Travel Assistant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Responsibilities

• Organizes the travel for all meetings participants, interpreters, report writers and staff members in coordination with the travel agent and ensures accuracy of entitlements and figures and that cost of transportation is in compliance with the UN rules and regulations.
• Provides Principal Officers an overall estimate for their upcoming meetings that includes the breakdown of the air tickets and daily subsistence allowance.
• Enforces the procedures in place for official travel by collecting the necessary approvals.
• Provides support on visa applications for staff members and non-staff members to various mission points.
• Raises all travel authorizations by calculating air fare, daily subsistence allowance, terminal expenses and other appropriate entitlements.
• Coordinates with the Administrative Officer for clarification or additional information of particular claims, and to explain the nature of problems and delays if any and provides them with a weekly report of the travel advances and claims for disbursement of the entitlements.
• Liaises with airlines and travel agencies regarding their services, invoices and fares.
• Requests index numbers for consultants, resource persons and meeting participants.
• Makes sure that the budget allotments and object expenditure codes are valid and if not, open and/or revise the allotments.
• Associates claims with travel authorizations and other obligation documents for staff members and meeting participants.
• Amends travel requests and/or travel claims to existing obligation documents as and when required.
• Keeps records and ensures that all travel authorizations, claims and refunds of unused tickets are properly logged and filed.
• Updates the quarterly travel plans for the Secretariat.
• Interacts with staff at all levels and communicates with meetings participants regarding their travel itineraries and allowances.
• Deals and takes action with complex cases to ensure adherence to UN rules and travel regulations at minimal cost.
• Assists with the collection and analysis of data as well as preparation of data presentations and reports for information sharing, responding to queries, knowledge management, planning and decision making.
• Assists with visualizations and updating information material such as web pages or brochures.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.

Job - Specific Qualification

• Supplementary training in conference management, travel management, ticketing or related field is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in the field of administration, finance, travel management including ticketing is required.
• The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced by two (2) years for candidates who possess a first level university degree.
• Experience working with SAPs or People Soft/Oracle-based, ERP systems such as UMOJA and in particular the travel module is required.
• Experience in applying travel guidelines, specifically in creating travel authorizations and in settling expense reports is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of experience within the United Nations Common System or a similar large international organization is desirable.
• Experience in organising large conferences and events is desirable.
• One (1) year or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.