Under the direct supervision of the Director, Corporate Services, and within delegated authority, the Senior Programme Management Officer will perform the following duties:
Responsibilities
Budget preparation and administration:
Plans and co-ordinates review of budget submissions and provides advice and guidance, on budgetary and financial policies and procedures, including results-based budgeting.
Reviews, analyses and finalizes cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements from Divisions/Offices at Headquarters and in the regions, including programmatic aspects; Ensures compliance with the medium-term plan and other legislative mandates.
Proactively supports relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies in the review of the medium-term plan and its revisions; secures approval from the
General Assembly and United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA).
Co-ordinates the preparation of budget submissions from managers and ensures legislative mandates are accurately translated into programme budgets.
Reviews, analyzes and finalizes UNEP Programme of Work and related engagement with Intergovernmental bodies and experts including Committee of Permanent Representatives.
Provides substantive support and guidance to relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies in their budget review; secures approval from the General Assembly.
Manages/issues allotments, authorizes sub-allotments, including redeployment of funds when necessary, ensuring appropriate expenditures.
Monitors expenditures to ensure that they remain within authorized levels.
Administers and monitors extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
Oversees the review and finalization of budget performance reports; monitors variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures. Provide advice and support on internal mechanisms for managing of programme support cost linked to country contributions.
Acts as Certifying Officer under Financial Rule 110.4 to ensure that proposed obligations and expenditures are in accordance with budgets and established regulations and rules.
Programme management:
Plans and oversees the management of activities undertaken by the Unit; ensures that substantive/administrative work programmes and programmed activities are carried out in a timely fashion and coordinating diverse projects in liaison with other divisions and regional offices, as appropriate.
Contributes to the reporting to intergovernmental bodies on budget/programme performance or on programmatic/ substantive issues, as appropriate, particularly those presented in biannual, annual, and/or quarterly reports.
Coordinates policy development; reviews the assessments of issues and trends, preparation of evaluations or research activities and studies.
Directs research and programme evaluation and presents information gathered from diverse sources.
Undertakes survey initiatives/or technical missions; guides design of data collection instruments; reviews, analyzes and interprets responses, identifies problems/issues and prepares conclusions.
Supervises preparation of various written outputs, e.g. background papers, analysis, substantial sections of reports studies and presentations.
Represents the Corporate Services Director in meetings of Divisions in inter and intra-departmental meetings.
Oversee use of budget data to provide management reporting and substantive analysis.
Provides substantive input and support in the preparation, presentation, and deliberations of programme budget reports to intergovernmental bodies such as the Committee of Permanent Representatives, UN Environment Assembly and other UN headquarters bodies such as the Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budget Questions, Committee for Programme Coordination, the General Assembly and other policy-making organs, as appropriate.
Plans, organizes and manages staff and work programmes; plans and discusses individual work programmes with staff and evaluates their performance.
Performs other related duties as assigned.
Competencies
PROFESSIONALISM: Ability to identify key strategic issues, opportunities and risks. Ability to generate and communicate broad and compelling organizational direction. Ability to communicate clearly links between the Organization’s strategy and the work unit’s goals. Demonstrated ability to provide innovative technical leadership by performing and/or overseeing the planning, development, and management of operation. Demonstrated ability to negotiate and apply good judgment Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations.
TEAMWORK: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.
•LEADERSHIP: Serves as a role model that other people want to follow: empowers others to translate vision into results; is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives; establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions; drives for change and improvements; does not accept the status quo; shows the courage to take unpopular stands. Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work; demonstrates knowledge of strategies and commitment to the goal of gender balance in staffing.
EMPOWERING OTHERS: Delegates responsibility, clarifies expectations, and gives staff autonomy in important areas of their work; encourages others to set challenging goals; holds others accountable for achieving results related to their area of responsibility; genuinely values all staff members’ input and expertise; shows appreciation and rewards achievement and effort; involves others when making decisions that affect them.
JUDGEMENT/DECISION-MAKING: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; gathers relevant information before making a decision; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; checks assumptions against facts; determines the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; makes tough decisions when necessary.
Education
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business administration, management, economics or a related field. A first-level university degree in combination with two years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Work Experience
A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in budgeting and financial management, including at least five years of experience in the administration of complex assessed and extrabudgetary budgets in a large international organization, is required.
Experience in field operations and/or programme/project management, implementation and monitoring is required.
Experience supporting the presentation of budget proposal to intergovernmental bodies such as the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budget Questions, the General Assembly or other policy-making organs is required.
Experience with Business Intelligence reporting within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment is required.
Experience in supporting collaboration and development of multi-year programme of work that steer organizational results is required.
Experience with reporting of budget information in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) is desirable.
Languages
English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in written and oral English is required. Knowledge of other UN official languages is an advantage.
Assessment
Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by a competency-based interview.
Special Notice
Initial appointment against this post is for a period of one year and may be subject to extension. Staff members are subject to the authority of the Secretary-General and to assignment by him or her. In this context, all staff are expected to move periodically to new functions in their careers in accordance with established rules and procedures.
Staff members of the United Nations Secretariat must fulfill the lateral move(s) requirements to be eligible to apply for this vacancy. Staff members are requested to indicate all qualifying lateral or geographical move(s) in their Personal History Profile (PHP) and cover note.
The United Nations Secretariat is committed to achieving 50/50 gender balance in its staff. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.
Internal Applicants – when completing the PHP, ensure ALL fields, ALL professional experience and contact information are completed and up to date. This information is the basis for the hiring manager to assess your eligibility and suitability for the position and to contact you.
Individual contractors and consultants who have worked within the UN Secretariat in the last six months, irrespective of the administering entity, are ineligible to apply for professional and higher temporary or fixed-term positions and their applications will not be considered.
All applicants are strongly encouraged to apply on-line as soon as possible after the job opening has been posted and well before the deadline stated in the job opening. On-line applications will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided.
If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. If the problem persists, please seek technical assistance through the Inspira “Need Help?” link.
United Nations Considerations
According to article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. Candidates will not be considered for employment with the United Nations if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. The term “sexual abuse” means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. The term “sexual harassment” means any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, and when the gravity of the conduct warrants the termination of the perpetrator’s working relationship. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment.
Due regard will be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. The United Nations places no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs. The United Nations Secretariat is a non-smoking environment.
Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.
The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.
Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.
