OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

Under the overall authority of the UNESCO Regional Office Director for Southern Africa, with the guidance of the Head of the Education Unit, the incumbent will be responsible for providing programme and administrative support to UNESCO’s work in Education for Higher Education, STEM, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and ICT programmes and activities. The incumbent is expected to exercise full compliance with UNESCO programming, financial, procurement, and administrative regulations, rules, policies, and strategies as well as the implementation of effective internal control systems, working with the team in Harare.

Programme Administrative Project Implementation and Administrative Support

• Provide support to administrative and logistical arrangements for meetings, events, and workshops for Higher Education, STEM, ESD, and ICT-related activities.
• Provide administrative support regarding vehicle and conference room bookings for sector activities.
• Take minutes and prepare presentations and documents for in-house and external meetings as required.
• Maintain and update the filing system to ensure efficient storage and retrieval of documentation relating to the programme and operations.
• Support communication and visibility efforts for the sector by assisting in the production of communication materials publications brochures etc.
• Communicate with relevant stakeholders and partners to ensure smooth implementation of the sector activities.
• Assist in the development of concept notes by carrying out a literature review and gap analysis.
• Maintain an updated and working database for stakeholders and partners.

Long Description

Financial management:

• Prepare payment requests upon satisfactory completion and/or delivery of goods or services and follow up to ensure that service providers receive their funds on time.
• Ensure project activities’ acquittal reports are supported by original receipts, invoices, or payment statements and timely submitted to the finance office and follow-up close of the activity/contract.
• Prepare financial reports and acquittal for funds made available in support of program activity implementation.

Procurement:

• Process contracts and purchase orders for goods and services supporting program/project implementation.
• Monitor and follow up on contracts to ensure deliverables are submitted timeously by implementing partners and or service providers as per established contracts, with alerts to relevant officers for follow-up
• Facilitate registration of new consultants and service providers as vendors in the global UNESCO database.
• Procure tickets for staff and delegates attending scheduled regional sector events
• Perform other tasks as may be required to ensure the success of the team.

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

A first-level degree in Social Sciences/Business Administration/Management and any other related discipline.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

Years of relevant work experience

o At least 1 year of relevant work experience in secretarial, administrative and/or programme support service.
o Relevant work experience in an international organisation and/or the UN System.
o Ability to handle high volume of work and function in a fast-paced environment.
o Experience in handling web-based IT business applications (Microsoft Sharepoint, contract management, travel management etc.)

Competencies

o Excellent communication skills, including ability to draft correspondence and proof-read documents in English
o Good organisational, coordination and filling skills.
o Capacity to interact with internal and external partners at all levels with discretion and diplomacy.
o Good ICT skills with proficiency in the use of MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.) and IT collaborative platforms (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.).
o Knowledge of procurement procedures.
o Ability to work in an international and multicultural environment with tact and sensitivity to diversity.
o Ability to work as part of a team, to take initiatives and to provide quality and timely support and services.
o Knowledge of UN rules and procedures as well as administrative practices is an added advantage.

Language requirement

o Fluency (oral and written) in English. Fluency in local language will be a plus.