Background
Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. We are on the ground in more than 140 countries working with governments, civil society, development partners and the private sector.
UNFPA Zimbabwe helps strengthen government and civil society’s capacity to promote communities, in particular women and young people, to access and utilize sexual and reproductive health services, with a focus on reducing maternal deaths, the unmet need for family planning, new HIV infections, and gender-based violence since 1981.
The Finance Associate is located in the Zimbabwe Country Office and is under the guidance of the Operations Manager and direct supervision of the Finance Analyst. The Finance Associate ensures the effective functioning of financial operations and systems in support of the programme and office management.
S/he works closely with programme and project staff providing financial monitoring and analysis of projects, and advising managers on expenditure trends and implementation rates. The Finance Associate is also a member of the Country Office management services team managing financial aspects of Country Office operations
In support of UNFPA’s strategic direction at the country level, contribute to building country office capacity and ensuring effective and efficient application of Country Office resources through support and monitoring resources in the following activities:
- Finance;
- Budget.
External partners include UNDP, other UN agencies, vendors and other non-UN partners that are essential to the work of the office of the CO.
Duties and Responsibilities
Major Activities/Expected ResultsSummary of Key Functions:
- Implement operational and financial management strategies;
- Accounting, Finance and administrative support;
- Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing.
- Full compliance with UN/UNFPA rules and regulations of financial processes, financial records and reports and audit follow-up; implementation of the effective internal control framework;
- CO finance business processes mapping and elaboration of the content of internal Standard Operation Procedures in Finance in consultation with the direct supervisor and office management;
- Provision of inputs for implementation of cost-saving and reduction strategies in consultation with office management;
- Assist in the preparation of donor reports.
- Proper control of the supporting documents for payments and financial reports for NEX, DEX and/or management projects; preparation of all types of vouchers and payment execution;
- Maintenance of the internal expenditures control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas; payrolls are duly prepared and processed; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed;
- Ensures timely accounts closure;
- Ensures 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;
- Ensures timely corrective actions on erroneous data in Atlas;
- Preparation of financial reports as required.
- Develops tools and mechanisms for effective and efficient monitoring of programme and project budgets, coordinates compilation of financial data and provides accurate and up-dated financial information to HQ/ESARO (East and Southern Africa Regional Office) on a continuous basis;
- Organization of trainings for the operations/project staff on Finance;
- Ensures the effective financial recording and reporting system, internal control and audit follow-up and processes financial transactions in an accurate and timely way;
- Synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices in financial management;
- Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
Competencies
Values and Core Competencies:Values
- Exemplifying integrity;
- Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system;
- Embracing cultural diversity;
- Embracing change.
- Achieving results;
- Being accountable;
- Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen;
- Thinking analytically and strategically;
- Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships;
- Communicating for impact.
- Managing the organization’s financial resources;
- Managing data;
- Managing documents, correspondence and reports;
- Managing Information and workflow;
- Planning, organizing and multi-tasking;
- Supporting financial data analysis;
- Good communications skills, verbal and oral.
Required Skills and Experience
Education
- Secondary Education, with specialized certification in Accounting and Finance;
- University Degree in Finance, Business or Public Administration desirable, but is not a requirement;
- Part-qualified accountant from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.
- 6 years of progressively responsible finance and accounting experience is required;
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web based management systems and ERP financials, preferably PeopleSoft;
- Knowledge of IPSAS and/or IFRS would be an added advantage.
- English and the national language of duty station.
Application Procedure
- Applicants are requested to upload a copy of their latest updated P11 Form instead of a CV which can be downloaded from this website: http://zimbabwe.unfpa.org/.