Programme Support Officer

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale. 

THOH

Thailand Operations Hub (THOH) is a UNOPS business unit under the UNOPS Asia Regional Office and it was established to better support, develop and oversee the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific.

The Hub comprises three main portfolios –THOH Thailand, THOH Indonesia and THOH Pacific and provides a wide range of services including Project Management, Transactional HR, Financial, and Procurement to clients that include other UN entities, INGOs and governments/government agencies donors.

BRG Results Enabling Facility (BRG REF)

Seasonal peatland fires are now compromising Indonesia’s economic and social development by creating considerable threats to health, the environment, and the economy. In 2015 peat fires and their related haze resulted in the hospitalization of more than half a million people due to acute respiratory infections. These fires that raged through 2.6 million hectares of forest and peatland areas in the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra released 1.6 Gts of CO2e, surpassing the annual CO2 emissions of advanced industrialized nations such as Germany, France, and others. Direct and indirect damages cost the Indonesian national economy an estimated USD 16 billion, about 2% of its annual GDP.

In recognition of the importance of peatlands for climate change mitigation, the Government of Indonesia through Presidential Regulation No 1/2016 constituted the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG). BRG has an important mandate: prevent forest fires, especially in peatland areas, as well as restore 2 million hectares of peatlands devastated by forest and land fires. The Agency identified 7 target provinces for peatland restoration and fire prevention activities in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Papua.

Since its establishment in 2016, Norway has been supporting BRG, as current support to the BRG by the Norwegian Government falls within the wider partnership between Norway and Indonesia established in 2010 through the Letter of Intent (LOI) to reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation of forests and peatlands with USD 1 billion over the next few years. The USD 1 billion support is part of an international climate mitigation initiative (UNFCCC) supported programme that uses international aid to counter forest degradation in various parts of the world, and this is one of the largest ever contribution made to reduce deforestation.

In the framework of this background, Norway and BRG have asked UNOPS to develop a flexible multiyear administrative support mechanism for managing Norway’s financial support to BRG through the establishment of the BRG Results Enabling Facility (BRG REF). The mechanism has within its scope a back-office management component and a service, procurement, grants management and a delivery component.

Implementation of operational strategies and procedures

• Full compliance of project financial and grant activities with UNOPS rules, regulations, policies and strategies; implementation of effective internal control, proper design and functioning of the financial resources management system for the BRG-REF grants.
• Ensure full compliance with donor policies and reporting requirements.
• Elaboration/establishment of internal standard operating procedures and control of the workflows in the Fund Management Office for BRG-REF.
• Elaboration and implementation of cost-saving and reduction strategies.
• Up-to-date on policy developments on UNOPS financial management issues.

Project implementation

• Manage the engagement in oneUNOPS on behalf of the Fund and Country Manager.
• Provide technical support to project planning and development of strategies. Lead implementation monitoring and report.
• Manage information flows and oversee change controls, risk registers and issue management by establishing document control procedures.
• Manage assigned delivery of work packages and take responsibility for progress.
• Coordinate and liaise with the Fund and Country Manager and other managers of other work packages on the implementation progress; identify implementation bottlenecks and offer solutions for consideration. 
• Work with the Head of the Implementation Support Unit (ISU) to identify and manage risks.
• Analyze work processes, develop streamlined procedures, and identify possible synergies with other programmes/projects in THOH Indonesia as well as at hub level. 
• Act
as focal point between the Fund Management Office and THOH Support Services on all technical matters.
• Preparation and maintenance of programme/project files, including internal and external project reports.

Programme Support and Grants Management

• Provide high-quality professional advice to the Fund and Country Manager.  
• Manage the FMO team ensuring that appropriate strategies, operational standards and systems are established and maintained.
• Develop Standard Operating procedures (SOPs), manuals, plans, budgets, reporting template and all necessary programme support devices and toolsets as may be required for BRG-REF grants implementation.
• Manage all operational agreements with implementing partners, including their amendments and legal negotiations ensuring appropriate processing of UNOPS internal processes related to necessary awards and approvals from relevant UNOPS authorities.
• Ensure that activities for ongoing grants are monitored, analyzed and reported on a timely basis, lead the preparation and timely submission of reports to BRG and internally.
• Proper planning, expenditure tracking and audit of financial resources for the BRG-REF grants, in accordance with UNOPS financial rules and regulations, organizational directives and administrative instructions.
• Monitor the financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions and investigation of anomalies or unusual transactions. Escalation of issues to the Head of Support Services and the Fund and Country Manager.
• Identification of problems in the programme’s financial and grants areas, suggesting solutions to resolve issues in compliance with broader UNOPS policies, rules and procedures.
• Capacity building of grantees in the area of budgeting, reporting and finance management in general.
• Contracting independent agents to undertake specific tasks including, where appropriate, procurement, studies, audit and monitoring.
• Maintain all archives and programme related documentation.

Budget management and financial reporting

• Coordinate the preparation of all BRG-REF project budgets, review of budget submissions, regular analysis and reporting on the budget approvals and the delivery situation; monitoring of expenditures against approved budgets and reporting on variances.
• Review, analyse and revise data with respect to the finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals from grantees, BRG and other UNOPS teams within the BRG-REF.
• Coordinate financial reporting to the donor in accordance with UNOPS rules, and in line with the established procedures and agreed donor requirements. 
• Implement effective risk management practices in all BRG-REF grants.
• Timely review of cash position for grants to ensure sufficient funds on hand for disbursements, identification and recording of receipts for income application.
• Ensure that payment requests are submitted in a timely manner in order to ensure payments are being effectuated in due time to suppliers, grantees and other entities.
• Proper control of the supporting documents for payments; review, modification, initiation and implementation of internal control procedures in coordination with Head pf Support Services.

Stakeholder management, coordination and liaison

• Support the coordination and management of communications.
• Liaise and build relationships with other United Nations (UN) agencies, the donor, BRG, grantees, relevant Government Ministries, departments and agencies, and international non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) for the purposes of facilitating activities and improving the quality and relevance of information analysis.
• Participate in meetings with BRG, grantees ad other stakeholders as required.

Knowledge management and innovation

• Support the compilation of lessons learned as per defined reporting format.
• Ensure that local capacities are built at every level and opportunity for Programme Support.
• Contribute to the dissemination and sharing of best practices and lessons learned for planning and knowledge building.
• Contribute to expertise in tools and techniques
• Other duties as may be assigned by the Fund and Country Manager.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Project Management or related field is required. Additional 2 years of relevant experience with a first university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) is considered as equivalent.
• Certification as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant (CA) or equivalent highly desirable.

Work Experience

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in in the areas of operations, administration, finance or program/project implementation is required.
• Minimum 2 years of experience managing a team is required.
• Minimum 2 years experience at international level.
• Minimum 2 years experience leading or managing general operations/administration, finance or project implementation support is required.
• Experience in budgeting and project reporting required. Experience in grants management an asset.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Good knowledge of donor organizations and experience in working with NGOs and civil society would be an asset.
• Sound knowledge of UNOPS regulations and rules would be an asset. Prior relevant UNOPS experience preferred. 
• Experience in South East Asia an asset.

Language

• Fluency in both written and spoken English is required.
• Working knowledge of Bahasa a distinctive advantage.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.