Senior Policy Support Officer (GID)

The Senior Policy Support Officer provides policy advice and support focused on the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and related OSCE activities. The role involves monitoring developments, providing early warning, drafting speeches and statements, managing a Policy Support Officer, and supporting the Chairpersonship and Secretary General in conflict-related contexts.

Responsibilities

• Provide policy advice on relevant issues with a focus on the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and related meetings and engagements by the OSCE Secretariat and relevant other stakeholders.
• Draft speeches, statements, background briefings and talking points on a variety of related OSCE activities in the conflict context.
• Lead and manage a Policy Support Officer in support of the GID.
• Analyse the impact of present and future activities on agreed tasks and objectives.
• Monitor and analyse developments in the context; provide policy advice, reporting and entry points for early warning, early action, including confidence-building measures.
• Report to the Deputy Director for Policy Support Service and coordinate with the Director of CPC.
• Manage the activities of Policy Support Officer, oversee workload, manage performance and guide professional development; supervise other staff as required.
• Monitor and analyze developments with a focus on early warning signals of potential crisis situations, alerting the Secretary General and OSCE Chairpersonship to issues that might constitute a threat to security and stability, and provide recommendations on appropriate preventive or reactive action.
• Assist in implementing policy/mandate guidance from the Secretary General and the participating States, including leading or participating in CPC/Secretariat meetings and OSCE Troika representatives, including in relation to the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and its formats.
• Provide expert, advisory, material, technical and other support to the Secretary General and Chairpersonship, including conducting research, preparing analytical reports and policy options proposals, background information, draft decisions and draft statements.
• Support the Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) engagement on the ground, particularly supporting CiO representative(s) in the GID; act as co-moderator in Working Group 2, and provide support to Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings.
• Facilitate coordination of programmes and activities in support of confidence-building, people-to-people contacts, and entry points for mediation and dialogue, including with Secretariat Units and the Institutions.
• Take an active part in and lead consultations with partner organizations on issues related to these activities, both at HQ level and in the field, in support of the OSCE’s mandate and the CiO; give presentations on the work of the Organization to representatives of international organizations, officials and delegations.
• Participate in selection panels if appropriate; supervise the activities of a policy support officer, possibly interns; ensure appropriate task and resource allocation, foster strong performance and facilitate professional development of team members; provide input to onboarding and briefing of staff.
• Ensure that a gender perspective is considered and included in all activities developed and managed by the team.

Requirements

• A first-level university degree in political science, public or international law, international relations or another related field is required.
• A minimum of nine years (seven years with a relevant second-level degree) of progressively responsible professional experience in a government, diplomatic service, international organization, national administration or an international non-governmental organization.
• Work experience in the region would be a distinct asset; experience in project management and resource mobilization.
• Demonstrable experience in dialogue facilitation, producing political analysis and reporting.
• Demonstrable people management experience.
• Professional fluency in English, including excellent drafting skills; working knowledge of Russian is mandatory.
• Working knowledge of another OSCE official language and/or another language spoken in the region would be an asset.
• 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, whilst maintaining impartiality and objectivity.
• Digital literacy and proficient use of Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint), internet.

Skills

• Political Analysis
• Dialogue Facilitation
• Policy Advice
• Project Management
• Resource Mobilization
• People Management
• Report Writing
• Drafting Speeches
• Conflict Monitoring
• Gender Awareness
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Digital Literacy
• English Drafting
• Russian Language
• Teamwork in Multi-cultural Environment

Languages

English, Russian