UN Entity: UNWomen

Assignment Context:
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women's political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and inclusive democracies. Despite a vibrant feminist movement and the fact that Lebanon was one of the first countries in the Arab region to grant women the right to vote in 1952, Lebanon lags behind its Arab peers in the representation of female parliamentarians. Although women’s representation in parliament has only seen small and incremental steps forward so far, rising from 6 to 8 female MPs out of 128 (equal to 6% from 4.6% in Parliament), a record high number of women candidates and aspirants ran for elected office, with 118 women making it on to electoral lists, after 157 female candidates submitted their candidacy. This represents 37% increase in female candidates since 2018. The same trend of increased impetus and interest of women to run for elections is seen in the preparation for the municipal elections. However, progress is slow and today women’s representation at the local levels remains low, where women only hold 663 out of 12,234 seats in municipal councils, accounting for 5.4% representation of women in local councils and 57 out of 2,922 mukhtars (equal to 1.9%). This is a slight increase since the 2010 municipal elections, where women held 536 seats in the municipal councils and 39 women were mukhtars. Evidence shows that when politics is more representative and more women are in decision-making positions, more inclusive decisions are made, different voices are heard, and different solutions are created.

Description of Tasks:

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Project Manager or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Project Assistant will:

1. Provide administrative and logistical support to the formulation and management of programs
• Provide administrative support in the preparation of programme work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements, including tracking the delivery of funds.
• Provide administrative support to the executing agencies / responsible parties on routine delivery and reporting of programme supported activities and finances.
• Provide administrative support for the audit of programs/ projects and support implementation of audit recommendations.
• Identify sources and gather and compile data and information for the preparation of documents, guidelines, speeches, and position papers, in collaboration with the Program team.

2. Provide administrative support to the financial management of the Programme Unit
• Create projects in Atlas, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds and the operational and financial close of a project.
• Provide administrative support in monitoring and preparation of budget and the finances of programs/projects, and in the preparation of FACE forms.
• Prepare non-PO vouchers for development projects.
• Process payment for consultants, as delegated.
• Create requisitions in Atlas for development projects; register good receipts in Atlas.

3. Provide administrative support to the Programme Unit
• Undertake all logistical, administrative, and financial arrangements for organization for meetings, workshops, events, and missions.
• Make travel arrangements for the Programme Team, including travel requisitions and claims.
• Draft minutes in meetings, as delegated.
• Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations, in collaboration with the Program team.
• Organize and coordinate filing of documents; maintain mailing lists.

4. Provide administrative support to resource mobilization
• Organize, compile, and process documentation and information from donors, and programme team as inputs to various databases and documents.

5. Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing
• Provide administrative support to the organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.
• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Required Experience:
3 years of experience in administrative or program management/support (admin and Finance), experience in the UN, NGO or INGO is an asset.
• Experience in working in a computer environment using multiple office software packages.
• Experience in the use of Quantum is an asset.
• Experience in supporting a team is an asset.
• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.
• Excellent oral and written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills;
• Accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing;
• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development;
• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel;
• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (Excel, Word, etc.) and email/internet; familiarity with database management; and office technology equipment;
• Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines;
• Sound security awareness;
• Have affinity with or interest in Gender equality, volunteerism as a mechanism for durable development, and the UN System.

Living Conditions for national Volunteers
As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. This position is based in UNWomen Lebanon Office in Beirut National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan. National UN Volunteers are expected to be culturally sensitive and adjust to the prevailing culture and traditions.

Inclusivity statement
United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements
Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy.