View Vacancy – Governance Advisor (UKR24.431)

Our Governance Advisor will sit at the centre of the UK’s commitment to supporting Ukraine respond to the short- and long-term needs created by the war as well as helping Ukraine to realise its Euro-Atlantic ambition. Supporting Ukraine is the UK’s top foreign policy priority. As part of this, our development assistance increased ten-fold since the start of the full-scale invasion. You will sit within a fast-paced, dynamic but supportive ‘Programmes Team’ of ~60 people who are passionate about making a real difference to the lives of Ukrainians.

The role entails:

Programme delivery on social recovery (40%):

• Deliver high-quality governance advice to quality assure and guide the mobilisation and implementation of British Embassy Kyiv’s flagship Social Recovery programme. Support delivery of an innovative, localised and agile intervention, which strengths more inclusive, effective and efficient social systems and lays the foundation for future reform and recovery.

• Undertake robust inclusive political analysis and institutional analysis to influence Ukraine’s national social policies and strategies and develop innovative approaches to inform the prospects for sustainable reform.

• Provide technical advisory support to the Government of Ukraine in pursuit of ambitious institutional and sectoral reforms aligned with EU accession requirements, including through the development of a new Social Recovery and Reform Office within the Ministry of Social Policy.  

• Capture and utilise governance/political inclusion trends, evidence and learning to identify risks and opportunities for further engagement across the social recovery and inclusion portfolio, and to inform successor programming. 

• Oversee greater alignment between governance  and social reform conversations, bolstering both democratic and demographic resilience, finding ways to enhance the role of women, people with disabilities and other excluded groups in public sector decision-making.

• Build capability of others to do no harm, benefit poor and excluded people, and deliver transformational change in public sector governance and service delivery.

Programme delivery on democratic resilience (40%):

• Use analysis of the trends in Ukraine’s democracy, to identify the risks and opportunities for engagement and undertake programme scoping in different thematic areas (e.g. political rights, civil society, inclusive political processes, elections, media) to shape sophisticated approaches to supporting Ukrainians under and after martial law.

• Contribute to discussions on how a problem-driven approach to governance and advocacy could be applied in Ukraine and the risks and opportunities of this approach. 

• Provide high quality written inputs into programme documents and help to mobilise the programme, by overseeing a range of different procurement processes (commercial, accountable grants, MoUs etc.) to select new suppliers and to ensure they are set up to deliver in line with FCDO expectations.

• Oversee the strategic and technical delivery of the programme, helping to ensure the programme is responsive to the context and adapts to new opportunities.

• Establish close ways of working with the wider Programme Team, Political Team and HQ to ensure strong  join up between the programme and other parts of the ODA portfolio and with UK diplomacy.

Cross-Embassy engagement (10%):

• Play an active role in relevant Embassy cross-mission Delivery Groups, particularly on Democracy and Governance and Social Recovery and Inclusion.

• Alongside two other Embassy Governance Advisers, quality assure governance work across the portfolio and provide governance advice as needed, to ensure interventions think and work politically.

• Liaise with colleagues in HQ, including the Reforms Hub, to ensure programme insights and learnings are fed into relevant briefings and policy work on social recovery and democratic resilience.

Coordination and representation (10%):

• Represent the UK, leveraging our political influence and programmes to help advance and promote our social recovery and democratic resilience ambitions in Ukraine.

• Build networks

  with government counterparts, civil society, technical experts, and like-minded missions to keep your understanding up to date and improve coordination.

As Lead Advisor for the Democratic Resilience Programme, the jobholder will be expected to take decisions on the use of resources for a £40m programme. As Lead Advisor for the Social Recovery programme, SPIRIT, the jobholder will be expected to take decisions on the use of resources for a £25m programme in addition to next stage Social Recovery and Inclusion programming at scale.. The role might also entail line management responsibilities.

• Excellent communication skills with written and spoken fluency in English and Ukrainian at C1 level (according to CEFR* or equivalent) 

• At least 4 years’ experience working professionally, in the development sector in Ukraine (international organisations, Embassies, civil society and/or Government of Ukraine at national or local level).

• Experience working on international assistance/donor programmes in Ukraine and/or the region, with experience of designing new programmes and overseeing performance and partner delivery.

• An understanding of Ukraine’s internal politics and political systems and how elections, parliament, political parties, civil society and the media can help to foster more inclusive politics.