Programme Officer HACT, NO-B, Damascus, Syria #100640

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

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.

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. UNICEF has adopted the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) as an approach for obtaining assurance that results have been achieved in line with resource utilization. It aims at managing risks related to cash transfers made to implementing partners in support of programme implementation, reducing partner transaction costs and allowing progressive use of national systems for management and accountability of results and resources.

Job organizational context: The Syria CO operates in a very complex humanitarian environment, and a rapidly changing context. The main office is based in Damascus and supported by 5 Field Offices, located in Aleppo, Tartous, Qamishli, Homs and Damascus (for rural Damascus). The PME|HACT Section reports directly to the Deputy Representative and works in close coordination with all programme teams and Field Offices. The section is responsible for the strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, information management, partnerships and HACT. The HACT team works on regular basis with a large number of partners that implement programmes across the country.  

How can you make a difference?

The Programme Officer (HACT) L2 reports to P3 Programme Specialist-HACT. The Programme Officer (HACT) L2 provides professional financial, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process by preparing, managing and/or executing a variety of technical and administrative tasks to facilitate the effective implementation of HACT in line with the UNICEF HACT Policy and UNICEF HACT Procedure.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Support to HACT planning during the programming process
2. Support to implementation of assurance activities
3. Review and use of HACT reports
4. Networking and inter-agency partnership
5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

1. Support to the HACT planning during the programming process
2. Support to implementation of HACT activities
3. Review and use of HACT reports
4. Networking and inter-agency partnership

• Provide technical information and operational support to implementing partners, UN system partners and other stakeholders in the CO on the implementation of HACT to reinforce UN/CO harmonization and coordination.
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of HACT information and knowledge to facilitate/build their capacity for implementing HACT.
• Participate in appropriate inter-agency meetings/events to facilitate and promote sharing of information, knowledge, experiences and best practice and enhance coordination of activities in line with the UNICEF HACT Procedure.
• Interact regularly with other country offices and the Regional Office on HACT.

5. Knowledge management and capacity building

• Identify, synthesize and share lessons learned from HACT and its implementation for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts.

• Identify, synthesize and share lessons learned and best practice in the implementation of HACT.

• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for implementing partners which can be supported by UNICEF through identification of common weaknesses in financial and procurement management from review of micro assessment and assurance activity reports of high and significant risk partners.
• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for CO staff to ensure that staff has knowledge and skills to fulfill their responsibilities under HACT.

Impact of Results

The effective support provided by the Programme Officer (HACT) L2 to the careful planning and effective implementation of the HACT activities directly impacts on programme execution and delivery of sustainable results and promote national ownership and accountability for programme resources.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• A University Degree in International Development, Programme/Project Management, Business Administration, Financial Management, Economics, Accounting, and Auditing or other relevant field is required.

• A minimum of 2 years of professional experience in audit, internal controlling, accounting, financial planning, management and oversight at the international and/or in a developing country is required.
• Relevant experience in program/project financial monitoring and evaluation and risk management in a UN system agency or international non-profit organization is an asset.
• Experience in the usage of MS Office software and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database solutions. Experience in handling of web based management systems and ERP financial, preferably SAP is an asset. Experience of IPSAS and/or IFRS is required.

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The technical competencies required for this post are:

• Formulating strategies and concepts (I)
• Analyzing (II)
• Applying technical expertise (II)
• Learning and researching (II)
• Planning and organizing (II)

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Candidates will not be considered if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation or sexual abuse, or crimes other than minor traffic offences, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.