The pots “Chief of Section, Client Support and Special Situations” is based within the Division for Special Activities (DSA) and oversees a range of specialized or cross-cutting operational capacities. A large part of responsibilities are to coordinate, plan, and support the human resources aspects of start-up, transition and liquidation requirements of UN Secretariat entities and to exercise authority on behalf of entities to which authority has not been granted owing to a lack of capacity or from which authority has been temporarily withdrawn.

The Chief also provides strategic leadership on the expansion and continuous institutionalization of the Standing Surge Capacity, to facilitate rapid deployment of staff during escalated situations.

Additionally, the Section provides operational, advisory and support services in emergency situations, including capacity building in emergency preparedness for staff and managers by delivering a range of training programmes, including soft skills for critical incident response. It also provides support to staff who are victims of mass casualty, malicious incidents and other critical incidents and emergencies, through coordination, referral and case managements services.

The Chief, Client Support and Special Situations, reports to the Director, Division for Special Activities.

Within delegated authority, the Chief of Unit/Section will be responsible for the following.

• Provides policy guidance to the global Secretariat entities, on conceptual strategy development and management of the implementation of overall strategies and intra and inter-divisional/departmental policies and procedures. • Plans and oversees the management of activities undertaken by the Section, including operational planning and surge support during critical or escalated situations, ensures that substantive work programmes and programmed activities are carried out in a timely fashion, coordinating diverse projects in the Section, and, in liaison with other organizations of the United Nations System, donors and agencies as appropriate.

• Provides advisory and operational guidance to entities in supporting staff during escalated situations/crises – including administrative and crises response support to affected staff and families.

• Manages, supervises and carries out the work programme of the Section under his/her responsibility. Co-ordinates the work carried out by the Section; provides programmatic and substantive reviews of drafts prepared by others. • Ensures that the outputs produced by the Section maintain high-quality standards; that reports are clear, objective and based on comprehensive data.

Ensures that all outputs produced by the Section under his/her supervision meet required standards before completion to ensure they comply with the relevant mandates.

• Prepares inputs for the work programme of the Section, determining priorities, and allocating resources for the completion of outputs and their timely delivery. • Carries out programmatic/administrative tasks necessary for the functioning of the Section, including preparation of budgets, assigning and monitoring of performance parameters and critical indicators, reporting on budget/programme performance, preparation of inputs for results-based budgeting, evaluation of staff performance (PAS), interviews of candidates for job openings and evaluation of candidates.

• Recruits staff for Section taking due account geographical and gender balance and other institutional values.

• Manages, guides, develops and trains staff under his/her supervision. • Fosters teamwork and communication among staff in the Section and across organizational boundaries. • Represents the Organization at inter-agency meetings, seminars, etc. on substantive-related issues. • Participates in international, regional or national meetings and provides programmatic/substantive expertise on an issue or hold programmatic/substantive and organizational discussions with representatives of other institutions.

• Perform other related duties as required