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.

The Budget Associate reports to the Budget Specialist for guidance and supervision and is responsible for the timely and effective clearance of budget submission and its approval in Atlas, ensuring complete and accurate documentation and compliance with organizational financial rules, regulations, policies, procedures and approved allocations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

Budgeting and related tasks:

  • Review and clear project budget submissions from UN Women HQ and fields before approval to ensure appropriate and complete documentation exist and UN Women rules and regulations are applied;
  • Process approval of project budgets in Atlas based on signed documents;
  • Assist programme staff in preparation of complex budgets and respond to their queries;
  • Assist Budget Specialist in preparation and revisions of management project budgets, i.e.. Support Budget and Extra Budgetary;
  • Co-ordinate with program and finance staff on issues related to allocation, expenditures and cash balances in conjunction with budget revisions.

Training, Technical Guidance and Helpdesk:

  • Provide guidance and training to UN Women staff on budget issues, processes and procedures;
  • Act as helpdesk resource person for Atlas Project/Budget Module and respond to queries relating to budgets;
  • Assist in clearing payroll posting errors and budget errors in process of payroll posting and payment process.
Creation/Modification of UN Women Staff Positions in ATLAS:
  • Review position establishment document cleared and submitted by UN Women Human Resources Section and create UN Women position in Atlas;
  • Associate budget chart of account (COA) for staff payroll in Atlas Human Capital Management (HCM) model for all UN Women new staff positions;
  • Maintain and update UN Women positions data including position duration extension and position status update in Atlas;
  • Review budget COA for payroll for all HQ and Field positions (about 400 positions) and liaise with relevant Section/Unit to ensure budget COAs are valid.

Reporting and Documentation:

  • Assist in preparation of financial monthly management and budget reports;
  • Maintain files of budget review documents – regular and mandatory revisions;
  • Maintain file of UN Women positions to ensure accuracy and completion of data. 

Liaison with Relevant Departments on Issues Related to Payroll Posting:

  • Liaise with Finance and relevant Programme Divisions on issues related to payroll budget check errors. Ensure payroll expenses are charged to valid budget chart of account (COA). 
Others:
  • Maintain absence records for the section;
  • Back up Budget Specialist in allocating UN Women core funds and Extra Budgetary in Atlas in appliance with UN Women financial rules and regulations.

Impact of Results:

The timely and effective review and approval of budgets directly impacts the efficient and effective use of financial resources which in turn result to a high delivery rate. Complete and timely maintenance of reports/documentation facilitates ease/accessibility to such information.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

  • Demonstrates consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

  • Demonstrates an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
  • Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies:  

Ethics and Values:
  • Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
Organizational Awareness:
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Development and Innovation:
  • Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
Work in teams:
  • Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
Communicating and Information Sharing:
  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:
  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards other.
Conflict Management:
  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution. 
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
  • Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
  • Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

  • Ability to contribute to change management and business re-engineering processes;
  • Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
  • Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
  • Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective. Anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly;
  • Proficient in software applications relating to word processing, data management, presentation, ATLAS;
  • Thoroughly and methodically collects, verifies and records data, demonstrating attention to detail and identifying and correcting errors on own initiative; maintains databases.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Secondary education is required. University Degree in Business is an advantage but not required. 
Experience:
  • Minimum of 7 years of administrative and financial experience preferably in a large or international corporation or organization;
  • Experience in the use of computers applications and software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and web based management systems;
  • Successfully passed UN clerical examination (ASAT) and the UN Accounting test (preferable).
Language:
  • Fluency in English is required;
  • Proficiency in another UN working language is desirable .

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.