Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programme Assistant

Responsible to: Director of Organisational Resilience

Key relationships: MENA Senior Programme Officers, MENA Programme Officer, s Projects team, Finance team, Communications

Contract: 1 Year FTC

Working hours: Full-time (37.5 hours a week)

Salary: Circa $46,000 CAD gross per annum

Holidays: 25 days per calendar year, plus public holidays

Special conditions: May be required to travel

Location: Based in Toronto, Canada (with hybrid/flexible working)

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ABOUT US

Established in 1987, ARTICLE 19 works for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear or discrimination. Our mission is to promote and defend the universal human rights of freedom of expression and information around the world, through international advocacy, legal analysis, and regional and national projects. Our Vision is for all people everywhere to be able to freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination.

ARTICLE 19 has been expanding and strengthening our international reach by consolidating our presence outside the UK, recruiting national or regional staff, and establishing strong and operationally autonomous national or regional offices. Being based in the countries and regions in which we work, we believe we have a better understanding of regional and national realities and local needs and thus have greater impact on freedom of expression developments. We are able to respond more swiftly to opportunities or crises. We are closer to our partners, and thus more capable to respond to their demands and strengthen interactions and capacities.

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ABOUT THE ROLE

The MENA Programme Assistant (PA) supports ARTICLE 19’s work on freedom of expression and information in the Middles East and North African region (MENA) with a special focus on Iran in the thematic areas of Digital, Transparency, Protection and Civic Space. Working closely with the MENA Programme and Senior Programme Officers as leads, the PA will engage in day-to-day support of implementation of activities in ARTICLE 19’s MENA projects in the areas of Internet Freedom, Access to Information, Digital Security and Business and Human Rights. The PA will ensure communication is maintained with and between project partners and will provide administrative and logistical support to the team and partners for the implementation of activities. Under the guidance of the Finance Team, s/he will play a particularly important role in financial administration (including maintaining the Team’s filing system), supporting the development of financial reports in line with donor requirements.

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KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Administration:

• Supporting the day-to-day running of the Internet Freedom, Access to Information, Digital Security and Business and Human Rights projects.
• Supporting with the preparation of project work plans and monitoring their progress.
• Providing administrative and logistical support for the organisation and delivery of events (including trainings, workshops, advocacy missions and roundtables) in various locations.
• Drafting minutes and other documents, ensuring coordination and information exchange between project partners.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting:

• Maintaining regular contact with project partners on progress of project implementation and project expenditure.
• Support the timely and qualitative compliance with internal reporting as per the annual and quarterly reports and donors’ reports.
• Supporting the monitoring of project indicators and maintaining project M&E files and records up-to-date.

Finance / Administration:

• Provide financial and administrative support to the MENA Programme as required.
• Maintaining financial records of project expenditure and ensuring all expenditure is logged with the finance department.
• ​Monitoring project budgets and maintaining up-to-date records of project partners’ expenditure.
• Producing draft financial donor reports, with supervision from relevant teams.
• Ensure maintenance and development of MENA Programme files and relevant information systems to improve institutional memory and learning.

Communications:

• Supporting translation/edits of publications, including by coordinating and reviewing professional translations.
• Supporting internal and external communications.

Other:

• To undertake other duties commensurate with the role as may reasonably be assigned by the Programme Officer.

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PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL

Education and Knowledge:

• Educated to degree standard or equivalent work experience.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel is a must) for budgeting purposes.

Experience:

• Experience in working in an office support or administrative role.
• Experience in drafting donor narrative and financial reports.
• Experience in compiling budgets and tracking, and maintaining records of, project expenditure.
• Experience in communications, including on the social media.
• Translation from English to Persian (Farsi) and vice versa.

Skills and abilities:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Farsi.
• Confident in using Excel for ensuring budgetary oversight, and other IT skills, including Microsoft Office, social media platforms and websites.
• Highly organised, with an ability to work with numbers.
• Ability to conduct research support to a specific brief, checking facts using a variety of sources, and with a keen eye for detail.
• Ability to multi-task, prioritise and complete activities under time pressure.
• Good interpersonal skills and experience working and communicating with colleagues and partners in different locations.
• Self-motivation and the ability to work with minimal supervision.

Other:

• Must have the right to work in Canada.
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural work environment and commitment to equal opportunities and non-discrimination.
• Ability to work remotely with team members in different regions and time zones.
• Willingness and availability for overseas travel.

DESIRABLE

• Knowledge of historical context and recent political, economic and social developments in MENA/Iran.
• Knowledge of human rights trends, particularly on freedom of expression and information in MENA/Iran.
• ​Experience of living and/or working in the region is highly desirable.

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Application deadline: 14th August 2022