Program Assistant (Programme Management) at World Health Organization

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

GENERAL

• Provide background information for appointments with official visitors and/or staff members.
• Receive visitors and telephone calls with tact and discretion, and acts according to the nature and urgency of each, including redirecting as appropriate.
• Monitor requests for goods and services, including receipt, payment and inventory requirements.

CORRESPONDENCE

• Draft general or administrative correspondence on own initiative or on the basis of instructions; finalize correspondence/reports for signature/clearance.
• Verify that outgoing correspondence is presented in accordance with WHO and department styles and checking language, grammar and accuracy prior to submitting for signature and clearance.
• Analyze incoming correspondence and requests in the light of background material, instructions, policies and precedents, researching, obtaining and attaching background information in anticipation of the responsible officer's needs, or redirecting them as appropriate; identify and highlight incoming documents and attach background information and identify areas requiring action by professional staff, drawing their attention to specific items.
• Ensure that technical reports and documents are in line with WHO standards, rules, practices and procedures, editing and correcting them as necessary prior to their submission for signature or clearance of relevant authority.
• Using appropriate tracking tools, follow-up on and ensure that target dates and deadlines are met, and that correspondence and queries are responded to in a timely manner.
• Maintain an appropriate filing system for all official correspondences

MEETING ADMINISTRATION

• Supports administrative preparation for meetings, seminars, workshops, including letters of invitation, costs calculation and travel requests; assisting with preparation of documents, dispatching of materials and liaising with participants and others involved.
• Support preparation of administrative presentations using PowerPoint and other software packages on own initiative or on the basis of instructions.
• Schedule periodic admin team and ad hoc meetings, according to schedules and need; taking and preparation of minutes.
• Obtain briefing and background materials for meetings, seminars, workshops, etc. to be attended by the team, checking their availability and ensuring they have the appropriate briefing files and documents.

TRAVEL

• Using GSM/Oracle, prepare travel requests for official WHO travel.
• Make flight and hotel reservations, prepare travel files and deal with other related matters as requested or on own initiative

PROCUREMENTS

• Initiate requests for good and services required by the supported clusters and ensuring all supporting documents are in line with requirements of WHO rules and regulations.
• Follow up delivery of goods and services including submission of required technical reports for services contracts (APWs, Consultancies, TSAs, SSAs)

OTHER DUTIES

• Perform other related duties as required or instructed, including providing support to other areas of work

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: Completion of secondary school education or equivalent technical or commercial education.
Desirable: Training in secretarial tasks and/or in an administrative field is desirable

Experience

• Essential: 5 to 7 years of relevant experience
• Desirable: Experience in administrative support positions in WHO or another UN agency an asset. Experience in Oracle-based or other ERP systems an asset

Skills

• The incumbent maintains and updates proficiency in the use of modern office technology through of in-house courses, on-the-job training or self-training. He/she keeps abreast of changes in procedures and practices, rules and regulations, organizational structure, in the department, the cluster and WHO, to be able to brief others and explain procedures.