Finance Officer/ Pooled Fund

Org. Setting and Reporting

These positions are located in the Operations and Advocacy Division (OAD) in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA is part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response efforts. OCHA’s mission is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies; advocate the rights of people in need; promote preparedness and prevention and facilitate sustainable solutions. The HFU manages, among others, the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF), which is a multidonor country-based pooled fund managed by OCHA Ukraine under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator. It receives unearmarked contributions from donors into a single fund. The funds are used for ongoing humanitarian operations and to respond to new emergencies. This position-specific job opening is being advertised for two (2) positions as Finance Officer/Pooled Fund in Kharkiv and Odesa, in Ukraine, with significant travel within Ukraine expected. Under the overall supervision of the Humanitarian Affairs Officer/Head of Humanitarian Financing Unit (HFU) Ukraine, the incumbents will report to the Finance Officer leading the finance team in the HFU. *NOTE: The duty stations may be subject to change, as the operational situation in the country evolves. This is a multiple duty station Job Opening. In the cover letter of your application, please indicate which of the position/s and duty station/s you would be interested in and also rank them in order of preference – with #1 being the most preferred.

Responsibilities

Within delegated authority, the Finance Officer/ Pooled Fund will be responsible for the following duties:

• Verify Implementing Partners (IP) financial documentation as required;
• Liaise with companies carrying out financial audit of partners and financial spot-checks ensuring compliance with the United Nations Financial Regulations and Rules (UNFRR);
• Review grant agreements and supporting documents to ensure accuracy, consistency, reasonableness, compliance with the UNFRR and the Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPF) Guidelines;
• Review and advise on the clearance of the project budget and grant agreements;
• Review and advise on budget amendments or cost/no-cost extension requests;
• Review audit financial report to make sure that it is in line with the signed agreement and project budget.
• Maintain complete, accurate and updated detailed list of disbursements to IP;
• Regular follow-up with IP to obtain financial reports;
• Review of interim and final financial reports and confirm the amount for additional disbursements;
• Initiate the process to ensure disbursements as required and follow-up on any reimbursements;
• Conduct financial spot-checks in line with the operational modalities;
• Oversee the audit process including facilitation of the contracting of external auditing companies, supporting the planning, advise on the clearance of audit reports and ensuring follow-up of critical audit findings;
• Support IP regarding compliance with the UNFRR and the Guidelines for CBPF;
• Ensure compliance with any other requirements stemming from the UNFRR, grant agreements and guidelines;
• Maintain complete and updated cash flows for the Fund, and inform the HoO on a regular basis and upon request on the available cash balance;
• Support Fund analysis for informing future allocations;
• Prepare financial analysis for standard and ad-hoc reporting requirements;
• Provide input for the preparation of CBPF Annual Reports;
• Ensure timely financial reporting in compliance with donors requirements;
• Liaise with relevant OCHA sections at HQ;
• Stay up-to-date on documents/reports/guidelines that have bearing on matters related to programme and/or OCHA budgets, ensuring compliance with United Nations policies and procedures.
• Performs other duties as required.

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business administration, finance, or related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with an additional two (2) years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in finance, administration, budget, business administration or related area is required. Experience working with a country-based pooled fund is desirable. Experience in humanitarian financing, e.g., grant management and performing capacity assessment and financial monitoring is desirable. Humanitarian experience in the field (actual setting where a mission and/or project is being implemented) in emergency situations (complex emergency or natural disaster) is desirable. Experience in a humanitarian context within the UN common system or in a comparable international organization is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the official working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/240317?language=en