Senior Programme Management Assistant, G7

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is recruiting a Senior Programme Management Assistant to join the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) within the Administration Division in Montréal. UNEP is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the UN system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. The Convention on Biological Diversity, signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, has three objectives: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources.

The Senior Programme Management Assistant will independently provide a full range of programme and project management and implementation assistance. Responsibilities include researching, compiling, analysing and presenting information and data; reviewing and revising submissions for substantive programmes and projects to ensure compliance with guidelines and objectives; identifying problems, seeking clarification, and preparing summaries for the manager; ensuring the establishment of proper monitoring systems through scheduled reporting, review and meetings; monitoring budgetary commitments including verification of charges and obligation documents in Umoja Analytics, and evaluating trends of financial implementation; drafting inputs for a wide range of documents, reports, briefings and correspondence; monitoring implementation to ensure work proceeds according to plan and initiating remedial action when needed; supervising office support staff; and assisting with data collection and analysis.

The role also involves collaborating with colleagues across departments and units to cost recommendations and decisions, and processing the costing information for use at CBD major meetings. This includes keeping the CBD costing templates under review and suggesting improvements, assisting colleagues with their costing exercises, preparing summary costing tables for CBD documents for major meetings, drafting table 4 on voluntary requirements for the budget document, and facilitating the inclusion of final costing data into the management information system. Additional responsibilities include collaborating with colleagues to update and cost their inputs in the Results-based Management framework, facilitating their inclusion in the management information system, and contributing to the updating of formulations for the RBM framework’s sub-output and higher levels.

Minimum qualifications include a high school diploma or equivalent. Relevant training in project management, project management systems, financial management, results-based management, and budgeting is desirable. A minimum of ten years of experience in sustainable development or environment-related programmes is required, reduced to eight years for candidates who possess a first-level university degree. A minimum of five years of experience working in the United Nations Common System or similar international organisation is desirable, along with experience working with an Enterprise Resources Planning system such as Umoja, and one year or more of experience in data analytics. English is required at UN Level II across reading, writing, listening and speaking. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.