Finance and Grants Senior Officer (internal candidates only)

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

RBM Partnership to End Malaria

The past twenty years have seen tremendous gains in reducing the burden of disease and progressing towards malaria elimination. Since 2000, global malaria deaths have been cut by more than half, saving over 10  million lives, primarily among children less than five years of age. Expansions in financing, strong political commitments, novel diagnostic and preventative measures, and multi-sectoral coordination have facilitated this progress. Since 1998, RBM Partnership to End Malaria has been central to the global fight against malaria. It has been essential to mobilizing resources and scaling up innovative interventions, putting the world onto a path towards eliminating malaria. The Partnership comprises more than 500 partners committed to end malaria, including malaria endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions.

The RBM Partnership's Vision is of a world free from the burden of malaria. The work of the RBM Partnership is guided by the 2021-2025 RBM Partnership Strategic Plan.

The RBM Partnership is based in Geneva and hosted by UNOPS.

Under the direct supervision of the Finance Manager, the Finance and Grants Senior Officer will perform the following functions: 

• Participate in the planning of financial resources, continuous analysis and monitoring of financial progress and presentation of forecasts for the planning and management of the programme;

• Support financial oversight on the programme  activities in line with internal control procedures, financial and fiduciary guidelines and standards for all financial and related transactions.

• Contribute to the preparation of programme workplan’s and engagement processes focusing on budgets,  entering data to systems ensuring compliance to project agreements and ERP protocols;. 

• Coordinate with operations and the programme teams the preparation and consolidation of cash-flow forecasts ensuring inputs are extracted from the budgets, cash-flow plans and, annual activity plans;

• Participate  in the identification of programme risks, preparation of assurance activities and programme  audit activities including implementation of the recommendations;

• Monitor financial status and guide programme teams on funding, budgets and expenditures status;

• Review transactions and implement applicable UNOPS policies and financial rules and regulations; 

• Keep contact with operations, programme and Geneva finance teams  to verify, correct, and improve quality of financial related activities of the programme  including financial reports and audits. 

• Support the Finance Manager during Audit and Finance Committee meetings including recording of minutes and ensuring all necessary records are stored correctly 

• Provide guidance to operations and programme teams to ensure budgets are prepared in accordance with established procedures, ERP protocols and clients guidelines that facilitate the  reporting requirements;

• Prepare interim financial statements and reports for the Finance Manager’s clearance, certification by UNOPS Finance and for submission to donors in compliance with established reporting requirements;

• Monitor budgets, commitments, funding, exception reports for unusual activities and transactions, investigate and take corrective actions including on unposted vouchers and budget check errors;

• Prepare drawdowns and request for payments for donors to transfer of funds,  record in the ERP accounts receivables, track receipt and inform UNOPS finance to apply to the programme accounts;

• Reconcile expenditures ensuring timely corrective actions are taken on budget, financial reports management and  budget performance reports  through budget revisions, journal entries etc; 

• Review and approve payments ensuring complete supporting documentation, certification from programme managers, correct  accounts, obligation and receipts, sufficient budget and funding;

• Coordinate Participate in project closure activities of the programme focusing on financial aspects including supporting UNOPS finance to clear balance sheet accounts and issue final financial statements;

• Review  requests for operational advances, petty cash and prepayments ensuring complete documentation, review expenditures reports for settlement, clearance and replenishment; 

• Ensure timely submission of compliance reports such as advances, petty cash to UNOPS finance. Ensure maintenance of files including electronic filing system for all financial records and documentation; 

• Support operations and programme teams in planning and processing of payments for workshops and conference activities including travelling with the team to manage field level payments.  

• Timely response to UNOPS finance requests to resolve financial data issues;

• Support the operations and programme teams to conduct Due Diligence Assessments (DDAs) of the implementing partners and manage follow-up actions related to financial recommendations;

• Support the operations and programme teams to perform periodic grants monitoring and oversight activities focusing on financial aspects, providing recommendations and mitigating solutions;

• Review grant budgets and financial reports against approved budgets, to provide feedback on financial aspects to the implementing partners, operations and programme teams; 

• Provide day-to-day guidance to programme teams and implementing partners to enhance understanding and compliance with grants guidelines, grant agreement, and UNOPS requirements;

• Liaise directly with the implementing partners and support RBM programme teams to resolve bottlenecks related to the financial management aspects and reporting requirements as agreed in the grant agreements; 

• Review payment requests and ensure payments are processed based upon the grant agreement, agreed payment schedules, and fund availability certification and complete supporting documentation;

• Support operations and programme teams in grants budgeting, forecasting and  expenditures; ensure variances are communicated timely;

• Highlight grants risks and delays to the operations and programme teams as appropriate;

• Coordinate with the operations and programme teams to maintain a database and archives of all financial grant related information and documentation for all the implementing partners;

• Coordinate the process of operational and financial closure of grants and projects;

• Contribute to the coordination and follow up on the audits and assurance activities of implementing partners;

• Support programme  teams to update and maintain grants and contracts tools that will ensure timely review and deadlines of reports submission assigned by project and internal requirements.

• Contribute to capacity development and training activities for implementing partners covering financial management, reporting and audit aspects  in coordination with operations and programme  teams;

• Compile grants financial management lessons learned and share across all implementing partners; 

• Participation in the organization and conduct of training for operations and programme teams covering financial management aspects, policies and guidelines, processes and the use of systems and tools;

• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice on finance and grants management;

• Collaborative synthesis of lessons learnt and dissemination of best practices on financial management;

• Collection of feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices;.

• Advanced University degree  (Master’s degree or equivalent) preferably in finance, administration, development studies, economics, project management or an equivalent degree in related fields is required.

• Bachelor's degree in related discipline in combination with additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree

• A minimum of two (2) years post master’s degree or 4 years post bachelor’s degree of relevant experience at the national or international level with responsibility for financial management support, project accounting, budgeting and financial reporting or related fields is required;

• Practical experience with UNOPS, or other UN agencies financial procedures in the areas of accounting, budget, reporting and other financial controls including operations of imprest account is desirable;

• Experience working with grants projects, including monitoring financial performance, reviewing financial reports and providing capacity building support to grantees, is highly desirable;

• Previous experience with, and a good knowledge of the development and humanitarian sector/working with UN, Donors, NGOs is an advantage;

• Solid computer skills are required. Proficiency with Google Suite is highly preferred.

• THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL UNOPS CANDIDATES ONLY.
• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.