Background:

This position is open for secondment only and participating States are kindly reminded that all costs in relation to an assignment at the Secretariat must be borne by their authorities.

Candidates should, prior to applying, verify with their respective nominating authority to which extent financial remuneration and/or benefit packages will be offered. Seconded staff members in the OSCE Secretariat and Institutions are not entitled to a Board and Lodging Allowance payable by the Organization.

The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses politico-military, economic and environmental, and human aspects. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, combating human trafficking, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 57 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis.

The OSCE Secretariat in Vienna assists the Chairpersonship in its activities, and provides operational and administrative support to the field operations, and, as appropriate, to other institutions.

The Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) deals with economic and environmental issues, operating under the premise that promoting economic prosperity and co-operation on environmental issues can contribute to international security and stability. The OCEEA’s role is twofold: a) to monitor economic and environmental developments among participating States, and alert them to any threat of instability, and b) to facilitate the formulation of economic and environmental policies and initiatives among participating States, to promote security.

Within this context, the Economic Governance Unit of the OCEEA facilitates and supports economic co-operation and good governance across the OSCE area. Its activities include the fight against corruption, combating money laundering and terrorism financing, promoting effective labor migration management, human capital development, economic empowerment of women and youth, and strengthening connectivity through trade and transport facilitation. In doing so, it works closely with OSCE field operations, the private sector, leading international bodies and regional initiatives, and research organizations to promote dialogue, increase capacity and foster public-private co-operation on economic co-operation and good governance in collaboration with participating States.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

The main purpose of the job is to implement the OCEEA’s mandate with regard to economic co-operation and good governance across the OSCE area; advance partnerships with other regional and international stakeholders; ensure synergies, complementarity, and co-ordination across economic co-operation and good governance related activities of the organization; and enhance the added-value of the OSCE’s involvement in economic co-operation and good governance activities in all sub-regions as conducive to enhancing overall security and mitigating conflicts in the OSCE region. The incumbent will support capacity building, raise awareness of economic co-operation and good governance issues, and promote co-operation as ways to prevent insecurity and conflict.

As Economic Affairs Officer, you will report directly to the Senior Economic Officer/Head of the Economic Governance Unit, while the Deputy Co-ordinator/Head, Economic Activities acts as your second-level supervisor.

As the incumbent, you will closely collaborate with the OCEEA portfolios to achieve the goals and mandates of the Department. You will liaise with the OSCE field missions as well as OSCE liaison officers in the Conflict Prevention Centre, Transnational Threats Department and other Secretariat departments and units dealing with the politico-military and the human dimensions, as appropriate. You will also maintain contacts with relevant officers in OSCE Institutions. Externally, you will maintain effective communication with working level officials from international organizations (UNODC, UNDP, UNECE, ILO, OECD) and any other partners for effective implementation of programme activities. Furthermore, you will maintain working level contacts with officials in relevant ministries of participating States, as well as OSCE delegations responsible for economic dimension issues.

More specifically, you will be tasked with the following:

1. Supporting and co-ordinating OCEEA activities in relation to economic aspects of security in the areas of good economic governance, including combatting corruption, human capital development and regional economic and business development, including gender aspects;
2. Monitoring and expediting project implementation through discussions and correspondence with counterparts in the OSCE field missions, field visits, and analysis of project progress. Utilising information obtained as an input to corrective decision-making and revisions;
3. Identifying and disseminating information on economic co-operation, economic development aspects of security, good economic governance, anti-corruption and human capital development issues as well as project information, with the Economic/Environmental Officers in the OSCE field missions with the intention of sharing best practices/lessons learned;
4. Preparing contributions on current and future activities of the Economic Governance Unit for the OCEEA annual programme and budget, the OCEEA annual Activity Report and the OSCE Annual Report;
5. Developing inputs to background and other documents of the Economic and Environmental Forum Process when relevant to the area of coverage and responding to requests for information;
6. Assisting the Senior Economic Officer in conceptualising and preparing an annual work programme for the Unit and in identification of its priorities in economic good governance, combatting corruption, human capital development, and regional economic and business development, including gender aspects; preparing list of ongoing projects/activities and projects in need of financing;
7. Researching, formulating, developing and managing project activities intended to address economic threats to security within the area of responsibility; organizing meetings, technical seminars, and conferences in these areas to support information sharing, good practice dissemination and exchange of lessons learned, including supporting with technical and logistical arrangements;
8. Developing agenda items, work programmes, background papers, speeches for and reports on conferences, seminars, workshops, training courses, and overseeing partner co-ordination and other activities related to implementation of these activities within the area of responsibility;
9. Reporting on ongoing/planned project activities, as required, to the Senior Economic Officer, the Deputy Co-ordinator/Head, Economic Activities, the Co-ordinator, the Chairpersonship-in-Office, and the Economic and Environmental Committee;
10. Preparing regional or sectoral analyses as background studies to assist in project selection and development;
11. Assisting in fundraising for projects and maintaining relations with funding sources including participating in negotiating and drafting agreements with bilateral and multilateral donors and implementing partners and maintaining and developing a contact network of multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors, government officials, UN agencies and other International Organizations, IFIs, private sector and civil society;
12. Establishing and maintaining working relations with key partners, providing information to partner organizations on OSCE activities in the area of coverage, identifying and developing joint projects and activities with external partners, and monitoring, managing and reporting on implementation of joint activities;
13. Carrying out other activities as assigned.

For more detailed information on the structure and work of the OSCE Secretariat and the OCEEA, please see https://www.osce.org/secretariat and https://www.osce.org/oceea

Necessary Qualifications:

• Second-level university degree in Economics and/or Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science, International Law or related field; a first-level university degree in in combination with two additional years of relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of the second-level university degree;
• A minimum of five years (seven years with a relevant first-level degree) of professional experience at the international level in project and programme development and management, and stakeholder management;
• Understanding of and experience in security-related economic governance issues, in particular regional economic co-operation, economic good governance, corruption prevention, socio-economic development, business development and/or related areas;
• Experience in carrying out conceptualization and analysing socio-economic data and trends;
• Knowledge of and experience with mainstreaming gender in policy and project work;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; knowledge of another OSCE language, especially Russian, would be an asset;
• Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, and an ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;
• Ability and willingness to work as a member of team, with people of different cultural, and religious backgrounds, different gender, and diverse political views, while maintaining impartiality and objectivity;
• Computer literate with practical experience using Microsoft applications.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE’s online application link found under https://vacancies.osce.org/. If your participating State does not provide the option to apply online for seconded positions, you are kindly requested to submit your offline application form available at https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/offline-application-form to the respective OSCE delegation whose address can be found at https://www.osce.org/contacts/delegations.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

Please note that vacancies in the OSCE are open for competition only amongst nationals of participating States, please see https://www.osce.org/participating-states.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages the nomination of qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds.

The OSCE is a non-career organization committed to the principle of staff rotation; therefore, the maximum period of service in this post is 10 years.

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please apply to your relevant authorities well in advance of the deadline expiration to ensure timely processing of your application. Delayed nominations will not be considered. The OSCE can only process Secondment applications that have been nominated by participating States. For queries relating to your application, please refer to the respective delegation as listed here: https://www.osce.org/contacts/delegations.

Please be aware that OSCE appointments are subject to medical clearance.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.