Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women is co-funding with the European Union (EU) and other country programme specific donors, a regional programme “Strengthening the Resilience of Syrian Women and Girls and Host Communities in Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey”. This is an integrated programme that targets both displaced Syrian women and girls and host-country nationals across Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. In Iraq, the programme additionally targets displaced Iraqi women, affected by the current conflict. It works to address the call of the European Union Regional Trust Fund to the Syria Crisis (EUTF MADAD) to, inter alia, involve women in crisis prevention, conflict management, peacebuilding and to help protect women in gender-based violence, especially sexual abuse.

The programme works at multiple levels to:

1. enable women’s empowerment through addressing issues of economic vulnerability and violence by increased access to recovery and livelihood opportunities, paired with comprehensive protection services and support to national justice structures to promote accountability for violence against women, and
2. promote a culture of peace and co-existence through supporting women to lead and engage in peacebuilding, reconciliation and conflict prevention.
3. engage men as partners, champions and advocates for women’s increased empowerment, including their engagement in the labour market.

The programme operates at the regional level, implemented in Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. This position holder will be based in Cairo.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of Regional Programme Coordinator, the Administrative Assistant ensures effective and efficient function of the office, support implementation of the operational strategies, support implementation of the HR services, logistics, and inventory management, support the maintenance of information flow and follow up on deadlines and commitments made while coordinating and participating in the promotion of UN Women’s values and actions promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially in humanitarian context.

The Administrative Assistant works in close collaboration with the Operations team based in Cairo as well as Jordan Country Office – Amman, programme staff in three programme country offices and programme teams to ensure consistent service delivery.

The Administrative Assistant will provide administrative assistance to the immediate supervisor and the Regional Office for the Arab States to ensure that routine services and activities within the administrative domain are properly implemented. The tasks may include:

Support implementation of operational strategies:

• Full compliance of administrative activities with UN/UN-Women rules, regulations, policies and strategies related to finance, procurement, asset management, and office management;
• Provision of inputs to the ROAS administrative business processes mapping and implementation of the internal standard operating procedures (SOPs);
• Support implementation of HR Services, maintain staffing lists, the timesheets, and reports as required;
• Perform the duties of Leave Monitor. 

Provision of administrative and logistical support:

• Performance of a Buyer role in Atlas and preparation of POs for travel activities; and, making budget check for requisitions, POs and payment vouchers;
• Ensure that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded. Process DSA, travel claims and other entitlements;
• Support to organization of procurement processes including preparation of RFQs or RFPs documents, receipt of quotations, bids or proposals, their preliminary evaluation. Preparation of POs;
• Arrangements of travel and hotel reservations, preparation of travel authorizations, processing requests for visas, security clearance, and other documents;
• Maintain office filing system, both traditional and digital and ensure that intranet pages are up-to-date;
• Administrative support to conferences, workshops, retreats;
• Maintenance of the filing system ensuring safekeeping of confidential materials;
• Assistance in the preparation of the budget, provision of information for donor verification missions and/ or audit;
• Support the management of administrative supplies, office equipment, and updating inventory of items in collaboration with the JCO and ROAS;
• Any other responsibilities/functions deemed necessary by the supervisor/or senior manager to meet the level of the services in the organization;
• Assist programme staff to prepare periodic financial reports;
• Compilation and preparation of briefing and presentation materials, speeches, background information and documentation for meetings and missions.

Support to office maintenance and assets management:

• Maintenance of records on assets management and preparation of required reports;
• Maintenance of files and records relevant to the office and related maintenance;
• Collect and maintain the finance and administrative filing system.

Support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing:

• Provision of necessary administrative support for effective knowledge management and sharing between the programme countries.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Adherence to UN Women rules and regulations;
• Quality support for conferences and events;
• Quality organization of files and reports;
• Timely support to all team members.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Ability to administer administrative processes and transactions;
• Ability to perform work of confidential nature and handle a large volume of work;
• Very good knowledge of administrative rules and regulations;
• Good IT and web-based management skills;
• Good planning, goal setting, and prioritization skills;
• Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor degree in Economics, management, rural development, social sciences or related field;
• Certification in administration desirable. 

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in administration or program support services;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.);
• Experience in handling of web based management systems including ATLAS will be an added advantage.

Language:

• Professional proficiency in oral and written Arabic and English is required.

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.