Senior Programme Associate

How can you make a difference?

The Public Partnerships Division (PPD) works to strengthen UNICEF’s position as a partner of choice for children’s rights among governments and inter-governmental actors around the world. The division is doing this by positioning children’s rights in the intergovernmental and multilateral fora and engaging with governments and public institutions as resource, policy, and programme partners. A key premise for PPD is that the engagement with countries should be holistic based on multiple aspects of partnerships, including policy advocacy and resource mobilization. This post sits within the Europe Team of PPD and is responsible for the overall contributions management roles pertaining to relationship with European partners. The Programme Associate reports to the Senior Adviser in New York and supports different sub-teams in New York and in outposts in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Denmark.

Supporting funding negotiations and managing requests for information and support from internal and external stakeholders:

• Respond timely to requests from country offices, regional offices, and Headquarters (HQ) divisions (i.e., PG, DFAM, PFP, etc.) and other PPD teams for guidance and information related to grant management policies and procedures, including contributions and grant-specific issues.
• Research and understand donor countries/regions in order to prepare correspondence, based on knowledge of the PPD Europe team’s work.
• Monitor and keep financial and other funding data up to date (reports and financial updates) across all platforms, including UNISON, Service Gateway, Insight, Cube and Vision.

Monitoring of opportunities negotiations and tracking in-pipeline funding opportunities in UNISON:

• Ensure monitoring system of OR funding, including opportunities and agreements in pipeline are up to date in UNISON; monitor grants implementation status through Insight, Cube and other tools and dashboards; update Europe team specific funding management tracking system.

Quality assurance of grant agreements:

• Initiate grant creation and amendment, including reporting and extension requests.
• Review and ensure conditions and accountabilities of grants are translated and applied correctly and reflected into UNICEF systems.

Collection and application of funds and clearance of unapplied receipts:

• Follow up on disbursements and outstanding payments from contributions with country offices and donors and ensure that disbursement requests have been submitted to donors by country offices or at HQ level.
• Respond to all donor/region/country office/GSSC and DFAM queries in relation to the funding application/disbursement/receipts.

Donor reporting:

• Monitor timely and quality submission of narrative and uncertified financial utilization reports, and annual certified statements. Provide guidance and follow up with country, regional office, and HQ. Update reporting schedule monitoring in the Fiori Donor Report Tracker.
• Download and share draft reports from Donor Report Tracker with relevant teams, and support with review of donor reports to ensure quality reporting in line with donor conditions/requirements, including format, as required.

Unspent balances and grant closure:

• After financial closure and issuance of final certified financial statements by DFAM, follow-up with donor and or/country office on refund/reprogramming as required.
• Follow up with DFAM/GSSC accordingly until completion of refund or reprogramming process is confirmed.

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have… 

Minimum requirements

• Education: Completion of secondary education. University level courses in the field of management and business is an asset.
• Work Experience: Minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience is required. Prior experience in programme or partnerships support functions is an asset.
• Skills: Grants management & administration, Partnerships, Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Donor reporting, Quality assurance, Analyzing, Persuading and influencing, Planning and organizing.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English; Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish), or local language of the duty station, is considered an asset.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/577427