Administrative Assistant at Unicef

The UNICEF Programme of Cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) is designed to address and mitigate the threat of poverty the country’s children face, while responding to the needs with interventions addressing the multiple causative factors.

In response to the combination these threats involve the Programme supports national efforts to improve service delivery in the key areas of: child health and nutrition and HIV and AIDS, quality basic education, water, sanitation and hygiene education, child protection and social policy, advocacy and communication.

To find out more about UNICEF’s work in Zambia, please visit https://www.unicef.org/zambia/.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision and guidance of the Administrative Officer, NO2, the Administrative Assistant is responsible for executing a broad variety of routine tasks and some specialized for the respective section, requiring thorough knowledge of UNICEF administrative procedures, processes and policies. The incumbent will also assist the Unit in the provision of Administrative services to the Country Office in the areas of VISION VISA Administrator repairs and maintenance of equipment and premises, reprographics services, maintenance of communication equipment and transport allocation for the Country Office.

Responsibilities and Tasks:

Budget Monitoring

• Monitors budgets and financial expenditures of section, ensuring compliance with UNICEF rules and regulations, keeping supervisor informed and advised on actions for decision/follow up.
• Provides support on budget revision/preparation, implementation status, determination position of funding utilization, operational, and financial closure.
• Prepares and maintains records, documents and control plans for the budget monitoring of project/programme implementation.
• Carries out transactions in VISION pertaining to grants for his/her section such as registering grant allotments and tracking expiring programme grants.

Office Planning & Premise Management

• Ensures the availability of timely, complete and accurate information and data for preparing section work plans and project management plans.
• Undertakes basic research and performs comparative analysis of project/programme related data.
• Monitors project implementation against established milestones and makes recommendations to improve performance.
• Helps ensure timely compliance with agreed deadlines.
• Acts as focal point in the review of the completeness of data reports with key monitoring and evaluation information.
• In addition to general administration responsibility, also assist with oversight of the activities concerned with office maintenance and cleaning services and ensure that services are in accordance with organizational standards.

Procurement of office supplies

• Guides managers in the process of Operations procurements in line with the policies and guidance issued by supply division and DHR.
• Facilitates the processing of contracts for external partners that provide a service to the section. This includes preparing and filing documents, completing necessary forms and templates, uploading Term of References (TORs) in VISION, and making necessary logistical arrangements.
• Maintains up-to-date vendor lists, partners, and consultant rosters.

Calendar/Meetings/Correspondence Management

• Maintains office calendar and arranges meetings
• Takes minutes of meetings, ensuring accuracy, attention to detail and coherence.

 Invoice Processing

• Responsible for collecting invoices and filing documents for approval and, thereafter processing in VISION.
• Uploads electronic files and verifies results to destination system.
• Responds to client transaction status and other inquiries.

 Supplies/Equipment

• Supports management of administrative supplies, office equipment, and updating inventory of items.
• Monitors and supervises adequate and appropriate use of supplies. Ensures that services and maintenance of premises are in accordance with organizational standards.
• Arranges for the purchase and timely distribution of office supplies
• Monitors and tracks stationery/office supplies and recommends re-order levels to ensure the smooth-running of the Office.

Attendance

• Maintains and updates a system which monitors the absence of staff.

 Communications & Workflow

• Facilitates the communications and workflow of the organizational unit to enhance the efficiency and timeliness of operations and outputs.
• Occasionally, manages incoming and outgoing correspondence, e-mails
• Communicates routine and some non-routine information pertaining to the work of the team.
• Establishes and maintains the office filing and reference systems, both traditional and digital; and ensures the inter/intra-net websites are up to date and accurate.

Occasional back-stopping in:

Events/Logistics

• Supports capacity development activities and conferences by making the logistical arrangements, through engaging with facilitators, caterers and hosts.
• Arranges times through liaising with participants over availability.
• Prepares background materials for participants and uploads cleared materials on the SharePoint.
• Liaises with budget focal points and section over costs and needs.
• Prepares and maintains agendas on meetings and events related to the work group commitments.

 Travel

• Provides travel assistance to staff members in section for travel arrangements and entitlements based on the organization’s rules and policies. Liaises with relevant travel focal points to ensure that the organization obtains the best service and price for all travel.
• Extracts, inputs, maintains, and verifies correctness of travel records in the organization’s travel system to ensure accurate transactions related to travel costs and staff travel.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have;

• Completion of secondary education is required. A University degree in Business Administration or equivalent related to the field of work is an advantage.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant administrative or clerical work experience is required.
• Training and experience using MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other UNICEF software such as SharePoint; knowledge of integrated management information systems required.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset. Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.