Travel Assistant

Organizational Setting

The cooperation between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Government of Ukraine has been designed to reinforce national capacities and to contribute to a broader development of agriculture, sustainable management of forests and fisheries, and animal and plant disease control. FAO is providing technical support for climate change adaptation, as well as working with civil society to mitigate soil erosion and degradation. FAO is also contributing to building resilience and boosting development in conflict-affected regions by supporting the economic recovery of farmers and rural communities. FAO’s presence in Ukraine has upscaled and is distributed by offices in Kyiv, Lviv and Dnipro under the overall responsibility of the Head of the FAO Office/Designated Responsible Officer in Ukraine.

The recent and large-scale escalation in hostilities in Ukraine is exacerbating the already dire food security situation of the most vulnerable rural households and small farmers. In response to the evolving situation, FAO Ukraine is scaling up its emergency humanitarian and resilience programming in conflict affected areas of Ukraine. including previous programming areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson; and Lviv and Zakarpattia in the West; as well as newly affected areas. In order the address to rapidly deteriorating situation, FAO has established a Rapid Response Plan (RRP) that is in line with the UN Flash Appeal and intended to provide life and livelihood saving interventions for the most vulnerable smallholder farming households impacted by the conflict.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the DRO/Head of Office in Ukraine, the direct supervision of the Operations Officer, the Travel Assistant receives guidance from Administrative Assistant. The Travel Assistant interacts with a wide variety of colleagues from within the work unit and with immediate clients from within the Organization, providing routine travel support services.

Technical Focus

The Travel Assistant performs a large variety of routine functions assisting the processing of transactions and the use of corporate travel systems.

Tasks and responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Head of Office/DRO and direct supervision of the Operations Officer, the incumbent will undertake the following duties:

• Process travel expense claims, in accordance with the organization’s rules and policies; verify travel performed against appropriate entitlements;
• Identify, review and claim refunds of travel costs from travel agents or travellers and take necessary follow up action;
• Process authorized lump sum payments, travel advances and post-factum travel claims and verify their correctness;
• Provide travel assistance to staff on a day to day basis for travel arrangements and entitlements based on the organization’s rules and policies; liaise with relevant travel agents to ensure that the organization obtains the best service and price for all travel;
• Brief/de-brief staff members on issues relating to related administrative matters such as visas, security clearance, documentation procedures ,etc.
• Extract, input, maintain and verify correctness of travel records in the organization’s corporate travel system to ensure proper accounting transactions related to travel costs and staff travel;
• Assist in the preparation of budgets on travel costs and maintain travel budgetary and statistical control records;
• Assist in clearing outstanding travel-related balances through reviewing travellers’ recovery lists and taking the necessary follow-up action;
• Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Economics, Business Administration, Public Administration or a closely related field
• Minimum three years of relevant experience in administrative work or other related fields.
• Working knowledge (level C) of English. Knowledge of one of the other FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an advantage. Proficiency in Ukrainian.
• National of Ukraine.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/ Functional Skills

• Good knowledge of corporate computerized administrative systems
• Good knowledge of the communication and documentation standards
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.
• Demonstrated written communications skills to draft different types of outputs tailored to different audiences.
• Ability to keep sensitive and personal information as confidential.
• Ability to identify and resolve problems expeditiously and pragmatically; tact, initiative and sound judgment; ability to establish and maintain good working relations with other staff/colleagues from different cultural background.Strong knowledge of the MS Office applications, Internet and office technology equipment.
• Desirable: Experience of working in a state institution or other non-for-profit organisation

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help please contact: [email protected]
• Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
• For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.