Terms of Reference

1.	Programme/Project Title: Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP): Fostering Full Enjoyment of Land and Property Rights
2.	Post title: National Project Manager
3.	Duration of employment (dates): 1 year, renewable
4.	Duty station: Kyiv, Ukraine
5.	Full time
6.	Level of the Post:  SB 4
7.	Background information:
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 fulfill two important interrelated functions: will engage with stakeholders to 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: 
1)	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; 
2)	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; 
3)	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. 
In the course of the project implementation the activities may have a different focus according to evolution of the policy and regulatory framework: in case of continuing moratorium on land sale, information and legal aid will be mostly targeted to protect landowners’ rights in the context of lease agreements, in case of lifting the moratorium the project will provide comprehensive advice on new regulations to the landowners.

8.	Organisational setting

The Project Manager (PM), under the supervision of the UNDP Programme Officer will be responsible for achieving the outputs and, hence, objectives of the project, and ensuring the co-operation and support from the project partners ensuring high quality, accuracy and consistency of work. 
     
The PM works in close collaboration with the operations, programme and other project staff as required to exchange information and support programme delivery.

9.	Duties and responsibilities:

Under the responsibility of the UNDP Senior Programme Manager, the Project Manager will be responsible for the following key tasks:

•	Managing the day to day activities of the Project (planning, management, implementation, quality monitoring & closure):
•	Prepare and update project work plans, and submit these to the UNDP CO for clearance and ensure their implementation consistent with the provisions of the project document. 
•	Act as a principal representative of the project during assurance review meetings, evaluations and in discussions and, hence, be responsible for preparation of review and evaluation reports such as the Annual Project Report (APR) for the consideration of the UNDP. 
•	Coordinate project’s objectives and activities with other local partners, assuring the projects are efficiently integrated with other development efforts; 
•	Participate in PR and media activities. Assure project web-site update. Coordinate distribution of the project related information.
•	Establish and maintain dialogue with government officials, both local and national, NGOs, partners, donors and communities to provide knowledge and understanding, ensuring an accurate interpretation of the project’s mission; Prepare project reports, including progress and annual reports, as well as ad-hoc technical reports; 
•	Facilitate project monitoring activities;
•	Assure proper operational, financial and administrative management in the project, as well as assume direct responsibility for managing the project budget;  
•	Ensure compliance of Project’s business processes with UNDP Ukraine Standard Operating Procedures.
•	Ensure that the Atlas Project Management module is updated on a regular basis;
•	Ensure compliance with UNDP project management policies and procedures.
•	Perform other duties as requested.

Measurable outputs of the work assignment:

Full and appropriate implementation of project Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP): Fostering Full Enjoyment of Land and Property Rights;

Materials on project experience/best practices and lessons learned prepared;
Project overall results, experiences and lessons learned disseminated at the national and regional levels;
Project reporting, quality monitoring and closure activities completed.

Performance Indicators for evaluation of results:

Project annual workplan is fully and timely implemented;
Project funds delivery reached 100%;
Project is dully accomplished and closed in accordance with UNDP requirements.

Competencies expected of the individual: 
•	Demonstrated management experience and organizational capacity; 
•	Good analytical skill;
•	Capacity to transfer knowledge and motivate people and to build relationships with colleagues, partners, beneficiaries, government authorities, donor organizations and other stakeholders;
•	Ability to work in a team, creative and problem-solving disposition, willingness to take initiative, proactive, results-oriented;
•	Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and handle multiple tasks simultaneously and accurately;
•	Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Experience and Qualification:
•	Master’s degree in business administration, law, political science, development studies, or related field;
•	At least 5 years work experience in project management (including in public administration), law and development, or other relevant area; 
•	Knowledge of the Ukrainian property and land rights legislation. 
•	Familiarity with UNDP project management procedures and experience with ATLAS and UNDP project management is an asset;
•	Fluency in English and Ukrainian (both spoken and written); 
•	Excellent usage of computers and office software packages. 

Prepared by:							Approved by:

____________________________				__________________________
Yuliya Shcherbinina						Elena Panova
Programme Manager 					Deputy Country Director