Project Management Support- Senior Officer (Maternity Cover)

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. UNOPS supports partners to build a better future by providing services that increase the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of peace building, humanitarian and development projects. Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.

​UNOPS Water and Energy Cluster (WEC) supports the design and management of multi-stakeholder initiatives by providing services in financial and grant management, procurement, human resources, and project management.

The cluster has supported projects in the areas of water resource management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and transparency, energy access and distribution and environmental conservation under the Paris Agreement. The WEC has also supported operations and financial management services, in Vienna, the rest of the ECR region and beyond.

The main partners include UN agencies, bilateral agreements (with the Nordics, Germany, and Italy), the Green Climate Fund and several philanthropic organizations (such as CIFF and CWF).

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) is an initiative under WEC.

ICAT helps countries better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions, and fulfill their transparency commitments under the Paris Agreement. It does this by increasing the overall transparency capacities of countries, including the capacity to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions on countries’ development objectives, and providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policy-making. ICAT’s innovative approach is to integrate these two aspects.

ICAT currently works with 40 developing countries worldwide to support their work on transparency, including NDCs, tracking of implementation, further policy development and related Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV).  Work covers sectoral policies (renewables, energy efficiency, transport, etc.) and cross-cutting aspects such as the link to sustainable development benefits, transformational change, and integration of subnational and non-state actors.

ICAT is funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the German Federal Foreign Office, the Italian Ministry of the Ecological Transition (IMET) and the ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF).

• Support with the overall planning, coordination and governance of the project, including the liaison with various donors and stakeholders, and including the preparation of background documents, discussion papers and and presentations on management, financial and operational matters.

• Support the organization of various project meetings and events, including planning and logistics management of annual planning workshops, as well as various regular donor, advisory and implementing partner meetings, ensuring that they are held effectively and their proceedings are recorded accurately.

• Support the review and management of donor contribution agreements, input new engagements into the UNOPS engagement system, and support management of the required revisions or specific conditions to be met, prior to and during project execution phase.

• Review and coordinate the operational aspects of the project, and facilitate delivery in discussion with the relevant operational support teams in ECR and UNOPS HО.

• Identify operational and financial issues, risks and challenges, and manage and resolve them by taking appropriate action, following consultation with the supervisor.

• Draft correspondence to parties concerned, follow up on the implementation of Steering Committee decisions, and prepare regular progress, narrative, financial and other reports, as appropriate 

• Coordinate the preparation of aggregated donor reports on ICAT progress and financial performance 

• Support the effective provision of services related to procurement/contract administration, finance/payment process, grant management and HR/recruitment process.

• Support development of specifications/TORs and evaluation criteria, and coordinate the evaluation of bids/proposals for procurement, grants and recruitment processes required by the Initiative, ensuring that contractual arrangements are created and managed effectively.

• Maintain monitoring systems to keep track of the performance of implementing partners and partner country beneficiaries.

• Support the implementation of the Initiative's M&E framework is properly implemented, including the alignment of contract management with the overall Theory of Change.

• Coordinate with implementing partners the application of M&E tools, such as reporting templates and evaluation surveys to ensure the adequate data collection and quality assurance.

• Set up project proposals and budgets in the ERP system and monitor project budgets, support the preparation of due budget revisions in consultation with the supervisor and Finance Unit, as well as the relevant project counterparts.

• Support preparation of work plans, budgets, financial reports and ad-hoc updates on cash-flow status, contractual commitment and expenditure status draft appropriate comments on audit reports, as necessary.

• Continuously maintain existing ERP and project and grant management tools/perspectives, as well as relevant internal mechanisms, for high quality service provision to various partners.

• Drive the regular data updates and related exercises especially related to project level and financial reporting.

• Participate in training for the operations and project staff on the relevant tools, approaches and procedures, to ensure effective project implementation.

• Act as designated first contact with the Initiative for all procurement, admin and grants management issues and support needs, facilitating delivery of effective services.

• Coordinate with the respective WEC and ECR teams on specific cases and best possible support for timely provision of guidance on operational processes and procedures.

• Assist the Initiative with the management of HR, procurement and grants management processes, including systematic management of data needs, issue resolution, and results reporting and coordinating responses to requests for information from other internal units and from external parties.

Knowledge management and communications:

• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

• Collaborate closely with colleagues in the ICAT team and ensure effective knowledge management related to all functions;

• Support ICAT Head of Communications in developing ICAT internal communication flows with the Donor Steering Committee, the Advisory Committee and the Initiative Coordination Team;

• Support the ICAT Head of Communications in developing content for external communications to be distributed through the ICAT website, social media and other outreach channels;

• Support preparation of project and programmatic documents for expanding ICAT;

• Provide any additional support as required;

• Support impact assessment (on the basis of ICAT's MELU framework) and related communication efforts, including those emerging from the mid-term review

• Perform other duties as required based on ICAT Secretariat’s needs.

• Minimum 2 year of experience (or more depending on academic credentials) in working with climate change, stakeholder coordination or project management.
• Experience with fund and/or grants management is a distinct advantage.
• Experience with stakeholder and partner management, including interacting with government officials and/or donors is a distinct advantage.
• Past professional work experience with UN/UNOPS is highly desirable.
• Exposure to and a good understanding of international climate change and sustainable development cooperation would be an advantage.

Contract type: ICA
Contract level: IICA-1/LICA-9/ICSC-9
Contract duration: Mid-June till Mid-November - with possibility for extension (Please note that this is a maternity cover)

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.