Country Office Support Team

Based in the UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and Central Asia (RBEC) Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH), the RBEC Country Office Support Team (COST) works under the direct supervision of the RBEC Deputy Regional Director in support of the RBEC Regional Director.

UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub established in 2014 provides policy and programmatic support, as well as Country Office (CO) business solutions in the Europe and CIS region. Throughout UNDP´s focus areas, it works towards increasing the impact of UNDP´s activities in the region by assisting COs in developing country-level initiatives through advisory services and technical support and by implementing regional and global level programmes and projects in partnership with a wide range of partners. RBEC’s Regional Hub employs a multi-disciplinary team of specialists and advisors, project managers, programme and operations support staff.

The COST team provides support to RBEC Country Offices in 19 countries/territories. The team is mainly designated to: a) be the go-to unit for the COs on management solutions, policy issues, programme and project management, operational and compliance challenges, CO capacities etc. b) inform the bureau management regarding the COs performance through regular monitoring and assurance exercises such as Integrated Work Planning, Results Oriented Annual Reporting, Country Office Scans, Strategy Notes, Integrated Budgeting, CO online and on-site visits etc. c) contribute to the Bureau’s organizational priorities when it comes to the implementation of regional and corporate actions related and not limited to policy development, regional and global projects and programmes, special actions such as crises responses, partnerships and resource mobilization and other directions of change under the UNDP Strategic Plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

The COST intern will work under the overall supervision of the Chief of COST and will directly support the work of Country Programme Specialists in exercising their functions covering 19 offices across the Western Balkans and Türkiye, Caucasus, Western CIS, and Central Asia, with an office in Kosovo (UNSC 1244/1999), and one Project Management Office (PMO) located in Cyprus. The key functions will be:

• Working closely with Country Programme Specialists, to review and synthesize RBEC results analytics generated from the ROARs, IRRF, evaluations, CPDs, financial data, and other evidence and data.
• To assist in the preparation of briefs/updates and presentation materials related to CO support, sub-regional and regional aspects.
• To assist in collecting and organizing data for monitoring of COs performance indicators/success criteria against goals/indicators on a regular and systemized manner.
• To assist in consolidating all CO information to facilitate effective and efficient corporate oversight functions.
• To assist in monitoring the programme cycle milestones and the preparation of quality assurance exercises.
• To assist the team with its support function to COs, including monitoring data on COs project performance.
• To contribute to the implementation of RBM policies and quality assurance standards.
• To assist with organization of events/missions/meetings (virtual or in-person), including logistics and content, to prepare presentation materials including in PowerPoint, and to draft the meeting minutes/highlights.

Required Skills and Experience

• Enrollment in a graduate-level degree program in a development related field such as economics, public or business administration, or environmental studies. Only those students who will return to their studies upon completion of their internship assignments are eligible.
• Respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter and the UNDP Statement of Purpose.
• Adaptability and desire to work with and gain the confidence and respect of people with different language, national and cultural backgrounds.

Academic Qualifications/Education:

Applicants to the UNDP internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a postgraduate degree programme (such as a master’s programme, or higher) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Development studies or equivalent fields;
• Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (such as bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Development studies or equivalent fields;
• Have recently graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation;
• Be enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship program and undertake the internship as part of this program.

Experience:

• Experience with programme and project management is an asset.
• Experience in handling web-based management systems, use of software and digital tools for collaboration, data collection, data analysis and for preparing presentations is an asset.
• Experience with developing a quality and accountable reporting system is an asset.
• Knowledge of PowerBi, Miro, SurveyMonkey, Canva or other software/applications is an advantage.

Language skills:

• Fluency in English, both oral and written.

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=116734