Associate Administrative Officer

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. The current portfolio of UN-Habitat activities in Africa is expanding and there is urgent need for strengthening the capacity at country level as part of Regional Office for Africa (ROAf). Since the beginning of 2022, the Mozambique Country Office has hired above 30 staff and its operations have substantially increased across the country. Its two main offices outside Maputo, in Beira and Pemba, have grown and consolidated. To respond to this growth, three more administration and financial staff have been hired, two in Beira, supporting the operations in the Central Region and one in Maputo, supporting overall processes across the Country Office, and operations in the Southern and Northern Regions.

The team is now composed of five staff. However, as the complexity of the programme implementation has increased, financial and administrative operations need to be better structured and reinforced at the country level. The administrative and financial team needs to be consolidated across the country office and oversight functions better established to respond effectively to the demands of the Country Office and support a smooth implementation of the Mozambique UN-Habitat programme. To respond to those needs an Associate Administrative Officer for Mozambique Country Office will be recruited. The Associate Administrative Officer for the Mozambique Country Office will coordinate the Admin and Finance Team in the Mozambique Country Office; he/she will also coordinate the interaction and relationship with UNDP and the Nairobi Admin and Finance team ensuring good communication and collaborative relationships.

The post is located at UN-Habitat Mozambique Country Office and incumbent will report to the Head of Office of UN-Habitat in Mozambique and simultaneously to the Administrative Officer assigned for the Mozambique programme in the Regional Office for Africa (ROAF) and based in Nairobi. The incumbent will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities:

Responsibilities

BUDGET AND FINANCE:

• Supports with the design of projects’ budgets, in close collaboration with the Project Managers and the Country Office Management, and with the support of dedicated Programme Management Assistants (PMAs). In doing so, he/she provides quality assurance to project budgets to ensure that budgets are compliant with project needs, UN-Habitat’s requirements and overall Country Programme sustainability.
• Supports project and programme budget planning and implementation ensuring that financial resources are planned for and utilized to implement activities in accordance with the programme/project budget and allotments issued and reallocates resources as necessary in coordination with project managers and, when appropriate, with the Administrative Officer in ROAF.
• In close collaboration with the Project Managers, monitors budget execution with respect to project overall budget and ensures that information for project budget monitoring is available to project managers – making sure that the financial authorization (FA) monitoring mechanisms established at country level are in place and used and that regular budget status is produced.
• Supports where necessary, the production by the Administrative Officer in ROAF of regular overviews of the Country Programme’s financial status to the Head of Office.
• Supports the Project Managers in the production of annual budgets review and planning, including annual financial staff and activities planning.
• Coordinates the production of project financial reports.
• Develops a budget for the country office operational needs and designs a cost sharing matrix from existing projects to ensure the funding of the country’s operational needs and monitors its use.
• Supports the implementation of procedures and systems for implementing the appropriate financial database. Contributes to the development of budgetary guidelines and SOPs for the Mozambique country programme.
• Supervises and/or provides guidance on financial administration and management information issues and practices to colleagues in general and provides supervision for the Programme Management Assistants (PMAs).
• Trains the project managers on the various aspects of budgeting and financial reporting following the UN financial rules and regulations.
• Certifies commitments in UMOJA as per given Delegation of Authority (DOA).

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT:

• Effectively coordinates and oversees actions related to the administration of human resource activities such as, recruitment, placement, promotion, performance appraisal, job classification reviews, separation of staff members, training, ensuring consistency in the application of UN rules and procedures.
• Ensures that all necessary procedures are followed so that all the staff members have appropriate contracts in time.
• Provides information on office’s staffing needs for inclusion in the country programme’s staffing table.
• Manages the staffing table ensuring all staff have been budgeted for appropriately for the projects they are implementing.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION:

• Oversees work related to procurement, billing and receipt of income from various services, operational travel programme, procurement monitoring and evaluation of vendor contracts/payment to vendors and individual contractors for services.
• Consolidates the programmes quarterly procurement plan.
• Reviews adequacy of office space requirements, equipment and furniture and ensures that office space, equipment and furniture are appropriate for all the offices in Mozambique.
• Ensures that there is regular follow-up with UNDP on payments, FA reconciliations and contracts.
• Verifies travel claims submitted for settlement and track outstanding payments.
• Ensures, in coordination with the Head of Office and the ROAF Administrative Office team, an appropriate distribution of tasks across the Administrative and Finance Team to guarantee a smooth functioning and an effective support of the programme’s operations.
• Ensures effective and collaborative relationships and mechanisms between Administrative and Finance team and processes and project delivery teams and operations to facilitate successful programme delivery.
• Performs other related administrative duties, as required (e.g., operational travel programme, monitoring accounts and payment to vendors and individual contractors for services, physical space planning and the identification of office technology needs and maintenance of equipment, software and systems).
• Contributes to the collection and analysis of data and identification of trends or patterns and provides draft insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting. j) Documents requirements and background information used for data analysis.

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business or public administration, finance, accounting, law, or related field is required. A first level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of two (2) years of progressively responsible experience in administration, finance or human resources management is required. Experience working on administration in support of humanitarian operations/action is required. Experience in the field (actual setting where a mission and/or project is being implemented) in emergency situations (complex emergency or natural disaster) is required. Experience with procurement of goods and services, and human resource administration is desirable. Experience with UN operational frameworks or other comparable international organizations is desirable. Experience in a humanitarian context in the UN Common System or other comparable international organization is desirable. One (1) year or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English and Portuguese is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable. NOTE: “Fluency equals a rating of “fluent” in all four areas (read, write, speak, understand) and ” Knowledge of” equals a rating of ” confident” in two of the four areas.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/231010?language=en