Implementing Partnership and Budget Officer, NO-2, #0126785, Bucharest, Romania, Fixed Term Appointment

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

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The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. UNICEF works in partnership with a wide range of implementing partners, both government and CSO partners, to deliver results for children across the globe. Effective implementing partnership management is therefore essential for ensuring that resources are utilized as intended and results are being achieved.

UNICEF has adopted the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) as an approach for obtaining assurance that results have been achieved in line with resource utilization. It aims at managing risk related to cash transfers made to implementing partners in support of programme implementation, reducing partner transaction costs and allowing progressive use of national systems for management and accountability of results and resources.

Job organizational context: The war in Ukraine has triggered the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II. The overwhelming majority of refugees are women and children, often separated from husbands and fathers who remained in Ukraine; older people; and significant numbers of unaccompanied children, including those from state care facilities.

Applying a mix of strategies, building on solid partnerships with public and private sectors and utilising its strongly recognized voice, UNICEF aims on the one hand to scale up the proven solutions to leverage additional political, legal, policy and budgetary space for child rights. Besides, UNICEF provides technical assistance in relevant core sectors (health, education, (social) protection), with special emphasis on ECD/ECED, MPHSS and using the four social policy pillars (child poverty reduction, social protection, public finance for children and local governance) as strategic entry points to enable systemic change. 

Ultimately, maintaining a strong focus on continued emergency preparedness (and contingency) as well as response, where needed, the Romania team translated the “emergency mainstreaming” into an informed nexus approach in partnership with key governmental, UN agencies and civil society actors. Indeed, when it comes to mainstreaming the continued support to Romania’s emergency response, UNICEF aims at preserving contingency and preparedness for a possible drastic change in the situation on the ground, particular in the area of child protection as well as education, and other key areas in which UNICEF continues to be guided by the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action. 

Where possible and opportune, UNICEF will progressively hand over to government (national, county or local level), with a staffing focusing more on capacitation and guidance on standards rather than on monitoring of direct service delivery or management of multiple partnerships.

UNICEF Romania Country Office is involved in the emergency response by supporting the national government and local partners in delivering assistance and protection services.

Under the Country Programme 2023-2027, Romania CO manages over US$ 60 million budget, emergency and non-emergency related, comprising of direct cash transfer to implementing partners, staff salaries, program supplies and operational costs.

Purpose for the job: The Implementing Partnership and Budget Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programme cycle through the application of theoretical and technical skills in researching, collecting, analyzing and presenting technical information to facilitate the integration of HACT plans in all programming activities and to ensure the application of HACT and related organizational rules, regulations and procedures in the CO. He/she chairs the PSEA working group under the Refugees Response Plan (RRP). He/she is responsible for providing technical and administrative support to ensure quality, effective and efficient management of implementing partnerships in the country office in line with respective operational policies, procedures and mainstreaming of risk based implementing partnership management at the CO level.

The Implementing Partnership and Budget Officer supports the Operations Manager and Deputy Representative to effectively and efficiently managing financial aspects, developing, monitoring and reporting on grant specific budgets in line with program, UNICEF and donor requirements. The Officer is the focal point for all grants, PCAs and SSFA and assists in the development of budgets and technical reports when necessary. The incumbent also provides key support to the office in programmatic and budgetary monitoring, capacity building of implementing partners, compliance with donor and internal UNICEF rules and regulations and other key functions as required.

Under the general guidance of the Operations Manager, the Implementing Partnership and Budget Officer analyses programme and budget proposals for completeness, correctness and conformity with the programme and budget guidelines; advises programme managers and partners on the programme and budget processes, from planning to implementation and reporting, providing guidance for an effective and efficient management of financial resources during the implementation of the budget, control of accounts and treasury/cash management  and prepares donor reports.

Key function, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Support to HACT planning during the programming process
2. Technical support to implementation of assurance activities
3. Risk management and quality assurance
4. Technical support to management of cash transfers / DCTs
5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
6. Support to implementing partnership management
7. Support to management on financial planning

     1.Support to the HACT planning during the programming process

• Participate in HACT planning and discussions and support the development and completion of HACT plans through research, collection, analysis and reporting of related information/data to facilitate planning and priority setting for HACT activities.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout the process by executing/administering technical, operational and administrative transactions and preparing related materials/ documentations to ensure the incorporation of HACT into the country programme.
• Support the preparation of CO-wide micro assessment and assurance plans in collaboration with other programme staff and relevant operations colleagues
• Prepare information on shared implementing partners to facilitate joint planning and execution of micro assessments and audits in line with the UNICEF HACT Procedure

     2.Technical support to implementation of HACT activities

• Serves as help desk for programme and other staff on matters relating to the HACT and its implementation
• Facilitate the execution of HACT activities undertaken by external service providers through scheduling, arranging briefings and related administrative needs to ensure service providers have appropriate and comprehensive information for effective and efficient completion of assignments.
• Conduct and/or coordinate spot checks of implementing partners in collaboration with other CO staff and external service providers
• Contribute to development and monitoring of implementation of CO HACT related SOPs and internal procedures, including for escalation of issues identified through assurance activities
• Prepare annual HACT implementation and assessment reports.

3. Risk management and quality assurance

• Support the recording and updating of risk ratings of implementing partners in VISION through review of the Vendor Master and provision of relevant information to appropriate colleagues in the CO.
• Establish a central repository for HACT decisions, documentation and reports to provide timely and current information to facilitate implementation of HACT in the CO.
• Review assessments and programme assurance reports to identify areas of weaknesses related to the implementation of HACT and keep supervisor/management, programme staff and partners informed of findings for timely action and/or intervention.
• Monitors and assesses adequacy of actions taken to ensure the risks are managed.
• Formulate pragmatic recommendations and secures the agreement of management to mitigate the identified risks
• Provide a summary of performance of external providers in relation to implemented HACT activities.

     4.Technical support to management of cash transfers / DCTs

• Communicate and follow up with relevant cost programme sections to ensure timely liquidation of DCTs.
• Review DCTs reports and support management in ensuring a consistent approach across programme areas in FACE FORM related processes.
• Coordinate programme inputs for justification of DCT impairments and write offs, as necessary.
• Conduct periodic quality assurance of cash transfer modalities, review of vendors in the system and DCT ageing as per the office key performance Indicators for DCTs (KPIs).
• Review DCTs and initiate DCT follow-up correspondence and meetings for DCTs over six months.

    5.Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Identify, synthesize and share, best practice and lessons learnt from HACT and its implementation for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts.

• Support the implementation of new office tools, such as eTools, to manage implementing partnerships and HACT activities.
• Maintain the HACT Assurance Dashboard in line with HACT Framework and Country Office HACT Plans

• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for implementing partners which can be supported by UNICEF through identification of common weaknesses in financial and procurement management from review of micro assessment and assurance activity reports of high and significant risk partners
• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for CO staff to ensure that staff has knowledge and skills to fulfill their responsibilities under HACT.

   6.Support to implementing partnerships management

• Serve as secretariat to PCARC committee and ensure support to effectively establish and monitoring of implementing partnerships
• Review adequacy and completeness of all PCA/SSFA/PD submission and ensure the relevant documentation for the committee’s review are submitted as per CSO Procedure
• Assist programme staff in reviewing partner proposed budgets to ensure compliance with the CSO Procedure
• Schedule PCARC meetings and record minutes for filing
• Ensure submissions and final PCA/SSFA/PDs are filed in central repository and updated in eTools.

   7. Support to management on financial planning

• Support timely allocation of new grants to respective programmes in line with approved budget breakdown and donor conditions
• Work in collaboration with the Operations Manager and Budget Owners to ensure the overall compliance with donor and grants conditions when allocating and re-phasing funds.
• Monitor grants expiry dates with the objective of ensuring that all funds are fully utilized prior to grant expiry dates.
• Monitor the utilization of resources (OR/RR/IB) and produces regular updates for the Country Office Management.
• Contribute to capacity building of country office staff and partners and build budget management capacity of CO staff by facilitating training, following the growth in the staffing structure and partners, providing one on one follow up support and knowledge sharing.
• Enable an institutional memory within the office through development and maintenance of record keeping of OR allocations forms and emails related to RR allocation; ensure the filing of and access to all the financial and budget related files on proposals, donor reports and all other financial documents.
• Provide reports on budget utilization during reviews (Mid-year, annual and mid-term reviews).
• Serve as the focal person for country offices’ management performance indicators; ensure all reporting requirements are fully met for the office; prepare weekly and monthly contribution management reports, taking into consideration the increased demand of complex, analytical reports in country office. Ensure quality information management through regular maintenance of contribution related information in VISION and e-filing on the office shared drive.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Education: A university degree in one of the following fields is required: Development studies, International Development, Business Administration, Financial Management, Economics, Auditing, Project/Programme Management or another relevant technical field.
• Experience: A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: programme development/ management, financial planning management and oversight, Financial Management, Audit Management, and Risk Management– with hands-on experience in undertaking and reporting on financial management assurance activities related to HACT and/or similar grant management oversight systems used by donor and funding agencies. Relevant experience in program/project financial monitoring and evaluation in a UN system agency or organization is an asset. Experience in budgeting financial monitoring and reporting in EU-funded projects is considered a strong asset.
• Language: Fluency in English and Romanian is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. 

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable males and females are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.