Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

In Ukraine, UN Women is committed to delivering results across strategic priorities, exercising its triple mandate encompassing normative support, UN system coordination, and operational activities to mobilize urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. UN Women has long been actively supporting local priority areas in Ukraine from increased political participation to gender mainstreaming in public policy, and economic development. Since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the war continues to cause civilian casualties and hardship, damage to infrastructure and productive assets, disruption to the economy, causing the largest displacement and refugee crisis in Europe since 1945, and one of the greatest modern challenges to the global and regional peace and security architecture.

Women and girls are the majority of those affected disproportionally by the ten-year war.  They experience higher rates of poverty and displacement than men, worsening inequalities, many have lost their homes and jobs lack access to basic social services, and are facing protection concerns,^[4] including gender-based violence^[5], conflict-related sexual violence,^[6] and human trafficking^[7].  Among the 14.6 million needing humanitarian assistance, women and girls constitute the vast majority. Women make up 56% of the estimated 3.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine and constitute 93% of the 4.6 million people returning to Ukraine[i].

Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction provide significant opportunities to build back better, more inclusive, and more equal, to strengthen good governance, the rule of law, gender equality, sustainable socio-economic development, and human rights.

To achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in Ukraine, the CO will contribute to the UN Cooperation Framework 2025 – 2029 and the Humanitarian Program Cycle. The CO will leverage its triple mandate to promote UN system-wide coherence, results, and accountability. It will address early recovery needs through a nexus approach and the longer-term policy reform priorities of the Government of Ukraine. The UN Women Ukraine Strategic Note 2025-2029 will focus on Gender responsive recovery, reconstruction, and development programs achieving the three outcome areas:

1. Governance, Women Peace, and Security
2. Women’s Economic Empowerment
3. Humanitarian Actions

UN Women will focus its programs on the East of Ukraine, as this region has been more severely affected by the war since 2014 compared to other areas in Ukraine. The sub-national program will adopt a community-driven approach to address the needs of women and girls in the region. UN Women’s sub-office in Dnipro (East of Ukraine) will continue to coordinate, implement, and monitor UN Women’s programs (Governance, Women Peace and Security, Women Economic Empowerment and Humanitarian Response) and engage local stakeholders to consolidate UN Women’s efforts and achievements in promoting gender equality and empowering women in the region. This will involve collaborating with WROs located in the East, as well as strengthening coordination and relationships with the Regional Military Administration of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy Oblasts. The goal is to deepen existing relationships with community leaders, the UN systems coordination mechanisms, academia, and state and non-state actors to advance GEWE at local levels.

The sub-office is central to operationalizing UN Women’s triple mandate in a localized context

Towards this end, UN Women Ukraine is seeking a Programme Associate to provide support in the development and implementation of Strategic Note 2025-2029 programs consistent with UN Women rules and regulations. Reporting to the Programme Specialist and head of sub office and under the guidance of the Deputy Country Representative, the Programme Associate contributes to financial management and program implementation, including providing necessary operational, logistics, administrative, and programmatic support. The Programme Associate works in close collaboration with the operations, and program staff in the Ukraine CO and UN Women RO/HQs as required for resolving complex finance-related issues and exchange of information.

Key Functions and Accountabilities

Provide advanced administrative and logistical support to the formulation and management of programmes:

• Provide advanced administrative support and inputs in the preparation of programme work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements;
• Provide technical guidance to the country offices and executing agencies on routine delivery and reporting of programme supported activities and finances;
• Coordinate the collection of information for the audit of programmes/ projects and support implementation of audit recommendations;
• Contribute to the development or update of standard operating procedures, guidelines, checklists, templates and business processes in programme and project management;
• Review programme data from programmes/ projects for CO/MCO/RO website;
• Identify sources, and gather and compile data and information for documents, guidelines, speeches and position papers.

Provide advanced administrative support to the financial management of the Programme Unit:

• Create projects in Quantum system, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds and the operational and financial close of a project;
• Monitor budget preparation and the finances of programmes/projects; prepare periodic reports; finalize FACE forms;
• Review financial reports; prepare non-PO vouchers for development projects;
• Maintain internal expenditures control system; post transactions in Quantum system;
• Create requisitions in Quantum system for development projects; register good receipts in Quantum system;
• Prepare and follow up of cost-recovery bills in Quantum system.

Provide advanced administrative support to the Programme Unit:

• Oversee all logistical, administrative and financial arrangements for organization for meetings, workshops, events, and missions;
• Oversee travel arrangements for the Programme Team, including travel requisitions and claims;
• Prepare public information materials and briefing packets;
• Liaise with high level officials on administrative issues;
• Prepare and assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations; contribute inputs to the materials;
• Provide guidance and training to Programme Assistants.

Provide administrative support to Resource Mobilization:

• Prepare cost-sharing and other agreements; follow up on contributions within the CO/MCO/RO resource mobilization efforts;
• Organize, compile and process information from donors, Country Office, and programme team, as inputs to various databases and documents.

Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing:

• Support synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices related to programme management and finance;
• Coordinate the organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of programme management;
• Ability to create, edit, synthesize and present information in clear and presentable formats;
• Ability to administer and execute administrative processes and transactions;
• Ability to provide input to business process re-engineering, elaboration and implementation of new data management systems;
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow;
• Excellent financial and budgeting skills;
• Excellent IT skills.

Recruitment Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Completion of secondary education is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business or Public Administration is an asset.

Experience

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in administration or programme management/support;
• Experience in working in a computer environment using multiple office software packages is required;
• Experience in supporting a team is required.
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable;

Languages

• Fluency in English and Ukrainian is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)