Project Assistant

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.

This project aims to combat the illegal trafficking of wildlife in Thailand, particularly the key globally threatened species that have been most affected by such trade – the elephants, rhinoceros, tigers and pangolins. The illegal wildlife trade has reached the stage of an international crisis for biodiversity, attracting attention from world leaders, UN organizations, governments and many NGOs. In response to this crisis, GEF, the World Bank and UNDP established the Global Wildlife Program which now includes some twenty national projects in Africa and Asia, of which this project is a part. It therefore forms part of a global suite of connected actions that cumulatively aim to disrupt and rein in the illegal trade chains that span countries and continents and promote the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources.

The Project Objective is to reduce the trafficking of wildlife (focusing on elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, tiger and pangolins) in Thailand through enhanced enforcement capacity and collaboration and targeted behavior change campaigns. To achieve this objective, the project will utilize four strategies or Project Components as follows:

Component 1: Improved Cooperation, Coordination and Information Exchange. This will strengthen the collaboration mechanism and provide a platform for exchange of information among the responsible agencies for illegal wildlife trade (IWT) law enforcement.

Component 2: Enhanced Enforcement and Prosecution Capacity. This will increase the coherence and capacity of law enforcement agencies to address and deter illegal trafficking of wildlife (focusing on elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, tigers and pangolins) through strengthening the cross-sectoral enforcement and prosecution framework.

Component 3: Reduced demand for illegal wildlife products and targeted awareness actions to support law enforcement. The project will work with partners to learn from existing efforts and achieve cumulative impact through a Steering Group and the Community of Practice on Demand Reduction. The activities will follow a well-defined systematic process for developing, implementing and evaluating SBCC initiatives. This component also aims to increase awareness of prevailing laws and upcoming WARPA reforms and publicize convictions to strengthen deterrence of wildlife trafficking.

Component 4: Knowledge Management, Monitoring and Evaluation and Gender Mainstreaming. This component closely links with and underpins the other three, by supporting the sharing of knowledge, experiences and lessons learned through project implementation with project stakeholders, the wider public in Thailand, and globally through the GEF-financed, World Bank-led Global Wildlife Program, of which this project is a part.

The project will be nationally executed as per UNDP National Implementation Modality (NIM) procedures The Project Manager will be responsible for executing the overall project management functions (planning, scheduling, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation), technical support in collaboration with UNDP Programe Officers.

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Assistant will be expected to closely coordinate his/her activities as per listed scope of work below. He or she provides ongoing project and administrative assistance and support to the project as assigned by the team, performing a variety of standard administrative and financial processes ensuring high quality and accuracy of work as well as working in collaboration with UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) to exchange information and ensure consistent services delivery.

Provide support to management of ongoing project activities through the following tasks and duties:

• Collection, analysis and presentation of information for joint planning meeting, quarterly work plans, and budget work plans to support project implementation;
• Prepare information for Project Manager for his/her advice to donor, Implementing Partners  and UNDP;
• Creating project in UNDP’s financial and administrative system, prepare budget revisions, revision of project status, determination of unutilized funds;
• Prepare and regularly update the Annual Workplan and the project budget; and
• Undertake project operational and financial closure formalities including submission of terminal reports, transfer and disposal of equipment, processing of semi-final and final revision and support project manager in preparing the terminal assessment reports.

Ensures effective administrative and logistical support for the achievement of the outcomes of the project, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Support national project implementation activities according to UNDP workflows (including Individual Contract (IC) process, organization of forums, workshops, travel, etc);
• Contacts with visitors and project personnel, arrangement of appointments and meetings, acting as an interpreter when required and/or taking minutes;
• Compilation and preparation of briefing and presentation materials, speeches, background information and documentation for meetings and missions;
• Translation of correspondences from Thai to English and vice versa, when needed;
• Maintenance of records/ documents/ files relating to the project in a user friendly manner
• Be responsible for assigned correspondence and other administrative tasks including creating e-requisitions;
• Arrangements of travel and hotel reservations, preparation of travel authorizations, processing requests for visas, identity cards and other documents;
• Preparing correspondences relating to the implementation of the projects;
• Making logistical arrangements for the field visits and missions of the project team;
• Administrative support to conferences and workshops;
• Assistance in proper control of supporting documents for payments and financial reports;
• Check related forms delivered by Implementing Partners for completion before submitting them to the Finance or Procurement Unit;
• Proper receipting of goods and services;
• Preparation of routine correspondence, faxes, memorandum and reports to partners;
• Extracting, inputting, copying and filing data from various sources as required;
• Maintain a proper filing system for financial records ensuring safekeeping of confidential materials; and
• Follow up on deadlines, commitments made, actions taken and coordination of collection and submission of the reports to Programme Specialist and Programme Analyst.

Provides support to project maintenance and assets management, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Act as a backup to the Asset Focal point in the maintenance of records on assets management; and
• Maintenance of files and records relevant to project maintenance.

Support knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the CO, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Participation in the training for the operations/programme staff and other trainings as appropriate; and
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• Provide surge capacity to COs as needed.

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work

• Ability to persuade others to follow

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

• Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Technical/Functional

• Ability to track and report on mobilized resources

• Ability to research best practices and share new ways of doing things

• Ability to understand main processes and methods of work regarding to the position

• Ability to respond to client needs promptly

Education:

• Thai national with Secondary education; Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Commerce, Human Resources, Finance, Social Sciences, Arts, International Relations and any other related fields would be desirable, but it is not a requirement.

Experience and Skills:

• Minimum five (5) years (with Secondary education), or, minimum two (2) years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in administration or programme support service.

• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).

• Experience in handling web-based management systems e.g., ATLAS, Microsoft share point, Document Management System (DMS)

Language Requirements:

• Excellent command of writing and speaking Thai and English.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

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.

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