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.

UN Women’s Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, works to accelerate the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women through the strengthening of strategic partnerships, technical and policy advisory services and advocacy with governmental, inter-governmental and civil society partners. In addition, UN Women CO is charged with leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on gender equality, including through ensuring accountability for results.

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is an essential element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – the roadmap to a more equal, just, peaceful, and sustainable world.  UN Women is implementing a catalytic accelerator project for achieving women’s social, economic, and political equality and empowerment and the 2030 agenda. The overarching objective of the proposed project is: To accelerate progress on the 2030 agenda, especially SDG 5, by strengthening women’s leadership in the areas of economic, social, and political rights. The project is being implemented in India over three years. More specifically, the proposed outcome of the project are:

• Increased awareness and ownership of the global Generation Equality agenda, especially its constituted action coalitions related to economic justice and rights and gender based violence, are visible in (i) more formal and regular engagement between government, Civil Society Organisations, private sector, and media on these themes and (ii) establishment of state-level chapters/platforms for engagement; and Gender intentional policies and programs on skilling, and employees informed and scaled up by the government;
• Gender intentional policies and programs (especially related to safety, and mobility) informed and scaled up by the government, focused on two key policies (i) Smart and Safe cities, (ii) One Stop Centers for addressing violence against women;
• Strengthened institutional mechanisms for GRB resulting in an increase of gender in budgets, improved availability of data, and tracking of progress on gender equality initiatives across select ministries and all states/UTs; and
• G20 Summit prioritizes gender equality across tracks - Improved awareness and capacities across Indian decision makers on gender equality impacting the stronger implementation of gender-just laws.

In this context, the Financial Management Expert will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Operations Manager, UN Women India CO. The Financial Management Expert is responsible for providing assistance to offices in the India Country Office to ensure capacity and support; assistance with development projects for the finance users of UN Women for better business practices and controls as well as automation; ensuring all finance users are compliant with and trained in the accounting standards, financial regulations and rules, policies and procedures; assisting Finance Section RO/HQ in dedicated support, training, advice for India CO; and acts as the Audit focal point for the office in co-ordination with Finance Section HQ. 

The Financial Management Expert works in close collaboration with Finance Section HQ, Programme and Operations colleagues, teams at the country level, UNDP staff and Government officials ensuring high performance and efficiency in Finance.

The Financial Management Expert, under the Project will assist in - the financial process, ensuring proper payment tracking system and proper financial monitoring along with activities in-line with the approved project document.

Coordinate the financial planning, analysis, and provision of services to the India CO in accordance with UN Women internal control framework, rules, regulations, policies and procedures:

• Recommend and/or implement cost saving and reduction strategies;
• Review and/or verify financial transactions/activities, recording/reporting system and audit reports. Co-ordinate with Finance Section HQ on suggestions for amendments;
• Review financial business processes and use of Atlas system to ensure accurate and complete reporting of financial transactions by UN Women staff in accordance with the Internal Control Framework and Delegation of Authority and the timely flow of financial information in UN Women for management, monitoring and oversight purposes;
• Analyze and oversee all financial resources managed by the India CO and provide high-quality professional advice on financial issues to the India CO management, as necessary;
• Coordinate cash management processes, including liquidity management, recommend impress level, risk assessment, security for cash assets on site.
• Assist with financial risk assessment reviews for the India CO, by identifying areas of risk and providing recommendations and action plans for addressing issues raised.

Coordinate the monitoring and oversight of financial systems in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures:

• Monitor financial systems and reports for unusual activities, transactions, investigate anomalies;
• Coordinate the India CO timely completion of their Month-end Instructions Checklist and Year-end Instructions Closure Checklist;
• Draft all financial reports in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and ensure continued compliance.  Monitor the India CO for compliance with IPSAS accounting standards by reviewing business processes and systems modules resulting in IPSAS compliant general ledger and financial statements;
• Review Implementing Partner advance procedures and test against UN Women policies to ensure compliance.  Investigate and follow up on any anomalies for timely action and resolution, as necessary;
• Review all contractual arrangements with suppliers of goods and services to ensure that the financial terms and conditions of all contracts are being adhered to by the suppliers of goods and services;
• Report to Operations Manager and Deputy Director for Financial Management any case of non-adherence for timely action and recommendations for actions/decisions, as necessary;
• Respond to questions and provide analysis as requested to the Finance Section HQ.

Coordinate financial reporting in the India CO in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures:

• Draft timely and accurate automated interim financial reports to governments and donors as required under the donor agreements and other cost-sharing arrangements for submission to Virtual Global Service Centre Finance Specialists;
• Track and report contributions within the resource mobilization efforts, including pipeline, contracted and overdue and future milestones.  Review contributions receivables and provide information to Operations Manager for follow up, as necessary;
• Write ad hoc financial Donor and other reports as requested;
• Follow up and/or take prompt action to respond to audit and other findings on financial management.

Coordinate the audit process in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures:

• Coordinate the pre-audit preparations for financial management of the India CO to be audit ready and complete the pre-audit checklist.  Travel to the States in India CO as necessary to assist during CO audits.
• Contribute technically to the training in the India CO as part of the training plan or requirement of pre-audit preparations or as otherwise determined by Operations Manager or Deputy Director for Financial Management;
• Write responses to internal and external audit inquiries and other findings related to financial management for review/approval by Operations Manager and Deputy Director for Financial Managementand incorporate recommendations in development in policies, procedures and practices;
• Plan and track expenditures and performance audit of financial resources, including extra-budgetary income.

Coordinate programme/ project budgets in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures:

• Coordinate all financial resources of programmes/ projects through planning, guiding, monitoring and controlling of the resources;
• Prepare and monitor budgets of management projects;
• Analyze and report on the budget approvals and the delivery situation of management projects;
• Contribute to the proper mechanisms to eliminate deficiencies in budget management; 
• Submit financial information for timely preparation of donor reports;
• Prepare advance payments and direct payments for programme implementation and record them in Atlas.
• Provide assistance to offices in the region in relation to project closure and provide training on a regular basis, in conjunction with Virtual Global Service Centre Finance Specialists.

Coordinate financial training and communication for the India CO:

• Monitor the effectiveness of the services of the finance team on a regular basis to ensure close relationship between Finance Section and Finance Users in India CO and take corrective measures as needed;
• Coordinate development projects to ensure effective finance and communication tools are in place and regularly monitored for improvements;
• Perform the Finance Helpdesk function for India CO to ensure accurate and timely response to issues and advice requested in conjunction with HQ Finance Field Support Unit;
• Support in the implementation of the approved Training plans (specifically ATLAS and IPSAS) in conjunction with HQ Finance Field Support Unit and Finance specialist in RO on a recurrent basis to ensure competency across all Finance Users at India CO;
• Provide oversight for Finance staff of the India CO and monitor progress and provide guidance and direction to the staff as necessary to ensure goals and objectives are achieved.

Participate in knowledge management and capacity building:

• Identify, participate in the development and/or recommend enhancement/updates/improvement in Atlas financial modules for better business practices and controls in the India CO;
• Capture, synthesize and/or codify lessons learned and best practices in the India CO support and financial management and services. Disseminate to Finance Section HQ to share knowledge and build capacity;
• Contribute to the design of learning tools, best practices and innovations in financial business operational practices and management, promote transparency, ease of communications, hosting of financial documents, and all policies and procedures between all UN Women users of the India CO data.

Financial tasks, approving and certifying function:

• Oversee that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas; payrolls are duly prepared; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed;
• Implement timely corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, matching exceptions, unapproved vouchers;
• Provide timely response to HQ requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Perform delegated approval function in Atlas on a timely basis;
• Review and provide financial clearance of all donor agreements as delegated for compliance with standard agreements on a timely basis.

Any other duties assigned by the Supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Financial activities/transactions and documentations are implemented/processed according to UN Women rules and regulations, policies and procedures.
• Programme units receive timely support in relation to financial management, budgeting and planning.
• Timely and accurate professional advice on financial issues provided to the India CO management.
• Timely reporting on financial issues.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Leading by Example:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Good knowledge and expertise in financial planning and management;
• Good knowledge of complex financial rules and regulations, preferably UN/UN Women Financial Rules and regulations;
• Good conceptual/strategic skills and success in implementing financial re-engineering, management systems development, policy design, innovation and knowledge product development is an asset;
• Good knowledge and experience in the application of complex financial systems and modules (such as Atlas);
• Good knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages;
• Ability to provide advice and support;
• Good analytical skills.

Education:

• Master's degree in Finance/Accounting. Professionally qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy and/or a Qualified Chartered Accountant will have a distinct advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years’ experience in an accounting-specific role with in a large international organization preferably in the UN system is required. 5 year’s experience in financial management, with 4-year experience of working on development projects will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated financial experience using an ERP financial system.
• Demonstrated experience in providing financial and budget support to programmes/projects; Demonstrated experience at developing detailed financial reports for senior management.
• Demonstrated knowledge of IPSAS/IFRS.
• Demonstrated experience in supporting more than one office simultaneously is an asset.
• Demonstrated financial experience of working in a regional or multi-country context is an asset.
• Experience in the usage of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).
• Demonstrated experience using an online web-based management System is an asset.

Lanuguage Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of Hindi language is an asset.

Application Information:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Application Information: Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• 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;
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.