Program Assistant

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation.

UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN Volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

The UNV Field Units (FU) are mainly accountable for the mobilization and placement of UN Volunteers in UN Agencies, Funds, and Programmes focused on peace, development and humanitarian needs. The UNV Field Units represent and position UNV in the respective countries and bring UNV’s services and solutions closer to its partners from governments, UN entities, civil society and private sector.

Under the supervision of the Country Coordinator the Program Assistant provides administrative and operational assistance to UNV Field Unit of Sudan, in support of volunteer mobilization and deployment and the promotion of volunteerism in the country.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of UNV Country Coordinator or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Program Assistant will:

UN Volunteer Recruitment:
• Assist in the development and finalization of Description of Assignments, and in recording them in the Unified Volunteer Platform (UVP);
• Support the deployment and assignment management of all UN Volunteer modalities.
• Support the recruitment of UN Volunteers, by:
a) providing needed guidance to selected candidates in completing the recruitment formalities;
b) monitoring the progress of the recruitment and ensuring proper follow-up with related counterparts: candidate, host entity (HE) and Volunteer Services Center (VSC);
c) Ensuring that UNV induction session for the newly deployed UN Volunteers is provided within the first 2 weeks of assignment start;
d) Providing necessary support to UN Volunteers upon arrival

UNV Assignment Management:
• Assist on the logistical and travel arrangements of arriving UN Volunteers and their recognized dependents;
• Ensure necessary support is provided to UN Volunteers upon their arrival and deployment;
• Track and monitor on monthly basis the contractual status of serving UN Volunteers and ensure proper follow-up with HEs to determine proper action (extension, termination) and record these actions in the UVP;
• Support the organization of regular meetings with the serving UN Volunteers, retreat, training sessions, etc;
• Provide support to emergency cases involving UN Volunteers and recognized dependents in the country, including cases of medical evacuation, security evacuations or the death of a UN Volunteer;
• Leverage UNV Service Desk and relevant knowledge source to address enquiries from Host entities or UN Volunteers;
• Assist VSC in ensuring all conditions are met before the payment of final entitlements to UN Volunteers at the end of their assignment, including completion of checklist;

Promotion of Volunteerism:
• Support the Country Coordinator in organizing and participating in promotion of volunteerism activities, including UN Thematic days, regular UN Volunteers meetings, formal and informal gatherings;
• Support the Country Coordinator in advocacy and outreach activities by contributing to the production of visibility materials, collecting inputs to publish success stories highlighting UN Volunteer contributions through social media and relevant UNV website;
• Develop and maintain a database of volunteer organizations and groups in Sudan;
• Support outreach in all regions of Sudan to enrich the national pool of candidates;
• Perform other administrative duties as may be required.