The Ukraine Reforms Architecture (URA) is a comprehensive technical assistance programme deployed by the EBRD, in partnership with the European Union, to support critical reform processes in Ukraine. It is financed from the Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account (MDA) managed by the EBRD.

URA was designed as a holistic mechanism for stimulating systemic change in Ukraine’s public institutions and improving the business climate in the country. URA fills the critical capacity gaps in Ukraine’s public institutions by supplying reform talent at all levels of government. Since 2016, more than 200 Ukrainian reformers have worked in the project’s various components and contributed to dozens of reform outcomes, strategies and policies.

Objectives of the Consultancy Assignment – Knowledge Sharing via Reformers Hub

Drawing on the lessons learned from the initial phase of implementation of the Ukraine Reforms Architecture project, URA 2.0 introduces a number of enhancements aimed at ensuring sustainability of its capacity building efforts within the Ukrainian public administration. Over the four years of their operations, the RSTs and the RDO have made visible contributions to the quality of reform design and implementation within the host institutions. To lock in the positive effects of collaborative work with their civil service counterparts, the capacity-building and knowledge transfer component of the project requires further strengthening.

The Reformers Hub serves as one of the key vehicles within URA 2.0 for achieving results lasting beyond the completion of the project. The Reformers Hub is a knowledge and experience sharing platform facilitating learning and capacity development exchanges among the URA experts and the civil servants in the host institutions. It aims to offer opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions and learning, thus increasing the flow of knowledge between URA and public administration reformers. The Reformers Hub is currently at the pilot stage, expected to be completed within the first few months of the Knowledge Specialist’s assignment. The Knowledge Specialist is expected to play a key role in the development and delivery of the Reformers Hub initiative and its products, tools and activities.

Thematic areas for knowledge and experience sharing products may include, among others:

• Reform/sector-specific expert knowledge and experience
• Change and people management
• Financial/cost-benefit analysis
• Policy analysis and policy evaluation/impact assessment
• Data analysis, use of analytical tools, data visualisation
• Communication, negotiation and leadership

Potential formats of knowledge and experience sharing products include, among others, trainings, workshops, informal knowledge-sharing events, written knowledge products (knowledge assets). The knowledge products are primarily housed by an online Reformers Hub platform, enabling peer-to-peer interaction and knowledge sharing.

The Knowledge Specialist will provide support to the implementation of the Reformers Hub activities, drive the process of knowledge capture within the RSTs and the RDO, and contribute to development of knowledge sharing communities among the URA experts and the experts of URA host institutions, as well as provide support to the URA PM Consultant with the Reformers Hub set-up, operational delivery and management.

Scope of Services and Tasks

The Knowledge Specialist will carry out the following tasks:

• Help to foster knowledge sharing across URA teams and URA host institutions;
• Facilitate organisation of knowledge sharing activities as part of the Reformers Hub  knowledge sharing mechanism (trainings, workshops, events, among others);
• Ensure continuous identification, capturing, validation, formatting, management, and sharing of critical knowledge among URA teams and URA host institutions;
• Extract high-value knowledge assets for dissemination, in close collaboration with RST and RDO experts and URA host institutions;
• Capture and organise the experiential knowledge of experts throughout URA to populate and grow the Reformers Hub repository of valuable and sharable knowledge assets;
• Interview internal and external stakeholders (RSTs and RDO, URA host institutions, international donors, among others) to extract mission-critical experiences and lessons learned for further sharing, such as management and operational knowledge, experience from reform design and delivery, sector specific knowledge;
• Conduct research and make research informed proposals for additional Reformers Hub knowledge sharing products and tools, drawing on both global and local experiences in the implementation of knowledge sharing mechanisms;
• Contribute to the content of the Reformers Hub knowledge sharing platform, including supporting the platform’s development in its testing phase as needed;
• Populate the attributes and qualifiers of knowledge assets to ensure good findability on the Reformers Hub platform;
• Design and manage online capturing activities, including surveys, blogs, e-discussions, among others;
• Provide event facilitation for activities organised under the auspices of the Reformers Hub as required;
• Conduct regular evaluation activities aimed at assessing the results achieved through the Reformers Hub knowledge sharing mechanism;
• Model active knowledge sharing throughout the URA programme and with partners;
• Develop trusted relationships with a variety of stakeholders within the URA programme and its host institutions.

 Profile

• A degree in journalism, English, knowledge management, instructional design, learning, public policy, communications or a related field;
• A minimum of 3 years of professional experience in roles with strong focus on analysing, synthesising and summarising information in the form of clear, concise and user-friendly information/knowledge products, acquired through a career in journalism, knowledge management, education, public policy or a related field;
• Excellent communication and listening skills, demonstrated through relevant professional experience;
• Excellent interview skills to ensure optimal documentation and extraction of knowledge derived from personal experiences;
• Ability to digest information and analyse, synthesise, and summarise it in clear and concise ways;
• Solid writing (in both Ukrainian and English) skills to process captured experiences in a way that they can be communicated or disseminated;
• Ability to quickly develop a sound understanding of the programme’s knowledge needs and assets;
• Ability to identify and collect experiences that are deemed worth sharing;
• Motivation to share knowledge, successful practices, and lessons learned and interest in improving the effectiveness of the programme;
• Ability and self-discipline to systematically reflect on past assignments to continuously improve;
• Sound time-management skills to adequately balance operational and knowledge work;
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate others to contribute to and make use of the knowledge and learning offerings of the programme.

More details in the file attached. 

If interested in the position, please submit a CV and cover letter (in English only) to Andrea Garaiova at: [email protected] and Yuliya Anikeeva at: [email protected] by Friday 20 November 2020.