Programme Assistant

Programme Assistant (G-5) FT, #138308, Office of Strategy & Evidence - Florence, Italy (for EU nationals or candidates with valid Italian work permit)

Job no: 595784
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Duty Station: Florence
Level: G-5
Location: Italy
Categories: Programme Management, Administration

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to a Future

The Office of Strategy and Evidence (OSE) - Innocenti provides leadership across UNICEF and is accountable for the areas of data, research and evidence generation, foresight, knowledge, and to assure development effectiveness through strategic planning, monitoring and results & risk management. It drives the evidence to globally position the Organization on all child related issues, monitor SDGs and serves as the institutional lead for excellence in data, research and foresight on children and child rights to primarily support the national governments and stakeholders as well as United Nations agencies and the global community to progressively realize the rights of the child everywhere.

Would you like to make a difference for every child? Under the general supervision of the Chief, Education Research Unit, you will provide programme implementation, monitoring, and operational support to the Education Unit, with a particular focus on supporting effective resource management.

Join our team and be the person to go to for programme implementation and operational coordination. You will take care of monitoring and tracking budgets in our systems (SAP/VISION), maintaining and strengthening systems and tools for monitoring grants, partnerships and programme implementation. You will provide programme support related to organizing the Unit's meetings and events, developing contracts, supporting the team on HR management and workforce planning.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

• Support programme implementation and operational coordination
  • Provide support in the management of institutional and individual contracts and related agreements to facilitate timely programme implementation and delivery.
  • Develop/strengthen systems and tools to monitor contracts, LTAs, SSAs and related programme activities.
  • Provide guidance and support on key processes in VISION and InSight, including compliance with applicable procedures and requirements.
  • Monitor contractual arrangements and contribute to effective coordination and followup of programme implementation activities.
• Monitoring and tracking budgets in SAP/VISION focusing on achieving the following results:
  • Maintenance and update of the section SharePoint collaboration site - a customized system (series of tools) developed to monitor the section’s budgets, grants, contracts, including long term agreements (LTAs).
  • Monitor various programme and budget agreements (PBAs): monitor the overall commitments, expenditures of funds in accordance with the budget allotments and weekly reports on available balance, to support effective utilization of resources and alignment with programme priorities and deliverables.
  • Generate various budget reports from VISION as required to support programme monitoring, management decision-making, and donor compliance.
  • Support the preparation of financial reports for donors in consultation with the supervisor.
  • Advise and assist in the preparation of budget estimates for specific projects and activities.
• Maintenance and strengthening of systems and related tools for monitoring grants, partnerships, and programme implementation:
  • Maintenance of a system that tracks all donor grants received and in particular the grant expiry dates and donor report due dates.
  • Provide support with draft of allocation memos, grant extension requests in VISION, donor report submission, donor agreements.
  • Develop and maintain electronic filing and tracking systems for grant-related documentation and programme records.
  • Support follow-up an