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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women in South Sudan supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026 and the corresponding UN Women South Sudan Strategic Note (2022-2026), defining UN Women’s strategic engagement in South Sudan, focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans, and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s economic empowerment; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in South Sudan including the government, civil society and women’s organizations, youth, UN agencies, and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Currently, UN Women in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare and the Office of the Vice President (Gender and Youth Cluster) is developing a programme that aims at promoting the social economic empowerment of women and adolescent girls in South Sudan. The project called “South Sudan Women Economic Empowerment Project (SSWSEEP)”, will be implemented in 10 states and 2 administrative areas in South Sudan focusing on promoting women’s access to economic opportunities, protection, and access to GBV information and services and also strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare to effectively implement its mandate of promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. The project has four (4) components, namely: a) Community Empowerment Support to Women and Girls, b) Establishment of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Facility (WEOF), c) Scaling up services for Survivors of GBV and d) Institutional strengthening focusing on the Ministry OF Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Gender and Youth Cluster, and related national institutions.

Under the guidance and primary supervision of the Finance Specialist, the Finance Associate is responsible for the preparation of financial donor reports and financial project closure, while also providing additional capacity to the country office for other finance-related duties.  The Finance Associate will always promote a client-oriented approach and abide by UN Women’s financial regulations and rules. The Finance Associate works in close collaboration with the staff under the SSWSEEP, Project PMU, Implementing and Donor Partners, government agencies, technical advisors and experts, Regional Office, other UN entities, and civil society to successfully implement the activities. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

The project Finance Associate will work under the direct supervision of the Finance Analyst, and will have the following duties and responsibilities:

Administer focus on timely preparation of financial donor reporting and other management reports:

• Prepare financial reports for donors for UN Women offices timely and submit them to Finance Specialists;
• Monitor outstanding donor reports to donors and initiate follow-up actions with Country Office;
• Follow up on errors in chart fields or over expenditures and ensure proper adjustments are made;
• Assist in the maintenance of the General Ledger, analyzing and reconciling accounts with supporting modules;
• Respond to requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Prepare other regular finance indicators or management reports as requested;
• File and archive supporting work papers and documents;
• Regularly communicate with VGSC Finance Specialists;
• Provide budget setup support to permit accurate reports in formats required by Donor (E.g., EU report);
• Provide project staff with training on budget formats for donor-specific reporting requirements.

Administer and implement financial procedures focusing on the timely closure of projects:

• Perform and provide advice for financial project closure of projects for the UN Women (UNW) office;
• Monitor, reconcile, and follow up with Country Offices (COs) on the status of closed projects not yet financially closed;
• Prepare various reports on project closure status and initiate follow-up actions;
• Ensure proper control of the supporting documents for refunds to donors and general ledger journals;
• Follow up on errors in chart fields or over expenditures and ensure proper adjustments are made;
• Assist in the maintenance of General Ledger, analyzing and reconciling accounts with supporting modules;
• Respond to requests to resolve financial data issues;
• File and archive supporting work papers and documents;
• Regularly communicate with Finance Analyst.

Provide accounting and administrative support to the RO Finance team focusing on the achievement of the following results for Regional Office support:

• Prepare and review payment vouchers based on proper supporting documents authorized by the budget owners and project managers;
• Prepare various reports on incomplete/unpaid vouchers and initiate follow-up actions, and corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, and unapproved vouchers;
• Ensure Proper control of the supporting documents for payments, accounts receivable, and General Ledger journals;
• Maintain the internal expenditures control system, which ensures that vouchers processed are matched, and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas, and other entitlements are duly processed;
• Support the finance team in the internal and external audits of UN Women’s offices, as requested;
• Handle budgeting, monitoring, and reporting of project funds;
• Coordinate and facilitate project audits for projects under RO and project offices, and also support and monitor M/COs project audits in coordination with HQ.

Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Build and strengthen the capacity of UNW offices in the areas of financial donor reporting and project closure, including conducting training in your region;
• Assist and provide input to training materials for the operations/project staff on financial donor reporting and project closure or other related finance items;
• Actively participate in knowledge sharing and changes of duties with other staff in the Finance team, as requested by RO Finance Specialist, to ensure that all duties have backup staff assigned and trained;
• Ensure full compliance with amendments to International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).  Inform other UNW Finance Users to ensure IPSAS compliance and currency;
• Ensure full compliance with all UNW Financial Regulations and Rules, Operations manuals, Internal Control policies and procedures, Standard operating procedures, Finance manuals, and Delegations of Authority to ensure consistency across UNW and harmonization with other UN Agencies.  Provide recommendations to the Unit head for proposed amendments.

Key Performance Indicators:

The key results have an impact on the overall efficiency of financial resources management and success in the implementation of operational strategies.  Accurate analysis and presentation of financial information enhance UN Women's credibility in the use of financial resources and proper financial process management. The information provided facilitates management decision-making.

• Timely and accurate financial donor reports and other management financial reports;
• Timely and accurate financial donor reports and other management financial reports;
• Timely and accurate financial project closure;
• Timely response to requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Timely, completed, and accurate financial transactions/activities and documentation;
• Timely and accurate advice on UN Women’s financial rules and regulations.

Required Skills and Experience:

Education and certification:

• Completion of a Diploma or High School (Secondary Education) Certificate is required;
• University Degree in Accounting, Finance, or business is an advantage;
• Completion of the UN Women Accountancy & Finance Test is required (to be conducted during the recruitment process). 

Experience:

• At least 4 years of progressively relevant finance work experience is required;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and knowledge of database packages, working experience in web-based ERP financial systems (i.e. SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc);
• Knowledge of IPSAS and/or IFRS is desirable;
• Demonstrated experience in developing complex financial reports required;
• Experience in developing reports for donors within an international organizational context is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English.

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=111053