UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Hope

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision and guidance of the PME Officer, the Programme Associate supports the respective section (s) by carrying out a range of programme support functions to help develop, implement and monitor their country programme, ensuring effective and timely delivery that is consistent with UNICEF rules and regulations. The Programme Associate works in close collaboration with a range of staff in Hargeisa Field Office and Country Office, external partners, and counterparts in other UN organizations for support of programme design and delivery. S/He builds collaborative working relationships with staff within the country office and engages them on the programme and budget issues regarding the process of budget planning, monitoring, and reporting. Additionally, S/He provides regular feedback on the status of projects through monitoring milestones and advises on improvements to keep activities on track.

Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Programme Planning:

• Provide support in the Annual Work Planning process with budget reviews and compilation of the final AWP budget by quarter for the office. Provide support to the section and government partners in the signing, filing, and dissemination of the Annual Work Plans and documents related to any work plan amendments.

Programme Monitoring, HACT, and Reporting:

• Provide support in the established monitoring and reporting mechanisms of the office, including supporting the organizing of internal programme reviews, liaising with the government counterparts on the participation of UNICEF in mid-year and annual reviews.
• Support the reporting processes of the office both at mid-year and end-year, with collating inputs from the field.
• Provide support in preparing documents for uploading to UNICEF Database and support in the actual data entry, as required.
• Provide support in compiling and consolidating management reports for key performance indicators for management meetings.
• Help conduct regular spot checks of partner’s projects to assess their financial record-keeping, expenditure controls and reporting systems.
• Supporting the programme section in researching, compiling, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data and information from a variety of sources on subject matters relevant to the work of the section to facilitate programme delivery as well as preparation of reports, working papers and presentations.

Partnership Management and PCAs:

• Provide support in the establishment of partnerships with Civil Society Organizations through checking the completeness of PCA/ SSFA submissions and in the review and clearance of the PCA budget plan, generating budget related data (e.g. utilization, expiring grants) of PCAs for management reviews, coordinating with the PRC for meetings.

Knowledge Management:

• Provide support for the section in ensuring that all knowledge products generated by the team are appropriately stored for reference and retrieval from both soft storage and hard copy files. This will include uploading relevant documents to Vision and saving such and other documents to the shared resources as well as the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. The Programme Associate will also support the section’s knowledge management role.

Section Budget Management and Administration:

• Provide overall administrative support to the section including, logistics and secretariat support for trainings and meetings organized and conducted by PM&E (RBM, HACT, PCA, eTools…etc.) and with meetings with partners (e.g. MoPIC) and UNICEF colleagues. Ensuring signing and stamping of documents/ contracts/ letters to partners and donors, coordinating delivery and receipt of documents, facilitating payment of consultants and contractors. Provide dedicated support in the financial management, (financial tracking, payment events and contract management).
• The Programme Associate will also ensure that UNICEF NWZ program management meetings and ZMT are organized, facilitated, and coordinated effectively and providing secretarial services as need may be.  Carrying out transactions in VISION ensuring Programme results, activities and Programme coding are as per annual work plans (AWPs) and making amendments and alterations as per section revisions when necessary.
• Help prepare periodic or ad-hoc financial reports relating to NWZ office and donors to support the office in optimizing use of programme funds.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Completion of secondary education is required, preferably supplemented by technical or university courses related to the work of the organization.
• A minimum of six years of administrative or clerical work experience is required.
• Prior experience in programme support functions is an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a  medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

This is a re-advertisement in order to expand the candidate pool. Previous applicants need not reapply as their original application will be duly considered.