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.Under the guidance of the Operations Manager and supervision of the Finance Associate, Finance Assistant provides financial services ensuring high quality, accuracy and consistency of work. The Finance Assistant promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations. The Finance Assistant works in close collaboration with the operations, programme and projects / IPs’ staff to exchange information and ensure consistent service delivery.
Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of Key Functions:- Assist in implementation of operation strategies, focusing on financial regulations, procedures and financial processing;
- Provide Financial support to programmes and project offices;
- Provide support to Programme teams to review quarterly advances Request
- Knowledge Sharing.
- Ensure that the financial processes and financial records are in full compliance with UN Women policies, regulations, rules, and procedures. Provide inputs on improvements on financial control, procedures, and processing.
- Responsible for payment processing ( PO and Non-PO payments);
- Review payment requests to ensure correct calculation especially for DSA, correct chart fields, proper authorization, and sufficient supporting documents;
- Review and verify invoices for office operating expenses such as rent, utilities, telephone including common service expense;
- Ensure correctness and validity of payment in term of compliance to relevant policies & procedures, proper authorization, sufficient supporting documents e.g. receipts, invoices, signed agreements, and with proper account coding;
- Copy PO voucher in ATLAS;
- Notify payments to UNDP to run pay cycles;
- Liaise with UNDP finance focal point and help desk to solve payment problems, if any;
- Handle inquiries relating to payments. Ensure timely payments process in Atlas financial system and review them for completeness prior to submitting to the approving manager;
- Timely corrective actions on payment problems e.g. budget check errors, match exceptions, invalid account codes, unapproved vouchers etc. by analyzing problem, liaising with requester, and help desk with each country office;
- Timely prepare accurate payments for service contract personnel though ATLAS / to calculate overtime payment if needed. Assist in process PO closures process, PO/ AP data clean up for the payment team;
- Print out monthly PO / vouchers review reports for review by Finance supervisor Run petty cash report for review by finance Associate / Admin Associate, as well as other advances reports;
- If required, to record cash receipt, prepare GLJE, APJV relating to transactions under responsibility. Prepare pending items for projects per donor agreement, as assigned;
- Assist in preparation of financial reports to donors Study, implement and ensure the requests for payments compliance to policies and procedures relating to Finance processing including ATLAS related procedures, UN Women policies e.g. Travel entitlement, internal control. Other related tasks as assigned.
- Provide support to Project Managers to review the Quarterly Advance Request/ Quarterly Financial Reports from Partners;
- Provide support to IPs on necessary documentation for quarterly advances and their settlement in line with the UN Women standard financial procedures;
- Act as CO focal person for yearly project audit In collaboration with the program team conduct periodic visits to partners; Coordinate submission of partners’ quarterly financial reports (FACE) Coach team member (Programmme) in payments through ATLAS and procurement process Ensure the eligibility of expenditure submitted by implementing partners; Coordinate transmission of interim and final financial reports requests to UN WOMEN HQ Coordinate the transmission of quarterly confirmation letter of advances to partners (statements) Coordinate with program managers submission of month and year end closure.
- Conduct periodic information sessions and training on UN WOMEN practices and accounting rules as well with UN WOMEN partners as Programme officer;
- Assist in providing guidance to the Programme/projects’ staff on financial matters for all projects;
- Offer guidance on financial regulation and procurement rules, including DSA calculations, Budget Revisions, preparation of FACE, ICE forms and advance settlement reports to Project Managers and IPs Financial & Administrative staff;
- Support research, compilation and documentation of best practices and lessons learnt;
- Ensure proper documentation to support the Monitoring and Follow up process Ensure full transparency and access to information about project activities..
Competencies
Integrity:- Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
- Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
- Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
- Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
- Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
- Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Development and Innovation:
- Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
- Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
- 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 others.
- Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
- Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
- Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.
- Knowledge Management and Learning;
- Shares knowledge and experience;
- Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
- Development and Operational Effectiveness;
- Ability to perform a variety of standard tasks related to financial resources management, including screening and collecting documentation, financial data processing, filing, provision of information;
- Good knowledge of UN Women’s financial rules and regulations, accounting;
- Strong IT skills;
- Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new system / SOPs.
- Focuses on result for the clients (colleagues in the CO and partners) and responds positively to feedback ;
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
- Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:- University Degree in Finance or Accounting
- At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience of relevant finance or accounting experience is required.
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web based management systems.
- The candidate should have strong interpersonal skills and excellent command of French and good knowledge of English language.