Project Financial Assistant -Ankara

Place: Ankara, Turkey

Position: Project Financial Assistant

Reference Number: Ankara2025-LEAP-01

Project: Legal Empowerment and Awareness Program for Children and Caregivers after Disaster (LEAP)

The applications should be e-mailed to leap@barobirlik.org.tr no later than January 24th, 2025 by indicating reference number.

Only the short-listed candidates will be contacted.

1. Background

The earthquakes that took place on February 6, 2023 with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 had devastating consequences in 11 provinces in southeast Turkey and affected 15.2 million people, 5.4 million of whom were children living in these provinces alone. An estimated 9.1 million people, including 2.5 million children, are in need of urgent support in the disaster area.

Within the scope of UNICEF's Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Response Plan, it is aimed to provide free legal support in such areas as providing legal information to children and their families, formalizing the legal authority of caregivers of unaccompanied children, following the legal processes for the protection of children, preventing sexual assault and exploitation. To achieve these goals, a Legal Empowerment Program for Children Affected by Earthquake and for their Families has been developed, in which necessary technical and financial support will be provided to the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (UTBA) and the local Bar Associations. 

Given the potential increase in demand for legal services, whereas on the other hand the resulting reduction in the workforce, it is expected that the free legal aid system shall require urgent resources. In this framework, judicial processes, protection mechanisms and necessary expertise should be developed for groups with special needs, especially women and victims of violence, and access to justice services should be strengthened by supporting the access of the Ministry of Justice and Bar Associations to these groups.

The right to access to justice, which is often overlooked during humanitarian response, is an important component of all the UNICEF programmes. UNICEF considers the access of children and caregivers to justice both as a fundamental right and considers the legal empowerment of these groups from a preventive perspective as an indispensable part of the right to access justice.

In this regard, activities within the Project will be conducted under 3 components:  

Component I: Community Access, Awareness Raising & Information

• Providing basic legal information concerning earthquakes to the non-legal employees working in the field who are in direct contact with the society, as well as preparing guides, including necessary information for referral to the Bar Associations.
• Providing legal sessions by lawyers in places where earthquake victims are present and providing preliminary counselling/referral services to the Bar Associations.
• Establishing a common call line to facilitate the access of the people affected by the earthquake who need legal assistance to the Bar Association in their area.

Component II: Legal Consultancy, Application and Litigation Services

• Providing advanced training to the volunteering lawyers in the legal aid system on the types of cases within the scope of the legal support program to be offered to children and families.
• Completion of the necessary technical and administrative infrastructure in the UTBA and the Bar Associations in order to duly provide legal support within the legal aid system
• Providing consultancy services on legal issues concerning children by the lawyer appointed by the legal aid system for the earthquake victims referred/applied to the Bar Association.
• Providing consultancy, judicial/administrative applications (including disciplinary processes), follow-up of cases and litigation services for earthquake victims who are referred/applied to the Bar with the allegation that they have been subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, or any type of gender-based violence during humanitarian aid work.

Component III: Monitoring, Reporting, Advocacy and Dialogue 

• • Systematic reporting of the rights violations against earthquake victims by the Bar Associations and NGOs and holding meetings with relevant institutions
  • Conducting field visits in the provinces served

“Legal Empowerment and Awareness Program for Children and Caregivers after Disaster (LEAP)” project aims to increase investments in child-friendly legal-aid practices and the legal awareness activities and it aims to transfer the local knowledge and experience on quality legal-aid for children to the international law. 

1. Objective

The objective of this position is to support the implementation of the project through pursuing the consistency of the activities to be conducted with the budget; in order to reach the project outcomes.

1. Responsibilities of the Project Financial Assistant

The project financial assistant will be responsible of the following duties:

• To collect, record and preserve information on the Project activities and to do reporting,
• To prepare legal aid payments,
• To follow up procurement processes
• To prepare reports regarding the budget,
• To ensure the consistency of the expenditures with the budget and the project implementation rules,
• To prepare status and progress reports, to conduct routine communications,
• To follow the implementation and performance of project outcomes through work plans, progress reports, budget, financial reports and expenditures,
• To be in communication and cooperation with the UTBA and the UNICEF regarding the implementation of the project,
• To carry out other tasks.

4. Organizational Framework

The physical working environment of the project financial assistant will be provided by the UTBA. The financial assistant will report to the UTBA, and work in close coordination and cooperation with other project staff and partners. The incumbent will sign an employment contract of definite duration with the UTBA, and will be employed within the International Relations and EU Centre.

5. Required Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Economics, Business Administration, Finance, International Relations
• At least 2 years-experience in related fields,
• Computer skills,
• Fluency in Turkish and English,
• Experience in projects funded by the UN, donors and/or NGOs is an asset,
• Experience in financial reporting and/or expenditure monitoring systems is an asset,
• Experience with ORACLE, PeopleSoft based software (ATLAS) is an asset,
• To have completed military service for male candidates.

Notes:

• Internships are not considered work experience.  
• Compulsory military service is not considered work experience.
• Experiences gained prior to undergraduate education are not considered work experience.

6. Additional Documents Required

• One-page letter of intent explaining the relevance to the position
• CV including related work experience and at least two references

7. Evaluation

The candidates meeting the minimum requirements within the terms of reference will be short-listed. The short-listed candidates will be called for an interview. The interviews will be conducted in English/Turkish.