Notification to the Parties

No. 2000/013 Geneva, 31 January 2000

CONCERNING:

Vacancy announcements

1. Seven vacancy announcements for professional positions available in the Secretariat are attached.

The vacancy announcements are PDF files.

nos
00-04	Chief Capacity Building Unit
00-05	Programme Officer Capacity Building Unit
00-06	Chief Convention Interpretation and Servicing Unit
00-07	Training Officer Capacity Building Unit
00-08	Legal officer
00-09	Legal (police) officer
00-10	Legal (customs) officer

 

Classification review of staff posts in the CITES Secretariat

2. A new operating structure for the CITES Secretariat was approved at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP10) (Harare, 1997). A new organization chart for the Secretariat was also approved at that meeting.

3. Under UN rules (Administrative Instruction ST/AI/1998/9 and Staff Regulation 2.1), reclassification and job description reviews for all staff positions in the CITES Secretariat were required following the approval at CoP10 of the new operating structure.

4. In October, 1998 a consultant was appointed by the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), to classify and review all posts in the CITES Secretariat. The consultant's recommendations were reviewed in the Human Resources Management Service (HRMS) of UNON and in the United Nations Office in Geneva and also by the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) in New York. In March 1999, the Classification Unit in UNON advised the Secretariat of the classification decisions for the professional posts in the Secretariat. Importantly, UNON advised that the classification decisions would only become effective once the budgetary provisions had been approved by the CITES Standing Committee. The Standing Committee endorsed the classification decisions on 28 September 1999, which thus became the effective date for the classification actions within the Secretariat.

5. Two of the vacancies (namely, the Chiefs of Unit, P-5 posts, in the Capacity Building Unit and the Convention Interpretation and Servicing Unit) arose following the re-classification actions. Under the UN rules, these reclassified posts must be advertised since the incumbents had been in these posts for less than three years prior to the date of reclassification.

6. The existing Training Officer post was reclassified to the P-4 level and, since the post is vacant, is now being advertised.

Additional posts supported by the Standing Committee

7. The Standing Committee at its 42nd meeting (Lisbon, September-October 1999) agreed that four new professional posts were essential to enable the Secretariat to complete its work plan, reflected partly in the 82 current Resolutions and 144 current Decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties, and projected in the new Strategic Plan to be discussed at CoP11. The vacancy announcements for these new posts are attached.

8. Importantly, the provision of the new posts to the Secretariat was achieved within the existing Trust Fund budget approved at CoP10. At that meeting, the Parties agreed, in Resolution Conf. 10.1, that the Secretariat could draw additional funds for priority activities, from the available drawdown in the Trust Fund balance. Under that Resolution, such drawdowns require the approval of the Standing Committee. Significantly, since the CITES Trust Fund balance will be sufficient to fund these additional posts through to CoP12 (in the year 2002), no additional funds will be sought for these new posts at CoP11 (see document Doc. 11.10.3, submitted for discussion at CoP11).

The vacancy announcements

9. The attached vacancy announcements have been placed on the CITES Web site. The Secretariat requests Parties to bring these vacancies to the attention of capable candidates to ensure that the very best persons apply.

10. Parties are asked to note that the deadline for applications, in all cases, is 6 March 2000.