Administrative Clerk

Location : occupied Palestinian territory (Jerusalem)
Additional Category Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives
Type of Contract : SC
Post Level : SB-2
Languages Required : Arabic and English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 01-February-2012
Deadline for Application: 10/1/2012
Duration of Initial Contract : 6 months (possibility for extension)
Expected Duration of Assignment : 36 months

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 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.
In response to calls from gender equality advocates for increased accountability for implementation of gender equality commitments in economic policies and financing decisions related to aid and domestic resources, UN Women will be implementing the programme Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality (2012-2015) funded by the EU and Spain.
The programme aims at increasing the volume and effective use of aid and domestic resources to implement national commitments to gender equality and women's empowerment. It will be implemented in 15 countries1 in close partnership with the European Commission (EC), ITC/ILO building on the results of collaboration in the area of gender responsive budgeting and aid effectiveness carried out over the past years.
The programme in the occupied Palestinian territory is twofold: (1) to achieve Gender Responsive Planning, Programming and Budgeting within the PA in such a way that Palestinian women and men benefit more equally from national public policies, and related aid and domestic resources, and (2) to enhance effectiveness of aid resources in relation to the advancement of national GE/WE priorities through building capacity for mainstreaming gender equality within aid coordination management and

structures, and stepping up accountability for implementation of funding modalities used by donors.
The Programme will focus on: donor performance with regard to gender equality and women’s empowerment content, including donor allocations and expenditures; development and implementation of a set of indicators to measure progress of the 5 principles of the Paris Declaration as a means to promote gender equality within the PA and donor key stakeholders in aid coordination, as well as with Local Aid Coordination Structure (LACS) staff; engagement in the national Public Finance Management system with regard to its responsiveness to gender equality; building capacities and resources of key institutions within the PA and CSO, as well as gender advocates and donors in gender responsive planning, budgeting and aid effectiveness; and, mainstreaming gender equality and women´s rights in aid coordination structure with regard to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The specific programme objectives are:
1-To strengthen national action plans for gender equality so that they have defined targets, financing and implementation arrangements line with national planning and budgeting processes.
2-To strengthen capacity and accountability of national governments to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning, budgeting systems and programming.
3-To strengthen capacity and accountability of donors and stakeholders in aid coordination mechanisms to achieve commitments towards gender equality in stable and fragile countries.
Globally, the programme will also support the effective engagement of feminist economists and gender equality advocates’ in contributing to stronger policy coherence on gender equality in economic and development policy for a and facilitate learning and south-south exchange.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of UN WOMEN Country Representative and the direct supervision of the Financing for Gender Equality Programme Coordinator, UN WOMEN wishes to bring on board an Administrative Clerk, who will undertake the following duties and responsibilities related to Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities:
-Provide administrative and logistical support and back up to the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities, including but not limited to organized workshops, meetings, events etc, both internal and external;
-Provide support to proper supply of the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities, and assets management. Upon approval of the FfGE Programme Coordinator, organize procurement of office equipment and supplies, maintain an inventory thereof;
-Arrange appointments and meetings, maintain the team agenda;
-Assist the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities, in preparing relevant documentation for contracting and payments;
-Create requisitions in Atlas for project activities
-Maintain regular track of contracts and payments;
-Liaise and follow up with projects partners and consultants for any matter related to contractual issues;
-Arranging, in close association with the Admin Associate and Admin clerk, official travel for Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities’ staff and consultants: flight and hotel reservations, prepare travel authorization forms, mission documents and travel claim forms;
-As required, type, compile data, draft, proofread, edit and translate routine and official correspondence, presentations, various documents and reports,;
-Assist the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities’ staff in drafting Unit meetings minutes. Ensure follow up to the Unit meetings action points;
-Assist the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities’ staff with public inquiries, requests for information as necessary and refer inquiries to appropriate personnel for handling;
-Arranging, in close association with the Admin Associate and Admin clerk, requests for visa and any other protocol issues such as identity cards, customs clearance and other personnel-related documents in accordance with the requirements of the United Nations system;
-Maintain the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities filing system and list of contact lists;
-Generate Expenditure Reports for the Gender Mainstreaming projects and activities to support the team in proper financial management and monitoring of budgets;
-Perform other related administrative duties, as required: liaise with service providers and suppliers, including monitoring contracts and quality of services and products provided; prepare VAT exemption certificates, ensuring compliance with VAT exemption procedures and other relevant requirements (legal, financial etc.); courier services, travel programme; identification of office technology needs and maintenance of equipment, software and systems; assist on actions related to the Office’s human resource activities, e.g., recruitment issues, leave monitoring , complete home leave and UNLP renewal forms, training , etc. while ensuring coordination with appropriate units at HQ and consistency in the application of regulations and procedures;
-Prepare correspondence in English and Arabic, as requested;
-Prepare translations from English to Arabic and vice-versa, as requested;
-Participate in the training for the operations/projects staff on administration.
-Follow-up on impending / pending actions;
-Perform other duties as assigned.

Competencies
OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
-Ability to perform a variety of repetitive and routine tasks and duties related to general administration support Ability to review data, identify and adjust discrepancies
-Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints
-Good knowledge of administrative rules and regulations
-Detailed knowledge and understanding of clerical, administrative, secretarial best practices and procedures, in-depth knowledge of office software applications relating to word processing data management presentation, ATLAS, as required
-Ability to operate and maintain a variety of computerized business machines and office equipment in order to provide efficient delivery of service
-Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities

MANAGING DATA
-Collects and compiles data with speed and accuracy identifying what is relevant and discarding what is not, records it in an accessible manner and maintains data bases
-Thoroughly and methodically collects, verifies and records data demonstrating attention to detail and identifying and correcting errors on own initiative
-Transmits file data; creates and generate queries, reports and documents utilizing databases, spreadsheets, communications and other software packages with speed and accuracy
-Interprets data, draws conclusions and/or identifies patterns which support the work of others

MANAGING DOCUMENTS, CORRESPONDENCE AND REPORTS
-Creates, edits and presents information (queries, reports, documents) in visually pleasing, clear and presentable formats such as tables, forms, presentations, briefing notes/books and reports using advanced word processing and presentation functions and basic database and spreadsheet software
-Edits, formats and provides inputs to correspondence, reports, documents and/or presentations using work processing, spreadsheets and databases meeting quality standards and requiring minimal correction
-Shows sound grasp of grammar, spelling and structure in the required language
-Ensures correspondence, reports and documents comply with established UN standards
-Ability to produce accurate and well documented records conforming to the required standard

PLANNING, ORGANIZING AND MULTI-TASKING
-Organises and accurately completes multiple tasks by establishing priorities while taking into consideration special assignments, frequent interruptions, deadlines, available resources and multiple reporting relationships
-Plans, coordinates and organises workload while remaining aware of changing priorities and competing deadlines
-Demonstrates ability to quickly shift from one task to another to meet multiple support needs
-Establishes, builds and maintains effective working relationships with staff and clients to facilitate the provision of support
-Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.

Recruitment Qualifications:
Education:
High school degree. Secretarial and/or administrative training desirable

Experience:
2 years of relevant administrative experience. Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.). Experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Skills
-Flexible to deal with a wide spectrum of tasks the job entails
-Able to exercise sound judgment and discretion
-Reliable and well-organized
-Good communicator
-Able to work in an international environment
-Able to work under pressure and to timely deliver

Language Requirements:
-Very good communication and writing skills and fluency in English and Arabic (comprehension, written, and spoken).

How to Apply
Please send your updated P11 form (to be downloaded from here : P11Form) and CV as well as your cover letter to [email protected] as per deadline indicated.

Please be advised that due to the high amount of replies UN Women receives, we can only get back to the candidates who have been shortlisted for an interview.