Vacancy notice – Program Officer for Environment and Climate Change

Who are we?

The Embassy has 19 staff members, among them five Swedish sent-out staff and 14 Macedonian local employees. The Embassy has four specific sections: political affairs/communications/promotion, migration, administration and development cooperation.

The section for development cooperation is working as a team to implement the Strategy for Sweden’s reform cooperation with the Western Balkans and Turkey for 2021– 2027 in the Republic of North Macedonia in the following areas:

• Environmentally and climate-resilient sustainable development
  and sustainable use of natural resources.
• Human rights, democracy, the rule of law and gender equality.
• Inclusive economic development.
• Peaceful and inclusive societies.

Sweden’s development assistance to North Macedonia complements EU-activities focusing on fundamental reforms.

The section has five staff members and some of them are based at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida www.sida.se in Stockholm. The section also contributes to political analyses and reporting of the Embassy. The head of section is responsible for the work of the section under the authority of the Ambassador.

What will you do?

• Manage and follow-up contributions including on-site follow-up visits to partner activities throughout the country with a specific focus on environment and climate change collaborations.
• Contribute to a constructive dialogue and liaise with stakeholders such as government, civil society, European Union and other donors, academia and private sector.
• Integrate relevant perspectives (poverty alleviation, human rights, gender equality, and conflict sensitivity) into environment and climate change work and work with colleagues in the team to try to strengthen the synergies between the areas of cooperation.
• Ensure that rules and procedures are followed in the management of contributions.
• Contribute to the external communication of the development cooperation of the Embassy.
• Follow and report on the political development (including the EU accession process) in North Macedonia from a sustainable development perspective with a focus on environment and climate change.
• Support the team in drafting analytical annual and special reporting documents within the area of environment and climate change.
• Be part of and contribute to other assignments to the dynamic team.

Necessary qualifications:

• Academic degree in a field relevant to the work of the section
• Minimum of 3 years relevant work experience, for example, from EU, development agencies, Embassies, UN or other international organisations, international or national civil society organisations (including think tanks or private sector philanthropy) as well as national and/or local level government institutions
• Good understanding of environment and climate change issues and challenges in North Macedonia including knowledge of government and civil society actors in the sector
• Good understanding of the role of development cooperation and its requirement
• Excellent oral and analytical writing and communication skills
• Native proficiency in Macedonian and/or Albanian. Excellent command of English and Macedonian and/or Albanian
• Good general understanding of technical IT systems

Merits:

• Good knowledge of the EU accession process including the relevant acquis chapters and the sector working groups.
• Specific areas of experience and/or expertise of relevance to the section’s work such as inclusive economic growth, democracy, ethnic minorities, human rights and gender equality.
• Experience from local level development initiatives in North Macedonia.
• Experience from representing an international organisation.
• Prior experience from collaboration with Swedish actors, preferably in development cooperation.

The Embassy follows Macedonian labor law for our local staff. Salary, terms and conditions will be in accordance with the Swedish Foreign Service salary system for locally employed staff. The Embassy practices a management culture where trust, transparency, participation and personal responsibility are key values. Our new colleague is expected to travel frequently on missions within North Macedonia and occasionally to Sweden. The Embassy adheres strictly to the possible Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the government in North Macedonia.

The position is a vacancy due to maternity leave of one staff member. Our intention is to offer the successful candidate a contract for a period of approximately one year from about mid-December with a two months’ probation period. The vacancy period may be extended to three months according to Macedonian laws for maternity leave. The starting date is also subject to the successful candidate’s availability.

We welcome your application by Wednesday 27 October 2021 by e-mail only referring to “NPO-recruitment” sent to ambassaden.skopje@gov.se in the form of:

1. A personal letter of motivation, 1 page
2. Your CV

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide supporting documents such as certificates and references. Oral interviews will take place with a small number of candidates. These candidates will be required to also conduct a brief written test as part of the selection process. The Embassy encourages applicants from all ethnic groups.

Questions on the content of the work, contact Mikael Atterhög, Head of Section mikael.atterhog@gov.se

Questions on the terms and conditions, contact Head of Administration, Cristina Kvist cristina.kvist@gov.se