Directorfor Political Affairs Post Level: D1

The Commission of the African Union invites applicants who are citizens of Member States for a position in the Department of Political Affairs which is mainly in charge of Pan African strategies, policies and programmes of cooperation, development and integration in the fields of human rights, democracy, good governance, electoral systems, civil society organisations, humanitarian affairs, refugees, returnees and displaced persons.


1. Post:

Job Title: Directorfor Political Affairs
Post Level: D1
Unit: Office ofthe Director
Supervisor: Commissioner for PoliticalAffairs
Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2. Major duties and responsibilities
· To advise the Commissioner on policy and strategy matters and assist in developing and supervising work programmes and in fostering partnerships;
· To provide technical guidance and ensure efficient functioning of supervised Divisions;
· To organise and coordinate the preparation and implementation of plans of actionand programmes and activities of the Department;
· To oversee the functioning and the performance of the Secretariat of the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights and other AU External and Liaison Offices as assigned;
· To promote best practices and appropriate working systems;
· To ensure overall management of the Department: personnel, budget, performance, quality, discipline, training, in conformity with relevant rules and procedures in force;
· To produce and submit periodic reports of activities and specific missions;
· To build coherent and constructive working relations with other Departments/Directorates/Offices of the Commission;
· To develop and maintain appropriate working relations with partners of the African Union;
· To ensure wide dissemination of the work of the Department and Commission;
· To perform any other duties as may be assigned.

3. Educational Qualifications:
Candidates must have at least a Masters Degree in Political Science or International Relations or Law or Public Administration or Diplomacy and related studies.

4. Workexperience requirement:
Candidates must have had at least ten (10) years of progressively relevant working experience in the areas of Human Rights, Democracy, Good Governance, Civil Society Organisations, and Humanitarian Affairs, Diplomacy of which at least 5 years should be in senior management position.

5. Other relevant skills:

• Computerliteracy;
• Workingknowledge of policy analysis and development and programme/project management,implementation and monitoring;
• Managementexperience, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to organize and motivateothers and to work in a multi-cultural environment;
• Excellentdrafting and reporting skills;
• Goodcommunication and negotiating skills;
• Goodplanning and organizational skills.

6. Language requirement
Proficiency inone of the AU working languages (English, French, Arabic and Portuguese) is amust. Knowledge of one or all of the other working languages would be an addedadvantage.

7. Agerequirement:
Candidates must preferably be between 35and 50 years old.


8. Tenure of Appointment:
The appointment will be made on a fixed term contract for a period ofthree (3) years, of which the first twelve months will be considered a probationary period. Thereafter, the contract will be for a period of two years renewable, subject to satisfactory performance.

9 Gender Mainstreaming:
The AU Commission is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

10. Remuneration

Indicative basic salary of US$ 70,139.00 per annum plus other related entitlements –e.g. post adjustment (46% of basic salary), housing allowance (US$ 16,819.20 per annum), education allowance (75% of tuition and other education related expenses up to a maximum of US$ 7,800.00 per child per annum), etc in accordance with the Rules and Regulations Governing the employment of International Civil Servants of the African Union Commission.

Applications must be made through the AUC E-recruitment Website http://www.aucareers.org not later than 8^th April 2012.