Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Application Deadline :

21-Dec-16(Midnight New York, USA)

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Post Level :

P-4

Languages Required :

English

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

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.

The Division of Management and Administration is responsible for the planning, allocation and management of financial, administrative resources including information communications and technology, the effective and efficient delivery of essential operations services in UN Women, continuous development and improvement in operations, policies, and methods to align with UN Women and stakeholders’ evolving business needs and advisory support to the Executive Director in the formulation and implementation of the UN Women overall mission, strategy and plans of actions.

The Finance Specialist, Financial Reporting and Project Closure reports to the Chief of Accounts for guidance and supervision and is responsible for the management, oversight, timely and effective control of UNW financial reporting and financial project closure ensuring compliance with UN Women Internal Control Framework, financial rules, regulations, policies, procedures and IPSAS. The Finance Specialist contributes to the development of financial policies, rules, procedures, systems and tools to ensure efficiency and efficacy in financial management and operations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage financial donor reporting and other management reports:

• Manage the preparation and review of timely and accurate financial reports for donors for UN Women offices and sections; continuously review business process;

• Provide quality assurance review and clearance of financial donor reports prepared by Finance Specialists and Associates;

• Prepare and issue guidelines for interim and annual donor reports in accordance with required timelines, donor agreements and any other financial reports required by Trust Funds and other cost sharing arrangements;

• Closely monitor and provide regular reports on the status of outstanding donor reports to the relevant unit and senior management and ensure action is taken to resolve pending reports;

• Ensure that recording errors identified during the donor reporting process are communicated to the relevant office and the appropriate adjustments are made;

• Monitor all over expenditures at a project level and ensure proper adjustments are made;

• Prepare other regular finance indicators or management reports, as requested;

• Ensure effective system of electronic filing for financial reports and work papers;

• Work with IT (and other divisions within UN Women) to develop automated reports and tools which will facilitate the preparation of UN Women donor reports and the efficiency and effectiveness of the project closure workflow.

Manage financial project closure:

• Mange financial project closure of projects for UN Women offices within timeframe established in UN Women Financial Regulations and Rules; continuously review business process;

• Propose best practice policies and ensure standard operating procedures (SOPs) for project closure are properly documented, distributed and communicated across the entity; collaborate with other UN agencies as appropriate;

• Monitor, reconcile and follow up with Regional Offices and HQ Sections on status of operationally closed projects which have not yet been financially closed across UN Women;

• Work with IT (and other divisions within UNW) to develop automated reports which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the project closure workflow;

• Develop automated monitoring tools to track and monitor the status of project closure, in consultation with IT;

• Ensure proper control of the supporting documents for refunds to donors and general ledger journals.

Develop donor reporting and financial project closure capacity:

• Develop donor reporting and financial project closure capacity in each of the six Regional Offices, including providing detailed training (virtual global service center);

• Maintain high level of skills within staff assigned to donor reporting and project closure through recurrent training and provide opportunities for knowledge sharing and cross training;

• Build capacity and knowledge throughout UN Women offices and sections by developing tools and resources which demonstrate best practices for the financial management of programmes and accounting and record keeping practices needed to ensure that donor reports can be prepared on a timely basis.

Provide financial planning and analysis services to the Unit:

• Review and approve all requests for donor reports and project closure to ensure that they are in line with UNW’s policies;

• Recommend and/or implement cost saving and reduction strategies including cost recovery strategies and cost effective financial arrangements;

• Review and revise key policies and guidelines on project closure and financial donor reporting and propose improvements to Chief of Accounts;

• Manage, review, implement and/or verify financial transactions/activities, recording/reporting system and audit reports and ensure full compliance with and consistent approach to UN Women internal control framework and financial rules, regulations and strategies;

• Manage and oversee the financial business processes mapping and elaboration of the content of internal standard operating procedures and use of Atlas system to ensure proper management of financial transaction by UN Women staff and the timely flow of financial information in UN Women for management, monitoring and oversight purposes;

• Perform delegated approval function in Atlas on a timely basis.

Ensure monitoring, oversight and control:

• Review and provide financial clearance of all donor reports and project closure actions for compliance with standard agreements on a timely basis;

• Ensure full compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and all UNW Financial Regulations and Rules, Operations manuals, Internal Control policies and procedures, Standard operating procedures, Finance manual, and Delegations of Authority to ensure consistency across UNW and harmonization with other UN Agencies.? Provide recommendations to Chief of Accounts for proposed amendments;

• Follow up adherence to issued guidelines with users to ensure all actions are taken within the established timelines. Report to the Chief of Accounts any case of non-adherence for timely action.

Provide advisory support and technical guidance:

• Provide timely advice to all offices and sections of UNW on financial donor reporting and financial project closure.

• Perform a regular review of the current business processes for financial donor reporting and financial project closure and propose innovative changes to Chief of Accounts;

• Collaborate with other UN Agencies on project closure and financial donor reporting to ensure that best practices are being followed;

• Review and revise key policies and guidelines on project closure and financial donor reporting and propose improvements to Chief of Accounts;

• Support Finance Section more broadly with advisory support and technical guidance as requested by Chief of Account.

Manage financial reporting and responses to Audit:

• Ensure the timely preparation of monthly status reports as required by HQ and Field Offices, and monthly management reports including project closure status and other areas; submit to the Chief of Accounts;

• Review financial reports for accuracy and completeness and submit to the Chief of Accounts within the required timeline;

• Ensure the timely preparation of period-end and year-end financial statements and reports. Review period end and year-end financial statement reports for accuracy and completeness and submit to the Chief of Accounts;

• Participate as a member of the UN Women finance team in the internal and external audits of UN Women, including full understanding of audit recommendations and clearance timetable;

• Coordinate and manage responses from HQ and Field Offices in relation to internal and external audit requests. Prepare responses to internal and external audit inquiries and other findings related to financial management for review/approval by Chief of Accounts, as required;

• Follow up and/or take prompt action to respond to audit and other findings on financial management including recommending improvements in policies, procedures and practices, as required.

Manage knowledge building for financial reporting and project closure:

• Manage the financial reporting and project closure sections of UN Women Finance website to ensure that current dissemination of financial information and policies to all UN Women users;

• Contribute and/or initiate the development of UNW financial policies, procedures, guidance notes, internal control, business flows, reporting and systems;

• Conduct and/or organize training events and activities and conduct inductions of new staff members;

• Capture, synthesize, codify, and disseminate lessons learned and best practices in financial management and services;

• Disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge;

• Design and/or introduce, learning tools, best practices and innovations in financial business operational practices and management.

Supervise Financial Reporting and Project Closure finance staff:

• Promote teamwork and high level of productivity through efficient staff supervision and mentoring;

• Prepare the work plan for the Financial Reporting and Project Closure Team in collaboration with the finance team and Chief of Accounts. Establish priorities, timelines, targets and standards for monitoring results;

• Manage and maintain effective system for distribution of workload amongst staff assigned to donor reporting and financial project closure;

• Monitor progress and provide guidance and direction to the staff as necessary to ensure goals and objectives are achieved;

• Establish Performance Management Development plan for each member of the team based on the work plan and ensure preparation and review meets established timeline.

Perform other duties as assigned by Chief of Accounts.

Key Prformance Indicators:

• Timely advice and training to colleagues in the field and HQ so that capacity to perform donor reporting and financial project closure is increased;

• Timely submission and high quality of donors reports to internal and external stakeholders;

• Timely closure of financial projects;

• Quality inputs to Finance rules, regulations, guidelines, manuals, and policies;

• Adherence to IPSAS and all UN Women financial rules, regulations, policies, and procedures;

• Timely submission of audit responses;

• Performance of Financial Reporting and Project Closure team members.

Competencies

Core Values:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Respect for Diversity:

• 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.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

1. Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• 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.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge and expertise in preparation of financial statements, financial planning and management principles and approaches;

• Strong knowledge of complex financial rules and regulations, preferably UN/UNDP/UN Women Financial Rules and regulations;

• Demonstrated business acumen and judgment;

• Conceptual/strategic skills and success in implementing financial re-engineering, management systems development, policy design, innovation and knowledge product development;

• Excellent communication skills;

• Advance knowledge of Excel spreadsheet and database packages.??

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Finance/Accounting, or a Professional accounting qualification from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy, (Chartered Accountant or Certified Public Accountant);

• Professionally qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of extensive and progressively responsible experience in financial management, at least 3 years of which should be at the supervisory level, in a large international and/or corporate organization.?

• Experience in the UN system and its organizations is an asset;

• Experience of IPSAS or IFRS environment with experience in producing financial statements and notes;

• Experience in financial donor reporting and financial project closure;

• Solid knowledge and experience in the application of complex financial ERP systems and modules (preferably PeopleSoft/Atlas);

• Experience with IT development automation of financial systems and reports is highly desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

• Working knowledge of another UN language is desirable.?

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from?http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;

• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please?combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document.?Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment

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.