UN Women - Executive Assistant, N-PPSA 5, office-based, Brasília, Brazil

I. Organizational Context

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Placing women's rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Brazil, UN Women works with a focus on three strategic priorities:
• Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems
• Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy
• All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence

Reporting to the Country Representative, the Executive Assistant provides high-level, confidential executive and administrative support to the Country Representative’s Office. The Executive Assistant serves as the front-office focal point for the Country Representative, ensuring effective management of the Representative’s agenda, correspondence, commitments, protocol requirements, information flow and follow-up actions. The incumbent is expected to exercise sound judgment, discretion, political sensitivity and initiative in prioritizing requests, managing confidential information, facilitating timely communication with internal and external stakeholders, and ensuring follow-up on decisions and commitments.

The Executive Assistant to the Country Representative works in close collaboration with UN Women staff, UN Agencies and national authorities to ensure efficient flow of information, actions on instructions, agendas.

II. Scope of Work

1. Provide executive support to the UN Women Country Representative
• Manage and strategically prioritize the Country Representative’s calendar, ensuring that meetings, missions and commitments are well planned, coordinated and aligned with office priorities;
• Maintain an action tracker of key decisions, deadlines and follow-up commitments arising from meetings, correspondence and missions, and proactively alert the Country Representative and relevant teams of pending actions;
• Prepare daily and weekly agenda briefs, including background materials, meeting objectives, talking points when available, participant lists and follow-up actions.
• Arrange travel and hotel accommodations for the Country Representative, and provide related support to other colleagues when required and agreed with the Country Representative.;
• Answer and screen calls for the Country Representative with tact and discretion;
• Maintain an up-to-date roster of Country Office contacts.

2. Provide administrative support to the UN Women Country Representative
• Provide administrative and logistical support for meetings, missions, events, workshops and high-level visits;
• Organize and attend meetings, prepare minutes, summaries and follow-up notes and communications;
• Prepare and consolidate briefing packages for high-level meetings, missions and events, including agendas, background notes, participant profiles, protocol considerations and relevant documentation.
• Ensure the secure organization, filing and retrieval of confidential documents, correspondence, official records and briefing materials, in line with UN Women rules, data protection standards and internal information management practices.
• Provide administrative and logistical support to other members of the Country Office, when required and as agreed with the Country Representative, particularly for priority meetings, missions, events, high-level visits and time-sensitive office-wide processes.

3. Provide effective communication and information management support to the Country Representative’s Office
• Facilitate flow of information and communication between the UN Women Country Representative’s Office and other units within or outside of UN Women;
• Screen, prioritize and route incoming correspondence and requests addressed to the Country Representative, ensuring timely follow-up, appropriate escalation and accurate tracking of responses.;
• Respond to and/or direct inquiries to appropriate units for timely action/response;
• Draft routine correspondence and interoffice circulars;

4. Provide support to the Country Representative Office’s external relations activities:
• Facilitate the Country Representative’s interaction with various external partners through written, verbal, and electronic communication, and through collaborative and proactive relationships with counterparts and colleagues in partner offices;
• Meet and greet officials/visitors;
• Ensure protocol matters, receive high ranking visitors/officials, coordinate logistical arrangements related to visits.

5. Contribute to knowledge building and knowledge sharing:
• Provide administrative support for effective knowledge management and sharing within the office and other offices/HQs;
• Build and share knowledge and experience related to administrative and operations support.

6. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: N/A

III. Competencies

Core Values:
• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
• Ability to manage data/schedule, documents, correspondence, reports, and maintain protocol and information flow;
• Knowledge of administrative rules and regulations;
• Ability to create, edit, and present information in clear format, using appropriate IT functionality;
• Ability to administer and support administrative processes.
• Strong sense of discretion, confidentiality, judgment and political sensitivity.
• Ability to prioritize competing demands and work under pressure with limited supervision.
• Strong drafting and proofreading skills in English and Portuguese.

IV. Minimum Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Completion of secondary education is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Executive Secretariat, or related fields is desirable.

Experience

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in administration, secretarial, or Program support service is required.
• Experience providing executive or senior-level administrative support to senior managers, representatives, directors or equivalent leadership positions is required.
• Experience managing complex calendars, confidential correspondence, travel arrangements, meeting logistics and follow-up systems is required.
• Experience in the use of computer applications, office software packages such as Microsoft Office, and web-based management systems is required. Experience in the use of ERP systems, preferably Oracle Cloud/ Quantum, is desirable.

Languages

• Fluency in English and Portuguese is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, language are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.