Research jobs at the United Nations, New York, United States

Position: Research Assistant

About role

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs welcomes applications for the position of Research Assistant. Under  the direct supervision of the Chief of the SIDS Unit, the Research Assistant will do the following duties:

• Systematically follows through and retrieves, highlights and compiles information from a wide variety of information sources related to the SAMOA Pathway, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other internationally agreed sustainable development Agenda, relating to Small Island Developing States; prepares input for the electronic database and liaise with appropriate and relevant UN system agencies, research institutes and other international, regional and sub-regional organizations in the collection of data and information on SIDS, in particular, as it related to the implementation of their sustainable development agenda.
• Assembles and examines original statistical material to ensure accuracy, clarity, and validity; makes appropriate adjustments as required.
• Designs prepare and maintain a country profile for each Small Island Developing States and any other country or entity assigned to the Unit.
• Prepares a variety of reports, presentations, tables, lists, charts, data sets, and/or diagrams for information from various fields relevant to the SAMOA Pathway, the 2030 Agenda, including the SDGs and other internationally agreed sustainable development agenda relevant to Small Island Developing States in order to facilitate the in-depth analysis of the retrieved information by the supervisor and other users.
• Maintains and expands contacts with other departments in the Secretariat, as well as the UN agencies and programs and other international regional and sub-regional organizations and coordinate the input of other departments in the collection of data for assignments received.

Additional duties

• Prepares, maintains and updates files (electronic and paper) and internal databases; designs and generates a variety of periodic. Also, ad hoc reports, statistical tables, charts, graphs, and other background materials/notes to facilitate inspection and other reviews.
• Drafts program/project summaries coordinate review and clearance process; coordinate with an editor, translation services, etc., on finalization and publication of reports.
• Identifies the organizational requirements for conferences and meetings and also assists in the preparation of documentation and reports for these meetings.
• Attends a variety of meetings to follow discussions, takes notes; prepares a summary report, notes for the file, correspondence, etc.
• Furthermore, performs other related work as required.

Requirements

• High School Diploma or equivalent. In addition to that, even years of experience in collecting and researching data across various areas of the social and economic development area.
• Similarly, experience in assisting the organization of international conferences.
• Experience in using Umoja or other enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in creating travel requests, consultancies and low-value acquisitions is desirable.
• Fluency in English is necessary. However, additional knowledge of any other UN official language is an advantage.