Project Associate

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, crises, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help countries to build integrated, lasting development solutions for people and planet. 

The UNDP Country Office in Thailand is an dedicated, inclusive, and energetic team of development professionals, committed to the pursuit of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP partners with the host government, communities, the private sector, civil society organizations, the United Nations system, and other development partners to support the country’s development journey, adding value to Thailand’s progress towards the SDGs.

Our UNDP team is responsible for designing, implementing, managing and/or quality assuring a range of development interventions in a fast-paced environment. We prioritize our clients’ and partners’ needs and invest in a positive, innovative team culture. 

UNDP in Thailand depends on a professional pool of Project Associates to support the effective delivery of UNDP projects, portfolios and programmes in line with UNDP rules and regulations.

Project Associates are assigned to a portfolio for a set period. They have the opportunity to move across teams and assignments within the Country Office to enhance their exposure and experience and to back-stop each other. This is part of UNDP’s mission to foster an office-wide network of creativity, care, and collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support the project/porfolio team to ensure effective research, planning, and implementation.
• Compile and summarize research, information and data for the formulation of project work plans, draft annual/quarterly budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements, and on other specific project related topics or issues.
• Provide comprehensive support in all aspects of project implementation in accordance with the project documents, annual work plans and other agreements between UNDP and responsible partners. Ensure quality of delivery by consultants, beneficiaries, and contracted companies; and communicate findings to the supervisor.
• Ensure compliance of project business processes with UNDP Project Operational Policies and Procedures (POPP) and UNDP Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). When necessary, provide guidance to project staff on business processes, administrative and other requirements and procedures.
• Support mainstreaming gender equality in the project implementation, including in data collection and compilation. Prepare gender equality background materials for use in discussions, briefings, and correspondence.
• Provide administrative and logistical support to ensure successful project delivery that includes organizing/coordinating project events and selecting appropriate venues, coordinating project procurement procedures, maintaining project records and files, recruiting project team members, and supporting contracting activities.

Support partnerships and resource mobilization:

• Establish and maintain contacts and cooperation with the relevant UN Agencies, government institutions, NGOs, tertiary institutions, partners, and other relevant stakeholders. Provide support in updating the database of the relevant public and development partners, and other stakeholders who are counterparts for the project.
• Ensure regular communication and coordination with partners, project counterparts, stakeholders, and beneficiaries; and develop and maintain effective mechanisms for integrating and responding to their feedback and insight.
• Support creation of high quality information and visibility of the project activities among the stakeholders; and ensure careful selection of communication tools and tailoring the messages to take into account the overall socio-political and development context in host countries.
• Undertake horizon scanning and explore opportunities for resource mobilization in consultation with direct supervisor.

 Support to the effective monitoring, evaluation, and results reporting for the project/portfolioon progress of project implementation:

• Support implementation of the project monitoring system in alignment with its Monitoring and Evaluation framework to ensure effective information sharing, provision of feedback, and elaboration of high-quality progress reports.
• Collect, analyze and present information for monitoring and evaluation of project implementation against project targets as well as for audit purposes. Identify gaps in implementation and provide support in bridging those gaps in consultation with supervisor and partners.
• Assist in the organization of field and study visits, missions, workshops, round tables, and conferences within the project.
• Assist in implementation of effective risk management for the project with a well-documented risk mitigation plan in place. Support monitoring of previously identified and emerging risks.
• Regularly monitor expenditures and commitments against the project budget and relevant plans, and provide finance-related information to support project implementation. When necessary, recommend corrective actions and draft various correspondence concerning finance, operations, and budgetary issues.
• Prepare and consolidate required project reports on a timely basis and in line with monitoring and reporting guidelines and donor requirements

Support communications, knowledge building, knowledge sharing and capacity building relevant to the assigned project:

• Participate in training and organize briefings on internal procedures for the project staff. Provide support to other capacity building activities, including to the design and delivery of tools, materials for workshops, or platforms that tap into the collective intelligence of communities and mobilize action.
• Provide support in the dissemination and sharing of relevant data and lessons learned within the CO and regionally. Keep pulse on emerging best practices nationally, regionally, and internationally that relate to the work of the assigned project.
• Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice. Support compiling and systematizing project knowledge, products and tools as well as their wide distribution to partners.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Secondary education is required, or
• University Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, or equivalent field will be given due consideration, but it is not a requirement.

Experience:

• A minimum of 6 years (with high school diploma) or 3 years (with bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible administrative or project experience is required.

Required skills :

• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and web-based management systems, and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages

Source: https://estm.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/job/23228