Junior Operations Assistant

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the UN agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

The project “Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building Program for Urban Development in Vietnam (ISCB)” is financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs-SECO for technical assistance and capacity development. The main goal of this project is to strengthen the capacities of national and local institutions to promote, plan and implement innovative and participatory solutions for sustainable urban development in Vietnam. The project will be implemented over a period of five years by UN-Habitat in close coordination with the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Planning and Investment and city governments.

The project consists of three interlinked components:

Component 1: Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building

a) Support sustainable setup of the Institute for Urban Development Management

b) Improve the institutional capacity of national and local government agencies

Component 2: Policy and Regulation

a) Strengthening of national urban legislation

b) Support the implementation of the Planning Law

Component 3: Piloting

The project will be led by the Chief Technical Advisor/Habitat Program Manager, responsible for all technical and financial aspects of the program and coordination with key counterparts at the levels of ministries and city government. Implementation is guided by annual work plans that clarify tasks and responsibilities of UN-Habitat towards national and local counterparts. The Institute for Urban Development Management (IUDM) in the Ministry of Construction will be responsible for the organization of the training activities as well as liaison with the city People’s Committees to ensure active participation and provide logistic support. The Urban Development Agency (UDA) in MoC will be responsible for the delivery mechanism of component 2.1 and provide the technical support for the integration of successful pilot approaches into the New Urban Law and related regulations. The Department of Planning Management (DPM) in MPI will be responsible for the delivery mechanism of component 2.2 and provide the technical support for the integration of the strategic planning approach into urban and rural planning regulatory frameworks. Finally, the three selected cities will be responsible for the implementation of the pilot projects.

UN-Habitat’s role in the project includes overall responsibility for project implementation, as well as for monitoring and reporting, receiving support from UN-Habitat Headquarters and the Asia-Pacific Regional Office.

UN-Habitat Vietnam is looking for a Junior Operations Assistant, working closely with the ISCB Project Manager in Vietnam to provide the day-to-day finance management support for the project, in close connection with the Programme Officer and UN-Habitat Vietnam’s administrative and finance team.

The contract will be for 3 months, 1 July to 30 September 2021 (full time), and renewable subject to the performance and budget availability.

Responsibilities

The following specific responsibilities are included in this consultancy:

Ensure effective logistical arrangements and coordination between all the actors in the Project for the prompt and effective implementation of the program activities;
Facilitate logistical and administrative support for local and international travels and missions of UN-Habitat Vietnam personnel under the project including schedule planning, transport requests, security clearance, DSA processing and travel reimbursements;
Assist the project team in the preparation of TORs, and in the recruitment processes and AoC with partner organisations;
Maintain records on all project personnel and local consultants and their respective status in accordance with accepted policies and procedures;
Track project expenditures through appropriate bookkeeping, capturing the financial procedures of the donors and UN-Habitat’s finance and administrative guidelines;
Determine need for procurement and supply of office supplies, equipment and establish and maintain office files, logs, index, control index or other information concerning the work under the supervisor’s control, and maintain inventory for repair and maintenance services;
Assist in preparing requests for the advance of funds and/or direct payments and follow-up on timely disbursements, and submit expenditure and program budget status reports;
Provide guidance to co-implementing partners for smooth and proper implementation of the AoCs
Assist in preparing financial reports in view of the requirements by implementing partners and relevant stakeholders; and
Perform other tasks as may be necessary to ensure the success of the project implementation.

Daily presence in the project office is expected

Expected Outputs

The final product will take the form of the services (described in section 3- Responsibilities) satisfactorily delivered by the selected contractor.

Qualifications

Education:

Minimum Highschool certification. Bachelor’s Degree in business, public administration, management, finance, or accounting, or other fields relevant to development studies in developing countries would be considered an asset.

Work Experience:

Minimum 3 years of relevant work experience in providing coordination and operational support to development projects in Vietnam; in climate change, urban planning, urban development. Working experience with UN-Habitat or UN agencies are preferable.

Language Skills

For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English and Vietnamese is required.

TOR and P11 are attached.

Interested candidates are requested to send their application to UN-Habitat Vietnam via hr@unhabitatvietnam.org

Deadline for Application: 22 June 2021.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.