Administrative Assistant - GCP

Panama

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
Location: Panama
Grade: Consultancy - SB-3 (SC6/SC7), Service Contract, Local Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Operations and Administrations
- Administrative support
- ADMINISTRATION
- Malaria, Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases
Closing Date: Closed

Background

Most commodity sectors in developing countries are afflicted by poor production practices that lead to increasing pressure on ecosystems and fail to improve the livelihoods of rural communities. Poor production practices lead to negative environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, carbon emissions, soil erosion, depletion of water resources and contamination from chemicals. In fact, the largest driver of deforestation is the production of agricultural commodities. On the social side, working conditions in commodity production are often not in line with basic labor rights. Despite recent commodity booms, small producers are held in poverty, mostly due to low productivity and product quality.

Despite the progress made through standards and supply-chain initiatives , weaknesses in the underlying enabling environment limit change at a larger scale. An effective enabling environment consists of elements such as clear public policies, a well-functioning legal framework, clarity regarding land-use planning, effective enforcement mechanisms, accessible credit structures, and effective farmer extension services. As a result of the absence of these elements, work on commodity sustainability remains less effective than it could be, and costlier and more time-consuming than it should be. Improving the enabling environments will increase the chances of sector-wide change to sustainable production practices.

UNDP established the Green Commodities Programme (GCP) in 2009 in recognition of the importance of global agricultural commodities and how they contribute to economical, social and environmental sustainability and the need to strengthen UNDP’s support and leadership in the field. GCP was initiated with seed funding from the UNDP and was tasked to evolve into a global programme supporting UNDP’s Strategic Plan, building on almost a decade of GEF supported projects mainstreaming ecosystem services into productive landscapes. GCP’s global targets, objectives and delivery strategies are based on inclusive and sustainable growth and development – combining governments and markets in agriculture through public private partnerships and democratic dialogue processes. GCP’s focus on strengthening the livelihoods of smallholder producers within commodity supply chains and reducing environmental footprints, particularly deforestation, through public private partnerships can be key for UNDP’s ambitions to reduce poverty, reduce deforestation and engage the private sector in SDGs.

The Green Commodities Programme (GCP) exists to improve the national economic, social and environmental performance of agricultural commodity sectors. GCP works within agricultural commodity production in countries of UNDP operation where the programme can have significant impact on rural livelihoods, mitigate climate change, and maintain the ecosystem services and resilience of landscapes and seascapes.

The GCP has pioneered the concept of National Commodity Platforms to help governments facilitate shared visions and actions for sustainable commodity production among key stakeholders. GCP operates in over 10 countries globally.

GCP is coordinating the Good Growth Partnership (GGP) Program, an integrated “supply chain” approach to tackling the underlying root causes of deforestation from agriculture commodities, specifically beef, oil palm, and soy, which together account for nearly 70% of deforestation globally. The GGP Program is delivered through a multi-agency consortium including WWF, IFC, UNEP, and CI. The Program provides support to production, generate responsible demand, support enabling transactions and foster adaptive management and learning through multiple child projects. UNDP GCP is implementing the production project within the GGP which includes global support and activities in three target countries (Paraguay, Liberia and Indonesia), as well as the Adaptive Management & Learning project (in partnership with WWF) focusing on programme level coordination, knowledge management, community of practice development, communication and partnerships.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific duties and responsibilities

1.Provide logistic and administrative support related to travel and missions and to the organization of meetings and workshop:

Create travel request in Atlas, following up the process from creation to disbursement of DSA´s and closure.
Request creation of travelers profiles
Support the process of obtaining visas for missions.
Support the organization of workshops and events.
Support the development of the project annual travel budget
Control travel expenditures to update the travel budget.

2.Support Project´s procurement processes:

Request creation of Vendors
Manage Micropurchases and Direct contracts under 5K processes
Support the development of procurement plans including uploading in PROMPT
Support other procurement processes including preliminary evaluations, setting interviews, drafting reports, etc
Update project´s contracts data base

3.Provides effective support to management of the project, finance and operational matters focusing on achievement of the following results:

Prepare payment requests.
Follow up requisitions approval process.
Follow-up on payments, from preparation until disbursement with the finance unit.
Support preparation and verification of Combined Delivery Reports.
Support the regular updating of the Project Management Module in ATLAS
Support Interns hiring and other recruitment processes
Support team members with Cancilleria requests like accreditations, visas, drivers licenses among others

4.Any other task related to the operational support for the project, as required.

Competencies

Technical skills:

Demonstrated ability working in the administrative and financial field.
Knowledge of ATLAS will be an asset.
Good knowledge of Word, Outlook, Excel, and Internet browsers is required.

Competencies:

Well organized
Solution-oriented and analytical
Self-motivated and able to work under pressure
Attention to detail
Building Relationships
Communicating Effectively
Promoting Team Work
Results-oriented
Client-oriented

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Business Administration, or related fields.

Experience:

At least 5 years of general experience in administration, finances, and/or logistics and preferably in international organizations, NGOs or related to project implementation;
Previous experience working with UNDP projects will be considered an asset.
Experience providing support to global and disperse teams is an advantage
Experience in organizing events and workshops including travel arrangements will be an advantage..
Experience with public procurement processes is desirable

Language requirements:

Excellent verbal and writing communication skills in Spanish and English.

Disclaimer

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Only those candidates from the short list will be contacted.

This position is open only for Panamanian citizens or foreigners with permanent residence and valid work permit.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment; therefore this position is open for Panamanian citizens or non-nationals with valid work permit only.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Scam warning

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