Project Associate

Contract

This is a NPSA-7 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally only for nationals. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education. More about NPSA-7 contracts.

Background

Article 13 of the Paris Agreement provides the outline for an enhanced transparency framework (ETF) for countries through which they can report on the actions they take related to climate change and the support that they provide and receive. UNDP has been supporting countries across the world in establishing and improving ETF and related reports to the UNFCCC (National Communications, Biennial Update Reports and Biennial Transparency Reports), with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Further, led by UNDP’s Climate Policy and Strategies Team, the “Climate Promise” initiative is the world’s largest offer of support to countries on NDC enhancement and has contributed to an increase of climate mitigation and adaptation ambition. One of the most critical challenges to countries in designing and delivering their NDC targets is effective data and transparency. The ability to track, monitor and report on progress directly informs an understanding and ability to advance ambition in subsequent NDC revisions. As such, data and transparency have become critical workstreams within the Climate Promise.

Under the Climate Promise, the Government of Belgium has approved a contribution of 1.2 million euros to provide capacity building support on data and transparency to lusophone and francophone countries and foster south/ south exchanges. The project, “Enhancing climate transparency in developing countries – a contribution to the Climate Promise”, has as a primary objective to provide targeted countries with effective governance and enabling environment over time, to accelerate and scale NDC implementation, by providing streamlined support and capacity building on data and transparency. This will be delivered at the country and regional level with a focus on francophone and lusophone countries.

The project will be managed by a Project Coordinator. UNDP is seeking a project associate who will assist project implementation by coordinating inputs, providing support for the organization of events and other activities, and conducting financial management and reporting.

Duties and Responsibilities

The project associate will support the project coordinator in delivering the project’s expected activities while following UNDP financial and administrative rules and procedures. The incumbent will report to the project coordinator and the Climate Change Integrated Strategies Specialist and will work in close collaboration with other project staff and consultants. Support to the delivery of Data and Transparency activities under the Climate Promise, particularly at the global level, is also anticipated. This position is expected to be home-based.

Specific duties include the following:

• Support the day-to-day operations and management of the project, particularly with respect to the provision of technical services and support.
• Assist the Project Coordinator in the implementation of technical and operational activities for the preparation of the outputs under the project.
• Support the preparation of detailed terms of reference for the international and local consultants and experts to be hired for the implementation of the project as needed.
• Assist the Project Coordinator in the selection process of the consultants (technical specialists) to be hired by the Project according to the rules and procedures established by UNDP.
• Prepare requests for payments as authorized by the Project Coordinator
• Proactively assist in the planning, organization and execution of Project activities.
• Support the organization and coordination of seminars, training activities, workshops, and other exchange and facilitation events for project stakeholders.
• Assist the Coordinator in monitoring disbursements in accordance with the Project Budget and Work Plan.
• Document and file workshop reports/ minutes, participation lists and contacts, results and other project deliverables’ information for evaluation, audit and reporting (to the donor) purposes.
• Compile and/or prepare the documentation necessary for the procurement of services, good and supplies under the project
• Prepare administrative and financial reports.
• Perform the procurement of services, good and supplies authorized by the Project Coordinator in liaison and with support of the operations unit within the Climate Policy and Strategies Team.
• Undertake other administrative/ financial duties as requested by the Project Coordinator

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results:

LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively:

LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously:

LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning

Adapt with Agility:

LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process

Act with Determination:

LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously

Engage and Partner:

LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies (insert up to 7 competencies)

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Business Management

Monitoring

Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results

Administration & Operations

Events management (including retreats, trainings and meetings)

Ability to manage events, including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc.

Finance

Finance business partnering

Able to support business units and add value by innovating and providing solutions to financial issues/queries, including through FAQs, financial tools, advisory, etc. Influences and appropriately challenges non-finance colleagues for whom the service is being provided. Understands the operations, opportunities and challenges of the organization. Holds a commercial outlook, demonstrating accountability towards organizational goals.

Procurement

Procurement Management

The ability to acquire goods, services or works from an outside external source

Finance

Accounting (general)

Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, frameworks, standards, regulations, policies and trends, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations

Finance

Budget Management

Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education requirements

• University (Bachelor’s) degree in accounting, finance, public administration, business administration, management or similar areas.
• A Master’s degree will be considered an asset.

Min. years of relevant work experience

• 4 years

Required skills

• Demonstrated work experience in project/ program administration and support service (at least 3 previous projects)
• Demonstrated experience using the ATLAS module to prepare and process payments and travel
• Ability to build and read budgets
• Demonstrated experience with event coordination and management
• Demonstrated experience and proficiency in usage of office software packages, including Word, Excel, Sharedrive, Teams, Google Drive, etc.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Experience in website management will be considered an asset
• Previous work in UNDP will be considered an asset
• Previous experience in francophone or lusophone project countries

Required Language(s)

• Excellent (fluency) verbal and written communication in English language
• Excellent (fluency) verbal and written communication in French and/or Portuguese