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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors UN Women is operational in Moldova since 2010 on the basis of former UNIFEM projects, which were laid and active in the country from 2007. It extended continuous support to the Government of Moldova, to key stakeholders from national and local levels, through various programmes and activities aimed at creating an enabling environment for gender equality, recognized as a prerequisite for sustainable development with a strong and active policy on gender equality.

In February 2013 UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme in the Republic of Moldova have entered into an Agreement for the implementation of a 9 months project on enhancing women’s economic empowerment in communities on both banks of Nistru River in the Republic of Moldova (CBM Project). The Project goal is to support women’s economic empowerment and improve local governance by increasing access of rural women to information and public services, including employment and social protection, that will contribute to the realization of the UNDP Confidence Building Measures Program funded by EU, aiming at promotion of collaborative projects at the community level on both banks of Nistru River. In December 2013, UN Women signed an agreement with the European Union, for the financing and implementation of a 3-years global project with three pilots (Mexico (Latin America), Philippines (South East Asia) and Republic of Moldova (Eastern Europe)): Promoting and Protecting Women Migrant Workers’ labour and human rights: Engaging with international, national human rights mechanisms to enhance accountability (WMW Project).

This project strives to promote women migrant worker’s rights and protect them against exclusion and exploitation at all stages of migration. It aims to contribute to this overall objective by (a) strengthening strategic international human rights mechanisms, national oversight institutions and governments to ensure accountability to women migrant workers at all stages; (b) strengthening women migrant workers’ organizations and their support groups to effectively engage with the above stakeholders to ensure greater accountability to them. With the overall aim to ensure effective projects implementation, UN Women plans to hire a Project Assistant, based in Chisinau, Moldova to support the work of the Project Management.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Assistant will work under the direct supervision and guidance of CBM and WMW Project Management with the overall aim to support timely and synergetic implementation of these Projects, in line with the project documents and as a contribution to the fulfilment of UN Women Moldova 2014-2017 Strategic Note (SN). The Project Assistant will work in close collaboration with UN Women Country Office Operations team for effective achievement of results, anticipating and contributing to resolving complex project-related issues. The incumbent is expected to exercise full compliance with UN Women programming, financial, procurement and administrative rules, regulations, policies and strategies, as well as implementation of the effective internal control systems. Summary of Key Functions:

• Support to implementation of projects activities and strategies; 
• Support to administrative and procurement services; 
• Support to project financial management;
• Support to knowledge building and sharing.

Participates and provides support to the implementation of projects activities and strategies, focusing on achievement of the following results: 

• Pro-actively contribute to day-to-day project implementation and ensure conformity to expected results and project work-plans; 
• Make pertinent logistical arrangements for the prompt and effective implementation of project activities; 
• Assume overall responsibility for proper filing and documenting all administrative matters including keeping the incoming and outgoing correspondence registry, maintenance of project files and records, thus contributing to the implementation of the knowledge management policy of UN Women; 
• Arrange external and internal meetings (including the meetings of the Project Board, Technical level, as well as other relevant meetings etc.) and events; 
• Draft minutes of Project Board and other project related meetings, when required; 
• Provide administrative support to subcontracted project activities, including support to organization of conferences, workshops, retreats; 
• Support in organization of missions, including arranging travel and hotel reservations, prepare travel authorizations, process requests for visas, identity cards and other documents; 
• Maintain required records on all project personnel and national consultants and their respective status (including contracts, ToRs, time and attendance – if appropriate, etc.) in accordance with accepted policies and procedures; 
• Respond to incoming calls; 
• Draft and translate correspondence, when needed; 
• Undertake other tasks on an ad hoc basis, when required. Ensures effective administrative and procurement support, focusing on achievement of the following results: 
• Provide support to the organization of procurement processes including preparation of RFQs, ITBs or RFPs documents, receipt of quotations, bids or proposals, and their preliminary evaluation; 
• Create and manage e-requisitions in ATLAS; 
• Ensure that contractual processes follow the stipulated UN/UN Women procedures; 
• Monitor timely delivery of equipment and supplies procured for the various project activities, including maintenance of stock list of stationery, distribution of stationery as required by staff and keeping a log of distribution; 
• Maintain an equipment and spare inventory list including verification and transfer, when required; 
• Undertake other tasks on an ad hoc basis, when required Ensures effective financial support to projects, focusing on achievement of the following results: 
• Assist the project management in the elaboration/preparation of monthly expenditure plans and keep expenditure log regularly based on approved budgets; 
• Prepare requests for payments for various services acquired/delivered within the project, including preparation and submission to project management of all supporting documents to ensure timely disbursement of funds; 
• Monitor budget expenditures and maintain a proper record of approved project budgets and their revisions; 
• Closely coordinate and provide timely input to UN Women Operations Team in processing financial documents; 
• Perform other duties as assigned Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing as required, focusing on the following results: 
• Participation in any training for the projects personnel on operations; 
• Support research, compilation and documentation of best practices and lessons learnt;
• Ensure proper documentation and maintenance of project filing system in hard and electronic formats to support monitoring and follow-up processes; 
• Ensure full transparency and access to information about project activities.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
  

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
  

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
  

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
  

• Researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

• Understands the main processes and methods of work regarding to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks; 
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
• Ability to perform a variety of standard tasks related to financial resources management, including screening and collecting documentation, financial data processing, filing, provision of information;
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, is required to obtain, evaluate and interpret factual data and to prepare accurate and complete reports and other documents;
• Excellent interpersonal skills are essential part of the job;
• Ability to perform work of confidential nature and handle a large volume of work;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University Degree in economics, finance, accounting, law, public administration or other related field.
  

• At least three years of relevant administrative work, accounting/finance, economics, or other substantive area is required at the national level;
• Previous experience in development assistance or related work for an international and/or donor organization is required; 
• Previous experience in the UN system is a very strong advantage; 
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages is required;

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in both oral and written Romanian and English is a must;
• Knowledge of Russian is an advantage;
• Working knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset.