Location: Geneva, Switzerland (must have the legal right to work in Switzerland)
Time Commitment: 25% (just over one day per week on average, with flexibility to work more at some periods and less at others)
Target start date: As soon as possible
Salary range: 75-90,000 CHF, depending on experience – pro-rated
Contract type: Consultancy or part-tie employment
Deadline: Applications will be considered on a rolling basis __________________________________________
The Article 109 Coalition mobilises UN Member States to review and update the United Nations Charter to make our global governance fit for the 21st century, in line with the provisions of the Charter’s own Article 109.
In the year since our Coalition has launched, we have seen significant traction for the idea of renewing our global governance and updating the UN Charter, among UN Member States, civil society and other policy leaders.
Our strategy to build support for an update of the UN Charter is three-pronged: We mobilise UN Member States; catalyse a broader movement; and shape the policy agenda.
This external-facing work is supported by a fourth strategic priority which aims to set the Coalition up for success by establishing the systems and processes that allow the Coalition to serve as a sustainable vehicle for change. To that end, we are recruiting a part-time Finance & HR Manager to support the management of our internal affairs.
The Coalition is fiscally and administratively hosted within the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, which handles our accounting, payments, audit and contracting. Therefore, the responsibilities listed below are complementary to those already fulfilled by the GCSP – aimed at allowing the Coalition more visibility on its own finances, and greater agility in hiring, but not entailing daily responsibilities. In this newly established role, we are looking for a detail-oriented self-starter who likes ensuring that numbers add up and improving nascent systems. You will work on average just over one day per week with the Coalition, but with the flexibility to work more during busy periods (when donor reports are due, ahead of quarterly expenditure updates and mid-year budget reviews, or during specific recruitments) and less at other times. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, you will serve as the Coalition’s primary focal point with GCSP’s finance and HR managers. See more about the Coalition below and on our website.
Key Responsibilities:
Financial Management
- Maintain a cash flow forecast for the project, based on latest income and expenditure estimates
- Review GCSP expenditure reports for accuracy of allocations
- Lead a quarterly expenditure review with management
- Lead a mid-year budget review process, drawing on spending trends to make recommendations for budget adjustments
- Review and approve staff/consultant expenses and third-party invoices, ensuring they are in line with approved expenditure and GCSP policy, and allocated to the proper budget line
- Produce financial outlooks for management and the Steering Committee
- Liaise with GCSP Finance Manager
- Advise Director on finance matters
Human Resources Management
- Lead recruitment of new roles, shepherding relevant colleagues through various steps of the process: drafting of ToRs, advertisement, shortlisting, interviews, selection, onboarding (this will likely encompass 2-3 new roles in 2026)
- Identify modalities to hire new staff in our globally dispersed team and lead engagement with Employers of Record (we use Oyster) as required; advise on salary levels and benefits based on best available benchmarking and cost of living data
- Draft new consulting contracts, liaising with managers and Director to set TORs and appropriate and equitable compensation; renew consulting contracts that expire as relevant
- Approve monthly invoices and time sheets from staff and consultants (approximately 10 / month at present), ensuring invoiced amounts are in line with agreed contracts
- Liaise with GCSP HR Manager
- Advise Director on HR matters
Skills and competencies:
- At least 5-7 functional years of experience in accounting and financial management
- Exposure to HR operations in the non-profit sector, in particular contracting
- Excellent analytical skills and attention to detail
- Ability to translate detailed financial information to high-level trends in an easily digestible manner
- An entrepreneurial and resourceful spirit, able to seek out information and data where not readily available and develop new systems as necessary
- Experience working in – and striving for coherence across – globally dispersed teams with different contracting and hiring modalities, currencies, costs of living and ways of working
- Experience with accounting software; Business Central an advantage
- Strong Microsoft Excel skills and ease with the rest of the Microsoft suite
- Proficiency in spoken and written English is required; knowledge of another UN language is an asset
How to apply
Send your CV and a short cover letter (max. 2 pages), highlighting your suitability and experience for this role, to: info@article109.org with “Finance & HR Manager” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please indicate in your application if you have the legal right to work in Geneva.
Due to capacity constraints, we will only be able to respond to candidates shortlisted for next steps. Thank you for your understanding.
____________________________________________
About the Article 109 Coalition:
Article 109 (formerly the UN Charter Reform Coalition) was one of 20 “ImPACT Coalitions” launched at the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi in May 2024, in the lead-up to the UN Summit of the Future held in New York in September 2024.
The Coalition is funded by philanthropic foundations and hosted at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland. Its small, multi-disciplinary team is dispersed around the world, and brings together former diplomats and UN officials with campaigners, communicators, civil society organisers and academics. Its budget for 2026 is 1.3 million CHF.
We are focused on a pathway to achieve more effective and equitable global governance: invoking Article 109 of the UN Charter, a built-in review mechanism that provides for a general conference to be held to update the Charter.
We work across four strategic priorities:
- Mobilising Member States: We raise awareness among governments about Article 109 (many diplomats do not know it exists); build understanding to overcome concerns; identify and support member state champions; create cross-regional alliances; and leverage other opportunities to build support for a review of the UN Charter among Member States.
- Catalysing a movement: We invite civil society organisations to join the Coalition, advocate collectively and raise awareness among broader publics.
- Shaping the policy agenda: We provide thought leadership on the topic of Charter Reform, cultivate high-level champions, convene relevant actors, speak at high-level policy events and publish in the media.
- Setting ourselves up for success: We organise ourselves effectively, establishing the systems and processes that allow the Coalition to serve as a sustainable vehicle for change.
We are working on a 5-10-year timeline as follows:
- 2025: The Coalition establishes its team, civil society network, brand and operational systems; and uses the 80th anniversary of the UN to advocate for UN Charter review, build relationships with Member States and normalise the topic in the policy discourse.
- 2026: The Coalition seeds a political grouping of Member States in support of UN Charter review, building forward momentum by addressing the blockages to buy-in among Member States; actively engaging the network of civil society organisations that are part of the Coalition; launching a group of High-Level Champions; shaping the agenda at multilateral fora; and putting in place the foundations for strong information management and policy development.
- As early as 2027/2028: The General Assembly approves a resolution calling for a General Review Conference, as called for in Article 109 of the Charter.
- 2028-2030: A preparatory process includes consultations with civil society around the world
- By 2030: A Charter Review conference begins, as part of the post-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda
Today, seven countries have officially endorsed the call to invoke Article 109, ranging from emerging powers to small states.
Nearly 100 civil society organisations are part of the Coalition’s network, ranging from the Club de Madrid, a forum of more than 100 former heads of state, to grassroots organisations across the world.
Others who have thrown their support behind the idea include Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and former President of Liberia: Alexander de Croo, former Prime Minister of Belgium and the new head of the UN Development programme, and the Council of Presidents of the General Assembly.
Why UN Charter Review?
The world faces “a moment of historic danger”, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with increasingly imminent risks – from nuclear war to a planetary emergency; from increasing conflicts and widening inequality to the uncontained growth of artificial intelligence – threatening our very existence.
As the foundational text governing the major principles of international relations, and in particular peace and security, the UN Charter should provide a framework to manage these threats. But the Charter, created in the wake of the Second World War, is an outdated conceptual tool for the problems we face today. The United Nations has proven unable to meaningfully respond to major breaches of international peace and security in recent months, from Venezuela to Iran, after previous failures in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond.
Add to this the fact that only 50 countries were independent and present at the negotiations that led to the signing of the UN Charter between April and June 1945. At that time, most of Africa was colonised, while only four women participated in the deliberations.
The rules shaping today’s multilateralism require a wholesale institutional review, through a much deeper process of dialogue and negotiations than current reform processes allow.
The good news is that the UN Charter was always meant to be a living document. The veto power given to the five permanent members of the Security Council were controversial from the very inception of the United Nations. As a concession, the Charter’s drafters included provisions to amend the Charter at a later point in time.
Article 109 calls for a General Conference to be held if supported by two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly and any nine members of the Security Council. This review conference, as envisioned in the Charter itself, provides a way forward.
In 1945, at the international conference in San Francisco where the UN Charter was adopted, then U.S. President Harry Truman said: “This Charter will be expanded and improved as time goes on. No one claims that it is now a final or a perfect instrument. It has not been poured into any fixed mould. Changing world conditions will require readjustments.”
The time for readjustment has come.
For more information, visit our website: www.article109.org