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.
The UN Women Pacific Multi-Country Office is based in Suva, Fiji and works alongside over 20 other UN agencies in the region and in 14 countries: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Under its Strategic Note 2018-2022, UN Women Fiji MCO focuses on delivering on four interlinked programme areas underpinned by support for intergovernmental and normative processes:
- Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership
- Women’s Economic Empowerment
- Ending Violence against Women
- Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction
Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD)
Disaster risks converge with critical socio-economic vulnerabilities, environmental degradation and climate change making the Pacific a disaster hotspot. Disasters and climate change are widening inequalities and undermining poverty reduction in the region. Threats such as COVID-19 are further exacerbating the inequalities and hardships faced by women and girls including those with disabilities. Women and girls face greater vulnerability and exposure to disasters, yet women remain largely ignored and their capacities unleveraged in conventional resilience building processes. As a result, women are generally absent in the development of resilience strategies and decision-making processes for prevention, preparedness, and recovery. This is compounded by significant gaps at the global, regional and country level in relation to the availability and use of sex, age and disability disaggregated data (SADDD), knowledge sharing on women’s resilience; an enabling environment for building women’s resilience (including capacities, leadership and funding); translation of commitments into action; coordination and private sector partnership; and a need for transformative change to tackle the underlying drivers of disproportionate risk.
UN Women’s WRD programme proposes a comprehensive package for building women’s resilience to disasters, climate change and threats (including COVID-19). The aim of the WRD Programme will be to render women’s and girls’ lives and livelihoods disaster-resilient, contributing to sustainable and secure communities, by promoting gender responsive prevention, preparedness, and recovery systems, plans and tools; and by enabling targeted action to help women and girls withstand hazards and threats, recover fully from disasters, and increase their resilience to future risks. The expected end-of-programme outcomes (EOPOs) are:
- Prevention, preparedness and recovery systems, plans and tools are gender-responsive through women’s leadership in DRR, women’s enhanced influence in DRR decision-making, enhanced gender capacity of DRR and climate resilience stakeholders, increased access to knowledge, guidance and expertise on gender-responsive disaster resilience, and strategic partnerships and networks for women’s agency and leadership in DRR; and
- Women and girls are prepared to withstand natural hazards, climate change and COVID-19, recover from disasters and increase their resilience to future risks, through gender-responsive early warning systems, gender targeted and mainstreamed services for women’s resilience, women’s informal and formal climate and disaster resilient businesses, women’s increased access to climate and disaster resilient livelihoods and strategic partnerships for resilient livelihoods.
Under the direct supervision of the WRD National Coordinator Kiribati, the National Programme Assistant carries out varied and inter-related operational, financial and logistical activities ensuring high quality and accuracy of work. The Programme Assistant is results and client oriented producing administrative services of the highest quality in a timely and proactive fashion.
The National Programme Assistant Kiribati works in close collaboration with the WRD Regional Operations, Programme, projects and operations staff in the UN Women Fiji MCO, staff MCO field office(s) and other UN agencies staff to exchange information and ensure consistent service delivery.
Duties and Responsibilities
Provide administrative support to the development of programme strategies and annual planning for the Women’s Resilience to Disasters programme in Kiribati:
- Provide administrative support in the preparation of WRD Kiribati national annual work plan, planning documents, WRD strategies and initiatives;
- Support the coordination of inputs to the national WRD baselines, milestones, and targets;
- Provide administrative support to interventions related to the programme;
- Ensure a continuous and up-to-date flow of information between the WRD Kiribati team and the WRD regional team as needed;
- Provide technical support on operational issues.
Provide administrative and logistical support to the implementation of the Women’s Resilience to Disasters Kiribati programme:
- Provide administrative support to the implementation of the WRD Kiribati national annual work plan and budget in line with identified targets and indicators;
- Provide administrative and logistical support to implementation of WRD programme activities and in line with the approved WRD Kiribati annual work plan;
- Participate in review meetings and provide support to the assessment of the capacities of implementing partners in collaboration with the National Coordinator and WRD regional team;
- Support the review, coordination, and monitoring of the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports;
- Provide administrative and logistical support to the National Coordinator on routine delivery and reporting of programme supported activities and finances.
Coordinate and administer procurement processes for the WRD Kiribati programme in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations and corporate policies and strategies
- Provide inputs to the preparation of procurement plans for WRD Kiribati Programme and monitor their implementation; Generate procurement related reports; research and draft responses to enquiries;
- Review procurement requests and initiate procurement procedures for office and project equipment, supplies and services;
- Organize procurement activities and processes, including preparation and conduct of Request for Quotations, Invitations to Bid or Requests for Proposals, the opening and evaluation of tenders;
- Coordinate contract negotiations, prepare request for award of contract for the review and approval of relevant authorities, as required;
- Prepare Purchase Orders (PO) and contracts in and outside Atlas, create vendor profiles in Atlas;
- Review procurement processes conducted by projects; submissions to the Procurement Review Committee.
- Coordinate assets management for the WRD Kiribati team, prepare and submit periodic inventory reports, and coordinate physical verification of inventory items.
Ensure effective and efficient functioning of the WRD Kiribati Programme unit including administrative and logistical support, focusing on achievement of the following results:
- Undertake all logistical, administrative and financial arrangements for meetings, workshops, events, and missions;
- Make travel arrangements for the WRD Kiribati team, including travel requisitions and claims;
- Draft minutes in meetings, as delegated;
- Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations, in collaboration with the Programme team;
- Organize and coordinate filing of documents; maintain mailing lists
- Maintenance of the filing system ensuring safekeeping of confidential materials.
- Extraction of data from various sources.
- Follow up on deadlines, commitments made, actions taken and coordination of collection and submission of the reports to supervisor.
Contribute to knowledge sharing
- Provide administrative support in the organization of trainings for programme staff on programme and operations related matters.
Support other operations related activities as may be needed and requested by Supervisor.
Competencies
Core Values:
• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism
Core Competencies:
Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example
Functional Competencies
• Ability to administer and execute administrative and procurement processes and transactions
• Ability to perform work of confidential nature and handle a large volume of work
• Strong knowledge of administrative rules and regulations
• Ability to extract and interpret data
• Ability to prioritise work and to multi-task
Required Skills and Experience
Education and certification:
- Secondary Education is required.
- Completed or Completing University Degree Certification in Business or Public Administration, Accounting and Finance desirable, but it is not a requirement.
Experience:
- A minimum of 5 years of experience in administration or programme / project support service is required, preferably in a large or international corporation or organization at the regional or international level.
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems, experience in atlas an advantage.
- Previous experience working on gender equality will be considered an asset.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
- Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.
- Knowledge and fluency in the local language(s) of the duty station (Kiribati) is an asset.