Project Assistant

Organizational Context/Project:    

UNDP Turkey works for progress in four core areas:

1) inclusive and democratic governance;

2) inclusive and sustainable growth;

3) climate change and environment;

4) Syria crisis resilience and response.

In addition to these core areas, UNDP Turkey is emphasizing the role of women, private sector, capacity development, and information and communication technology in its policies and programmes. To achieve progress in these areas, UNDP seeks to establish partnerships with the central government, local administrations, civil society, academia and private sector to strengthen its contribution to Turkey's development. UNDP works closely with line ministries to support the efficient implementation of development projects and programmes. UNDP Turkey also collaborates with other UN agencies present in Turkey to maximize the impact of the UN's activities in the country, including through joint initiatives on women, youth, internally displaced persons and the Sustainable Development Goals.

As of November 2017, Turkey hosts over 3,2 million Syrian refugees.[1] Syrian refugees are mainly located in the Southeast Anatolia region bordering Syria, but as the crisis continued, the population has expanded to other regions as well. Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world and has demonstrated strong national ownership of the response. The Government of Turkey provides a rights-based legal framework through the Temporary Protection regulation, which offers access to education, health care, employment and social security to Syrians. According to the Government of Turkey, it spent 30 billion USD over the last 5 years on the response to the Syria crisis.

Currently, out of the 3,2 million registered Syrian refugees, more than 2,6 million refugees live amongst Turkish host communities.[2] 45% of the 3,2 million refugees are concentrated in 4 provinces in the South East. Within these provinces, there are four municipalities in Turkey that are particularly impacted, each hosting more than 100,000 Syrians. In these cities, the ratio of the Syrian population to that of host communities is higher than 15%, including Kilis, Hatay, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa.[3] Populations have either reached or exceeded 2023 population projections. Kilis, for instance, hosts almost as many Syrian refugees as its local population.

UNDP supports the Government of Turkey to respond to this large-scale displacement through its Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Programme in Turkey to strengthen the resilience of refugees, host community members, local municipalities and relevant national institutions to cope with and recover from the impact. UNDP’s resilience response strategy is to invest in existing national and local systems to ensure they can adequately serve both host and refugee communities.

As part of this programme, UNDP will implement the EU-UNDP Turkey Resilience Project (2018-2019) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Project), funded by the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis (EUTF Fund). The Project consists of three main components: Component 1 on Employment Creation, Component 2 on Municipal Service Delivery and Component 3 on Adult Language Training. The overall budget for the Project is 50 million euros to be implemented in 2018-2019. UNDP will recruit a Project management team for the Project. Each Project Component will be Managed by a Project Manager.

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the UN Volunteer is expected to perform the following tasks;

§  Assist the project team, specifically Project Associate, in the administration and implementation of the daily project activities,

§  Provide soft assistance to the project team, specifically Project Associate, during procurement, contracting, financial and human resources processes as required

§  Provide administrative and logistical support for the organization of events, workshops, meetings, trainings and conferences,

§  Translate documents from English to Turkish and vice versa

§  Develop initial drafts of the reports/minutes of meetings in Turkish and (if deemed necessary) in English

§  Assist the project team, specifically Project Associate, in making the necessary program related travel arrangements (travel tickets, hotel reservations, DSAs, etc),

§  Provide assistance to the project team, specifically Project Associate, in keeping related information, documentation and correspondences,

§  Assist in telephone inquiries, fax, post and e-mail transmissions and co-ordination of appointments,

§  Assist in keeping close contact with relevant consultants and experts,

§  File and archive all relevant correspondence;

§  Perform any other administrative and logistical duties as requested by the Project Manager and Field Coordinator

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to:

·             Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);

·             Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;

·             Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;

·             The Duty Station is Gaziantep. If the UNV is required to travel outside of Gaziantep, assignment-related travel and accommodation costs will be borne by UNDP upon submission of documentation, only for the trips that are requested by the project management.

Results/Expected Output:

• The Volunteer is expected to provide support on Municipal capacity capacity development acitvities in the field.

·         The Volunteer is expected to provide support on creating a data base for on going project acitivities for reporting purposes

• The Volunteer is expected to provide administrative and logistical support for the organization of events, workshops, meetings, trainings and conferences
• The Volunteer is expected to provide assitance in telephone inquiries, fax, post and e-mail transmissions and co-ordination of appointments
• The Volunteer is expected to provide support on file and archive all relevant correspondence

- Ethics and Integrity

- Working in Teams

- Communication

- Conflict Resolution

·         University degree (BA/BS) in social sciences, administrative sciences or other relevant field is required. Relevant higher university degree (i.e., Master) is an asset.(In the absence of a Master’s Degree, 2 additional years of working experience is required along with a Bachelor’s degree.)

• Experience: Minimun 2 year of work experience
• Full proficiency in Turkish and a good command of written and spoken English is required,
• Analytical skills and ability to coordinate numerous ongoing initiatives is required,
• Familiarity to UN and UNV rules and procedures is an asset,
• Computer skills: Microsoft Office, Windows-based applications, integrated web-based management systems, spreadsheets and databases. Knowladge of Adobe CS programs are a great assest.

Conditions of Service for national UN Volunteers

A contract till December 31, 2018 with subsequent contract extensions subject to availability of funding, operational necessity and satisfactory performance. However, there is no expectation of renewal of the assignment.

Travel to duty station (if applicable) and a Settling-In-Grant will be provided in the event duty station is not within commuting distance from the place of recruitment. A Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) of approximately TRY 2,729 is provided monthly to cover housing, utilities and normal cost of living expenses. Life, health and permanent disability insurance are included (health insurance for up to 3 dependents), as well as final repatriation (if applicable) and resettlement allowance for satisfactory service.

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme which welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture.

United Nations Volunteers reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this opening for other openings with United Nations Volunteers with similar assignment description, experience and educational requirements.