UNV Jobs - 11146- Project Manager: State of the World's Volunteerism

Project Manager: State of the World's Volunteerism Project

Advertised on behalf of

UNV

Location :

Bonn, GERMANY

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

03-Jan-10 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV)

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UNV volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

UNV engaged 7,753 UNV volunteers in 2008, on a total of 7,991 assignments. With an average age of 37 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UNV volunteers served in 132 countries in 2008 and came themselves from 159. The majority – 79 per cent – come from developing countries themselves. One third of UNV volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The financial equivalent of programme activities exceeds US$200 million annually.

In addition, as the focal point for the International Year of Volunteers 2001 (IYV2001), UNV is active in the follow up to the Year, for which the key objectives were the recognition, facilitation, networking and promotion of volunteerism. As part of its mandate to promote volunteerism for development.

UNV will prepare the first State of the World Volunteerism report to be released during the tenth anniversary year of IYV in 2011. The Report is intended to help reinforce the changing paradigm of discussion around volunteerism as a significant force for economic and social development.

This initiative will be located in the Office of the Executive Coordinate which includes the Executive Coordinator, Deputy Executive Coordinator, the Evaluation Unit, and Management Support Unit.

Organizational setting:
UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and has approximately 150 staff positions – the majority in Bonn with some dozen positions in different UN peacekeeping missions, and other Headquarters locations (e.g. New York and Tokyo).

The major organizational groups within UNV are:

the Office of the Executive Coordinator, comprising also units for Evaluation, and Management Support;
the Programme Development and Operations Group (PDOG) comprising three geographical sections, as well Volunteer Resources, and Research and Development units;
Special Operations;
the Volunteer Recruitment Team;
the Partnerships and Communications Group (PCG) comprising units for Partnerships and for Communications; and
the Support Services Group (SSG) comprising sections for Information Support Services, Finance, Human Resources, as well as Units for Common Services and Administration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Executive Coordinator, the incumbent as detailed below, reviews the experiences, prepares a scoping paper, organizes a consultative workshop, prepares the full project document and manages the start-up and implementation of full project activities for the preparation of the State of the World’s Volunteerism Report.

Specific duties include the following:

Review of Experiences

Undertake a detailed desk review of experiences of UN entities in preparing global and regional human development and other status reports related to their mandates (like e.g. State of the World’s Children), and, based on this review, prepare an analytical background paper covering how key issues were treated and compare results obtained. This will include matters of comparators; processes adopted from initiation to publication and post publication stages; amounts and sources of human, financial and knowledge resources mobilized; different audiences targeted; risks encountered and how they were mitigated etc.

Preparation of a Scoping Paper

Prepare a paper containing proposals for possible approaches to be used in drafting the Report, drawing on the above analysis and consulting extensively with UNV staff and UNV volunteers and others and taking into account the particular characteristics of the subject matter.

Organization of a consultative workshop

Organize a workshop to discuss and agree on how to implement the approach outlined in the scoping paper. This will include coordinating all aspects of hosting the event, including early identification of workshop participants and securing their participation.

Preparation of the full project document

Prepare the project document based on the scoping paper and on discussions at the consultative workshop.

Managing the start-up and implementation of full project activities

Overall coordination of the preparation of the Report including ensuring timely provision of all necessary administrative and logistic support. This will cover such matters as handling all procurement matters; producing work plans, timelines, schedules etc; managing the call for timely and high quality inputs from writers/researchers; liaising with the authors of work required from them, with the advisory group and with other stakeholders; coordinating with all UNV staff involved any items required from them or from the field; reporting to the Project Board periodically and ensuring proper documentation of the meetings and the production of reports and timely follow-up etc. The Lead Writer/Consultant will periodically discuss progress with the Project Manager.

Competencies

Strong project management skills as demonstrated through having successfully managed the preparation of at least one national, regional or global thematic UN system report;
Thorough familiarity with UN procurement rules and procedures;
Strong inter-personal skills and excellent organizational and coordination skills;
Capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time;
Ability to work under pressure with colleagues at all levels and with external parties, including at very senior level;
Excellent report and project document writing skills;
Experience in volunteerism an added advantage.

Required Skills and Experience

Advanced university degree in political science, economics, international development or related topic;
At least 7 years experience of working in the development field, including management of programmes;
Excellent written and spoken English and working knowledge of French and/or Spanish.