Background:
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.
Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the 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. It provides a strong and coherent leadership in supporting Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
In East and Southern Africa Regional, maintains a large presence in the region, covering 25 countries, with offices in 13 countries and is responsible for preparing and certifying Action Plans in SharePoint linked to partner audit recommendations. This involves defining the action plan to be established to resolve the audit points. At the level of the same platform, it is also a matter of providing evidence that the audit recommendation has been implemented or submitting supporting documents that had not been implemented at the time of the audit, or requesting reimbursement of ineligible sums, or, when it is not possible to resolve the audit point, request its clearance (write -off) by a request sent to head office.
Under the direct supervision of the Regional Operations Manager, the Finance & partner Audit Associate will work with the Programme Officers and implementation partners of the East and Southern African Region offices, to implement recommendations from partner audits or their clearance (write-off); advise and train project and programme staff as well as the staff of the implementing partners in the application of the procedures for implementing audit recommendations. The Finance & partner audit Associate is responsible for the execution of financial services in the Regional Office, 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.
Key Functions and Accountabilities:
1. Technical support in implementation of audit recommendations:
- Follow-up on the implementation of partner audit recommendations with priority focus on aged and outstanding audit findings and recommendations;
- Provide technical support to programme/project managers and partners on the implementation of audit recommendations.
- Closely coordinate with PSMU regarding partners audit actions plans, follow-up on submission related to partners audit.
- Train partner staff on the respect of financial procedures in the execution of a project UN Women;
- Conduct / facilitate trainings aimed at reducing potential observations and findings during future audits.
- Ensure timely closure of IP audit financial findings in compliance with UN Women requirements;
2. Implement financial strategies, in full compliance of UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and recording and reporting systems:
- Perform duties in full compliance with UN Women financial regulations and rules, policies and standard operating procedures, including internal controls;
- Review and verify financial transactions, activities, and documentation; taking corrective actions as needed and reporting any unusual activities;
- Monitor financial exceptions reports for unusual activities or transaction, investigate anomalies and report to the supervisor conclusions and/or present recommendations for actions/decisions.
3. Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing for program staff and partners on the implementation of audit recommendations:
- Conduct trainings of partner staff on UN Women procedures, obligations and process with project implementation procedures for UN Women projects execution;
- Support IPs on compliance with the UN Women financial Rules and Regulations;
- Contribute to financial business operational practices and management innovations;
- Collect and compile lessons learned and best practices in financial management and services. Disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge.
4. Provide finance support to the Programme and Operations team:
- Perform duties in full compliance with UN Women financial regulations and rules, policies and standard operating procedures, including internal controls;
- Review and verify financial transactions, activities, and documentation; taking corrective actions as needed and reporting any unusual activities;
- Monitor financial exceptions reports for unusual activities or transaction, investigate anomalies and report to the supervisor conclusions and/or present recommendations for actions/decisions;
- Prepare PO and non-PO invoices for development and management projects;
- Record and post transactions in Quantum, process payroll, travel claims, MPOs, and other entitlements;
- Provide inputs and take necessary actions to facilitate timely financial project closure;
- Support financial donor reporting and project closure by providing timely information and taking necessary actions as required by UN Women for financial donor reporting.
5. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Competencies :
Core Values:
- Integrity;
- Professionalism;
- Respect for Diversity.
Core Competencies:
- Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
- Accountability;
- Creative Problem Solving;
- Effective Communication;
- Inclusive Collaboration;
- Stakeholder Engagement;
- Leading by Example.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
- Strong knowledge of financial rules and regulations and accounting principles;
- Strong knowledge and application skills of IT tools and understanding of management systems;
- Strong knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages;
- Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems;
- Ability to administer and execute financial and accounting processes and transactions
Recruitment Qualifications:
Education and Certification:
- Completion of secondary education is required;
- Specialized national or international certification in accounting and finance is an asset;
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, auditing, Accounting or business administration is an asset;
- Successful completion of UN Women Accounting and Finance Test is required as part of the selection process.
Experience:
- At least 6 years of progressively responsible experience in finance, auditing, budget management is required;
- Experience in the development field in performing capacity assessment and financial monitoring of partner agreements is desirable;
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required;
- Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable;
- Experience in the development context within the UN common system or in a comparable international organization is desirable.
Languages:
- Fluency in English is required.
- Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).
