Finance Officer, P2, FT, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Hosted Fund, New York, Post #125620, Req # 565505
Job no: 565505
Position type: Fixed Term Appointment
Location: United States Division/Equivalent: UNITED HOSTED FUNDS
School/Unit: Education Cannot Wait
Department/Office: New York, USA
Categories: Administration, Financial Management
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, Education.
Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. We support quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so no one is left behind. ECW works through the multilateral system to both increase the speed of responses in crises and connect immediate relief and longer-term interventions through multi-year programming. ECW works in close partnership with governments, public and private donors, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and other humanitarian and development aid actors to increase efficiencies and end siloed responses. ECW urgently appeals to public and private sector donors for expanded support to reach even more vulnerable children and youth. ECW is a UNICEF hosted fund, administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations; operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.
How can you make a difference?
PURPOSE OF THE JOB
As a UNICEF hosted fund, ECW has additional layers of management information over and above the UNICEF standard systems. The overview, quality assurance of entries and ability to seamlessly extract data from the system is vital for ECWs ability to provide ECW Senior Management Team with relevant management information. The main purpose of this job is to support ECWs Chief of Finance and Operations in extracting data from the ECW grants management system, finance database (both SharePoint based) and other sources of data conducting quality assurance, assessment of funds flow, and high-quality analysis on a day-to-day analysis. The ECW finance database contains data on inflows and outflows, including: Data on pledges, signed agreements and received income from donors as well as potential earmarking. Data on grant allocations, and actual and planned disbursements. The finance database is connected to the grants database to ensure consistency between grants, finance, and monthly reconciliation towards UNICEF financial statements. As ECW delivers on the ambitions and vision set out in ECW’s Strategic Plan 2023-2026, this function will have a pivotal role in supporting the Chief of Finance and Operations in conceptualizing data solutions needed to support the strategic plan, designing templates and formats for data capture and dashboard for visualization of grant and financial data.
The key responsibilities of this role are to:
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- Be the focal point for the organization of data in the ECW Finance Database.
- Ensure that the ECW Finance Database is up to date and contains quality-assured data.
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- Extract and utilize data to inform management decisions.
- Develop documentation for the ECW Finance Database and train ECW colleagues on how to use the ECW Finance Database.
KEY FUNCTION, ACCOUNTABILITIES AND RELATED DUTIES/TASKS:
Quality assurance and review of data entered into the ECW Finance Database:
- Lead on the development of standard operating procedures for consistent and timely registration of relevant data in the Finance Database.
- Oversee the registration of finance data into the ECW Finance Database in accordance with standard operating procedures.
- Ensure continuous quality assurance of data entries and monthly reconciliation between ECW Finance Database and UNICEF Financial Statements.
Analyze and develop high-quality and concise reports based on the ECW Finance Database:
- Independently and in collaboration with colleagues, initiate data downloads and extraction, to ensure that colleagues have access to relevant information on ECW finance and grants.
- Develop dashboards and sheets based on the ECW Finance Database to inform regular reporting processes, such as the Annual Results Reports.
- Analyze data from the ECW Finance Database, compare data with other systems and analyze trends and variations.
- Develop reports and briefing notes based on the analysis and develop high-quality presentations and workflows to visualize findings.
Conceptualize and suggest designs for improved performance of the ECW Finance Database:
- Continued update of templates and formats for capturing input into the database.
- Design automated checks of data to ensure consistency, and reports to support management information and dashboard on finance data to be used within outside ECW.
- Collaborate with colleagues in ECW, particularly Education, M&E and SPA sections to develop user friendly tools for registration, comparison and analysis of data.
Support ECW’s operationalization of the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan:
- Strategically advise the ECW Secretariat and particularly within the Finance and Operations team, on data and finance related to operationalizing the 2023-2026 ECW Strategic Plan.
- Advise ECW colleagues on how to improve data integrity and analysis, for example in relation to risk, gender, disability and intervention codes and how financial and results data is connected for analysis.
IMPACT OF RESULTS:
- ECW’s ability to deliver on the commitments and priorities set out in its Strategic Plan 2023-2026 with respect to improving the quality and analysis of ECW Finance Data.
- ECW’s ability to keep the secretariat lean and efficient with smoother work processes and data flows.
- ECW’s ability to operate with accountability: ensuring adherence to both ECW and UNICEF rules, regulations and procedures with respect to grant management and procurement.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION:
- A first-level university degree in accounting, financial management, or another related financial field is required. Supplemental formal financial / accounting training may be accepted if a university degree is not in a related financial field. A diploma qualification in CIPFA is acceptable in lieu of a relevant university degree, or its equivalent
- A minimum of 2 years of relevant professional experience in planning or coordination of financial management and analysis, preferably in a United Nations or development organization.
- Strong interpersonal skills in developing and maintaining effective working relations with a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) is an asset.
ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATION:
- Strong interpersonal skills in developing and maintaining effective working relations with a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Ability to set out and deliver user-friendly systems and frameworks to support effective planning and coordination, with limited supervision.
- Ability to work in a lean structure, which requires flexibility and proactivity.
- Ability to respond to tight deadlines with good attention to detail.
- Strong written and oral communication skills – the ability to summarize complex information in ways that engage and motivate colleagues, and the ability to create high-quality Word, Excel and PowerPoint document to communicate key information.
- Ability to proactively manage different time-sensitive processes and tasks at the same time.
- Strong competence with the following Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Experience in database packages, web-based management systems, particularly MS SharePoint, is considered as an asset.
- Experience with IPSAS and/or IFRS is considered as an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values
UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.
During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable from all national, religious, and ethnic backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
The appointment for this position is limited to EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT, a UNICEF-hosted fund. While UN staff regulations and rules, as well as UNICEF policies and procedures, apply to you during your appointment, certain provisions therein may apply to you differently due to the limited scope of your appointment. In particular, you will not be subject to rotation exercise as per the Executive Directive on Staff mobility and rotation (CF/EXD/2015-002) or any revision thereof. In addition, during your appointment in ECW, you will not be considered eligible for conversion to a Continuing Appointment as per UNICEF Administrative Instruction on Continuing Appointment (CF/AI/2017-002) or any revision thereof. In the event that your post is abolished, the priority granted, and other support provided to staff on abolished posts in staff selection processes will only be extended to posts within ECW and not to other posts in UNICEF.
UNICEF candidates: To return to a UNICEF appointment outside ECW, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF-hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF-hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.
External Candidates: To secure a UNICEF appointment outside ECW, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.
UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Advertised: Sep 05 2023 Eastern Daylight Time
Application close: Sep 19 2023 Eastern Daylight Time