Finance Associate

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Under the supervision of the Regional Finance Specialist, the Finance Associate is responsible for the execution of a wide range of financial services and administrative processes in the UN Women West & Central Africa Regional Office, ensuring the timely, efficient and transparent use of financial resources and the delivery of services in accordance with the organization’s financial rules, regulations, policies and procedures and approved allocations. The Finance Associate promotes a client-oriented approach in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations, standard practices and guidelines.

The Finance Associate works closely with the UN Women Regional Office and Headquarters operations team to resolve complex financial and reporting issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

Implement financial strategies, and adapt processes and expenditure recording system including financial reporting in full compliance with UN Women’s financial rules and regulations, policies and standard operating procedures

•  Perform duties in full compliance with UN Women’s financial rules and regulations, policies and standard operating procedures, including internal controls;
• Keep abreast of changes in International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and ensure full compliance;
• Review and verify financial transactions, activities and records; take corrective action when necessary and report any unusual activity;
• Monitor financial exception reports for unusual activities or transactions, investigate anomalies and report findings and/or recommendations for action/decisions to the supervisor;
• Collect, verify and present information and data to be used in the planning of financial resources and formulation of Regional Office (RO) programme work plans and budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements and execution modalities;
• Provide assistance in entering the annual work plan into the Results Management System (RMS), where appropriate;
• Provide advice and recommend solutions on a wide range of financial issues;
• Monitor the proper functioning of the financial resource management system for office and program budgets and resources;
• Implement and monitor cost saving and cost reduction strategies;
• Review with the budget officers and project managers, in accordance with the monthly closing checklist, progress reports on projects and investigate any overruns;
• Respond to instructions from the Deputy Director of Financial Management or the Financial Section regarding financial transactions. Undertake timely corrective actions at the request of the Finance Section to resolve financial data problems or provide information;
• Participate, as a member of the Regional Office team, in internal and external audits of the Regional Office or country offices in the region.
• Follow up on audit recommendations to monitor the implementation of corrective actions;
• Actively promote a client-oriented financial service to the Regional Office and Country Offices.

Prepare and administer office budgets in full compliance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and recording and reporting systems

• Formulate the budget, control allocations, monitor expenditure and prepare revisions according to the needs of the Office;
• Monitor the appropriate and timely use of financial resources;
• Prepare cost recovery documents or invoices for services provided by UN Women to other programs or organizations;
• Create projects in Atlas, prepare budget revisions, review project allocations and status, and identify unused funds;
• Ensure the maintenance of the control mechanism for development projects by monitoring the preparation and modification of budgets and budget status;
• Maintain the internal expenditure control system;
• Undertake corrective action on unaccounted vouchers, including vouchers with budgetary control errors, correspondence exceptions and unapproved vouchers. Frequently review and investigate payment vouchers that are in error; and respond to RO requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Prepare VAT refunds with appropriate supporting documents, where necessary;
• Enter data into Atlas and monitor its status. Keep stakeholders and clients informed so that they can act and/or make decisions in a timely manner;
• Manage petty cash;
• Assist project managers in reformulating the budget, if necessary.

Provide financial support to programme and operations teams

• Review accounts receivable for UN Women projects and follow up with project managers and the finance section of the regional office and/or headquarters regarding contributions, creation of deposits in Atlas;
• Prepare PO and non-PO vouchers for development projects;
• Prepare General Ledger Journal Entries (GLJE) from appropriate vouchers and authorised by budget and project managers;
• Review transactions in Atlas, ensuring that salaries, travel claims and other entitlements are processed;
• Monitor the set-up of budgets in ATLAS to ensure that they are in line with the budgets agreed with donors and that they are entered into ATLAS at the detailed activity identifier level;
• Monitor monthly budget overruns and follow up with the Budget Officer;
• Regularly monitor transactions allocated to projects, ensuring that actual expenditure has been recorded in the correct budget category and activity, and take corrective action where necessary;
• Ensure proper monitoring of advances to implementing partners, review their financial reports with project managers;
• Monitor the financial situation and, under the guidance of the Regional Office Financial Specialist, implement control mechanisms for management/development projects;
• Monitor and follow up correctly all financial items in the status of month-end and year-end closing instructions and, under the direction of the Operations Manager, take corrective action as necessary;
• Keep stakeholders and clients informed for timely actions/decisions and review status reports for quality control;
• Provide information for financial reports to the regional office, HQ finance department and stakeholders;
• Finalise mandated financial reports for donors and other clients and stakeholders;
• Link income and expenditure to commitment control for non-core projects.
• Provide information and take necessary actions to facilitate timely financial closure of projects;
• Support donor financial reporting by providing timely information and taking necessary actions required by UN Women’s Virtual Global Service Centre for donor financial reporting;
• Assist in the preparation of the audit of projects and partners by a third party audit firm. Follow up and/or take action on audit recommendations to ensure implementation of corrective actions. Assist in the review of audit reports on projects implemented by NGOs. 

Provide administrative support for resource mobilization

• Compile and process information from donors and the programme team for various databases and documents;
• Prepare draft cost-sharing agreements, including terms and conditions for contributions to resource mobilisation efforts, adhering to standard agreements where possible. Follow up on contributions to the office’s resource mobilisation efforts.

Facilitating knowledge development and sharing

• Conducting training and/or helping to organise training events and activities;
• Collect and compile lessons learned and best practices in financial management and services. Disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge;
• Contribute to financial business practices and management innovations.
• Supervise and guide staff and employees under his/her responsibility as appropriate, provide technical advice and monitor performance to ensure results are achieved in accordance with plans and standards of accountability and performance;
• Participate in all financial management related training, including webinars organised by headquarters

Key Performance Indicators

• Complete and accurate financial transactions/activities/documentation provided in a timely manner;
• Timely and accurate advice on UN Women’s financial rules and regulations;
• Regular and timely monitoring of the financial resource management system and timely expenditure of financial resources;
• Timely and accurate support to budget formulation and monitoring of allocations.
• Timely and accurate monitoring of internal expenditure control systems;
• Timely and quality financial support to programmes and programme team.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Excellent knowledge of financial rules and regulations and accounting principles;
• Excellent knowledge and skills in the application of IT tools and understanding of management systems;
• Excellent knowledge of spreadsheets and databases;
• Ability to contribute to business process re-engineering and implementation of new systems;
• Ability to administer and execute financial and accounting processes and transactions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• A high school diploma is required;
• National or international certification in accounting and finance is an asset;
• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting is an asset;
• Successful completion of the UN Women Accounting and Finance Test is required.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of progressively responsible experience in the field of finance;
• Experience in using computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), spreadsheets and databases, experience in handling web-based management systems;
• Experience in using PeopleSoft ATLAS is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in French is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

UN Women Personal History Form (P11) must be completed and attached as part of the online application: 

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check)