Finance Assistant

UNDP Turkey works for progress in four core areas:

1) Inclusive and democratic governance;

2) Inclusive and sustainable growth;

3) Climate change and environment;

4) Syria crisis response and resilience.

In addition to these core areas, UNDP Turkey is emphasizing the role of women, private sector, capacity development, and information and communication technology in its policies and programmes. To achieve progress in these areas, UNDP seeks to establish partnerships with the central government, local administrations, civil society, academia and private sector to strengthen its contribution to Turkey's development. UNDP works closely with line ministries to support the efficient implementation of development projects and programmes. UNDP Turkey also collaborates with other UN agencies present in Turkey to maximize the impact of the UN's activities in the country, including through joint initiatives on women, youth, internally displaced persons and the Sustainable Development Goals.

As of June 2020, Turkey hosts over 3,5 million Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees are mainly located in the Southeast Anatolia region bordering Syria, but as the crisis continued, the population has expanded to other regions as well. Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world and has demonstrated strong national ownership of the response. The Government of Turkey provides a rights-based legal framework through the Temporary Protection regulation, which offers access to education, health care, employment and social security to Syrians. According to the Government of Turkey, it spent 40 billion USD over the last 8 years on the response to the Syria crisis.

Currently, out of the 3,6 million registered Syrian refugees, more than 3,4 million refugees live amongst Turkish host communities. 45% of the 3,6 million refugees are concentrated in 4 provinces in the South East. Within these provinces, there are four municipalities in Turkey that are particularly impacted, each hosting more than 100,000 Syrians. In these cities, the ratio of the Syrian population to that of host communities is higher than 15%, including Kilis, Hatay, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa. Populations have either reached or exceeded 2023 population projections. Kilis, for instance, hosts almost as many Syrian refugees as its local population.

UNDP supports the Government of Turkey to respond to this large-scale displacement through its Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Programme in Turkey to strengthen the resilience of refugees, host community members, local municipalities and relevant national institutions to cope with and recover from the impact. UNDP’s resilience response strategy is to invest in existing national and local systems to ensure they can adequately serve both host and refugee communities.

As part of this programme, UNDP implements a variety of projects funded by different governments such as KfW Development Bank, USBPRM, Korea and Japan governments as well as EU Madad Fund.

The main partners of the projects under Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Portfolio include Ministry of Industry and Technology, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Turkish Employment Agency,  Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of National Education Directorate General of Life-Long Learning.

Objectives of the Assignment

In this sense, The Finance Assistant will be based in Ankara and responsible for providing support for making budgetary and financial reporting for the overall Projects other than EU funded Projects under Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Portfolio. This will include to provide support for the preparation of Project payment documents, financial parts of donor reports and accounting reports.

He/she will be providing support for financial audits and verification processes. This includes communication with project teams and vendors for financial issues, preparation of periodic reports, keeping track of project payments and provide support for controlling of project budgets and project staff salaries.

The Finance Assistant will report to the Projects Coordinator - Social Cohesion and work closely with the Admin and Finance Officer, Procurement Officers respective Project Managers and their teams as well as Portfolio Manager.

The Finance Assistant is expected to assume the following tasks:

Reporting Structure

The Finance Assistant will report to the Projects Coordinator - Social Cohesion

Performance Indicators for Evaluation of Results

• Qualitative inputs provided for AWP and budgets formulated and revised correctly to reflect changes in implementation;
• Project financial transactions are made in a timely manner; qualitative inputs prepared to project reports; high-quality correspondence, reports prepared.
• Timely and qualitative inputs prepared to financial reporting and auditing process.
• Project assets managed according to UNDP´s rules and regulations;
• ATLAS role performed promptly and correctly.

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity 
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Self-development, initiative-taking
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
• Creating synergies through self-control
• Managing conflict
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.
• Informed and transparent decision making

Functional Competencies:

• Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Excellent interpersonal skills; encouraging colleagues to work within and respect an enabling gender equality environment on non-hierarchical bases;
• Promotes gender sensitive environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• Ability to manage gender barriers and gender-blind behaviors within the project team and with our partners;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment with sound understanding and capability to empower and develop the capacity of national counterparts;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors; 
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure; 
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities; 
• Team player, self-motivated and initiative taking, dedicated, creative, resourceful, flexible, energetic with sound judgment;
• Capacity to work under pressure, manage stress and adapt to rapidly evolving situations; 
• Excellent analytical, communication, writing and presentation skills; 
• Ability to function at both policy advisory and project implementation levels;
• Ability to consider that men and women are affected differently from different interventions and needs to be approached differently.

Notes:

• Internships (paid/unpaid) are not considered professional experience.
• Obligatory military service is not considered professional experience.
• Professional experience gained in an international setting is considered international experience.
• Experience gained prior to completion of undergraduate studies is not considered professional experience.

The incumbent of the position should strictly avoid

• any kind of discriminatory and abusive behaviour including gender-based discrimination
• any kind form of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse

The incumbent of the position should ensure that

• human rights and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions;
• activities are designed and implemented in accordance with “Social and Environmental Standards of UNDP”;
• any kind of diversities based on ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, class, gender is respected within all implementations including data production;
• differentiated needs of women and men are considered;
• inclusive approach is reflected within all actions and implementations, in that sense an enabling and accessible setup in various senses such as disability gender language barrier is created;
• necessary arrangements to provide gender parity within all committees, meetings, trainings etc. introduced;
• zero tolerance principle to sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse is prioritized. 

UNDP prioritizes gender equality and women's empowerment approach in all its actions, workplace relations and implementations as well as gender parity in representation to create a workplace which is equally inclusive of women, men and persons with other gender identities. Temporary special measures will be instituted to ensure appointment of personnel of under-represented genders at grades and in roles where they are under-represented

Qualified women candidates are encouraged to apply.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity

UNDP is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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