Title: Senior Project Assistant

​Requisition ID: 5507
Grade: G6
Country: Austria
Duty Station: Vienna
Category: Project-funded GS
Type of Job Posting: Internal and External
Employment Type: Staff-Full-time
Appointment Type: Fixed Term - 100 series
Indicative Minimum Net Annual Salary: 66,981 EUR
Application Deadline: 23-Apr-2025, 11:59 PM (Vienna, Austria time)

Vacancy Announcement
This post is for local recruitment only.
THE APPOINTMENT IS LIMITED TO THE SPECIFIED PROJECT(S) ONLY AND DOES NOT CARRY ANY EXPECTATION OF RENEWAL.
Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Organizational Context

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability. The mission of UNIDO, as described in the Lima Declaration adopted at the fifteenth session of the UNIDO General Conference in 2013 as well as the Abu Dhabi Declaration adopted at the eighteenth session of UNIDO General Conference in 2019, is to promote and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in Member States. The relevance of ISID as an integrated approach to all three pillars of sustainable development is recognized by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will frame United Nations and country efforts towards sustainable development. UNIDO’s mandate is fully recognized in SDG-9, which calls to “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. The relevance of ISID, however, applies in greater or lesser extent to all SDGs. Accordingly, the Organization’s programmatic focus is structured in four strategic priorities: Creating shared prosperity; Advancing economic competitiveness; Safeguarding the environment; and Strengthening knowledge and institutions.

Each of these programmatic fields of activity contains a number of individual programmes, which are implemented in a holistic manner to achieve effective outcomes and impacts through UNIDO’s four enabling functions: (i) technical cooperation; (ii) analytical and research functions and policy advisory services; (iii) normative functions and standards and quality-related activities; and (iv) convening and partnerships for knowledge transfer, networking and industrial cooperation. Such core functions are carried out in Divisions/Offices in its Headquarters, Regional Offices and Hubs and Country Offices.

The Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development (TCS), headed by a Managing Director, ensures the Organization's application of strategies and interventions for sustainable industrial development related to environment, energy, Micro, Small and Medium-Enterprises (MSMEs), and digitalization. The Directorate also oversees the Organization's normative contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through industrial policy advice and capacity development. Through coordination in-house and with Member States and industry stakeholders, it ensures that the services provided in these areas contribute to effective and appropriate technical, business and policy solutions and are focused on results, scaling up and positioning UNIDO as a leading platform for industrial development in developing countries and global fora. The Directorate is responsible for the Division of Industrial Policy Advice and Capacity Development (TCS/IPC), and technical Divisions of Circular Economy and Green Industry (TCS/CEG), Energy and Climate Action (TCS/ECA), Climate Innovation and Montreal Protocol (TCS/CMP); MSME Competitiveness, Quality and Job Creation (TCS/SME); and Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence (TCS/DAI). Leveraging the diverse skill sets of UNIDO personnel and the services provided by the two TC directorates, TCS collaborates closely with IET to develop and implement programmes and projects, aiming at enhancing synergy and complementarity and maximizing UNIDO corporate performance and impacts on the ground. The Directorate also ensures close coordination and collaboration among the Divisions as well as with relevant entities in all Directorates across the Organization.

The Division of MSME Competitiveness, Quality and Job Creation (TCS/SME) works towards increasing the competitiveness of industries in developing countries and countries in transition, especially emphasizing business development of MSMEs engaged in manufacturing and creating jobs therein. It aims at increasing competitiveness among MSMEs in two interconnected ways: first, by modernizing businesses through the transfer of advanced technologies adapted to local conditions, product innovation, productivity improvement and upgrading, developing market and value chain readiness as well as improved access to finance; and second, by improving the quality of MSME manufactured products and their compliance with market requirements through capacity building for the development of industrial production and trade-related quality infrastructure including for standardization, metrology, accreditation and of conformity assessment service institutions (testing, certification, inspection and calibration) and the strengthening of their capacities.

The position is located under the Competitiveness, Quality and Compliance Unit (TCS/SME/CQC) which builds national and regional production and quality infrastructure systems, with an emphasis on providing internationally recognized services, facilitating MSME participation in regional and global value chains; strengthening institutional quality infrastructure capacities; building conformity assessment capacities; and supporting market access and quality awareness with the public sector, economic operators and consumers, placing a special emphasis on capacitating MSMEs.

At the G6 level the incumbent is expected to perform highly independent and specialized processes focusing on specialized service delivery and support services within the organizational environment and team. His/her interventions result in processes integrity.

The UNIDO Staff Performance Management System reinforces the collaboration within formal units as well as among cross-functional teams. In this context, the incumbent collaborates with his/her supervisor and colleagues, within as well as outside the unit. Within formal teams, the incumbent may be expected to backstop other team members as required.

PROJECT CONTEXT (ID 200183):

Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh (PAIDAR) is a five-year programme funded by the European Union to support the Government of Sindh (GoS), Pakistan in implementation of its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). The long-term objective of PAIDAR is to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods of poor women, men and young people across Sindh province.

The PRS has three pillars: 1) Community Driven Local Development 2) Addressing Urban Poverty including Urban Economic Clusters and 3) Rural Growth Centres.

Purpose of PAIDAR programme is to support the GoS to implement its poverty reduction strategy as a whole and in particular sub-strategies that aim at:

• Fostering economic development, enterprise development and job creation with the objective of increasing income of the poor women, men and young people
• Optimizing public (and basic) service delivery to enhance access to livelihood, by improving services such as water supply, wastewater treatment, waste disposal, electricity supply, housing, health, and education services, including other services/infrastructure which may be relevant (roads, irrigation infrastructure). The ultimate objectives of both improving living conditions and quality of life and reducing poor household’ expenditure that arises as a cost resulting from lack of access to such services and poor living conditions.

  To this end, the programme will:

  • Provide necessary technical assistance, capacity building and financial support to a significant number of micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) in target RGCs with the objective to overcome COVID-19 impacts on enterprises, support enterprise development and business development.
  • Contribute technically and financially to building and upgrading public infrastructure for improvement in delivery of basic service with direct impact on poor people’s livelihood as well as services to support business development.
  • Strengthen capacity of the GoS at provincial and local level for implementation of the PRS and assist the GoS to strengthen internal coordination and monitoring capacity, and to optimize provincial public resources allocation towards meeting PRS objectives.

    PAIDAR will deliver on the above objectives through utilization of three key mechanisms:

    1. Co-financing public investment projects of the GoS aiming to build and/or upgrade centralized and decentralized public infrastructure for delivery of basic services with high impact on livelihood improvement and poverty reduction, as well as for delivery of services with high potential to contribute to economic development of the target Rural Growth Centre and foster enterprise development.
    2. Provision of grants to support MSMEs investment projects which demonstrate strong potential for enterprise development, income generation, job retention and creation.
    3. Technical assistance to the GoS and the MSMEs to ensure investment projects (both co-financed public infrastructure development projects and financially supported MSME investment projects) are designed, planned and implemented to deliver results in line with the objectives of the PRS; and to strengthen GoS capacity to plan, implement and monitor results PRS.

       FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

       Under the supervision of the First Reporting Officer, the Senior Project Assistant is responsible for the finalization of all administrative tasks of technical cooperation programmes and projects, as well as providing administrative support and being responsible for the following key functions:

       • Receive incoming requests and prepare the appropriate actions for supervisor’s signature on non-technical aspects; provide relevant background/project information whenever necessary to supervisor(s); keep track of pending matters, follow up with other offices on deadlines.
         • Draft routine and non-routine correspondence (both on administrative and/or TC-related matters).
           • Prepare papers, statistics, reports and presentations by extracting/summarizing statistics; undertake computer-based searches, compile background information to assist in project identification and formulation.
             • Responsible for the initialization and monitoring of exercises related to the implementation of TC projects and programmes (e.g.: budget revisions, obligation reviews, re- phasing, extension or completion of projects, issuance of new project allotment documents/due sub-allotments, TC allocations and monitoring related exercises, or other administrative functions as per the specific specialization of the job family). Interpret or consult to clarify the application of new financial procedures and rules, UNIDO Administrative Instructions, policies and Regulations and Rules, TC guidelines and other instructions. Keep track of project budget expenditures; recommend and initiate budget revisions; complete justification for budget revisions; provide information and draw the supervisor’s attention to problems encountered. Retrieve substantive information on administrative matters and/or TC projects from the SAP modules which have been designed to support results-based management.
               • Provide administrative and management support for grants. Assist in monitoring and preparing draft grant agreements, using model documents and extracting all relevant information from the proposals and terms of reference, for review and approval of the Contracts Officer and Grant Management Team. Follow up on invoices for payment to ensure alignment with contractual deliverables.
                 • Conduct training sessions for project assistants and provide ongoing monitoring and guidance to ensure efficient project execution.
                   • Make recommendations for improvements to the design and delivery of the work processes and practices, by focusing on the provision of defined services and seeking opportunities to improve the delivery of the service by collaborating or integrating processes or activities.
                     • Being knowledgeable in the overall service and proficient in all aspects of the work, provide supervision, advice and coordination of the work planning and implementation, within the immediate work unit and direct team.
                       • Providing advice, solutions and answers to inquiries related to the specialized services of the work team/division, as and when received from clients in other organizational units.
                         • Using SAP, initiate and follow up on actions related to recruitment of staff, experts, training and study tours, purchase of equipment, payments, travel authorizations requests/claims and deal with all related inquiries.
                           • Follow-up on budget, research for information and reference material. Prepare requests/documents, e.g. requisitions, purchase orders, travel requests/authorizations, expenditure authorizations, visa applications, etc.