Senior Budget Developer Resource Mobilization

The Resource Mobilization Senior Budget Developer will contribute to CIFOR-ICRAF’s global resource mobilization goal to achieve significant, predictable, multi-year funding to enable flexible support for CIFOR-ICRAF Key Performance Areas (KPA’s). To achieve this goal, CIFOR-ICRAF submit approximately 200 CN/ proposals each year that require high-quality budgets that meet internal and funder requirements.

Many CIFOR-ICRAF funders, including Green Climate Fund (GCF), The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), have introduced additional requirements to finance projects, such as: (i) leveraged finance (public/ private), (ii) project co-financing, (iii) project investment from a variety of financial instruments, such as grants, loans, equity, blended finance, (iv) limitations for overhead recovery and (v) additional requirements (e.g. bank guarantees). CIFOR-ICRAF also has the ambition to work more with the private sector. With the short funder deadlines, many CIFOR-ICRAF Project Leads, RMU coordinators, and finance officers need support to respond strategically, with full understanding of funder and internal requirements, in this increasingly complex budgeting environment in their negotiations with funders and partners.

To respond to this more challenging environment, CIFOR-ICRAF is looking for a senior budget developer who can guide CIFOR-ICRAF staff in budget development and negotiation processes. In addition, this position should work with the CIFOR-ICRAF Resource Mobilization Unit (RMU) and Finance Service Unit (FSU) to strengthen our current financial procedures and systems for budget development, taking into consideration these funder requirements, and identify possible improvements for a higher success rate and the mitigation of institutional risks. This person will also strengthen CIFOR-ICRAF staff abilities for budget development planning and the delivery of high-quality budgets.

This will be a staff position with a strong financial background reporting directly to the Head of Resource Mobilization. The position will work very closely with the Finance Manager and Senior Finance Officer from CIFOR-ICRAFs Finance Service Unit (FSU) – Budget and Planning Team. The Senior Budget Developer will provide substantial initiative, judgement, and knowledge of funders, financial systems and regulations, policies and procedures and collaborate closely with Team Leaders, Project Managers, Finance staff and CIFOR’s and ICRAF’s partners. The position requires excellent skills to provide autonomous and effective engagement, advice and support in budget development and negotiation processes.

Duties and responsibilities:

Improved budget development:

• Support the development of 75 – 100 high quality budgets per year closely following funder instructions and templates. Advice on smart budget presentation for higher scores on funder assessment criteria, including on: (i) value for money, (ii) coverage for implementation, (iii) any budget related risks at the project implementation phase.
• Contribute to processes, systems and tools that support improvement of the budget development culture, in which budget development is timely, efficient and allows quality reviews for better compliance with both funders and internal requirements.
• Provide advice and facilitate coordination to Principal Investigator (PI), RM TL, finance manager budget and planning and the Director Corporate Services for the development of more complex budgets that require: (i) leveraged finance (public/ private), (ii) project co-financing, (iii) project investment from a variety of financial instruments, such as grants, loans, equity, blended finance, (iv) limitations for overhead recovery and (v) additional requirements (e.g. bank guarantees).

Budget Negotiations and mitigation of budget related risks:

• Provide verbal and written justifications to funders and internal teams to ensure compliance with both internal and funder requirements.
• Consult and seek approval of the TL RMU, finance management budget and planning and Director Corporate Services through our systems, in particular in non-standard negotiation processes.
• Ensure that re-negotiated budgets are reviewed and approved.
• Improved collaboration between budget planning and implementation teams
• Ensure budgets for high probability submissions are updated in both funder and CIFOR-ICRAF templates, and provide the required inputs for internal planning systems, such as the Planning of Work and Budget (PoWB).
• Facilitate budget handover meetings together with the project lead, project management unit (PMU) and FSU.

Education, knowledge, and experience:

• Master’s degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field and professional finance qualifications (an undergraduate degree with a minimum of 7 years’ relevant work experience will be considered).
• Minimum 7 years’ experience supporting resource mobilization processes with proven track record of raising substantial funds for international organizations, UN agencies, and/or international non-governmental organizations.
• Knowledge of financial requirements of key international and national funders.
• Expertise in strategic budgeting with strong understanding of project cycle management.
• Advanced Excel and spreadsheet proficiency.
• Fluency in English (French and/or Spanish desirable).

Source: https://www.cifor-icraf.org/career/206844000033549239/senior-budget-developer-resource-mobilization/