Competency Summary

Strong analytical skills and expertise in a range of the development areas:

  • Poverty and inequality
  • Sustainable human development (including measuring and evaluating sustainable development, combining environmental, economic, and social sustainability, poverty and environment nexus, “green jobs”)
  • Migration, labour markets, employment
  • Social protection
  • Gender
  • Governance

Strong background in data handling and management:

  • Database management
  • Statistical software skills
  • Infographics skills

Extensive project cycle management experience (including management and evaluation)

Proven record of advisory service provision for UNDP country offices and national partners in these areas (including through regional, national human development reports, national development strategies)

Professional Experience Record

October 2007 – present

Human Development Programme and Research Officer, UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre

  • Provided programme support and policy advice for the Country Offices in Europe and Central Asia region, conducted underlying Policy Research and Development in the area of Poverty and Inequality
    • Contributed to the regional paper “Poverty, Inequality, and Vulnerability in the Transition and Developing Economies of Europe and Central Asia”, forthcoming The paper seeks to support regional and national presentations of UNDP’s 2014 Human Development Report “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience”, as well as of UNDP’s “Humanity Divided” global inequality study.
    • Advisory support to Uzbekistan Institute of Social Researches (2014) in review of poverty measurement in Uzbekistan and proposing way forward for state-of-the-art poverty measurement.
    • Provided advisory support to a number of National Human Development Reports through training for the report team, facilitation of the design of the report outline, organization of the process, statistical support, and peer reviews in Belarus (“Regional Competitiveness”, 2014 forthcoming), Georgia (“The Reforms and Beyond” 2008), Jordan (“Small Businesses and Human Development” 2011), Macedonia FYR (“People Centered Analysis Reports” 2008, 2009), Montenegro (“Resource efficiency and sustainable human development” 2014 forthcoming, “Society for All” 2009), Kyrgyzstan (“Local Self-Governance for Sustainable Development” 2013, “Youth” 2010), Poland (“Local and Regional Development Poland” 2012), Tajikistan (“Institutions and Development” 2011, “Unemployment in the Human Development Context” 2009), Ukraine (“Quality of life study” 2012).
    • Co-authored Regional Human Development Report on Social Inclusion “Beyond Transition: Towards Inclusive Societies” 2011. Participated in design of innovative Social Exclusion Index and conducted calculations for the report.
    • Co-authored regional study (2009) of potential impact of the economic crisis on the human development—constructed and compiled database of the economic and human development indicators, covering 29 countries of a region with data for period 1989-2008; run the econometric analysis;; presented results of the study on a number of forums; compiled fiscal dataset.
    • Organized the ‘Sustainable human development’ course (course coordinator) at the Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) in 2008—2013; as a lead lecturer designed a curriculum of the topic ‘Measuring Human Development’, conducted on-line module and lectured at in-campus module. Edited and published collection of Case studies from ‘Sustainable human development’ course 2012 http://goo.gl/tZTwFH
    • Conducted review and evaluation of the Mainstreaming Human Development Project in Tajikistan (2013) and development of new project document for period 2013-2015 in consultation with all major stakeholders.
    • Provided advisory support to Armenia in organization of Agricultural census, more specifically drafted Project Document, liaised with national partners, FAO and donors on modality of operation and use of data from pilot census and full fledge census.
    • Contributed to design and testing of Human Security Monitoring for ICRIN Project (2012-2013), including design of Human Security monitoring scheme using soft and hard statistics, and implementation of innovative micro-narrative technic for grass roots data collection.
    • Conducted price survey for Turkey to estimate regional price differences (2013) upon request of Senior Management Bratislava Regional Center to inform organizational changes and facilitate migration of BRC to Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Development, testing, implementation and advisory support for innovative measurements
    • Contributed to development of Affordable Human Development Index as new measure for sustainable wellbeing, which take into account both achieved level and sustainability of this level. Supported Armenia for Rio+20 Conference, Montenegro for 2014 Human Development Report.
    • Contributed to development of Social Exclusion Index for Europe and Central Asia region in the framework of Regional Human Development Report 2011, designed and calculated for 6 countries of region (Kazakhstan, Macedonia FYR, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine)
    • Localized Human Development Index for Kosovo (NHDR “Mobility” 2014 forthcoming), Kyrgyzstan (“Local Self-Governance for Sustainable Development” 2013), Jordan (“Small Businesses and Human Development” 2011), Poland (“Local and Regional Development Poland” 2012).
  • Organized, managed and processed the databases (micro-data from surveys and aggregated) related to the poverty, inequality, and vulnerable groups.
    • Maintained vulnerability dataset (high frequency, monthly data) for regular monitoring of social-economic development in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine. Drafted “Fast Facts” reviews for Kyrgyzstan, which cover recent development in economic, social and environmental risks.
    • Combined ad hoc Western Balkans Employment and Unemployment dataset (2013) for UNDP-EC DG Enlargement roundtable.
  • Partnerships and Resource Mobilization
    • Organized Round Tables discussion “Migration, Remittances and Human Development”, Moscow, Russia, 26-27 March 2014 to foster partnership for Central Asia Human Development Paper (forthcoming in 2014)
    • Organized consultations with partners in Armenia (2013) for organization of Agricultural Census (including FAO, EC, WB, USAID, Ministry of Agriculture, National Statistical Service). Resulted in Project document for financing of Pilot Agricultural Census, submitted and accepted by Austrian Development Agency.
    • Participating in UNECE-led Task Force on poverty measurement http://goo.gl/jwB0r5
  • Knowledge distilling, preparation of case studies, ‘how to guides’, presentations, and other knowledge products on topics related to the vulnerable groups, social inclusion and poverty monitoring good practices.
    • Organized and deployed Central Asia Social Protection Portal http://www.ca-sp.org/, which serves as a central point of UNDP Regional Center work on Social protection
    • Organized and supervised BRC Human Development Working Papers as a tool for fast ideas dissemination and fostering debates https://undp.unteamworks.org/node/297802
  • Knowledge dissemination, organization of the Network and Community of Practice to identify and disseminate lessons learned and good practices, including organizing and managing web resources and representation of UNDP Regional Centre at the international events and conferences.

March 2005 – September 2008

Programme Associate, UNDP Moldova

  • Programme management of the poverty reduction and MDGs portfolio of UNDP Moldova
    • Project “Joint Programme Support To Strategic Policy Formulation, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Republic of Moldova” (including introduction of DevInfo as PRSP Monitoring tool). Major achievement inter alia includes setting up Policy Units in all Ministries, design and implementation of poverty diagnostics methodology, monitoring of PSR-1 and preparing of PRS-2 (including participatory process) and MDG report, development of municipal vulnerability index used for policy monitoring and funds targeting
    • Project “Economic Studies for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Moldova” resulted in major analytical publication http://www.undp.md/publications/doc/Econom_Pol_ENGL.pdf
    • Project “National Human Development Report” resulted in NHDR 2006 “Quality of Economic Growth and Its Impact on Human Development” http://goo.gl/O5TD90 and initiation of NHDR 2008 “Quality of education as a factor of human development and international competitiveness of Moldova”.
    • Designed and initiated a project to support Strategy of Public Administration Reform, including conducting of Functional Analysis of Public Administration
    • Designed and initiated a joint project (with UNICEF, UNFPA, UNWOMEN) to support development of Statistical System in Moldova
  • Contributed to the elaboration of 5-year strategic plan for Country Office (CCA/UNDAF), including analysis of a situation, preparation of a discussion note on Gender, an establishment of Programme outcomes and outputs, design of Monitoring and Evaluation Plan. Organized and successfully conducted first annual UNDAF reporting.
  • Designed, organized and supervised the survey “Impact of migration and remittances on families and communities”, Autumn 2006 (in collaboration with UNICEF Moldova and South-South Cooperation programme).
  • Knowledge Management: prepared and shared a number of knowledge management products, participated in communities of practice at regional and national level. Regularly prepared and shared for discussions analytical reports in the areas of competence.
  • Contributed to the improvement of the internal business processes through development of the analytical reports, discussion notes on the issues related to the business processes and performance management, conducting internal staff surveys.
  • Supervisory responsibilities: up 10 Project Staff and Consultants

 

April 2002 – February 2005

Economist, EC Food Security Programme (FSP), Moldova.

  • Conducted data collection, analysis of poverty, food security and social situation and its evolution, analysis of impact of policy measure on poverty and food security situation (both ex-post and ex-ante), fiscal sustainability of proposed measures. Analytical writing for the programme purposes
    • Public Expenditures Management—Introduction of Programme Based Budgeting, Treasury Reform), Moldovan Fiduciary Risk Report (2005, internal mimeo for EC Food Security Programme)
    • Social Protection System—options for Farmers Pension Reform, options for Social Benefits Targeting Improvement, Impact Analysis of Measures Undertaken in Social Benefits Targeting
    • Strategic Planning—development of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-1, organization of participation process for PRSP-1 development
    • Statistical System Development—Population and Housing Census, possibilities of Household Budget Survey and Labor Force Survey integration, introduction of the contemporary poverty monitoring system.
  • Analysed, formulated, initially negotiated, implemented, monitored and contributed to evaluation of EC FSP programmes, including policy conditions and funds. Agreed programme of policy conditions included institutions building and strengthening for the sustainable poverty reduction and development in Moldova.
    • Strengthening of Public Finances through institutional strengthening of the State Treasury, introduction of Results-Based Budgeting, introduction of Medium-Term Expenditures Framework and its linkage with PRSP and Ministerial Policy making
    • Reform of Child Benefits provision through their consolidation in National Social Insurance House, reform of poverty-related cash benefits targeting
    • Implementation of statistical system from through implementation of Population Census 2004 (support to negotiation and monitoring of first ever sector-wide budget support operation in Moldova), improvement of Household Budget Survey and Labor Force Survey (sample and questionnaires), introduction of the contemporary poverty monitoring system.
  • Coordinated EC FSP response to the Wheat Crisis in Moldova in 2003/2004, including Wheat Market Study (http://goo.gl/23mNWq).
  • Supported analysis of Moldovan Treasury System (2003, Internal report for Ministry of Finance), co-authored Moldovan Fiduciary Risk Report (2005, internal mimeo for EC Food Security Programme) and Public Expenditures EFA Study in Moldova (2005).
  • Designed, prepared and organized implementation of Migration and Remittances survey (jointly by EC FSP, IOM, and IMF), which produced first ever reliable estimates of migration and remittances in Moldova;
  • Provided ad hoc technical assistance to the local partners involved in the programme upon request.
  • Supervisory responsibilities: up to 5 Consultants

 

May 2001 – April 2002: Head of section, National Pension House, Department of Information Technologies.

  • Developed and monitored Social Protection System statistics;
  • Conducted Pension System Modelling for policy making purposes;
  • Supervisory responsibilities: 3 Civil servants

November 1999 – April 2002: Consultant (civil servant), Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family of Republic of Moldova, Permanent Social Policy Unit

  • Analyzed development of Social Protection System, providing ex-post and ex-ante assessments;
  • Developed and monitored Social Protection System statistics;
  • Conducted Pension System Modelling for policy making purposes;
  • Analytical writing for Annual Social Report.

in 1999–2001: Social Sector Expert, WorldBank, Kishinev, Moldova

  • Analyzed Household Budget Survey (using SPSS) and elaborated the analytical papers for Poverty Assessment Update and Education Sector Reform Project.;
  • Created the Database for Education Sector Strategy;
  • Developed and Programmed the Simulation Education Sector Model;
  • Prepared materials for the training course on the Simulation Education Sector Model.

May 1997 – July 1998: Computer Science Consultant, TACIS Project No. 96-5248 “Reform of the Social Protection System of the Moldova Republic”, Kishinev, Moldova

  • Collected and analyzed information on Moldavian Pension System,;
  • Designed and programmed Pension System Model.

1992 – May 2001: Specialist, Leading specialist, Consultant (civil servant), Computer Center of Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family of Republic of Moldova, Kishinev, Moldova

 

Language Skills

Fluent in English, Russian

Proficient in Romanian/Moldovan, Slovak

Basic level in Ukrainian

 

Education

  • 2009-present: Academy of Economic Studies, Moldova. PhD in Management (degree expected in 2015), theme “Management of Migration as a factor of sustainable human development in Moldova”
  • 1994-1999: Academy of Economic Studies, Accounting and Audit Department. Diploma of Accountant, Economist (5 year Master equivalent course). Graduation grade 9.67 (out of 10)
  • 1992-1997: State University of Moldova, Chemistry Department. Diploma of Chemist, Teacher of Chemistry (5 year Master equivalent course). Graduation grade 9.13 (out of 10)

 

Professional Membership

  • Human Development and Capability Association (http://hd-ca.org), member since 2006
  • Toastmasters International Public Speaking Club (http://www.toastmasters.org/), member since 2011, Competent Communicator and Competent Leader achieved in 2013

 

Major Publications (author and contributor)

  • Max Spoor, Luca Tasciotti, Mihail Peleah “Quality of life and social exclusion in rural SEE Europe and the CIS”. Post-Communist Economies, Volume 26, Issue 2, 2014. http://goo.gl/blHCSg
  • Balázs Horváth, Andrey Ivanov and Mihail Peleah. “The Global Crisis and Human Development: A Study on Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS Region” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, volume 13, issue 2, 2012, 197-225. http://goo.gl/q3oWzx
  • “Beyond Transition: Towards Inclusive Societies”. Regional Human Development Report for Europe and Central Asia (co-author). http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/rbec_hdr_2011_en.pdf
  • Andrey Ivanov, Mihail Peleah. Disaggregating the Human Development Index: Opportunities and challenges for local level policy-making. (March 2011) Human Development Working Paper Nr. 2011-1. http://goo.gl/OrQiff
  • Ivanov, Andrey and Mihail Peleah, “From centrally planned development to human development”. Human Development Research Paper Nr.2010/38, 2010. Available on-line http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdrp_2010_38.pdf
  • “Migration and Families in Moldova—what happens with Gender Roles?” in “Rethinking Global Migration: Practices, Policies and Discourses in the European Neighbourhood”. KORA, METU, Ankara, 2008. ISBN 978-605-89751-1-8. http://goo.gl/17nQL2
  • Fellowship paper “Toward Coherent Social Inclusion Agenda: Lessons from Poland”. Fellowship Program for Moldovan Policy and Opinion Makers on Public Policy Analysis organized by The Institute of Public Affairs (Warsaw, Poland) and The Institute for Public Policy (Moldova), November—December 2006. http://goo.gl/tAlbBI
  • Tibi, S.Berryman, M.Peleah. “Moldova’s Education Sector: A Finance Strategy to Leverage System-Wide Improvement”. Background Paper for Moldova Public Economic Management Review. The WorldBank, 2002
  • A.Mişova, M.E.Nişcii, M.M.Peleah. Moldavian Pension System Transition: Choosing Trajectory // “Eastern transition trajectories” conference, Grenoble, France, December 10-11, 1999.

 

Computer Skills

  • Advanced PC User: Specialized Microsoft Office applications Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Access advanced usage and programming using VBA
  • Specialized statistical packages usage and programming—SPSS, Stata and R.
  • Specialized micronarative analysis toolkit SenseMaker®
  • Knowledge and experience with specialized Web2.0 knowledge management and learning tools (moodle, crabgrass, etc), including set up and administration; Content Management System WordPress, Crabgrass, Droopal
  • Knowledge and experience with Atlas