Executive Assistant – Refugee Law Project – Kampala

Reports to: Director

About US:
The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is an outreach project of the School of Law, Makerere University. Our Mission is to empower asylum seekers, refugees, deportees, IDPs and host communities to enjoy their human rights and lead dignified lives. Refugee Law Project’s work is currently structured in five thematic areas: Access to Justice; Conflict, Transitional Justice & Governance (CTJ&G), Gender & Sexuality; Mental Health & Psychosocial Wellbeing; and Media for Social Change.

Job Summary: The Executive Assistant will be provide comprehensive administrative, organisational and strategic support to the Director to maximise his/her effectiveness, both internally and externally.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Administrative:
Maintain, update and manage accurate electronic diary, mail and computer databases, assessing priority of appointments and reallocation as necessary for the Director;
Organise appointments, meetings and conferences which may include collating meeting papers, pre-meeting debriefs to the Director and coordinating venues and arranging in-country travel itineraries;
Coordinate out of the County travels and accommodation arrangements for the Director including securing any required visas on time;
Ensure that incoming correspondence is dealt with in a professional and timely manner by the Director/or on behalf of the Director, or other staff as appropriate;
Undertake research for specific information using electronic resources and/or networking relationships with internal and external key stakeholders and also assisting the Director in researching and following up with action on matters which fall within the Director’s responsibility – chasing responses, triggering follow-up action;
Ensure the Director is fully briefed on, or prepared for, any engagements he is involved in through keeping and maintaining an accurate record of papers and electronics correspondences on behalf of the Director;
Screen and filter general information, queries, phone calls and invitations to the Director by redirecting or taking forward such contacts as appropriate as well as organizing inbound emails into the appropriate folders and any relevant information to be copied into the correct file on the hard drive;
To be the first point of contact for all enquiries related to the Director and ensuring that they are acted upon efficiently and to a high standard of effectively were necessary;
Provide full administrative and secretarial support to the Director, including drafting reports, letters, articles and speeches where appropriate;
Undertake the necessary preparation for meetings i.e. preparing background material and ensure that all Programme files are kept up-to-date;
Draft and/or prepare correspondence on behalf of the Director;
Implement and maintain an efficient filing system to provide structure and an effective reference resource at all times for easy retrieval;
Maximise the visibility of the RLP and the Director’s work, through ensuring that IT systems are state of the art and through systematising social media coverage (e.g. twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, organizational and personal website)
Organisational:
Support the Refugee Law Project Management Team and the Monitoring Team and ensure that any meeting minutes or other decisions taken are shared and acted upon in a timely and professional manner;
Draft the Director’s report to the mid- and end-of-year review meetings
Ensure the collation of the Refugee Law Project’s Annual Report
Financial:
Review and reconcile the Director’s internal budget;
Tasked with reconciling expenses made on the Director’s credit card statements as required;
Ensure that all requisitions and accountabilities for Director’s office are submitted on time;
Client and Stakeholder Support:
Ensure that clients are given timely appointments as well as referred to other members when appropriate
Provide visitors to RLP and waiting to meet the Director with a hospitable environment and ensure they are given utmost updates of when the meetings are to take place and provide refreshments as and when required;
Other:
Availability to work (occasionally) unsociable hours, evenings, weekends and public holidays when required;
Undertake any other duties which are consistent with the basic objectives and or/ duties of the post.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
The ideal candidate for the Refugee Law Project (RLP) Executive Assistant job opportunity must hold a Bachelor’s Degree from a recognized university
A minimum of three (3) years of professional experience in a busy organisation
Possession of a touch-typing speed of 40 words per minutes with 90% accuracy
Previous experience of electronic diary management
Excellent IT skills, including a working knowledge of presentation software packages, preferably Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint, outlook
Keen interest in social justice and commitment to inclusion, dignity, and respect for diversity
Proven integrity and capacity to deal with sensitive information with discretion and to maintain confidentiality
Excellent command of the English language, both verbal and written
Tactful, diplomatic, responsive and self-confident, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including knowledge of etiquette and ability to think on one’s feet, including the ability to prioritise and re-prioritise.
Highly flexible, committed and mature with ability to show initiative and common sense, plan own work, work unsupervised, handle multiple tasks, meet deadlines and work in a fast-paced environment under pressure and to tight deadlines
Excellent administrative and time-management skills, with excellent attention to detail and accuracy, and capacity to lead on specific initiatives
Knowledge of Health and Safety standards
Strong understanding of statistics
Possession of valid travel documents
Able to lead by example and demonstrate desire to share expertise, knowledge and skills with other team members
Knowledge of one or more languages spoken in forced migrant communities (e.g. Swahili, French, Lingala, Somali, Juba Arabic, Kirundi etc.)

How to Apply:
All candidates who wish to join the Refugee Law Project (RLP) in this capacity are encouraged to send a motivation letter and curriculum vitae electronically to: recruitment@refugeelawproject.org

NB: The position applied for MUST be indicated in the subject line of the email. Copies of certificates should not be attached, but will be requested for from short-listed candidates only.

Deadline: 21st February 2018

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