Administrative Assistant* PARM/PMI

Organizational context

*This vacancy announcement is open to staff members with fixed term and indefinite appointment and

a. staff members holding a short-term appointment, who, on applying to the vacancy announcement, have commenced employment under an appointment for six months or longer or have completed six months of service (cumulative) without interruption of more than 30 days; and

b. staff members who held a short term appointment with IFAD of six months or longer (cumulative) without interruption of more than 30 days and who, on applying to the vacancy announcement, have separated from the Fund no longer than 12 months earlier.

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.

Post's organizational accountability

*This is a one year fixed-term co-terminus position fully financed with supplementary funds. Contract renewal depends on the fund availability and/or duration of the project. There is no expectation of renewal or conversion into another kind of contract.

The Sustainable Production, Market and Institutions Division (PMI) aims to strengthen the quality of IFAD’s portfolio of country programmes (comprising loans, grants and associated activities) as regards technological, institutional and policy aspects. The Division supports IFAD investment in developing and applying a knowledge base on pro-poor, community-led rural development. This knowledge management provides the basis for PMI's quality enhancement of the Fund’s programmes and partnership development for rural poverty reduction.

The Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM), a G20 initiative, was created in 2013 with the mandate to enable the integration of a holistic agricultural risk management (ARM) approach into policy planning, institutional capacities and investment in the agricultural sector of Least Developed Countries and Lower Middle-Income Countries to move away from a culture of coping with disasters towards a smart management of risk, and support building resilience in the agricultural sector. The Platform (hosted and co-funded by IFAD) represents a unique and strategic global multi-stakeholder partnership in the area of agricultural risk management guided and supported by the EC, AFD, Italy, IFAD and Germany (through NEPAD of the AU for Africa). It also benefits from the technical assistance of a pool of international and regional multilateral partners (World Bank Group, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), African Risk Capacity (ARC)); knowledge partners (Agrinatura, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), etc.); farmers organizations (ROPPA, EAFF); and private sector (CARGILL, MUNICH RE), among others.

PARM implementation is done in phases, with phase one (PARM Horizon 1) spanning over 2013-2019. The objective of this phase was to mainstream ARM at global level and enable the integration of a holistic agricultural risk management into the policy planning and investment plans in 8 African countries from Sub-Saharan Africa. The very positive results achieved by PARM during the first phase brought to the development of PARM Horizon 2 (2019-2024). During that time frame PARM will continue to bring evidence and build capacities on ARM at global and country level, but investing more resources in the design of ARM programs for investments, with a more structured involvement of public-private-partnerships and in direct support to meso-level players (extension services, financial intermediaries, women's and youth’s groups, NGOs, farmers’ enterprises and organizations).

The PARM Horizon 2 Programme will be confronted to new challenges and the activities both at global than country level will be significantly intensified. The studies and assessments carried out through consultancies will increase, the KM and Capacity development events will be organized on regular basis involving international and national partners, procurement actions will be launched in line with IFAD regulations and a more active presence in the countries through the hiring of country experts and organization of country missions will be more and more required.

In this frame the role of the administrative assistant will be key to provide secretarial, clerical and administrative support to facilitate smooth operations and management of the programme and PARM Secretariat.

Under the supervision of Lead Technical Specialist (PARM), the Administrative Assistant is accountable for communications, operational and secretarial support services to enhance the smooth running of the team and its workflow and management of information. The accountabilities/key results expected are:

1. Communications & Workflow
2. Operational Support
3. Secretarial Support
4. Managerial Functions

Key results expected / Major functional activities

1. COMMUNICATIONS & WORKFLOW: The Administrative Assistant facilitates the communications and workflow of the organizational unit to enhance the efficiency and timeliness of operations and outputs. Accountabilities typically include:

• Managing incoming and outgoing correspondence, e-mails and telephone calls;
• Researching background documentation;
• Communicating routine and some non-routine information pertaining to the work of the team;
• Maintaining the supervisor’s calendar;
• Establishing/maintaining the office filing and reference systems, both traditional and digital; 
• Ensuring the inter/intra-net websites are up to date and accurate

2. OPERATIONAL SUPPORT: The Administrative Assistant facilitates the work of the team to ensure integrity in the use of resources and adherence to established rules and procedures. Accountabilities typically include:

• ERP data entry and reporting activities as originator;
• Applying internal procedures and tracking systems for correspondence and documents;
• Verifying work is completed in accordance with IFAD standards and within established deadlines;
• Monitoring work progress and priority cases;
• Organizing meetings and workshops;
• Organizing official travel;
• Supporting consultant hiring and procurement of goods and services;
• Identifying and extracting information from various sources and preparing briefing notes.

3. SECRETARIAL SUPPORT: The Administrative Assistant ensures the full range of office support to the supervisor. Accountabilities typically include:

• Preparing briefing materials for official trips or meetings;
• Drafting responses to written inquiries on routine and non-routine questions;
• Coordinating responses to sensitive or complex inquiries;
• Following up on established deadlines and ensuring timely submissions by staff of reports, correspondence and other documents;
• Reviewing all outgoing correspondence and official documents for style, factual and grammatical accuracy as well as conformance with established guidelines and procedures;
• Preparing correspondence for the supervisor’s signature

4. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS: The Administrative Assistant is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the personal use of assigned IFAD resources, including equipment, and supplies

Impact of Key results / Key performance indicators

Administrative Assistants at the GS-4 level typically report to a senior professional staff member or to a team leader; therefore the scope of key results is limited to the organizational unit. The Administrative Assistant provides support in the application of established rules and procedures as well as in typical, non-specialized support work. The work is standard 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 timely and accurate performance of assigned activities.

Representation / Work relationships

Administrative Assistants at the GS-4 level typically are accountable for the exchange of routine, and less frequently non-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 inquiries.

Competencies

Organizational

• 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

• Training and experience using MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other IFAD software such as SharePoint; knowledge of integrated management information systems an asset.
• Knowledge of IFAD administrative policies and procedures.
• Organizational, planning and prioritizing skills and abilities.
• Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with visitors;
• Sense of initiative and good judgment.
• 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:

• High school diploma is required.

Experience:

• Minimum of three (3) years of progressively relevant experience is required.
• Secretarial and/or clerical experience is highly desirable.

Language requirements:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English (FAO level C);
• Working knowledge of another official IFAD language (Arabic, French, or Spanish) is desirable.

Other:

• Skills check pass

Other information

Applicants should note that IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD, and they may be assigned by him/her to any of the activities of IFAD, including field assignments and/or rotation within IFAD.

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 any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

The position is located in Rome. Successful candidates will be hired with local appointment conditions on a local-hire basis only and need to possess a valid document authorizing them to reside and work in Rome when they take up the appointment.