Call for Interest: Short-Term Administrative Assistant Talent Pool (multiple GS-level positions)

Applicants for National positions at General Service level must be legally authorized to live and work in the country of recruitment at the time of application. Any job offer is subject to evidence from the candidate to have obtained and be able to maintain the legal status to live and work in the country of recruitment, in this case, Italy.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

IFAD is launching a call for applications for placement in the Short-Term Administrative pool in the General Service (GS) category at its Headquarters in Rome, Italy. Staff in the GS category are locally recruited and subject to local recruitment. Short-term appointments are designed to facilitate the discharge of administrative support functions of a temporary nature and may vary in duration; short-term appointments granted by the same Division/Unit may not exceed 11 continuous calendar months including extensions; not exceed 11 cumulative months in a calendar year; and, after aggregate periods of 44 cumulative months (1,320 calendar days), a mandatory six-month cooling-off period applies.  Temporary General Service assignments do not carry any expectation of, or imply any right to, further extension, renewal or conversion to any other appointment. The grade level of the General Service assignments will be determined by the Hiring Division requirements.
 

Under the supervision of the Administrative Associate or a Professional staff member, the incumbent is accountable for operational support and clerical services to assist in the smooth running of the office to which they are assigned. The accountabilities/key results expected are:

• Operational Support
• Secretarial Support

(These duties are generic and thus not all inclusive nor are all duties carried out by all Short-Term staff in the General Service category)
 

1. OPERATIONAL SUPPORT: Short-Term staff in the General Service category support a higher graded Associate/Assistant in the provision of operational support. Accountabilities typically include Enterprise Resource Planning data entry and reporting activities as originator; maintaining correspondence logs for incoming and outgoing correspondence; distributing incoming correspondence, reports and other materials; making travel arrangements; preparing periodic reports, extracting information and preparing statistical tables on request; and maintaining the office filing and reference systems, both traditional and digital; maintaining office supplies stock.

2. OFFICE SUPPORT: Short-Term staff in the General Service category provide the full range of clerical support to the office staff. Accountabilities typically include typing and/or formatting a variety of material in draft or final form including correspondence, reports and official documents; drafting standard format correspondence; preparing briefing materials for official trips or meetings as requested; proofreading all outgoing correspondence and official documents for grammatical accuracy and formatting and assuring all attachments are included; reviewing supporting documents for processing a variety of administration actions/requests; and may make informal translations of correspondence.

3. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS: Short-Term staff in the General Service category are accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the personal use of assigned IFAD resources, including equipment, and supplies.

Short-Term staff in the General Service category typically report to a higher-level Assistant or Associate. The work is standard and repetitive in nature; there are no specialized administrative activities that would require formal training performed on a regular and recurring basis.  Key performance indicators include the complete and accurate performance of assigned, recurring activities. The incumbent brings any inconsistencies or discrepancies to the attention of the supervisor or responsible specialist.

Short-Term staff in the General Service category typically are accountable for the exchange of routine information with counterparts within IFAD. Routine exchange of information within the Fund includes arranging travel, procurement and information technology support. Typical contacts within the division, office or department as well as external contacts consist of responding to basic inquiries.

Competencies

• Strategic thinking and organizational development: Personal influence
• Demonstrating Leadership: Personal leadership and attitude to change
• Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating: Continuously seeks to learn, shares knowledge and innovates
• Focusing on clients: Focuses on clients
• Problem solving and decision making: Demonstrates sound problem solving and decision making ability
• Managing time, resources and information: Manages own time, information and resources effectively
• Team Work: Contributes effectively to the team 
• Communicating and negotiating: Communicates effectively, creates understanding between self and others
• Building relationships and partnerships: Builds and maintains effective working relationships

Technical/Functional

• Proficiency in MS Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook. Proficiency in corporate electronic databases and systems would be an asset.
• Ability to handle a large volume of work accurately under time pressure.
• Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with visitors.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Ability to work effectively with people of different national and cultural background.
• Ability to work in a team environment to achieve common goals.

Minimum recruitment qualifications

Education:

• Secondary school education is required.

Experience:

• At least two (2) years of secretarial and/or administrative support experience; each employment record of the Personal History Form should contain a detailed description of the administrative duties performed.

Language requirements and other skills:

• Excellent English.
• Working knowledge of any other IFAD official language* (Arabic, French and Spanish) is a distinctive asset as is knowledge of the Italian language.
   

Eligibility criteria:

• Eligible applicants must have the legal status to live** and work in the country of recruitment, in this case, Italy.
• All applicants must be between 18 and 64 years old and nationals of an IFAD Member State.

(**Locally recruited staff in the GS category are subject to local recruitment conditions and need to reside within commuting distance from IFAD's HQ in Rome, Italy; 150km or 1.5 hours, whatever is less) 

• Candidates already engaged in a short-term contract with IFAD are encouraged to apply to this call for interest. 

• In line with policy, IFAD accepts either the UN Language* Proficiency Levels, as well as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Proficiency is considered to be met at Level C, if administered by FAO or by any other UN agency, and at Level `C1 and above', if attained through external accredited language institutions aligned with the Common European Framework for Languages Standards (CEFR).  When the candidate's Personal History Form (PHF) indicates that the candidate completed high school and/or university studies in a non-mother tongue language from a school or university in which the language in question is an IFAD official language required by the job opening and job description, the candidate may be exempted from language proficiency testing as determined by IFAD's People and Culture Division (PCD).

• In the interest of making most cost-effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive a response within three months of the closing date should consider their application unsuccessful.

• Candidates shortlisted may be invited to participate in a screening assessment.

• Inclusion in the Short-term Administrative pool in the General Service category does not represent a guarantee or commitment of employment on the part of IFAD. Recruitment depends on the availability of suitable temporary assignments.

• In accordance with current policy, GS appointments of less than 60 days are made on a daily basis at daily rates, and daily appointments including extensions may not exceed 60 calendar days. GS appointments are normally at Step 1 of the applicable grade and enrolment in the UNJSPF Pension Scheme is applicable for monthly appointments of six months or longer.

• For further information, please refer to

• Please be aware of fraudulent job offers. IFAD does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process. Official communication from IFAD will always come from e-mails ending in @ifad.org

• In accordance with IFADs provisions, all new staff members will normally be placed at the first step in the grade level for which they have been selected. For information on IFADs remuneration package, please visit . Applicants are invited to use the ICSC compensation calculator to estimate the salary and benefit entitlements. 

• IFAD is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic, social or political background, colour, nationality, religion, age, gender, disability, marital status, family size or sexual orientation in line with its  and the . 

• Should you encounter technical issues while submitting your application, please email erecruit@ifad.org with a screenshot and a brief description of the issue.