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

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997. UN Women Palestine Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely, to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal, and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realization of following strategic goals: Mainstreaming gender in governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Special Representative and the direct supervision of the UN Women Head of Gaza Sub-Office/ Programme Management Specialist , UN Women will bring on board a Programme Finance Associate to provide effective support to the management of different programmes, to financial resources management, as well as to knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the West Bank and Gaza. The post is based in UN Women’s Sub-Office in Gaza.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Programme Finance Associate will undertake the following tasks related to the implementation of the UN Women programmes:

Provides effective support to management of the programme, focusing on the achievement of the following actions:

• Support the efficient and timely implementation of programmes’ activities.
• Assist in the development of programmes’ workplans and provide support for monitoring of progress.
• Establish and maintain the programmes’ follow-up system for actions and deadlines;
• Support to coordination efforts with programmes’ partners and ensuring flow of information with women’s organizations, government organizations, and local NGO’s; arranging for meetings with stakeholders and draft minutes of meetings as requested.
• Draft formal correspondence, in both Arabic and English, as needed.
• Support organizing workshops, activities and events related to the programme interventions, as needed.
• Support the collection and analysis of data related to the programmes’ related baselines and targets;
• Support in the inputting of the annual work plan and budget development exercise in consultation with the Programme Specialist and the programme team;
• Participate in reviewing civil society partners narrative reports and provide feedback as necessary.

Substantive Support to Financial Resources Management

• Support the programme team with financial resources management and controls;
• Prepare supporting documents for payments and financial reports;
• Prepare for internal and external audits and perform spot checks on implementing partners to maintain adherence to UN Women’s rules and regulations;
• In cooperation with the finance team, monitor financial activity for unusual activities or transactions, investigate anomalies and report to the supervisor conclusions and/or present recommendations for actions/decisions;
• Draft and present information and data for use in the planning of financial resources and the formulation of work plans and budgets;
• Support the programme team in preparation of budget and delivery plans and keeping track of expenditure;
• Follow up with government and non- government partners on submission of quarterly financial reports (Face forms); visit the partners regularly to verify reported expenditures against submitted financial documents.
• Support the programme managers to ensure timely and quality liquidation of advanced funds.
• Support programme managers in the creation of project budgets in Atlas, preparation of budget revisions, revision of project award and project status, operational and financial closure of ATLAS projects;
• Support programme managers in linking projects results with RMS, prepare and establish RMS budgets with project managers.
• Track the appropriation and timely use of financial resources and advise direct supervisor accordingly;
• Support programme managers and monitoring and evaluation team in country for requests for preparation of financial donor reports and review and comment on draft reports provided prior to finalization;

Supports knowledge building and knowledge sharing, focusing on achievement of the following actions:

• Participation in workshops and trainings as requested by the Project Manager;
• Contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Supporting in the preparation and implementation of dissemination plans of knowledge products;
• Keeping up to date with the latest advancement in the field of information and knowledge sharing.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, finance/accounting, social sciences or other relevant fields.

Professional Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years of experience working in project support, planning and coordination;
• Minimum of 3 years of progressively responsible experience in finance and financial management;
• Previous technical expertise in the area of gender equality is a strong asset.
• Experience in the use of PeopleSoft ATLAS is an asset.
• Previous experience in the UN system or international organizations is considered an asset;
• Previous experience with humanitarian assistance/organizations is an asset
• Previous coordination experience in Civil Society and Government Institutions is an asset

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required;

Source:https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=92971