ABOUT THE COMPANY:

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. We believe that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.

Organizational Setting

The Ethics Office (ETH) promotes high standards of ethical conduct, integrity, transparency and accountability at FAO, in line with the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service.

The Ethics Office provides confidential advice and guidance to staff on ethical issues and coordinates ethics training for all staff. The Ethics Office administers the Organization’s Annual Disclosure Programme aimed at identifying managing, reducing or eliminating the risk of conflicts of interest, and has responsibilities under the Organization’s Whistleblower Protection Policy for the protection of staff against retaliation for reporting misconduct and for cooperating with duly authorized audits or investigations.

The Ethics Office also contributes to the development of policy standards and education materials on ethics and integrity.

The post is located in the Ethics Office at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Main Purpose

The Ethics Associate manages the office and provides management support functions of the Ethics Office, ensuring smooth flow of office work and information within the Office and to/from internal and external stakeholders.

The Associate also provides substantive support to various tasks related to the Office’s mandate.

The role requires applied knowledge and interpretation of office policies, procedures and practices. The incumbent provides procedural guidance to the personnel in the Office.
Supervision Received/Exercised

The Office Assistant reports to and receives guidance from the Senior Ethics Officer.
Work is performed autonomously, showing a high degree of initiative and independent judgment. Managerial guidance received focuses on integration of the work with related services and organizational units.

Working Relationships

The Ethics Associate maintains an extensive range of contacts both within the Organization and with external partners, counterparts and senior managers, providing comprehensive support services and offering process improvements.

Matters are often sensitive, confidential or controversial, requiring proficient handling of information and contacts.
Key Functions/Results

1.

Main administrative tasks related to the management of the Ethics Office:

•    Review and monitor a large and diversified volume of complex correspondence and documentation, often of confidential and sensitive nature; ensure appropriate routing, reply, prioritization, accuracy, consistency, informal translation and timeliness; bring complex, sensitive or priority issues to the supervisor’s attention.
•    Independently handle a wide range of complex and confidential information requests and inquiries (e.g.

answer requests or draft responses, undertake research); respond or draft responses to a diverse range of correspondence related to the mandates of the Office.
•    Provide information and guidance to personnel at all levels within the organizational unit; ensure understanding of intent and deadlines.
•    Support delivery of all corporate reporting obligations (e.g.

Internal Controls Questionnaire, Fraud Prevention Plan and similar).
•    Arrange appointments and duty travels, maintain supervisor’s calendar and receive visitors.
•    Establish internal procedures and tracking systems for correspondence and documents; verify that work is done in accordance with corporate standards; monitor work progress.
•    Assist with the tracking and management of the Office’s annual budget including preparation and submission of Periodic Budget Reports.
•    Research, compile and summarize background materials for use in preparation of reports, briefs, speeches, etc.
•    Supervise maintenance of internal databases and establish/improve administrative procedures and systems to ensure smooth functioning of the Office, including electronic filing systems.
•    Support annual clearance process of the annual report and coordinate with internal stakeholders (e.g.

Finance Committee Secretariat, translation services, Office of Communications) on finalization and publication of reports in multiple languages.
•    Ensure the Ethics Office Inter/Intranet websites are up to date and accurate.
•    Maintain and update Ethics Office corporate IT platforms.
•    Act as a focal point and administrator in the management and updating of the Ethics Office secure database, and responsible for the management of access rights to the database.
•    Coordinate with external entities as may be necessary when assisting the Ethics Office with confidential consultations.

2.

Assistance with Communications and Outreach:

•    Assist in the development, organization and implementation of ethics training, outreach and communication materials and tools, including organization of webinars and on-site workshops, updating Ethics Office’s Internet and Intranet pages, drafting Intranet articles and similar.
•    Contribute to training and communication efforts as needed, responding to queries and follow-up from training, providing information and further guidance materials as appropriate.

3.

Assistance with the Annual Disclosure Programme (ADP):

•    Act as Ethics Office Administrator for the ADP Platform and assist in the planning and administration of the ADP by coordinating lists of relevant ADP participants, monitoring the status of submissions; liaising with stakeholders (e.g.

CSI (Digital FAO and Agro-Informatics Division) on the electronic platform, external reviewer to support review) to ensure the smooth running of the programme, following-up with ADP participants to help ensure compliance.
•    Provide the external reviewers with all the necessary documentation prior to the launch of the yearly process, liaise with the reviewers throughout the exercise, ensuring alignment with updated corporate procedures, and be responsible for the management of access rights to the ADP Application and ADP secure email account.
•    Draft, screen and prioritize outgoing/incoming correspondence and communications related to various aspects of the administration of the ADP, including launch messages and responses to queries and requests.

Impact of Work

The incumbent’s work impacts directly on the smooth and efficient operations of the Office.

He/she plays a lead role in the coordination and provision of the office support services for the successful achievement of the Division’s mandate.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Education: Secondary School Education.
Experience: Five years of relevant experience in office support work.
Languages: Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
IT Skills: Good knowledge of MS Office applications, Internet and office technology equipment.

Residency: General Service Staff are recruited locally.

To be eligible for this position, candidates must be nationals of the country of the duty station or possess an existing visa/work permit and reside within commuting distance of the duty station at the time of the application.

“Commuting distance” means the distance within which staff members can travel daily between their place of work and their residence.

Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical Skills

•    Thorough knowledge of communication and documentation standards.
•    Thorough knowledge of corporate computerized financial, travel, human resources systems.
•    Thorough knowledge of the organizational structure, administrative procedures and policies
•    Good knowledge of the organizational structure.

Desirable Qualifications and Skills

•    Experience in dealing with strictly confidential matters.
•    Ability to work independently and with utmost discretion.
•    Ability to extract, interpret, analyse data and resolve operational problems.
•    Strong IT skills including working with various Microsoft applications.
•    Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).