National Project Assistant

Organizational Setting

Monitoring and Enhancement of Remote Sensing for National Forest Inventory (MERANTI) is a three‑year project funded by Norway and managed by the FAO Office in Jakarta. It serves as Indonesia’s new National Forest Inventory (NFI) initiative, integrating enhanced land‑monitoring approaches to improve the accuracy, availability, transparency and timeliness of forest and tree‑resource data. Through the combination of a strengthened NFI and an improved national forest monitoring system, MERANTI aims to significantly enhance Indonesia’s capacity to generate high‑quality forest information. This strengthened data ecosystem will:
•     Improve national strategic planning and decision‑making on forests and trees
•     Support climate change mitigation efforts
•     Enable greater access to scalable climate finance
•     Strengthen Indonesia’s position in climate‑finance negotiations
•     Increase opportunities for results‑based payments (RBPs) and other forms of results‑based contributions (RBC)
•     Ensure fulfilment of Indonesia’s international commitments to global climate and sustainable development goals
The collaboration will also expand to other projects and programmes related to forest monitoring, including the UK-funded AIM4Forests initiative and affiliated programmes within the FAO portfolio and pipeline, as appropriate.

Reporting Lines

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the National Project Coordinator and overall responsibility to the Assistant FAO Representative Administration in Indonesia.

Technical Focus

Programme administration and financial management, including accounting, and personnel administration processes according to FAO Guidelines and Manuals

Tasks and responsibilities

Financial Management

•     Provide support to the project in budget planning, preparation, revision and execution, ensuring alignment with the approved work plans, budget lines and project requirements.
•     Monitor project expenditures and financial activities to ensure that they are implemented on schedule, within approved budget lines, and in compliance with project SOPs and applicable government policies and procedures.
•     Support in tracking budget utilization, identifying potential variances or implementation issues, and taking timely corrective action to support delivery of project outputs.
•     Assist the project implementing partners in preparing quarterly and annual financial progress reports, ensuring that financial information is complete, accurate and properly supported.
•     Prepare financial information and reports for submission to the Project Management Unit (PMU) for consolidation into the project’s annual financial report.
•     Provide advisory support in identifying, documenting and recording co-financing contributions and their corresponding budget allocations, in accordance with project requirements.

Administration Management

•     Provide administrative support for the planning and implementation of project activities, including workshops, trainings, meetings and other project events.
•     Ensure that required administrative and financial supporting documents are collected, properly checked, organized and filed, including invoices, travel documents, attendance lists, minutes of meetings, participant identification documents and event documentation.
•     Support the preparation of administrative inputs for quarterly and annual project progress reports, ensuring that records of activities and related administrative documentation are complete and up to date.
•     Establish and maintain an electronic filing and tracking system for project activities, financial transactions and supporting documents to facilitate monitoring, reporting and document retrieval.

Logistics and Procurement Support

•     Support the planning and timely provision of logistical arrangements for project activities and events, including transportation, accommodation, meeting facilities and catering/consumption.
•     Assist with the procurement of goods and services required for project implementation, including preparation of requests, obtaining quotations and maintaining relevant procurement documentation, in accordance with applicable procedures.
•     Coordinate the timely delivery, receipt and distribution of project goods and supplies, ensuring that deliveries are properly documented.
•     Maintain an updated inventory of project goods and equipment, including records of receipt, storage, distribution and use.
•     Regularly monitor and document the status, condition and location of project goods and equipment, and report any issues requiring follow-up.

Perform any other tasks assigned by the Project’s team to support effective project implementation.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

   
•     Bachelor's degree in economics, accounting, business management, development administration, or other relevant fields. 
•     Minimum 3years of relevant experience in the field of programmatic and/or operational support or in other related fields.
•     Working knowledge of English and Bahasa Indonesia.
•     National of Indonesia

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•     Meeting/workshop/training organizing, facilitation skills, administrative support, project planning and implementation, project monitoring, reporting, knowledge management
•     Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity. 
•     Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
•     Building and promoting effective teams, including working in teams and empowering project staff to create an enabling gender equality environment on non-hierarchical bases.
•     Self-development, initiative-taking
•     Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork.
•     Strong leadership and managerial skill with track records of management roles in a team of multi-diversity background. 
•     Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.
•     Creating synergies through self-control.
•     Managing conflict.
•     Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. 
•     Informed and transparent decision making.
•     Communication skills to exchange information, and key ideas in a manner that engages the audience and helps others to understand and retain messages about gender equality and parity.

Selection Criteria

•     Knowledge of and experience in supporting administration of Government and FAO/UN development projects dealing with environmental issues will be highly desirable. 
•     Strong knowledge and experience in project management support are essential as well as ability to draft correspondence on budget-related issues, briefing notes, graphic and statistical summaries, accounting spreadsheets, etc. 
•     Good inter-personal communication skills. 
•     Full-time availability for project management support duties is essential. 
•     Up-to-date computer skills required, knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages
•     Demonstrated analytical and judgment skills and ability to apply rules and regulations in the subject field.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION