the care economy workers through introducing skills assessment and certification schemes;
Provide technical guidance in the enhancement of sex-disaggregated data collection, gender analyses, costing and financing of care systems;
Raise public awareness on the benefits of the care economy among various stakeholders and community.

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

human rights and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions; activities are designed and implemented in accordance with “Social and Environmental Standards of UNDP”;
any kind of diversities based on ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, class, gender are respected within all implementations including data production; differentiated needs of women and men are considered;
inclusive approach is reflected within all actions and implementations, in that sense an enabling and accessible setup in various senses such as disability gender language barrier is created;
necessary arrangements to provide gender parity within all committees, meetings, trainings etc. introduced.

Institutional Arrangement

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Head of Inclusive Growth Cluster, the Project Analyst will be responsible to successful and high-quality implementation of the Gender Equaility Project outcomes and activities.
Competencies
Core Competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

People Management Competencies:

UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site
Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy-Strategic Thinking:
Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
Business Direction & Strategy-Business Acumen:
Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organisation and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks
Business Development-Knowledge Generation:
Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need
Business Development-Integration within the UN:
Ability to identity, and integrate capacity and assets of the UN system, and engage in joint work; knowledge of the UN System and ability to apply this knowledge to strategic and/or practical situations
Business Management-Project Management:
Ability to plan, organize, priorities and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
Business Management-Partnerships Management:
Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies
2030 Agenda: People-Gender:
Gender and Institutional Development

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

Master’s degree in Economics, Statistics, Law, Public Policy, Public Administration, Trade and other relevant areas.
Bachelor’s degree with additional 2 years of working experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience:

Minimum 2 years (with Master’s degree) or 4 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in Economic Development/Empowerment or Poverty Reduction, Public Policy, Legal Policy and Reform, and/or Public Administration.
Previous experience in international development organizations would be considered as an asset.

Languages:

Fluency in English and Uzbek.
Good command of Russian is desirable.

Required skills:

Progressing experience in demonstrable project/programme management/development organization.

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

Experience in working and collaborating with governments and women empowerment/gender equality issues;
Initiative and strong leadership skills;
Result and client-orientations;
Strong analytical, communication, writing, presentation and communication skills.