Administrative Assistant

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROGRAMME

The immunization programme is tasked with providing expertise and general support for high-quality immunization services to all communities of the Member States of the sub-region, in order to prevent morbidity, mortality and disability from diseases which are preventable through the optimum use of currently available vaccines and vaccines that become available periodically.

As Administrative Assistant in the VPD programme, mainly under the VPD team lead, the incumbent will ensure the smooth flow of work as related to administrative and finance activities, coordinating actions with other support staff in the team and in consultation and collaboration with the VPD team lead in accordance with WHO rules, regulations, and policies.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

General

• ·Oversee and monitor the information flow of the office, screening, logging, sorting, identifying areas requiring action by the supervisor and routing correspondence.
• ·Ensure effective and timely follow up on requests for information, briefings and other actions, liaising with units/teams, as appropriate.
• ·Disseminate information on administrative procedures to staff in the team/department and assist staff in adhering to WHO administrative procedures.
• ·Train staff in the Cluster on administrative services including new changes in the process for Finance, HR, Procurement, and other related areas.
• ·Monitor requests for goods and services, including receipt, payment and inventory requirements.
• ·Coordinate and monitor office space requirements in liaison with relevant units as required.
• ·Introduce new and efficient processes and tools to expedite administrative actions.

Correspondence

• Prepare and consolidate reports and documentation soliciting inputs from various staff in the team.
• Draft general or administrative correspondence on own initiative or on the basis of instructions; finalize correspondence/reports for signature/clearance.
• Verify that outgoing correspondence is presented in accordance with WHO and department styles and checking language, grammar and accuracy prior to submitting for signature and clearance.
• Analyse incoming correspondence and requests in the light of background material, instructions, policies and precedents, researching, obtaining and attaching background information in anticipation of the responsible officer’s needs, or redirecting them as appropriate; identify and highlight incoming documents and attach background information and identify areas requiring action by professional staff, drawing their attention to specific items.
• Ensure that technical reports and documents are in line with WHO standards, rules, practices and procedures, editing and correcting them as necessary prior to their submission for signature or clearance of relevant authority.
• Using appropriate tracking tools, follow-up on and ensure that target dates and deadlines are met, and that correspondence and queries are responded to in a timely manner.

Information Management

• In close collaboration with other support staff, create and/or maintain filing systems; continual review of filing system to ensure information is up to date and effectively and efficiently used.
• Obtain documents and information from in-house and external sources as required; perform information searches (library, internet) as requested.
• Coordinate compilation of technical documents requested of and provided by staff to ensure they are logically compiled, formatted and assembled to facilitate the work of the Cluster.
• Maintain updated contacts’ information of donors and partners

Meeting administration

• Arrange, coordinate and lead administrative preparation for meetings, seminars, workshops, including preparing event plans in GSM/Oracle, letters of invitation, cost estimates and travel requests; assisting with preparation of documents; dispatching of materials and liaising with participants and others involved.
• Prepare presentations using PowerPoint and other software packages on own initiative or based on instructions.
• Schedule team/departmental meetings, according to schedules and need; taking minutes and following up on action points to ensure timely response to the requests of the RHRM and preparation of minutes.
• Obtain briefing and background materials for meetings, seminars, workshops, etc. to be attended by the team’s professional staff, checking their availability and ensuring they have the appropriate briefing files and documents.

Travel and Procurement

• Raising registrations and TRs in the GSM system
• Follow up on the receipts of the goods/services and enter the receipts in the system
• Monitor encumbrances
• Using GSM/Oracle, prepare travel requests for official WHO travel. Make flight and hotel reservations, prepare travel files and deal with other related matters as requested or on own initiative.

Filing

• Ensure that files are maintained, stored and easily retrievable for the team.

Other duties

• Perform other related duties as required or instructed, including providing support to other areas of work

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Essential: Completion of secondary education or equivalent technical training or commercial education

Desirable: Training in secretarial tasks and/or in an administrative, finance & procurement field is desirable.

EXPERIENCE

Essential: At least 5 years of relevant experience and preferably on administrative related areas of work.

Desirable: Experience in other areas such as Program Management, Travel and Procurement would be an asset. Experience in WHO or another UN agency in an administrative cluster with a sound knowledge of its rules, regulation, procedures, and practices as related to the work. Experience in Oracle-based or other ERP systems an asset

WHO Competencies:

• Communicating in a credible and effective way Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Producing results
• Fosters integration and teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences

Use of language skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of French and intermediate knowledge of English.

REMUNERATION

WHO offers staff in the General Services category an attractive remuneration package, which for the above position includes an annual net base salary starting at XAF 8,958,000 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level.

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

A written test and/or an asynchronous video assessment may be used as a form of screening.

In the event your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

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. Due regard will be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible.

Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and E-Manual.

The WHO is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. The WHO recruits and employs staff regardless of disability status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, race, marital status, religious, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, or any other personal characteristics.
The WHO is committed to achieving gender parity and geographical diversity in its workforce . Women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States (https://www.who.int/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) are strongly encouraged to apply.

Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to reasonableaccommodation@who.int

An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) into practice.

WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of short-listed candidates.

WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

WHO also offers wide range of benefits to staff, including parental leave and attractive flexible work arrangements to help promote a healthy work-life balance and to allow all staff members to express and develop their talents fully.

WHO also offers wide range of benefits to staff, including parental leave and attractive flexible work arrangements to help promote a healthy work-life balance and to allow all staff members to express and develop their talents fully.

The statutory retirement age for staff appointments is 65. For external applicants, only those who are expected to complete the term of appointment will normally be considered.

For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int

Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with WHO and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Candidates appointed to a fixed-term position in the Professional category with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world.

Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition. A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at shws@who.int.

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