Programme Reporting Coordination Specialist – P3  

Organizational Setting

This call is advertised as a short-term assignment with a duration of initially 11 months and expected to start shortly after selection. Should an external candidate (including consultants and staff members not meeting IFAD HR Implementing Procedures’ definition of ‘internal’) be selected, the contract type would be that of a short-term professional (TPO). In the event an IFAD staff member, holding a Fixed Term contract be selected, the movement would be implemented as a Temporary Assignment through the applicable provisions. Applicants should verify and obtain their supervisors’ support to be released in the event they are selected.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution, and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is one of the largest sources of development financing for agriculture and rural development in many developing countries. IFAD acknowledges climate-related risks as some of the factors affecting rural poverty and among the challenges it needs to address. While climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor rural people in developing countries who rely heavily on the natural resource base for their livelihoods.

The Department of Country Operations (DCO), under the leadership of an Associate Vice-President, is responsible for the overall programme of loans and grants of the Fund and is composed of five (5) regional divisions and the Private Sector Operations Division (PSD). The West and Central Africa Division (WCA), under the leadership of the Regional Director, oversees all IFAD operations and activities in the region including, but not limited, to the 24 country programmes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d¿Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The GCF Sahel Portfolio

The GCF portfolio in West and Central Africa Division includes the regional Programme ¿Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme in the seven Sahelian Countries (in Burkina, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, The Gambia) of the Great Green Wall (AICRM).¿ This programme was approved during the 28th meeting of the GCF Board US$ 143 million, of which US$ 82.8 million are grant resources from the GCF. The African Development Bank, Africa Risk Capacity and IFAD co-finance the programme. AICRM is one element of IFAD¿s One Sahel Initiative which ensures complementarity amongst all IFAD programmes in the regions and provides parallel co-financing to the IFAD ¿Joint Programme for the Sahel in Response to the Challenges of COVID-19, Conflict and Climate Change (SD3C) covering G5 Sahel Countries and Senegal¿ approved by IFAD board in December 2020. The AICRM Sahel Regional programme¿s main overall objective is to increase resilience and enhance the livelihoods and food and water security of smallholder farmers and rural communities through integrated climate risk management of natural resources (water, soil, ecosystems) in seven countries of the Green Great Wall (GGW). It also seeks to enable these countries to adopt low emission, climate resilient pathways for agricultural development by promoting, upgrading and scaling up risk management measures in agriculture while delivering various adaptation and mitigation co-benefits, including the avoidance of 21.5 million tCO2q GHG emissions. To achieve the expected outcome, the programme is divided into three mutually reinforcing and interlinked components that contribute to the following three outcomes: component 1 (risk preparedness); component 2 (risk reduction); component 3 (risk transfer). The programme will directly benefit 800,000 households and indirectly over 5.3 million beneficiaries of which 50 percent will be women.

Additionally, there is a second regional programme approved by the GCF called Inclusive Green Finance Initiative (IGREENFIN) Phase I and its regional support programme will establish innovative financing facilities within local financial institutions and banks (agricultural banks, microfinance institutions, commercial banks) to improve access to concessional blended finance (green loans at 0 percent with longer tenors) and technical assistance to smallholder farmers particularly women (50%) and youth (50%) organized into MSMEs, Cooperatives, Farmers Organizations. The USD 216 million investment cofinance by AfDB and IsDB will coordinate and synthesize impacts of individual GCF funded projects and programmes through enhanced knowledge management and exchanges, innovation and digital transformation technologies. IGREENFIN I intends to directly build the resilience and adaptive capacity of 380,000 smallholder farmers organized around 1,500 MSMEs and 2,500 FOs or cooperatives, and approximately 2.5 million indirect beneficiaries in the five selected countries (Burkina Faso, Côte d¿Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Senegal). The programme is expected to reduce 225,000 tCO2e annually (5,6 million tCO2e over a 25year lifespan of investments) from AFOLU, energy use and power generation.

Finally, a third programme in the region, fund by the GCF and GEF, the GGW Regional Support Programme (RSP) will increase the collective impacts of the individual GCF, GEF and AF projects and programmes through two outputs: i) Enhanced knowledge management and exchanges to accelerate the uptake of good practices, increase learning and inform policy and investments across GCF and other projects, and ii) Innovation and digital transformation technologies are mapped and a digital and innovation ecosystem built.

The Regional Coordination Unit (RCU) will be in charge of the overall coordination performance and monitoring of the programmes, reporting of results and impacts, knowledge management with the GGW, and south-south exchanges between countries.

Key Responsibilities and duties

The Programme reporting coordination Specialist supports the fiduciary administration of all programmes and works under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager (SD3C & 1Sahel Coordinator) together with the Head of Financial Operations Unit in the Procurement and Financial Management Division and to the Senior Finance Specialist in the Financial Controller’s Division (FCD).

In this context, the Programme reporting coordination Specialist core duties/responsibilities will include the following:

1 – CONTRIBUTION TO MANAGEMENT OF PROGRAMMES:

The Programme reporting coordination Specialist organizes, animates, carries out the controls necessary for a standardized management in a permanent and exhaustive, objective and relevant, reliable and useful way.

As such, the Programme reporting coordination Specialist will have to ensure in particular:

• the regular and adequate application of procedures in the implementation of all operations.
• the organization of the planning of administrative, reporting work to guarantee the correct and exhaustive reporting of the Programmes, in compliance with the deadlines set.
• technical support to the management units in the countries participating in the programmes for the correct and exhaustive keeping of the accounts of the Programme at their level and their contribution to the regional planning of administrative, financial and accounting work.
• the consistency of the cash flow and the effectiveness of the mobilization of internal resources (counterpart of the States participating in the programme) and external (IFAD and others). As such, he/she draws up cash plans to ensure the resources necessary for the implementation of activities at all times. Finally, he/she ensures that resources are put in place in accordance with funding agreements; (e) Safeguarding the Programme’s heritage.

2 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT:

The Programme reporting coordination Specialist is accountable for

• The correct implementation of the financial management information systems in all Project Management Units (PMUs) involved and within the GCF Sahel Regional coordination Unit, including the security of corresponding software and hardware and the backup of applications and data.
• Ensuring that all PMUs have developed a comprehensive chart of accounts to allow for booking transactions and reporting in line with national and donor requirements.
• Coordinate and supervise the preparation of financial reports and ensure that all PMUs and program Executive Entities have developed efficient financial reporting tools.
• Ensure that PMUs and GCF Regional Coordination Unit can adequately report on all sources of funding, including co-financing, parallel financing and in-kind contributions.
• Manage and coordinate the distributed IT project of updating the TemPro and other accounting systems set up at baseline projects in order to allow for the generation of the financial reports to GCF by activity and in USD. Develop systems and procedures for the consolidation of financial data in line with donor requirements and templates.
• Ensuring that all PMUs have exhaustive financial management sections in their project implementation manuals.
• Developing and maintaining the financial section of the Programme Implementation Manual.
• Supervising the technical quality of accounting work: accounting entries, automatic controls, reconciliations, accuracy of balances, financial statements and financial reports.
• Monitor the projects audit exercises, review annual audit reports and supervise the execution of the recommendations.
• Follow-up of VAT and customs duty exemption documents.

3. ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT:

The Programme reporting coordination Specialist is managing the procurement process for regional activities; In addition, S/he is responsible for

• the organization of work plans allowing the proper performance of administrative, financial and accounting work. the establishment of action plans to follow up on the recommendations and the monitoring of their execution.
• preparation of periodic and annual Programme reports.
• the preparation of audits and evaluation of the Programmes and the execution of the recommendations.
• the response to the findings of the auditors on administrative and financial issues,
• Archiving of accounting and administrative documents and documents.
• Consolidation of the Programmes¿ financial and budget monitoring statements, interim and annual, in collaboration with the national coordination units.
• Budget preparation and monitoring.
• participation in determining guidelines for the development of activity forecasts and budgets.
• The implementation of all necessary elements and take all sufficient measures for the preparation, elaboration, submission, examination by the Steering Committees of Programmes of activities and budgets.
• the validity of the supporting documents underlying the transactions (form and funds), and carry out any timely, regular or unannounced checks to establish the reality of the payments and their consistency.
• carrying out any other task assigned by the Regional Coordination Unit.

4. AGENT OF CHANGE:

The incumbent understands and applies the principles of change management and proactively serves as a role model for transformation and capacity for acceptance of change.

The incumbent uses a seasoned knowledge of results based management and budgeting, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other information technology to develop, analyze and promote acceptance of new methods of work and automated work flows.

The incumbent manages change through consultations with finance colleagues and outreach to internal and external stakeholders to build understanding of and to ensure open and regular communications pertaining to current and planned changes in the Fund¿s financial standards, regulations and rules.

5. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS:

The Programme reporting coordination Specialist is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the management of IFAD resources

Work Relationships

The Regional Coordination Unit (RCU) will be in charge of the overall coordination performance and monitoring of the programmes, reporting of results and impacts, knowledge management with the GGW, and south-south exchanges between countries.

The selected candidate will be engaged in a 6-year programme based in Dakar, operating within the Regional Coordination Unit. The successful candidate will report to Programme Manager (SD3C & 1Sahel Coordinator) and functionally to the Senior Finance Specialist in the Financial Controller’s Division (FCD) and to the Head of the Financial Operations Unit (FIO). He will work in close coordination with the AICRM and IGREENFIN-1 coordinators.

Qualification Requirements

Education:

Education includes an advanced university degree from an accredited institution listed on https://www.whed.net/home.php in Business Administration, Finance, Banking, etc. Note: For internal candidates, this requirement will be assessed in line with the provisions set forth in IFAD’s Human Resources Implementing Procedures.

Experience:

• At least five (5) years’ of progressively relevant sound international professional experience in private or public sector financial management in rural development programme (accounting, auditing, finance, economics, financial analysis, business administration and in project administration).
• Perfect mastery of procedures in terms of fiduciary management, and specifically in terms of internal control and audit, procurement, request for withdrawal of funds and budget monitoring, etc.
• In-depth knowledge of the SISCOHADA accounting framework.
• Proven experience in consolidating financial statements from multiple implementation units.
• A good knowledge of the management of contractual procedures and the legislation in force in the 6 countries participating in the programme.
• Deep Working knowledge of procedures for mobilizing counterpart funds.
• A perfect command of computer programmes for financial and accounting management, in particular mastery of the TOMPRO software would be a decisive asset.
• Knowledge of the usual computer tools and software: Word/Excel/PowerPoint.
• Knowledge of IFAD procedures will be an asset.
• Experience with an international financial institution, audit firm, NGO with global outreach or other relevant institution would be an asset.

Languages and other skills

• Fluency in English and French is required.

Other information

IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD. In accordance with IFAD’s Human Resources Policy, the President can decide to assign them to any of the activities of the Fund. All International Professional staff members are required to be geographically mobile and positions in the professional category are subject to changes in location at any time in line with strategic priorities and reform initiatives in IFAD.

IFAD is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic, social or political background, colour, nationality, religion, age, gender, disability, marital status, family size or sexual orientation in line with its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy and the Policy to prevent and respond to sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.

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In accordance with IFAD’s provisions, all new staff members will normally be placed at the first step in the grade level for which they have been selected. For information on IFAD’s remuneration package, please visit IFAD’s compensation and benefits page on our website. Applicants are invited to use the ICSC compensation calculator to estimate the salary and benefit entitlements.

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

In the interest of making most cost effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.

This call is advertised as a short-term assignment with a duration of initially 11 months and expected to start shortly after selection. Should an external candidate (including consultants and staff members not meeting IFAD HR Implementing Procedures’ definition of ‘internal’) be selected, the contract type would be that of a short-term professional (TPO). In the event an IFAD staff member, holding a Fixed Term contract be selected, the movement would be implemented as a Temporary Assignment through the applicable provisions. Applicants should verify and obtain their supervisors’ support to be released in the event they are selected.

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