Programme Associate

The Executive Office (ExO) is the coordinating platform through which the Administrator provides leadership and strategic guidance to the organization, guides the elaboration of its strategic and programmatic priorities, and ensures that UNDP’s overall management and internal coordination are conducted in full compliance with its mandate, accountability and reporting requirements. The ExO enables the Administrator and the Associate Administrator (A/AA) to work closely together in order to perform a set of critical leadership roles. It assists them both in delivering on their distinct, but fundamentally complementary roles – including for the Administrator in his role as UNSDG Vice Chair.  

The Office of the Administrator (OA) in the ExO is responsible for the strategic positioning of the Administrator and Associate Administrator (A/AA) to better leverage high impact opportunities for thought leadership and influencing. This includes the strategic management of the A/AA’s forward agendas to focus their participation on high value and/or high visibility events, bilateral meetings and country visits to help drive forward the Strategic Plan. It also includes effective and timely coordination between OA staff and other Bureau focal points to ensure that briefing and other supporting materials for the A/AA are of high quality and are received on time. The OA team assists with the preparation and/or review of speeches, statements and briefings as well as effective media and communications related to the A/AA to ensure consistent corporate messaging and advocacy including around the Strategic Plan. The team assists in the staffing of the A/AA on country visits and for other events.  

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Special Assistant to the Administrator, the Programme Associate is a member of the OA team in the Executive Office (ExO) Front Office team which provides support to the Administrator and the Associate Administrator.
 

• Responsible for issuing all the outgoing official correspondence including (but not limited to) the Administrator’s official email account, physical mail, note verbales and Fax. 
• Responsible for drafting, editing, finalizing, getting approval and transmission of all outgoing official correspondences in close consultation with the Special Assistants and the Executive Associate. Follow up with respective bureaus/offices to ensure that draft responses are received in a timely manner. Ensure that the Registry System is updated accordingly.
• Responsible for regular preparation of all briefing materials including daily briefing folders in direct collaboration with the Special Assistants and the Executive Associate

• Coordinate and provide support for ExO special events (i.e. GMM, EG retreat).  
• Take an active role in major events such as the UN General Assembly, more specifically by organizing appointments/bilateral meeting requests and invitations to related events, in order to facilitate the review and decision making by the Administrator’s Special Assistants. 
• Assist in ensuring that the necessary logistical arrangements for the scheduled meetings are in place.
   

• Gather information/inputs from concerned bureaux/offices, undertake research if needed, and as needed compile/package briefing documents for the Administrator’s official missions. 
• Provide day-to-day administrative assistance and other types of support to the Special Assistants and to other Executive Office staff as needed. 

• Backstop other members of the front office team during scheduled leave and absences in providing support to the Administrator, Associate Administrator and the Executive Associate. 
• Support other front office reception tasks and operations tasks as required including Quantum operations, travel support, etc. 

Business Direction & Strategy – Business Acumen:

• Ability to understand and deal with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome.
• Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organization and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks.

Business Development – Knowledge Generation:

• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

• Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Business Management – Customer Satisfaction/ Client Management:

• Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers’ needs.
• Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. 
• Look for ways to add value beyond clients’ immediate requests. Ability to anticipate client’s upcoming needs and concerns.

Business Management – Digital Awareness & Literacy:

• Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed.

• Programmatic learning