Finance and Budget Officer

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the United Nations 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. UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) manages UN-Habitat’s project portfolio in the Arab States. It ensures that country priorities are in alignment with the UN-Habitat’s organizational policies and strategic objectives and brings through its Regional Representative to the attention of the Executive Management Committee (EMC) opportunities and challenges in the region, allowing for timely feedback and responses to urgent demands and requests from member states. This position is located at UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) at the Erbil, Iraq duty station and the incumbent will report to the Administrative Officer, PMO. Under the direct supervision of the (Administrative Officer, Programme Management Officer) and in overall coordination with the Head of UN-Habitat Iraq Programme and Head of UN-Habitat Kurdistan Region of Iraq Office, the incumbent’s duties and responsibilities shall include the following:

Responsibilities

Resource Planning:

• • Reviews, analyses, and finalizes the preparation of the requirements for Grants and Projects budget cost plan through organized projects framework in both Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and United Nations Integrated Planning, Management and Reporting (IPMR) platform in line with approved budget in contribution agreements.
• • Provides substantive support to relevant departments in UN-Habitat in their review of the Projects Budget prior to deployment.
• • Ensures legislative mandates are accurately translated into programme budgets, considering United Nations policies and Financial Rules and Regulations.

Budget Preparation:

• Reviews and analyses data with respect to the finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of direct and indirect requirements from (a) project managers and head of departments, including programmatic aspects; and (b) requirements for programme operations.
• Provides support to substantive office projects managers with respect to the elaboration of resource requirements for budget submissions in areas of funds management, grants and projects management, source to acquire, and grants out to implementing partners.
• Provides substantive support to relevant departments in their budget review; assists in securing approval from related departments in UNON. Budget & Finance administration:
• Issues allotments, including periodical, interim, ad-hoc, and final financial reports. Preparing projects (Grants) for final closure, including clearing all open ledger accounts, obligations, payables, receivables, outstanding advances, liabilities, and capitalized assets.
• Redeployment of funds and budget revisions when request by substantive office and project sponsors in line with legal aspect in contribution agreements and amendments.
• Monitors budget implementation and expenditures to ensure that they remain within authorized levels. Preparation of monthly and bi-monthly progress reports for both actual expenditures and commitments under several budget categories and types.
• Administers and monitors budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
• Prepares relevant documentation with respect to budget performance submissions.
• Reviews and makes appropriate recommendations with respect to the finalization of budget performance reports, analysing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditure.
• Review released budget and cash position for UN-Habitat Grants (Projects) to ensure sufficient funds are available for disbursements. Ensure timely identification and recording of income applications.
• Liaise with Management, Advisory & Compliance unit (MACs) and UNON in regard to any obstacles that may occur during the financial process in ERP. systems Technical support:

Provides substantive, technical and learning support to UN-Habitat in

• (a) create / maintain master data of projects in Umoja ECC,
• (b) business intelligence backbone for reporting,
• (c) Umoja portal and supplier relationship management,
• (d) Integrated Planning, Management and Reporting (IPMR) platform – Strategic Management Applications – SMA,
• (e ) IPMR- Business Planning and Consolidation (Budget Formulation),
• (f) Grantor Management System,
• (g) Coordination with UNDP and UNON in relation to Inter Office Vouchers (IOV) clearance and relevant financial transactions.

General:

• Keeps up-to-date on documents/archives/reports/guidelines/rules and regulations that have a bearing on matters related to programme budgets, ensuring compliance with United Nations policies and procedures;
• Monitors and supervises the work of subordinate staff as required.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Ensures that requirements, background information used for data analysis are documented.
• Performs other related duties, as assigned

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business administration, finance, accounting, Science, or related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with additional two (2) 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 five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in finance, administration, budget, business administration or related area is required. Experience in an international organization such as the United Nations is desirable. Experience in spreadsheets and in database management is desirable. Two (2) years 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 this position, Fluency in English and Arabic is required. Fluency of Kurdish 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/234298?language=en