ISG Project Assistant (2 Posts) at UNDP.

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.

ISG Portfolio benefits from the interplay between UNDP global strategic priorities and national priorities and consolidates complementary CO initiatives with a view to bringing further coherence to programmatic work in this area. The emphasis of the ISG Portfolio is on “inclusive growth”. The ISG is positioned to address structural economic problems, such as productivity, the middle-income trap, multi-dimensional poverty, energy security and regional disparities, as well as challenges with both social and economic repercussions, such as urbanization, resource efficiency, health transformation and community-based development. Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment is addressed from an economic perspective (e.g. women entrepreneurship and gender equality in labour force participation), ensuring complementarity but avoiding duplication. Partnerships with private sector targets to build inclusive markets that can advance sustainable development, foster innovation, provide jobs and livelihoods, ensure gender equality, and create businesses that aim at a triple bottom line (profit, environmental responsibility and social value added).

In principle, the ISG Portfolio focuses on productive employment rather than income redistribution, even though both are critical issues. The work on social policies and services will promote equal access to opportunities and therefore, will contribute to equitable growth. Hence the emphasis will be not only on employment growth but also on productivity growth. The two programme areas that ISG covers are a) Competitiveness, Economic Growth and Innovation (CEG+), and b) Public Policies and Inequalities (PPI).

One project assistant will be responsible for NEET Women Project and the other project assistant will be responsible for Sustainable Community-based Development Projects (such as; sustainable tourism and care services)

NEET Women Project Description

The unemployment rate of the young population between the ages of 15-24 is 26.1% and the rate of young people who are neither in education nor in employment (NEET) is 29%, making Turkey one of the countries with highest NEET figures among OECD members. 36.6% of young women in Turkey are NEET. The number of women between the ages of 15-24 who have graduated from vocational high school at least two years ago and who are not looking for a job, exceeds one million. It is proven that young women are more likely to be NEET than men with a gap of more than 20 percentage points in the case of Turkey. Family responsibilities in Turkey, the burden of care (children, elderly, etc.), social roles, social structure and inequalities, marriage at an early age, women’s education being less than men are the major factors leading to women’s unemployment. During the pandemic inequalities deepened since women work more in informal economy.

Two categories of NEET women are identified namely “invisible NEET women” who are harder to reach and transform and “reachable NEET women” with more accessible profiles and with a potential to transition to work, education, and training. A two-tiered approach is employed for these categories: “Raise the invisible NEET women issue at the national level” and “empower women with more reachable NEET profiles to facilitate their transition to the labour market”.

To provide grounds to make the problems and needs of NEET women, the Project is designed in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey Country Office (as implementing partner) and Sabancı Foundation (donor). Moreover, the Project is designed in strong coordination with the Ministry of Family and Social Services (MoFSS) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MoLSS).

The Project is designed on three outputs:

• Output 1: The problems and needs of the NEET women raised in national fora to activate the relevant stakeholders and institutions.
• Output 2: Awareness-raising and empowerment of Invisible NEET Women ensured.
• Output 3: Reachable NEET women’s skills and employment opportunities improved.

Sustainable Community-Based Development Projects

Under Public Policies and Inequalities (PPI), sustainable community-based development practices are being implemented. These initiatives aim at building the capacities of and engaging local actors-including the most disadvantaged- to enable their more active participation in the development of their own communities. These initiatives include social and economic aspects and target the relatively disadvantaged regions of Turkey among others, with respect to available socio-economic indicators.

The Project Assistant will be responsible for various projects that are running under Sustainable Community Based Development Initiatives within the scope of ISG Portfolio including Raising Awareness on Energy Efficiency through Development of a Green Destination Model, Future is in Tourism, Capacity Building and Awareness Raising in the field of Sustainable Tourism.

The Raising Awareness on Energy Efficiency through Development of a Green Destination Model Project with financial contribution and partnership of Enerjisa Company aims to support social, environmental and economic transformation in the field of sustainable tourism and contributing to community based socio-economic development through raising awareness on energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources. The Green Destination Model to be developed and piloted in a selected destination is intended to be further replicated and scaled up across the country. The four main components of the Project are as follows; i) analysing the current status of the destination in terms of energy efficiency and potential for attracting visitors as a sustainable tourism destination, ii) develop “Green Destination Model” to promote sustainable tourism development and increase renewable energy usage and energy efficiency in the pilot destination iii) carrying out capacity building and awareness raising activities on the use of renewable energy resources and energy efficiency in the pilot destination to contribute sustainable local economic development and iv) communication and visibility activities.

Building on the existing experiences among Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) and UNDP and responding to the identified needs for supporting organizations at the local level for sustainable tourism Future is in Tourism Project has been developed with financial contribution and partnership of Anadolu Efes Company. The project provides NGOs, universities and local tourism actors with necessary guidance, tools and resources to strengthen their capacities in order to contribute to the sustainable tourism development through partnerships with public institutions, NGOs and/or universities in the following ways:

• Encouraging the development of awareness-raising, capacity development and research projects for sustainable tourism
• Supporting innovative, creative, participatory processes, sustainable approaches, products and processes, gender-responsive projects of local tourism actors and NGOs that provide best practices for sustainable tourism implemented in partnership with public institutions, NGOs and/or universities
• Strengthening the project development and implementation skills of local tourism actors and NGOs via implementation support, trainings, mentoring, networking platforms and communication.
• The project conducts its activities through a grant scheme and training programs, with a view to develop best practices that will serve as a replicable and scalable model for sustainable tourism and contribute to knowledge sharing in the area of sustainable tourism implementation.

Moreover, with the aim of supporting social, environmental and economic transformation in the field of sustainable tourism and contributing to community based socio-economic development, The Initiation Plan for Capacity Building and Awareness Raising in the field of Sustainable Tourism is being implemented with the funding from Jolly tour. The project concentrates on; i-) capacity building and awareness raising on sustainable tourism, child-friendly tourism and cultural heritage among children and their families and travel agencies ii-) communication and visibility activities for the dissemination of sustainable tourism principles in Turkey.

Scope of Work

Project Assistants will be based in Ankara to support Projects and Portfolio activities in ISG Portfolio.

The Project Assistants will be responsible for providing support to the day-to-day Project implementation including technical, organizational and administrative aspects.

The Project Assistant will undertake the relevant tasks as follows:

1. Support provided to implementation of Project activities, including the organization of visibility events and missions:

• Following-up and monitoring the project budget allocated for activities,
• Preparing regular financial reports with commitments and expenditures to follow-up closely the financial situation in the project budget as per budget items allocated to the activities,
• Contributing to the procurement actions with documentation, filing, reaching out potential vendors, etc.
• Contributing to the administration and implementation of the daily project activities,
• Provide technical, administrative, and logistical support for the organization of events, workshops, and meetings
• Provide support to the M&E processes including data collection, data verification and reporting of the activities,
• Provide assistance to the Project Management Unit (PMU) during procurement, contracting, financial processes,
• Follow developments in the areas of the related project(s) to provide input to the Project implementation,
• Perform any other administrative and logistical duties as requested by the related supervisor and/or ISG Portfolio Manager,
• Fulfill additional tasks, as required.

2. Support provided to reporting and communication activities.

• Translate documents from English to Turkish and vice versa.
• Develop initial drafts of the reports/minutes of meetings in Turkish and in English.
• Filing related information, documentation, and correspondences.
• Facilitate communication and Project activities among the project partners as requested.
• Assist in mail and e-mail transmissions and co-ordination of appointments.
• Fulfill additional tasks, as required.

Institutional Arrangement

One Project Assistant will report to the ISG-PPI Local Economic Development (LED) Projects Manager and one Project Assistant will report to ISG-PPI Project Manager. She/he will also fulfill additional tasks to be requested by the ISG Portfolio Manager at the UNDP.

Travel

Place of work for the assignment (duty station) is Ankara.  Under NEET Women Project field visits to pilot provinces (i.e. Adana, Bursa, Diyarbakır, İstanbul, Trabzon, Ankara, Van, Konya, Mardin, Erzurum and İzmir) will be conducted. The work will include on-site activities whenever necessary.  The official travels approved by the supervisor will be covered based on UNDP Travel Rules and Regulations.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Self-development, initiative-taking
• Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
• Creating synergies through self-control
• Managing conflict
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.
• Informed and transparent decision making.

Technical/Functional Competencies:

• Minimum 1 (one) year of experience in supporting project management in the public, private and non-profit sector contexts.
• Experience working in local economic development and/or social development and/or youth employment and/or women empowerment and/or sustainable tourism fields.
• Experience in financial reporting of the projects.
• Strong English and Turkish language drafting skills.

How to apply

• To apply please follow this link https://vacanciesinturkey.com/jobs

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

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Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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