Programme Financial Management Specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

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.

Context

UN Women Regional Office for the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region was established in Istanbul, Turkey, at the beginning of 2014 as a part of the UN Women’s new regional architecture. Much progress has been made since the establishment, but at the same time, the Regional Office faces high expectations and demands from partners at both regional and country levels as well as from UN Women Field Offices. UN Women ECARO provides support and oversight to UN Women Offices in 12 countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo (under UN Security Council Resolution 1244), Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Ukraine). UN Women ECARO works on analysis, research, and knowledge management that provides the evidence base to UN Women country and regional office on gender equality, women’s empowerment and violence against women and girls, and positive social norms. Furthermore, UN Women ECARO develops and manages regional level programmes and provides policy and programme support to field offices as well.
To enhance the capacity of the programmatic support to the programmes in ECARO and other offices under the Delegation of the regional office, the UNV for the Programme Financial Management Specialist will work to ensure that greater compliance and accountability are achieved through the proper planning, updating and tracking of project budgets in line with UN Women rules and regulations, with a specific focus on the finance and budget aspects of the projects to include, but not limited to partner engagement, budgets, training, compliance and capacity assessment, audit and review.
Reporting to Regional Office Programme Specialist, ECARO, the Programme Financial Management Specialist works with and provides support to the members of the ECARO Programme Teams as well as ECA offices in the development and implementation of effective programmes consistent with UN Women rules and regulations. She/he will contribute to research, financial and budget management, and programme implementation including providing necessary finance and budget related, operational, administrative and programmatic support. The UN Volunteer works in close collaboration with the operations, programme and projects’ staff in the RO and UN Women HQs as required for resolving complex finance and budget related issues and exchange of information.

Task description

Under the overall supervision of Programme Specialist, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for supporting on the following tasks:
a) Provide effective support to programme unit on Budget and Finance Management:
• Monitors the budget utilization and implementation, as per the work plan/spending projections and the signed donor agreements;
• Ensures that expenditure is in accordance with the project document and project work plans and that accounting records and supporting documents are properly kept;
• Provide advanced technical support and inputs in the preparation of programme work plans/spending projections, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements;
• Creates and oversees projects in UN Women ERP systems, prepares budget revisions, revises project details and status; determines unutilized funds and the operational and financial management of projects from creation to closure;
• Monitors budget preparation and the budget execution of the Regional Office Programmes
• Follow ups on and/or consolidates performance indicators/success criteria, targets and milestones, preparation of financial reports;
• Provides technical guidance to projects/programmes and UN Women Responsible parties on routine implementation, delivery of projects and reporting of programme supported activities and finances;
• Analysis of the situation in programme, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions;
• Ensures full compliance with UN Women rules, regulations, and policies of financial activities, financial recording/reporting system and follow-ups on audit recommendations;
• Implementation of effective internal controls, and proper functioning of a client-oriented financial resources management system.
b) Provide advanced support to projects on partners:
• Support in the selection of partners relating to proposed project proposal review and capacity assessment;
• Support in the preparation of partner advances and liquidations documentation in line with UN Women policy;
• Aid project teams in the submission of partner actions in PGAMS (Partner Agreement management System);
• Provide training to partners on liquidation of advances and related reporting on liquidations;
• Work with the regional VSGC focal point on donor reporting to ensure that the correct reports are received as required.
c) Provide advanced administrative support to programme unit:
• Support in ECARO team as required to prepare documentation relating to expenditures;
• Support ECARO as needed in the preparation and review of audit related documentation;
• Provide training in all areas related to project budgets and finances for both project teams and partners as required.
The UN Volunteer will at any time provide support in any Programme related areas to ECARO and the region as requested by the ECARO Programme Specialist.