UN Women - Assistant Accountant : Consultant

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 UN Women Finance Section is responsible for proactively ensuring accurate, timely and relevant financial management of all UN Women’s resources and funding.? 

UN Women Finance Section has a responsibility to continue work on enhancing financial management capabilities, policies and procedures and require the services of a consultant to work on the following key deliverables for the Organization.   

Under the guidance of the Deputy Director of Financial Management, and the direct supervision of Unit Finance Specialist.  The position will be responsible for the preparation/discharge of allocated duties within the assigned Unit of the Finance Section 

Duties and Responsibilities

1.  Support to the Finance Section in the implementation and roll out of ATLAS Grants module with additional year-end support for Donor Reporting:

• Provide support on the roll out of the new Atlas Grants module, ensuring that financial data is accurately recorded
• Support in the development of financial reporting tools under the new Atlas grants module
• Including review of detailed expenditure analysis
• Assist in providing additional training and capacity building across UN Women to improve the quality of the data entered into Atlas, RMS and DAMs.
• Review of Project ID mapping and linkages to DAMS and Cost Sharing agreements
• Assist year-end preparation of financial reports for donors for UN Women offices timely and submit to Virtual Global Service Centre (VGSC) Finance Specialists
• Monitor outstanding donor reports to donors and initiate follow-up actions with Country Offices and Sections.
• Provide budget setup support to permit accurate reports in formats required by Donor (E.g. EU report)
• Administer and implement financial procedures focusing on timely closure of projects:
• Perform and provide advice for financial project closure of projects for UN Women (UNW) offices as part of year-end process;
• Monitor, reconcile and follow up with Country Offices and Sections on status of closed projects not yet financially closed as part of year-end process;
• Prepare various reports on project closure status and initiate follow-up actions as part of year-end process;
• Ensure proper control of the supporting documents for refunds to donors and general ledger journals in preparation for 2019 audit of Financial Statements; 

2.  Provide year-end and audit support to financial resources both at HQ, Regional and Country Offices:

• In lead-up to year end and preparation of Financial Statements perform corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers;
• Prepare and verify requests for year-end general ledger journal entries (GLJEs), including supporting documents;
• Prior to closure of Annual Financial Statements, reconcile assigned General ledger balances on a regular timetable as set by section.
• Prepare other regular finance indicators or reports as requested;
• Verify and recommend for approval Accounts payable journal vouchers (APJVs) for liquidation of Partner Advances, and prepared APJVs for HQ Sections as necessary;
• Monitor, reconcile and follow up with ROs and COs Advances to Implementing Partners which are not in accordance with the policy, in preparation of year-end closure
• Provide administrative and financial support to ROs, COs and HQ Sections during year-end closure as required
• File and/or archive supporting work papers and documents in preparation for Annual audit of Financial Statements

3.  Contribute to knowledge building and knowledge sharing focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Co-ordinate and document knowledge sharing and changes of duties with staff in Finance team, to ensure that all duties have back-up staff assigned and trained;
• Review full compliance with amendments to International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).  Inform other UN Women Finance Users to ensure IPSAS compliance and currency;  
• Review full compliance with all UN Women Financial Regulations and Rules, Operations manuals, Internal Control policies and procedures, Standard operating procedures, Finance manual, and Delegations of Authority to ensure consistency across UN Women and harmonization with other UN Agencies.  Provide recommendations to Unit Head for proposed amendments;
• 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;
• Assist with the implementation of development projects identified for the Finance Section and suggest areas for consideration for future development of systems, processes and automation;
• Actively promote a client-oriented Finance Section.

4.   Perform other duties from time to time as requested by Supervisor or Deputy Director of Financial Management.

Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues 

• Accountability 

• Creative Problem Solving 

• Effective Communication 

• Inclusive Collaboration 

• Stakeholder Engagement 

• Leading by Example 

Required Skills and Experience

• University Degree or Masters in Accounting 

• Chartered Accountant or CPA would be desirable 

• Minimum 2 years working experience as Accountant 

• Previous experience in PeopleSoft environment would be an advantage 

• Experience in the usage of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and knowledge of database packages, working experience in web-based ERP financial systems/ 

• Experience working in teams 

• Excellent organizational skills and sound judgment 

• Strong sense of initiative and ability to prioritize and work independently 

• Ability to write and present information in a clear manner

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. 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.