Background
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Over the last decade, Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth and human development. Despite progress, fragile employment and the growing frequency and intensity of disasters and climate hazards are impeding progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality and forced millions of people into poverty in Bangladesh. Women are facing the burden of these complicated issues, and the pandemic primarily had gendered consequences, slowing or even reversing much of the progress made toward gender equality.
SWAPNO (Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities) is a gender-based social security project that aims to lift poverty-stricken rural women (divorced/separated/widowed/having a husband with disability) out of economic insecurity by providing them with productive and sustainable livelihood opportunities. In addition to self-employment, SWAPNO also helps place women in local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and private sector companies in the formal and informal sectors.
Since its inception, SWAPNO has benefited 12,492 beneficiaries in five districts. Among them, SWAPNO II has covered 3564 in Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, and Gaibandha districts. The project has aided economically disadvantaged women in developing their talents, linking them to services and the local market, and ensuring their financial inclusion. This has ensured their survival, improved their resilience to shocks, and provided them more power.
Based on the success of the project and the experience gained, SWAPNO II aspires to implement the project across the 12 districts of Bangladesh – Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Gopalgonj, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Cumilla, and Chandpur. SWAPNO will specifically target women group from 18 to 30 years and 31 to 45 years to ensure employability and sustainability of project outcomes. The project will maximize the possibilities for financial inclusion while also emphasizing future employability by improving industry skills for job placements in the formal sector and local SMEs. Additionally, SWAPNO will aim to attract investors for social enterprises that offer commercially viable solutions for social problems, encourage environment-friendly business, create employment, and collaborate with the private sector. The project will put further emphasis on the importance of disaster resilience and climate change adaptation and train women to develop their life and soft skills.
In this backdrop, this Implementation Plan outlines SWAPNO’s strategy to support women’s access to decent employment, ensure a discrimination-free environment in public workplaces, develop adaptive livelihoods, establish localized Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), access to financial services for sustainable graduation from extreme poverty, and develop local government capacity to implement pro-poor projects. SWAPNO II will contribute to achieve the following results:
- Outcome 1: Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Sustaining SWAPNO Benefits
- Outcome 2: Increased Income and Assets Engaging Local Economy and Skill Development
- Outcome 3: Strengthened Human Capabilities and Resilience Capacity
The Finance & Admin. Associate will work under the leadership of the National Project Manager (NPM) and liaise with the National Project Director (NPD) for smooth implementation of the Project. Finance & Admin. Assistant and Driver cum Messengers will report directly to this post.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the overall guidance of the National Project Manager, SWAPNO Project, the incumbent will provide high-quality programme support expertise and project support assistance in the overall delivery of the SWAPNO.
The incumbent will be responsible for the following tasks:
Support in overall administrative and logistics management including assets of the project:
- Assist the Project Manager in day-to-day administrative support for the smooth operation of the project. Maintain inventory of project assets and provide logistic support to workshops/seminars and other project activities.
- Ensure the proper maintenance of the record-keeping and filing system related to administration, logistics, equipment, and vehicles of the project.
- Monitor and maintain equipment, vehicles, and other assets of the Project for security and proper functioning, if required assist in the transfer of title of assets on behalf of the organization.
- Ensure full compliance with organizational rules and regulations, policies, and strategies on travel management and ensure that vehicles are used by organizational rules and regulations and that vehicle usage data is correctly recorded.
- Assist with staff evaluation, contract extension, recruitment & other HR-related issues.
- Maintenance of proper filing system for HR records and documents.
- Assist Project Management in contract management for different vendors and partners of the projects.
- Drafting of Letter of Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, note to file, Contracts with implementing partners, and other such documents as per organizational rules, regulations, and formats in close coordination with the Project Manager.
- Assist the Project Manager in the procurement process and troubleshoot to escalate the process for receiving the goods and services on time.
- Ensure the compliance of all the provisions of guidelines regarding personnel management, sub-contract, and financial management.
- Undertake project financial closure formalities including submission of project closure reports, transfer and disposal of assets, and processing of semi-final and final revisions of the budget.
Support in the financial management of the project:
- Manage all financial transactions, in line with UNDP rules and regulations.
- Assist in setting up internal control system and financial data as per GoB and organizational guidelines.
- Prepare the annual/monthly financial report in line with the UNDP and Government rules and regulations.
- Management of cash receipts and petty cash.
- Assist the Project Manager in preparing and revising the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and multi-year budget of the project.
- Prepare quarterly Fund Authorization and Certification of Expenditures (FACE) including cashbook, and bank reconciliation, and ensure timely liquidation.
- Ensure the project expenditure is in line with the approved AWP and maintain the shadow budgets to ensure the project delivery.
- Monitoring the project financial resources to deliver the project activities on time and reconcile the Combined Delivery Report.
- Review all payments/claims including travel of staff and other service providers and ensure on-time settlement of claims as per UNDP rules.
- Maintain the project cash advance register.
- Comply and implement all the guidelines provided by the Country Office
- Review financial statements and expenditures as stated in the financial reports of the partner organization.
- Prepared the documentation for the project audit and follows up on the audit observations for settlement with the Foreign Aided Projects Audit Directorate (FAPAD)/ audit firm.
Support for quality assurance of project activities:
- Verify the partner’s activities as per Fund Authorization and Certification of Expenditures (FACE).
- Monitor fund disbursement and adjustment of partner organizations.
- Ensure all ERP-related transactions i.e., budget analysis, upload budget, monitor project budget, and enter necessary General Ledger Journal Entry (GLJE) in ERP software, etc.
- Support for the preparation of the vouchers and processing payments for all financial transactions in line with the UNDP rules and regulations.
- Ensure event management.
- Assist the Project Team in the preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual progress reports.
Participating in knowledge-building and sharing activities:
- Participate in the training for the operations/projects staff on financial procedures.
- Provide training to project staff on administrative and financial procedures.
- Contribute to the project’s knowledge management and learning agenda.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Competencies:
Core competencies:
- Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work.
- Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking.
- Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning.
- Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process.
- Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously.
- Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships.
- Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making.
People Management competencies:
- UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Finance
- Accounting (General): Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, frameworks, standards, regulations, policies and trends, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations.
- Audit (General) : Understands how regulations and professional standards in internal and external audit underpin audit work in the public services; Understands the key stages of audit work, including planning, documentation, testing and reporting. Ability to examine and verify accounts and records. Understands wider mechanisms for assurance and scrutiny; Understands the law and best practice relating to anti- bribery and corruption controls and the fraud risks faced by public bodies.
- Budget management: Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets.
Administration & Operations
- Events management (including retreats, trainings and meetings): Ability to manage events, including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc.
Procurement
- Contract management: Knowledge of contract management concepts, principles and methods, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations.
Business Management
- Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.
- Resource Management: Ability to allocate and use resources in a strategic or tactical way in line with principles of accountability and integrity.
Required Skills and Experience:
Education:
- Secondary Education with specialized certification in accounting and/or Finance. University degree in Finance or Accounting desirable. Part-qualified accountants from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage. (The degree must state that the major is in accounting or finance. Degrees in Business Administration or Public Administration are not considered equivalent.)
- Fully Qualified Accountant, from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy or Full Completion of the UNDP Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP). No UNDP Accountancy and Finance Test (AFT)is required.
- Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications, but with degrees that major in accountancy and/or finance must complete the UNDP Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited. However, no UNDP Accountancy and Finance Test (AFT) is required.
- Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications but with relevant experience must successfully undertake the UNDP Accountancy and Finance Test (AFT) before shortlisting and must complete the UNDP Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited.
Experience:
- Minimum 7 years (with Secondary education) or 4 years (with a bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in administration and financial management in development projects.
- Understanding of budgeting, accounting, and bookkeeping, particularly under NIM / international Organizations’ standard procedures.
- Working experience with NPD/ Secretary/ high level government officials as per GOB system is highly demandable is an asset.
- Experience of working with GoB fund management in particular is highly required.
- Experience of working with development sectors will be added advantage.
- Experience in handling of web-based enterprise resource management systems is an asset.
- Independent auditing skills.
- Demonstrable proficiency with Microsoft Office and other relevant management software.
- Experience of working with Public Sector will be preferable.
- Ability to create and manage processes to achieve Organization’s long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analysing and reporting.
Required Languages:
Disclaimer
Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.
UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
Applicant information about UNDP rosters
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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