Project Analyst on Policy Development and Civic Engagement

Fight against corruption emerged as one of the central items in the transformation agenda of Uzbekistan’s newest history, which started with the political transition in 2016. Over this period, the government has taken several steps to improve the institutional and policy framework of anticorruption in the country. Despite positive developments in this area, prevalence of corruption in the public sector remains high, being a major challenge within the broader governance agenda, fueling inequalities and undermining access to quality public goods and services. Although Uzbekistan has already undertaken several key anti-corruption reforms, it is important to systematize its anti-corruption policy by making it strategic in nature.

The main goal of the Project “Strengthening the National Anti-Corruption Ecosystem in Uzbekistan” is to promote strategic, long-term and multi-dimensional administrative and anti-corruption reforms in Uzbekistan, which are solid, comprehensive, effective, inclusive and fully integrated into national, regional and local development agendas. The Project will achieve this goal through:

• Improving national policy, legal and institutional frameworks, which consolidate the Anti-corruption and Integrity Ecosystem in the country with robust preventive, enforcement and punitive measures, in line with best international practices.
• Strengthening integrity capacities of the regional, district and local government authorities and self-governance bodies, and deploying more dynamic anti-corruption transformations in the regions of Uzbekistan.
• Enhancing civic engagement and collective action for an effective and objective monitoring of the implementation of the National Anticorruption Strategy and greater public awareness to foster zero-tolerance towards corruption.

The main partner of the Project is the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The Project will also cooperate with the Ministry of Justice, General Prosecutor’s Office, GPO Academy, Presidential Administration, National Agency for Social Protection under the President of Uzbekistan, civil society organizations and media.

Duties and Responsibilities

Programmatic Functions:

• Overall management of the project activities, ensuring a proper workplan and budget is in place and implemented within set timelines, with an effective national team and strong partnerships.
• Responsible for day-to-day management, administration and decision-making for the project activities, oversees planning process and ensures its implementation in accordance with the project document, and mobilizes goods and services to activities, including drafting TORs and work specifications, manages requests for the provision of financial resources by UNDP, using advance of funds, direct payments, or reimbursement.
• Supervise the team members, facilitate, guide and monitor the work of the national and international short-term experts to ensure administrative requirements are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner and within UNDP and donor rules and regulations.
• Monitoring and facilitation of advocacy and mass media outreach activities, newspapers coverage, PR campaigns in line with Communication and Visibility Plan of the project, organization of “field days”, workshops, and other events to introduce project outputs to all stakeholders involved, rendering support to related UNDP thematic activities such as publications, sharing of knowledge and group discussions.
• 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, review and appraise of detailed work plans, including the Quantum reports covering activity definition. Ensure that projects’ results targets and results are entered and updated in the results-management systems including Quantum project management module, and relevant documents are uploaded for the transparency dashboard.
• Coordinate the project work on research, policy advice, reviews, needs assessments on anti-corruption (AC), public administration reform (PAR), integrity, civic engagement, and other relevant topics;
• Support the project in identifying, collecting and analyzing data related to national anti-corruption policies, legal and institutional framework in Uzbekistan;
• Support the project in developing relevant TORs, concept notes and other documents to design and implement research activities;
• Engage national and international experts/organizations into the project’s research and policy advice activities, coordinate their work, preparation of reports, assure quality of draft reports and other written materials prepared by project vendors;
• Compile and edit written materials prepared by research groups; organize discussions and peer-reviews of the draft reports;
• Undertake ad hoc research tasks as may be required by the NPC and Project Specialist; this may include involvement in training activities, both as a mentor and a trainee;
• Assist in the review of draft government resolutions and other policy documents in the area of anti-corruption, PAR and citizen’s engagement;
• Liaise with relevant stakeholders to obtain any support and guidance required for management and implementation of the assigned project activities in accordance with the project’s work plan;
• Support the project’s resource mobilization activities, related to anti-corruption policies and civic engagement on AC;
• Assist the Project Specialist in enhancing public awareness on key issues of anti-corruption, public administration reform, civic engagement through organization of briefings, round-table discussions, seminars, workshops, webinars, forums, etc.;
• Contribute to the promotion of gender equality by reaching, involving and benefiting both women and men in the project activities (gender mainstreaming);
• Contribute to project’s advocacy campaigns and facilitate the process of increasing visibility of the project activities and results; writing of success stories, press-releases, newspapers coverage, and other relevant PR campaigns;
• Facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing of best practices between projects, UN agencies, national implementing partner, government, communities to deeper integrate the work and idea of the project; participate in relevant networks and meetings of practitioners.

Operational Functions:

• Plan and implement the work in accordance with the overall work plan using both human and financial resources available in the most effective and efficient way, elaborate and propose new schemes and effective ways to achieve target indicators;
• Provide inputs to annual reports, work plans and any other planning, monitoring and reporting documents required by the UNDP;
• Assist the Project Specialist in preparing context updates, progress reports, lessons learned, and contribute to the donor reporting process providing relevant information and data on conducted activities;
• Support the Project Specialist in monitoring the implementation of the project outputs for adopting corrective measures in project implementation, when necessary, to ensure timely delivery of required inputs and achievement of results;
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in law, economics, social sciences, public administration or a closely related field is required.
• Bachelor´s degree in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying 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 work experience in one or more of the following areas: anti-corruption, effective governance, public sector reform, justice, law, including two years of demonstrable policy advice/research experience.

Required Skills:

• Strong knowledge of the current anti-corruption policies, issues and challenges in Uzbekistan.
• Solid understanding of anti-corruption policies, tools, approaches and standards.
• Proven experience of research, analyses, report writing on anti-corruption and/or public policy.

Desired Skills:

• Demonstrated experience  and strong knowledge of the current anti-corruption, gender and local governance policies, issues and challenges in Uzbekistan.
• Demonstrated experience and solid understanding of application of anti-corruption policies, tools, approaches and standards.
• Proven experience of research, analyses, report writing on anti-corruption and/or public policy.
• Work experience in development organizations is an advantage.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Uzbek (written and spoken) is required.
• Good command of Russian is desirable.

Source: https://estm.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/requisitions/job/18719