Programme Associate, Office of Innovation, Stockholm, Sweden

Job no: 545313
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Level: G-6
Location: Sweden
Categories: Innovation, Programme Management

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyse UNICEF's and all its partners’ expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achieve the child-related SDGs.

The office is doing this by continuously exploring new ways of accelerating results for children, investing across a range of early stage solutions, and harnessing internal and external expertise towards continuously iterating and finetuning the most promising solutions for children through a systematic portfolio management approach, and leveraging all stakeholders’ innovation energy, knowhow and resources from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision and guidance of the supervisor, the Programme Associate supports the respective section by carrying out a range of programme support functions to help develop, implement and monitor their country programme, ensuring effective and timely delivery that is consistent with UNICEF rules and regulations.

The Programme Associate works in close collaboration with a range of staff in the office, external partners and agency counterparts in support of programme design and delivery. S/He provides regular feedback on the status of projects through monitoring milestones and advises on improvements to keep activities on track.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

- Facilitating the development of programme cooperation agreements (PCAs) by providing information and drafting selected sections of it.
- Ensuring the timely and accurate recording and administrative processing of government & NGO’s proposals and requests for direct cash transfers (DCTs).
- Conducting programme monitoring in UNICEF focus districts for cash and supplies and informing team-members on the status.
- Helping conduct regular spot checks of partner’s projects to assess their financial record-keeping, expenditure controls and reporting systems.
- Monitoring and tracking the efficient distribution of supplies that are required for effective programme delivery.
- Supporting the programme section in researching, compiling and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data and information from a variety of sources on subject matters relevant to the work of the section to facilitate programme delivery as well as preparation of reports, working papers and presentations.
- Carrying out transactions in VISION ensuring programme results, activities and programme coding are as per annual work plans (AWPs), and making amendments and alterations as per section revisions when necessary.
- Carrying out transactions in VISION pertaining to grants and programme-related items for his/her section including but not limited to registering grant allotments and tracking expiring programme grants.
- Preparing monitoring and reporting information for supervisor and team on agreed performance indicators to drive more efficient management and accountability for results.
- Regularly monitoring budgets and financial expenditures of section by employing applicable tools, ensuring compliance with UNICEF rules and regulations, keeping supervisor informed and advised on actions for decision and/or follow up.
- Helping prepare periodic or ad-hoc financial reports relating to country office and donors to support the office in optimizing use of programme funds.
- Supports capacity development activities related to programme development by preparing training materials and participating in exercises.


To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education: Completion of secondary education is required, preferably supplemented by technical or university courses related to the work of the organization.

Experience: A minimum of six years of administrative or clerical work experience is required. Prior experience in programme support functions is an asset. Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of Swedish is highly desirable. Knowledge of another official UN language is considered as an asset.

Technical Skills:

- In-depth knowledge of the administration which underpins UNICEF country office programme/project operations, including monitoring and evaluation processes.
- Strong organizational, planning and prioritizing skills and abilities.
- High sense of confidentiality, initiative and good judgment.
- Ability to work effectively with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
- Strong office management skills.
- High attention to detail.
- Ability to effectively manage the section’s material resources and monitor its budget.
- Good analytical skills.
- Experience using MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other software such as SharePoint


For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

- Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
- Works Collaboratively with others (1)
- Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
- Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
- Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
- Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)


To view our competency framework, please visit here (https://www.unicef.org/careers/media/1041/file/UNICEF%27s_Competency_Framework.pdf).

Click here (https://www.unicef.org/careers/get-prepared) to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

Applicants must be nationals of EU countries or in possession of a valid work permit in Sweden. Please attach a copy of your work permit to your application submission.

General Service (GS) staff are locally recruited staff and therefore, candidates are personally respo...