Background
The Ukrainian Land Code (2001) provided valuable objective and performance measure for opening a land market but only in its non-agricultural part. The free market economy for agricultural land was banned by the moratorium, extended recently until 2012.The moratorium has a clear negative impact on the establishment of an efficient and profitable agricultural sector in Ukraine. From a rights perspective, it significantly limits land owners from exercising their lawful right to use the property for economic and profit generating purposes, such as to sell, lease, or use the land as a collateral to access credit. It results in low capitalization of small agricultural businesses, as well as in unavailability of credit for small landowners/farmers. This system is particularly damaging for the owners of personal farms: even if they cannot dispose of their land or invest in it properly, they are considered as “employed” and do not have rights to any social benefits, yet when living in the real poverty.
Other obstacles facing landowners include the lack of knowledge, know-how and personal experience in disposing land, as well as the lack of access to affordable legal services. As per the Presidential Administration the moratorium on agricultural land sale may be cancelled earlier than 01 January 2012 in case of positive voting on two important draft laws - Law on Land Market and Law on State Land Cadastre to be considered by the Parliament in the autumn 2011.
Thus, during this transition period, the Legal Empowerment Project will fulfil two important interrelated functions: will engage with stakeholders to l enable landowners in rural areas to exercise their legal rights in the most economically beneficial way and will assist policy makers in land policy formulation by feeding in the information and lessons learnt into the upcoming land reform in Ukraine.
The project aims to support legal empowerment of poor rural population by providing them with sufficient knowledge and understanding of their property and land rights. It is envisaged that the project will initially be piloted in 3 oblasts of Ukraine, with a potential for scaling up. The lessons learnt from the implementation phase will feed in the policy debate on land and property rights in Ukraine. The project will therefore make a direct contribution to the rights awareness and rights enablement of the poor within the existing regulatory framework.
The project will use a three-pronged approach and will:
- conduct a forward-looking and solution oriented assessment of legal needs - both addressed and unaddressed – to determine the most pressing legal problems faced by the rural low-income population and prepare recommendations on how best to address those needs;
- promote dissemination of land and property rights related legal information amongst landowners and legal aid providers at community and village level. It will also inform and provide legal counselling to the population (rights holders) about existing options to either obtain land titles or/and profitably use them (such as different types of contractual clauses on lease market, types of lease agreements, different set of conditions etc.), in the context of current regulatory framework. It will also support the capacity of legal aid centres (duty bearers) to effectively respond to the needs and demands of the population;
- use the findings of the Project to advocate for comprehensive, pro-poor land market and legislative reforms, , feeding the “voice of rural communities” into the ongoing policy debates in the area of land reform and rural development.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under direct supervision of the Project Manager and in liaison with UNDP rules and regulations, the incumbent will perform the following:- Participate in data collection, analysis and maintenance of projects related data base and files;
- Provide logistical support (travel arrangements, including visas, tickets, etc.) to the project team; provide assistance in field visits, missions of the experts;
- Provide assistance with project activities (meetings, round tables, conferences, other public activities) ensuring technical and logistical arrangements, translation and follow up;
- Facilitate the process of procurement and delivery of project goods and services;
- Provide assistance to the recruitment and procurement processes, checking the conformity with UNDP rules and procedures;
- Provide the progress reporting in timely and quality manner based on the requirements of the UNDP and project donors;
- Participate in project finance/budget related activities, prepare all payment requests, financial record-keeping and preparation of financial reports to ensure application of the appropriate operational rules and procedures;
- Monitor expenditures and prepare financial reports and forecasts;
- Petty cash management;
- Maintain contacts with UNDP CO on a variety of the operations related issues;
- Assist in project outreach/communication efforts;
- Perform other duties as requested.
- Timely and quality procurement, administration, HR and finance assistance to the project manager;
- Timely and quality liaison with the UNDP Operations centre on relevant issues of the project operations;
- Integrating UNDP procurement, HR, finance and administrations standards in service‘s provision.
- Planning and coordinating skills;
- Interpersonal and task management skills;
- Quality of work and timeliness of outputs;
- Accuracy;
- Initiative;
- Partnering and networking.
Competencies
- Excellent organizational and communication skills;
- Ability to quickly learn new applications;
- Ability to work in a team, creative and problem-solving disposition, willingness to take initiative, good inter-personal skills;
- Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to plan, coordinate, organize and prioritize with minimal supervision is a must;
- Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and handle multiple tasks simultaneously and accurately;
- Ability to work in team;
- Energetic optimistic approach to all possible problems.
Required Skills and Experience
- University degree in Business Administration, Management, Finance, Linguistics, or other related field;
- At least 5 years of practical experience of working in the field of administration, finance and/or other related fields preferably in international organizations/projects;
- Experience of working with UNDP or other international organizations is an asset;
- Knowledge and working experience in Enterprise Resource Planning application will be a strong asset;
- Excellent knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian, fluent English (both writing and speaking);
- Advanced computer skills, including word processing (Word), spreadsheet (Excel) work planning and data management programmes.
All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.undp.org.ua/en/vacancies. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Failure to disclose prior employment or making false representations on this form will be grounds for withdrawal of further consideration of his/her application or termination, where the appointment or contract has been issued.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS 11/04/2011
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 vacancy. We regret that we will not be able to acknowledge all unsolicited general applications for employment.
Qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.