Antecedentes

UNDP Afghanistan Mission statement

UNDP supports stabilization, state building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels. UNDP has played a key role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund, which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational Context

UNDP is key partner to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the ‘Global Fund’, ‘GF’) and serves as interim Principal Recipient (‘PR’) at the request of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (‘CCM’) or GF.   In July 2014, the Afghanistan CCM requested UNDP Afghanistan to assume the PR’role for the HIV, TB, Malaria and Health System Strengthening grants under the Global Fund new funding model (the ‘Programmes’). The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) will be the principal implementing partner and a number of non-governmental organizations will be Sub-recipients (‘SR’). In the role of interim PR, UNDP is responsible for the financial and programmatic management of the Global Fund grants as well as procurement of pharmaceutical and non-health items and the quality of the services provided under the Programmes. In all areas of implementation, UNDP provides support to national partners to strengthen health systems to assume the PR’role when capacities permit.  Central to UNDP’s work is strengthening partnerships between MoPH, other government agencies, affected communities, development partners and UN agencies to ensure more effective and inclusive governance of the response against the three diseases.

UNDP is a founding co-sponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).  The UNAIDS division of labor provides the framework for UNDPs response to the AIDS epidemic.

UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development is organized into three main streams of work, as follows:

• Mainstreaming, Gender and MDGs;
• Governance, Human rights and Vulnerable Groups;
• Global Fund Partnership; Implementation Support and Capacity Development

For the implementation of the Programmes funded by the Global Fund, UNDP Afghanistan will establish a Programme Management Unit (‘PMU’) which will coordinate and oversee the implementation of the Programmes and ensure compliance of the terms and conditions of the grant agreements with the GF and UNDP rules, policies and procedures.  The PMU will ensure coordination with other initiatives funded by the Global Fund and other health programmes, including the Multi-Country South Asia HIV Global Fund grant. In addition, it is critical the PMU links with other UNDP programmes in Afghanistan and also with other UNDP Country Offices acting as PR for Global Fund programmes in the region and globally.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Programme Manager, the Finance Specialist (Global Fund Project) is responsible for ensuring the highest efficiency in financial resources management and the provision of accurate, thoroughly researched and documented financial information, effective delivery of financial services, and transparent utilization of financial resources and management of the finances for the Global Fund Grants. He/she analyzes and interprets the financial rules and regulations and provides solutions to a wide spectrum of complex financial issues.

The Finance Specialist (Global Fund Project) supervises and leads support staff of finance. The Finance Specialist (Global Fund Project) works in close collaboration with the Co’Principal Recipients, Principal Implementers (PIs), Sub-recipients (SRs), Sub-sub recipients (SSRs), contractors and other implementing partners of the GF project, the Country Office (CO) Operations unit, and programme teams in the CO in ensuring successful GF Project.

Note: UNDP Afghanistan reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP Afghanistan at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and education requirements.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Summary of key functions:     

• Effective and accurate financial resources management and oversight;
• Implementation of operational strategies and procedures;
• Programmes’ budgets management and proper control of accounts;
• Ensure close  monitoring of the CO’PRs, PIs, SRs and SSRs and other implementing partners;
• Facilitation of knowledge building and sharing in the GF team.

Ensure effective and accurate financial resources management and oversight, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Financial analysis and oversight for all resources managed by the Projects and provision of high-quality professional advice to the Programme Manager and Procurement Officer;
• Proper planning, expenditure tracking of financial resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations and GF grant agreement(s);
• Maintain internal controls over all financial processes;
• Ensure an efficient financial flow process;
• Put in place a reporting system for internal and GF needs;
• Ensure an effective information flow between finance and non-finance actors (on Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), Co’sPR, Local Fund Agent (LFA), and PIs, SR, SSRs contractors and other implementing partners in order to effectively link the programmatic results to expenditures, as required by GF;
• Facilitate annual audits of PR as required by UNDP and ensure external auditors have all relevant information and follow-up on audit reports to ensure that gaps in audit reports are closed;
• Monitor the financial performance of supply management systems/ procurement;
• Prepare cost estimates for different activities according to the needs of program management;
• Develop, track and report to management key financial performance indicators.

Ensure implementation of operational strategies and procedures, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Establish and/or improve financial procedures: e.g. receipts, payments, disbursements and bookkeeping, filing procedures for the GF projects of PI, SRs, SSRs;
• Ensure that financial procedures in place comply with the financial/accounting and procurement requirement of the GF and UNDP
• Continuous analysis and monitoring of the financial situation, presentation of forecasts for the projects;
• Oversight for the transparency of the financial processes and use of funds and compliance with GFATM and UNDP financial guidelines;
• Ensure preparation of the Programmes’ Quarterly Report, monthly Cash Flow and annual Cash Flow Forecasts, statement of sources and uses of funds in compliance with the Global Fund requirements;
• Ensure preparation of other financial reports to be submitted to the LFA/Global Fund and act as a Focal point for finance information for the LFA/Global Fund;
• Elaboration and implementation of cost saving and reduction strategies;
• Routinely monitors financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions, and investigates anomalies or unusual transactions. Informs supervisors of the results of the investigation when satisfactory answers are not obtained;
• Timely preparation of monthly cash flow forecast for use by the Programme Manager and Procurement Officer.                                    

Manage the Programmes’ budgets and ensure proper control of accounts focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Manage financial resources through planning, guiding, monitoring and controlling of the resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
• Prepare and monitor projects’ budgets in Atlas;
• Elaboration of proper mechanisms to eliminate deficiencies in budget management;
• Ensure that contributions from the GF are properly transferred to UNDP on a timely basis;
• Complying with the internal expenditures control system, which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas;
• Perform Manager level 1 function for transactions approval in Atlas;
• Ensure timely corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers;
• Timely response to HQ requests to resolve financial data issues.

Ensure close monitoring of the CO’s PRs, PIs, SRs and SSRs and other implementing partners:

• Provide guidance and capacity building of CO’PRs, PIs, SRs and SSRs on issues of finance – from contracting and banking issues to budgeting, accounting and reporting;
• Ensure advance payments and direct payments for SR’s and SSR’s vendors are properly reviewed, processed and retired, as well as ensuring that payment information is properly recorded into the Atlas system on a timely basis;
• Harmonize reporting and accounting practices of sub-recipients including budgeting and key financial performance indicators;
• Monitor PIs, SRs and SSRS and other implementing partners for accuracy of financial information and safeguards to eliminate fraud;
• Ensure annual audits of PIs, SRs and follow up on action plans;
• Ensure continuous support for the financial managers of PIs, SRs.

Ensure facilitation of knowledge building and sharing in the GF team, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Develop training plan/curriculum for the PIs, SRs, SSRs financial and accounting staff and conduct a training on GF performance based funding and financial reporting requirements management system;
• Organize training for the programme staff on finance;
• Synthesis of lessons learned and best practices in finance;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Impact of results

The key results have an impact on the overall GF efficiency in financial resources management and success in introduction and implementation of operational strategies. Accurate, thoroughly researched and documented financial information, timely and appropriate delivery of services ensure client satisfaction and enhance GF-UNDP credibility in use of financial resources.

Competencias

Functional Competencies:

Building Partnerships:

Identifying and building partnerships

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build alliances;
• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
• Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Developing tools and mechanisms

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Participates in the development of mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

In-depth knowledge of own discipline

• Understands advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines (financial resources management);
• Continues to seek new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Continually looking for ways to enhance financial performance in the office.

Promoting Organizational Change and Development:

Assisting the individuals to cope with change

• Performs appropriate work analysis and assists in redesign to establish clear standards for implementation.

Design And Implementation of Management Systems:

Designing and implementing management system

• Makes recommendations regarding operation of systems within organizational units;
• Identifies and recommends remedial measures to address problems in systems design or implementation.

Client Orientation:

Contributing to positive outcomes for the client

• Anticipates client needs;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

Promoting Accountability and Results-Based Management:

Input to the development of standards and policies

• Provides inputs to the development of organizational standards for accountability.

Core Competencies:

• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Fair and transparent  decision making; calculated risk-taking;
• Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master Degree or equivalent in Finance/Accounting, Business, or Public Administration, or a professional accounting qualification from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy;
• Professionally qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage;
• Shortlisted candidates will be required to undergo the UNDP Advanced Accountancy & Finance Test.

Experience:

• 5 years of relevant experience in providing financial management advisory services and/or managing staff and operational system;
• Knowledge and experience in working with UNDP and/or UN agencies an advantage;
• Knowledge and experience in working with Global Fund an advantage;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.

Language:

• Fluency in English spoken and written.

Interested and qualified International candidates should apply on-line through the UNDP Jobs site at http://www.af.undp.org/content/afghanistan/en/home/operations/jobs/    and please ensure that to fill up and upload Personal History Form-P.11 which is available at http://www.af.undp.org/content/afghanistan/en/home/operations/jobs/     in the relevant field of the on-line application

Incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date will not be given consideration. Please note that only applicants who are short-listed will be contacted.

For more detailed information about UNDP Afghanistan please visit our website at www.undp.org.af   

Successful candidates must be prepared to start work within 6 weeks of the offer of appointment.

Qualified female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.