Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UNW program of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UNW provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UNW staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UNW, working closely with the UNW training facility in Santo Domingo.

The “Administrative Assistant” is under the direct supervision of the Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Administrative Assistant under the leadership of the Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section performs the tasks below.

Summary of Key Functions:

  • Administrative Support;
  • Preparation and Servicing of Meetings;
  • Preparation of Documentation and Papers.

Description of Key Functions:

Administrative Support:
  • Perform the full range of office management and administrative support functions;
  • Provide direct assistance to the Advisor;
  • Maintain liaison with the other clusters in the Policy Division regarding on-going programmes and other administrative matters;
  • Monitor processes and schedules related to the unit’s outputs, products, tasks, etc;
  • Ensure smooth and efficient information flow within the unit;
  • Prepare and processes confidential information;
  • Assist in the development of office administrative systems and procedures;
  • Perform a variety of administrative duties (e.g. leave recording, meeting organization, reservations, office supply and equipment orders, etc.); including preparing and/or processing administrative requests/documents (e.g., travel requests, expense claims, vouchers, visa applications, etc.);
  • Maintain files (both paper and electronic) and databases for work unit;
  • Maintain calendar/schedules; monitors changes and communicate relevant information to appropriate staff inside and outside the immediate work unit;
  • Provide some specialized support to unit (e.g. technology support, editing, desktop publishing, etc.) as required.
Preparation and Servicing of Meetings:
  • Research, compile and summarize background materials for use in preparation of reports, briefs, speeches, etc;
  • Provide assistance in the coordination of service-wide activities such as meetings, training, special projects and events;
  • Assist in preparation of the relevant expert groups meetings, conferences and workshops at HQ and away form HQ, including arrangements of experts and panelists and preparation of consultant contracts if required;
  • Attend meetings, prepare minutes, and monitor follow-up activities;
  • Orient interns, consultants or new staff to relevant administrative procedures and practices and provides general assistance to other office support staff, as required;
  • Provide support to other staff in meetings servicing/administrative.
Preparation of Documentation and Papers:
  • Assist in the preparation of presentation materials using appropriate technology/software;
  • Manage updates and further develop internal filing and databases; generate a variety of standard and non-standard reports and documentations;
  • Ensure the quality of outgoing documents: proofread and edit texts for adherence for format, grammar, punctuation and style;
  • Respond to complex information requests and inquiries as required (e.g. answers requests requiring file search, etc.);
  • Respond or draft responses to a wide range of correspondence and other communications;
  • Use standard word processing package to produce a wide variety of large, complex documents and reports.
  • Perform other duties as assigned.
Impact of Results:

The efficient and prompt delivery of services impact on a whole range services and operations in the unit and result in meeting client (internal / external) needs and satisfaction.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles: 

Integrity:
  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:
  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies: 

Ethics and Values:
  • Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.
Organizational Awareness:
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

  • Self-development, initiative-taking.
Working in Teams:
  • Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.
Communicating Information and Ideas:
  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.
Self-management and Emotional intelligence:
  • Creating synergies through self-control Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements.
Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:;
  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other.
Functional Competencies:
  • Ability to administer and execute administrative processes and transactions;
  • Knowledge of Atlas;
  • Ability to extract, interpret, analyze data and resolve operational problems;
  • Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of office, including data/schedule management, maintenance of protocol, information flow;
  • Ability to maintain confidentiality and discretion;
  • Creates, edits and presents information in clear and presentable formats, using appropriate IT functionality;
  • Strong IT skills;
  • Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
  • Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Secondary education is required;
  • University Degree is an advantage but not required.
Experience:
  • A minimum of 5 years of administrative experience preferably in a large or international corporation or organization;
  • Experience in the use of computers applications and software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and web based management systems.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in English is required;
  • Proficiency in another UN working language is desirable.
Application:
  • All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
  • Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
Note:

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.