Political Affairs Assistant

The Political Affairs Assistant supports the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan by processing political and security information, preparing reports and briefs, monitoring developments, and maintaining databases. The role involves outreach to Afghan interlocutors and assisting in data collection and visualization to support political analysis and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Receives and processes information contained in communications and publications from different sources, including from governmental and Afghan non-governmental actors inside and outside Afghanistan; maintains up-to-date knowledge of events relating to political and security issues in a specified area or subject matter.
• Assists with preparing drafts, routine reporting documents, briefing notes, and talking points.
• Assists in preparing summaries of articles from a wide variety of sources and drafts a variety of correspondence and reports, in particular daily situation reports.
• Monitors political, security and other relevant developments in an assigned area.
• Updates information in the databases that track information relevant to the assigned area.
• Undertakes outreach to relevant Afghan interlocutors to develop effective contact networks.
• 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 and brochures.
• Updates relevant databases as required.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.
• University degree in political science, international relations, social sciences, law, public administration, international economics, economics, journalism is desirable.
• Training in Islamic Studies is desirable.
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible relevant work experience in political science, international relations, legal/paralegal, disarmament, security development management, conflict resolution, or related work is required.
• The minimum year of relevant experience is reduced to 3 years for candidates who possess a first level university degree or higher in law, political science, international relations, social sciences, economics, or humanities.
• Experience in analysis of issues related to politics and security in Afghanistan and the region is required.
• Experience in using open-source research tools is desirable.
• Experience working on providing political advice is desirable.
• English is required at UN Level II proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Dari is required at UN Level II proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Pashto is required at UN Level II proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Skills

• Political Analysis
• Security Analysis
• Conflict Resolution
• Disarmament
• Political Advice
• Data Collection
• Report Writing
• Brief Preparation
• Database Management
• Open-Source Research
• Political Science
• International Relations
• Legal Research
• Political Outreach
• Data Visualization

Languages

English, Dari, Pashto