Vacancy notice: One-year Assignment as a Programme Officer for Inclusive Economic Development and Programme Administrator at the Embassy of Sweden

Who are we?

The Embassy has 22 staff members, among them eight 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 (https://government.se/4a81c2
/globalassets/regeringen/dokument/strategy-reform-cooperation-western-balkans-and-turkey-2021-27.pdf in the Republic of North Macedonia in the following areas:

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

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

The section has five staff members and a part-time controller based in Pristina and is directed by the Swedish Government Offices and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida (www.sida.se) in Stockholm. The section also contributes to political analyses, communication, 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?

Programme officer (60%)

• Manage and follow-up development collaborations including on-site follow-up visits to partner activities throughout the country with a specific focus on inclusive economic development and employment.
• Contribute to a constructive dialogue and liaise with stakeholders such as government, civil society, European Union, multilateral organisations, “donors”, academia and private sector.
• Integrate relevant perspectives (environment and climate change, poverty alleviation, human rights, gender equality, and conflict sensitivity) into the inclusive economic development portfolio and work with colleagues in the team to try to strengthen the synergies between the areas of cooperation.
• Ensure that applicable 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 inclusive economic development.
• Support the team in drafting analytical annual and special reporting documents within the area of inclusive economic development.
• Be part of and contribute to other assignments to the dynamic team.

Programme administration (40%)

• Ensure that quality assurance work and decisions on contributions is carried out according to Sida’s rules and regulations.
• Overall responsibility that the archive is maintained in accordance with rules and regulations. Programme Officers (PO) are responsible for archiving the documentation for their respective collaborationsi
• Overall responsibility to ensure that financial follow up of all contributions is made and that Sida's system for planning and follow-up of contributions, PLANit, is updatedi
• Responsible for distribution and quality assurance of all invoices in
  Sida's system for invoice handling and e-commerce,
• Support the Head of Development Cooperation (HoDC) and programme officers with monthly budget forecasts
• Ensure that close coordination and cooperation with controllers and PA at Sida HQ is established and maintained (especially the controller assigned to North Macedonia based in Pristina)
• In consultation with the HoDC, respond to inquiries and proposals regarding possibilities of Swedish support
• Assist in the convening of a small number of stakeholder meetings and other events

Necessary qualifications:

• Academic degree in a field relevant to the work of the section
• Minimum of 3 years relevant work experience for this position, 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 inclusive economic development opportunities and challenges in North Macedonia including knowledge of actors active in the field (government, civil society, private sector, academia, etc)
• Good understanding of the role of development cooperation with a focus on reforms relevant for the EU approximation
• 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 environment and climate change, democracy, ethnic minorities, human rights and gender equality.
• Experience from local level development initiatives in North Macedonia.
• Experience from representing an international organisation.
• Experience of working with archives and financial management systems
• Prior experience from collaboration with Swedish actors within 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 role requires strong integrity and a commitment to achieving the best possible development outcomes and strict adherence to good governance principles. Sweden’s development cooperation has a zero tolerance on non-action against alleged corruption.

This is a new one-year (12 months) full-time position at the Embassy in Skopje that will replace two part-time staff at Sida Headquarters. Our intention is to offer the successful candidate a position as early as possible in April (depending on availability of the selected candidate) with a four month probation period. The starting date is also subject to the successful candidate’s availability but the intention is that the position shall be filled quickly.

We welcome your application by 21 March 2023 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, max 2 pages

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 as well as Lollo Darin (for programme officer role, lollo.darin@sida.se) and Sajma Gacevic (for programme administration role, sajma.gacevic@sida.se)

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