Senior Project Assistant

OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

This position is under the overall authority of the Director of the Regional Office for Southern Africa and the direct supervision of the Regional Advisor for Education for Health and Well-Being. The incumbent will be responsible for providing programme and administrative support and contribute to the effective, planning, implementation and monitoring of UNESCO’s work in the Education for Health and Well-being (EHW) Unit. Specifically, s/he will be responsible for providing support to the “Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3)” and the “Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3 Plus)” programmes in East and Southern Africa (ESA) countries.

The incumbent will work in close collaboration with the Johannesburg Project Office as well as the team in the UNESCO Regional Office in Harare (Zimbabwe), for effective achievement of results, anticipating and contributing to resolving complex programme/project-related issues and information delivery. The incumbent is expected to exercise full compliance with UNESCO programming, financial, procurement and administrative regulations, rules, policies and strategies as well as implementation of the effective internal control systems, working with the team in UNESCO Harare Office.

Programme Administrative Project Implementation and Administrative Support (Regional)

• Pro-actively contribute to day-to-day project implementation and ensure conformity to expected results and project work-plans.
• Provide substantive project support for the implementation and assessment of the O3 and O3 Plus projects.
• Support the preparation of annual work plans and the develop of progress reports.
• Produce concept notes for different project activities, ensuring project objectives are met.
• Support the development of terms of reference for the different project assignments/consultancies.
• Review consultants’ work ensuring deliverables of high quality are submitted timely.​​​​​​​
• Attend, observe and participate in strategic programmatic meetings with internal and external partners.
• Coordinate and prepare documents necessary for the launch of procurement processes and draft contact terms of reference.
• Initiate payment requests upon satisfactory completion and/or delivery of goods or services.
• Provide support on all administrative matters concerning the project including travel plans, travel authorization, monitoring of travel budgets, hiring of consultants liaising with appropriate units.
• Provide support to administrative and logistical arrangements for all meetings, workshops and courses in connection with the projects.
• Support programme staff with preparation of documents that may be needed for meetings, training and conferences ensuring external participants have requisite information and documents.
• Reconcile and acquittal of funds made available to support project workshops, seminars or meetings to ensure proper and effective utilization in pursuit of expected results.
• Provide support in facilitation of written and oral assessments during recruitment processes for the O3 and O3 Plus programmes. Responsible for meeting scheduling for programme staff, identification of locations and venues and keeping a record of all meeting proceedings.
• Assist with drafting out-going correspondence for the programme team.
• Establish and maintain a soft copy (e-filing) and hard copy filing systems to record all paper work associated with the projects’ financial and administrative actions, for a complete and accurate audit trail.

​​​​​​​Project and administrative support (South Africa)

• Support the formulation/development, coordination and execution of project activities to ensure timely delivery.
• Provide support to the projects in South Africa including programme planning and strategic activities.
• Provide technical assistance interventions in support of project implementation in South Africa.
• Support the tracking of project-specific performance indicators, ensuring alignment with project work plan for South Africa.
• Liaise with local vendors to ensure timely vendor registration with UNESCO and UNDP, contracting and payments for vendors contracted on South African activities.
• Provide logistical and administrative support to the O3 and O3 Plus projects in South Africa, this includes assisting with organizing meetings, and travels.
• Provide guidance to the Department of Basic Education’s Administrative Officers (DBE) on UNESCO’s joint recruitments and procurement processes.
• Assist programme staff in the identification, recruitment of consultants and management of consultants’ contracts.

Financial management:

• Monitor budget expenditures and maintain a proper record of approved project budgets and their revisions.
• Ensure effective and efficient project activities budget formulation, requesting for fund reservation for supporting programme implementation.
• Ensure project activities acquittal reports are supported by original receipts, invoices or payment statements and timely submitted to the Finance and Administration Office and follow-up close of the activity/contract.
• Ensure that all project related funds request and payments are accompanied by original supporting documents as per Financial Regulation and submitted to finance and administration office timely.
• Maintain complete and accurate administrative records and contribute to the smooth running of the office by ensuring the provision and maintenance of office equipment, inventory of physical assets
• Undertake other administrative tasks as required.

Procurement:

• In accordance with the Project Work Plan coordinate and contribute to the procurement of equipment, supplies and services, following principles set forth in UNESCOs Administrative Manual to ensure competitive selection that achieves value for money.
• Review procurement requests and initiate procurement procedures of project equipment, supplies and services in a transparent and cost-effective manner.
• Liaise with project staff to ensure items are planned, procured, transported, stored, managed, and accounted for correctly for O3 and O3 plus project.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Completed secondary, technical and/or vocational education.

Work Experience

• At least eight (8) years of relevant work experience in project /programme implementation, reporting and/or administration, or related field.

Skills & Competencies

• Professional integrity, tact, diplomacy and good sense of judgement.
• Excellent planning, organizational and coordination skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including drafting skills.
• Very good analytical and problem-solving skills, ability to deal with complex situations and to provide quality and timely support and services.
• Ability to work efficiently under pressure and deliver under tight deadlines.
• Strong service/client orientation.
• Excellent IT skills with proficiency in the use of MS Office.

Language

• Excellent knowledge (oral and written) of English.

Source: https://careers.unesco.org/job/Johannesburg-Senior-Project-Assistant-(Education-for-Health-and-Wellbeing)_Johannesburg/799977602/