Finance Associate (Local Post for Nationals of Serbia)

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.

In line with its Strategic Plan 2022-2025, UN Women programme office in Serbia works towards selected Development Results in the impact areas of combating violence against women, enhancing gender responsive policy making and budgeting, and supporting the women, peace and security agenda. UN Women is working with different national and UN partners, in the framework of several projects, some of which are ongoing and others expected to be undertaken in the forthcoming period. These include supporting capacity development and strengthening partnership with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality to effectively coordinate and promote accountability for the implementation of gender equality commitments and gender responsive governance; supporting women CSOs in the area of women’s economic empowerment and the empowerment of rural women; integrating gender perspective in programming, implementation, monitoring and reporting for IPA programmes; advancing Gender Responsive Policies and Budgeting in Serbia. The Gender Equality Facility Serbia II project supports the Government of the Republic of Serbia in effective implementation of the EU Gender Equality Acquis and the adoption and implementation of the future National Strategy for Gender Equality by contributing to the specific measures of the accompanying National Action Plan for Gender Equality and through support to women’s civil society organizations.  Regional Programme “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024) in Serbia supports the Ministry of Finance, line ministries and National GEM to have knowledge and evidence to make informed budgetary allocation towards gender equality in line with national, international commitments and post recovery of COVID19. Furthermore, the focus will be on developing capacities of local governments to apply GRB tools in their plans and budget including post recovery of COVID19. UN Women is part of the joint project “Ending Violence, Empowering Change”. The project is building on the results achieved through the phase III, with the aim to ensure that: the legal-strategic framework regarding gender equality is implemented consistently and evenly throughout Serbia, institutional and organizational practices contribute to gender equality and are sensitive to specific needs of women and girls from vulnerable groups, and that harmful practices and attitudes that lead to gender inequality, discrimination and violence against women and girls are tackled.. Project “Improved Safety of Women in Serbia” has the focus on ensuring safety of women and girls through strengthened capacities of relevant stakeholders, enhanced legislation, improved institutional and organizational framework, institutional responses, and awareness-raising. UN Women Serbia, through project „Combating Violence against Women and Girls in Serbia“ intends to implement a series of educational, analytical (research) activities to capture knowledge and to plan a series of tailor-made trajectories of change to achieve changes in awareness, capacity and legal/regulatory systems, including voluntary self-regulation. To further strengthen gender mainstreaming and integration of the gender perspective into different sectors and leverage co-benefits between gender equality and investment funding for sustainable development UN Women will implement the project “Gender Responsive Investments”.   Furthermore, UN Women is monitoring UNTF to end Violence against Women grantees in Serbia.

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director of Financial Management  in Headquarters (HQ) and the daily supervision of the Operations Analyst, the Finance Associate is responsible for the execution of a wide range of financial services and administrative processes in the Country Office (UN Women Serbia), ensuring timeliness, efficiency and transparent use of financial resources and delivery of services in accordance with organizational financial rules, regulations, policies, procedures and approved allocations. The Finance Associate promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations, standard practices and guidelines.

The Finance Associate works in close collaboration with the Programme and Operations Team as well as with the Operations and Programme teams in UN Women HQ for solving complex finance-related issues and information delivery.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Assist in implementing financial strategies, in full compliance of UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and recording and reporting systems

• Perform duties in full compliance with UN Women financial regulations and rules, policies and standard operating procedures, including internal controls;
• Review and verify financial transactions, activities, and documentation; taking corrective actions as needed and reporting any unusual activities;
• Monitor financial exceptions reports for unusual activities or transaction, investigate anomalies and report to the supervisor conclusions and/or present recommendations for actions/decisions;
• Draft reports on financial status, procedures, exchange rates, costs and expenditures;
• Follow-up on audit recommendations to monitor implementation of corrective actions;
• Collect, verify and present information and data for use in the planning of financial resources and the formulation of the Country Office (UN Women Serbia) programme work plans, budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements and execution modalities;
• Provide assistance in Annual Work Plan entry in Results Management System (RMS) as required.
• Provide assistance, advice and recommend solutions to a wide range of financial issues;
• Monitor the proper functioning of the financial resources management system for office and programmatic budgets and resources;
• Assist in implementing cost saving and reduction strategies;

2. Assist in preparing and administering UN Women Serbia budgets in full compliance of UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and recording and reporting systems

• Assist in formulating the budget, control allotments, monitoring expenditures, and preparing revisions according to the needs of the UN Women Serbia;
• Track the appropriate and timely use of financial resources;
• Prepare cost recovery documents or bills for the services provided by UN Women to other programmes or organizations;
• Create projects in UN Women ERP System, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds;
• Implement and maintain control mechanism for development projects through monitoring budgets preparation and modifications and budgetary status;
• Maintain internal expenditure control system;
• Undertake corrective actions on un-posted vouchers, including vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions and unapproved vouchers. Respond to RO /HQ requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Prepare VAT reimbursements with adequate documentation support;
• Input data in UN Women ERP System and monitor status. Keep stakeholders and clients informed for timely action and/or decisions;
• Manage petty cash fund, cash impress level.

3. Provide finance support to the Programme and Operations team

• Review Accounts Receivables (AR) for UN Women projects and follow-up with project managers and finance section at regional office and/or headquarters on contributions, deposits creation in UN Women ERP System and their application to AR pending items;
• Prepare Purchase Orders (POs)  and non-PO vouchers for development projects;
• Record and post transactions in UN Women ERP System, process payroll, travel claims, MPOs, and other entitlements;
• Monitor the setup of budgets in UN Women ERP System to ensure they are in accordance with budgets agreed with donors and are input into UN Women ERP System at the detailed Activity Identity level;
• Monitor each month over-expenditure of budgets and follow up with Budget Owner;
• Monitor regularly transactions posted to projects ensuring actual expenditure has been recorded against correct budget category and activity, take timely corrective actions as required;
• Monitor proper follow up of advances to implementing partners, review their financial reports together with project managers;
• Monitor the financial status and under the guidance of the Operations Analyst implement control mechanisms for management/development projects;
• Monitor and proper follow up of all the financial items in Month-end and Year-end closure instructions status and under the guidance of the Operations Manager, take correction actions as required
• Keep stakeholders and clients informed for timely actions/decisions and review status reports for quality control;
• Provide information inputs to financial reports for Regional Office, HQ Finance and stakeholders
• Associate revenue and expenditure in commitment control for non-core projects.
• Provide inputs and take necessary actions to facilitate timely financial project closure;
• Support financial donor reporting by providing timely information and taking necessary actions as required by UN Women Virtual Global Service Centre for financial donor reporting;

4. Provide administrative support to Resource Mobilization

• Compile and process information from donors, UN Women Serbia, and programme team, as inputs to various databases and documents.
• Prepare drafts for cost sharing agreements including conditions of contributions within resource mobilization efforts, adhering to standard agreements where possible. Follow up on contributions within the Country Office resource mobilization efforts.

5. Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Conduct training and/or helping organize training events and activities; as well as participate in trainings;
• 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 operational practices and management innovations.

Key Performance Indicators

• Timely, complete and accurate financial transactions/activities/documentation
• Timely and accurate advice on UN Women financial rules and regulations
• Timely and regular monitoring of financial resources management system and timely expenditure of financial resources
• Timely and accurate support to budget formulation and controlling allotments
• Timely and accurate monitoring of internal expenditures control systems
• Timely and accurate drafting of management financial reports

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

• Strong knowledge of financial rules and regulations and accounting principles;
• Strong knowledge and application skills of IT tools and understanding of management systems;
• Strong knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages;
• Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems;
• Ability to administer and execute financial and accounting processes and transactions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Completion of secondary education is required.
• Specialized national or international certification in accounting and finance is an asset
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting is an asset.
• Successful completion of UN Women Accounting and Finance Test is required.

Experience:

• At least 6 years of progressively responsible experience in finance;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Serbian is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: . Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.)