Project Finance Officer

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. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women’s empowerment and gender equality at global, national, regional, and sub-national levels. 

Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. Through a set of tested approaches, UN Women proposes to build synergies over the humanitarian-development continuum by strengthening women’s agency, leadership, and participation to rebuild the lives of women and girls in crisis, conflict, and disaster contexts. This will contribute to Goal 4 of the UN Women’s Strategic Plan: peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction are shaped by women’s leadership and participation.

The peace, security and humanitarian context in Mozambique is becoming increasingly complex and protracted, with significant long-term impacts. War, violent conflict, terrorism, and violent extremism have differential and devastating consequences for women and girls. Intersectional vulnerabilities can further determine how people are affected, among others, women with disabilities, women heads of households, adolescent girls, and older women. Pre-existing gender-based discrimination and inequalities exacerbate the impact of the crisis on women and girls and reduce their likelihood of receiving the humanitarian services they need to survive and recover. Gender inequality tends to worsen in insecure and violent contexts. In the face of this, women have the capacity and are leading movements to rebuild communities. In fact, there is strong evidence suggesting that women often know best the needs of their households and communities and can contribute to immediate responses at the grassroots level and women’s participation in post-conflict rebuilding processes contributes to longer, more resilient communities after conflict. Yet, despite this, women remain largely invisible to, and excluded from, humanitarian action efforts. With the support from the Government of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), UN Women and partners are working to ensure that women in Cabo Delgado lead and benefit from humanitarian relief and recovery efforts. Under the programme denominated “Promoting socioeconomic recovery and resilience of internally displaced and returnee women and girls in Northern Mozambique,” UN Women seeks to: (1) Empower displaced women and girls to be active players in planning, designing, building, and maintaining adequate, accessible, safe and resilient resettlement housing in fragile and conflict-affected areas; (2) Facilitate women’s and adolescent girls’ access to sustainable livelihoods and socioeconomic opportunities; and (3) Increase the access of conflict-affected women and girls to effective services and protection mechanism.

Under direct supervision of the Programme Specialist WPS, Humanitarian and overall guidance by the Operations Manager, the Project  Finance Officer is responsible for the execution of a wide range of administrative and financial services, with a specific focus on the aforementioned project, 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 Project Finance Officer promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations, standard practices, and guidelines. The Project Finance Officer will work in close collaboration with the UN Women Programme and Operations Team in the Country Office and Regional Office as well as partners in solving complex finance and administrative-related issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide Financial Support to the Project/s in full compliance of UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and procedures:

• Assist in budget formulation, control allotments, monitor expenditures, and prepare revisions according to the needs.
• Prepare supporting documents for timely payment of services and goods.
• Support the financial and administration capacity building of UN Women’s implementing/responsible partners.
• Elaborate and compile the supporting documents for timely advance funds to implementing/responsible partners as well as the subsequent liquidations.
• Follow up with partners for submission of timely quarterly progress and financial reports.
• Conduct regular spot-checks to implementing/responsible partners to verify reported expenditures against submitted financial documents maintaining adherence to UN Women’s rules and regulations as well as donor conditions.
• Assist in preparing documents for internal and external audits, support preparedness and ensure implementation of audit recommendations.
• Investigate a wide range of financial and administration issues that may arise and provide advice and recommendations to the programme team.
• Draft and present information and financial data for use in the planning of financial resources and the formulation and revision of work plans and budgets.
• Track the appropriate and timely use of financial resources and advise the programme team accordingly.
• Monitor regularly transactions posted to projects ensuring actual expenditure has been recorded against the correct budget category and activity as well as identify over-expenditures and take timely corrective actions as required.
• Monitor and properly follow up on all the financial items in Month-end and Year-end closure instructions status and take corrective follow-up action under the guidance of the programme team. • Provide information inputs to financial reports for the Regional Office, HQ and other key stakeholders.
• Support financial donor reporting by providing timely and accurate information and taking necessary actions as required in the UN Women Virtual Global Service Centre for financial donor reporting.

Provide administrative support for effective project management:

• Prepare the necessary documentation related to and support the entire implementing/responsible partner selection process.
• Support the efficient and timely implementation of programmes’ activities.
• Provide administrative support in the development of workplans and provide support for monitoring progress.
• Support coordination efforts with programmes’ key stakeholders and ensure flow of information arranging for meetings with stakeholders and draft minutes of meetings as requested.
• Draft formal correspondence, in both English and Portuguese, as needed.
• Provide administrative and logistical support in the organization of workshops, activities and events related to the programme interventions, as needed.
• Organize and keep updated physical and digital project files.
• Assist in the collection and analysis of data related to the programmes’ related baselines and targets.
• Contribute to the review of partners’ narrative reports.
• Liaise with programme and operations personnel from other relevant UN Women teams as needed.

Contribute to project budget management and implementation in full compliance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and procedures: 

• Support programme team in the creation of project budgets, linking project results with corporate systems in the corporate system and preparation of budget revisions.
• Support the preparation of budget and delivery plans and keeping track of expenditures.
• Assist in budget analysis, recommend actions to the programme team, enter agreed-upon budget revisions, and maintain a proper record of approved programme budgets and budget revisions.
• Input data in the corporate system and keep partners and clients informed for timely action and/or decisions.
• Contribute to capacity/knowledge building and knowledge sharing.
• Support the organization of all administrative actions related to training activities and events.
• Organize and conduct training on finance and administrative matters for implementing/responsible partners.
• Collect and compile lessons learned and good practices in financial management and services and disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate.
• Contribute to financial business operational practices and management innovations.
• Contribute to lessons learned and best practices in finance, in support of knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Completion of secondary education is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or equivalent is desirable.
• Specialized national or international certification in accounting and finance is an asset.
• Successful completion of the UN Women Accounting and Finance Test is required as part of the selection process.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in finance and administrative functions
• Experience in performing administrative functions (organizing events, logistics etc.)  is required.
• Experience in working in a computer environment using multiple office software packages is required;
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable;
• Experience working in the UN system and/or with KOICA-funded projects is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Portuguese is required.
• Knowledge of local languages spoken in Mozambique is desirable.

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=117089