Deadline: 16 December 2015
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is currently seeking applications from the eligible applicants for the post of Planning Specialist in New York, United States. The duration for the post is of 1 year.
The Planning Specialist will be responsible for providing management advisory services, managing the efficient operation of the Director’s office in all critical aspects of work in programme planning.
UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.
Key Jobs Responsibilities
The Planning Specialist will perform the following functions-
- Organizes and documents action points for follow up of the Programme Division (PD) management meetings of the division.
- Alerts the PD management team of any significant deviation from set plans and coordinates systematic adjustment of plans noting rationale.
- Records in annual reports abstracts of planning added value to the work of the division.
- Provides quality control (content and format) of all drafts of speeches, briefing notes, talking points, reports under authority of PD’s Director; Preparation of draft correspondence for and on behalf of PD Director, including sensitive correspondence; ensure routing of assignments to Sections, and ensure completion by deadlines.
- Working as a team with Planning and Monitoring Specialist, coordinates the programme documentation for the development of the Office Management Plan (OMP) such as sectional plans, surveys/discussions with major stakeholders of the division to seek consistency between PD plans and their objectives and goals.
- Establishes and manages efficient procedures for the Director to maintain smooth work relationship and communication with PD sections, Office of the Executive Director (OED), other HQs Divisions, and Regional and Country Offices.
- Communicates and liaises with OED, other Divisions, and PD Section Chiefs and Deputies to manage incoming external and internal requests for decisions and actions, resolve problems without attention of Director and to ensure prompt and efficient response.
- Represent PD at inter-divisional meetings including those related to General Assembly meeting preparations, Global Management Teams, etc.
- Coordinates substantive preparation and support for PD Planning Retreats, Management Team Meetings.
- Provides support to the work of the Secretariat of Allocation Advisory Committee (AAC) for its provision of timely and accurate information for AAC’s decision, and efficient allocations of the Global Thematic and RR (7% set-aside) funds.
- Oversee and ensure the smooth flow of relevant information within the office of the Director, through regular consultations with Deputy/Associate Directors, Chief of Sections and/or Regional Officer and Country Offices as necessary, with dissemination of relevant information to United Nations (UN) agencies, missions and other partners both at field and HQ level.
- Provide support and advice to the Director’s Office by timely preparing substantive materials, background papers for speeches and speaking notes for meetings with Governments, senior UN Agency and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) personnel, the diplomatic corps, as well as internal, inter-agency and donor meetings in consultation with the Deputy/Associate Directors as necessary, and participate in such travel and meetings as required, reporting on outcomes and following up on actions.
- Manages the Director’s front office, serving as point of referral on requests.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must have-
- An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Business Management, Social Sciences, Planning Development, Statistics, Risk Management, and/or another directly-related technical field(s) is required.
- A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant work experience, at the national or international levels, in strategic planning, risk management, results-based management, monitoring and/or evaluation is required.
- Prior hands-on experience in providing management advisory services is highly desirable.
- Prior experience working in the UN System or other international development organization is desirable.
- Fluency in English (verbal and written) is required. Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish) is considered an asset.
How to Apply
Applicants must submit their applications through online process.
For more information, please visit UNICEF.
