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Country Financial Management Analyst (local recruitment in Nairobi, Kenya)

Kenya

  • Organization: IFAD - International Fund for Agricultural Development
  • Location: Kenya
  • Grade: Junior level - NO-B, National Professional Officer - Locally recruited position
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Operations and Administrations
    • Banking and Finance
  • Closing Date: Closed

Organizational Setting

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and  advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

The Financial Operations Department (FOD) is a dynamic financial, strategic and responsive business partner and service provider fully supporting IFAD in developing its financial strategy and managing its financial, investments and material resources. FOD ensures that these resources are efficiently, economically and effectively used to achieve IFAD’s objectives in the long-term and deliver on its development commitments. 

The Financial Management Services Division (FMD) develops and oversees financial policies and project financial management practices in IFAD-funded operations, including financial reporting, audit, project liquidity management, fiduciary compliance and support. The division is responsible for IFAD’s financial management workforce including consultants.

The position is located in the Financial Management Services Division and is based in Nairobi. The incumbent works under the supervision of the Country Financial Operations Officer.

Job Role

Under close guidance by the supervisor, the incumbent supports a range of administrative and programme support functions pertaining to coordination and execution of project finance operations. Specialized activities pertain to the validation of disbursement requests from Borrowers / Recipients, analysis of project financial reports and other related documentation, finance regulations, rules and procedures and their possible application to different and unrelated processes and methods of a broad area of the financial operation. The staff organises financial data, supports the monitoring of performance of functions across portfolios and tracks the delivery of related services, flagging issues to the supervisor and contributing to building coordination and common understanding of activities. All finance staff support the Fund’s finance strategy as well as commitment to financial integrity by acting as a responsive service provider with a focus on results and driven by IFAD’s mission and values. The incumbent is a trusted partner to the client offices served and the Department/Division/Unit where assigned and collaborates closely with finance and project staff and collates information and data to ensure consistency, cohesion and synergy in administrative and programme related matters.

Key Functions and Results

1.FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES: The incumbent supports IFAD staff in the efficient and effective delivery of IFAD-supported projects. This involves review of disbursement applications received from Borrowers / Recipients of IFAD Financing and processing them in compliance with IFAD procedures, providing substantive support to mission-related activities, tracking deliverables against established deadlines, data analysis, and support to oversight of project financial management, as required. Activities performed typically include: 

  • Performing the diligent review of selected or assigned Withdrawal Applications (WA) received from Borrowers/Recipients along with relevant supporting documents to confirm the Borrower’s entitlement to requested funds, to validate these Applications against approved loans and grants, through the risk based disbursement techniques, and to record these transactions into the institutional systems;
  • Reviewing interim financial reports submitted submitted with Withdrawal Applications to validate amounts to be disbursed and record justified use of funds for eliigble expenditure, in coordination with relevant Regional Financial Management Officers;
  • Performing other related loan administration tasks related to loans and grants, including reconciliation with IFAD institutional systems, compliance with financial management and disbursement covenants in financing agreements and General Conditions, compliance with IFAD’s rules and regulations relevant to closure of financing.
  • Providing inputs in determination of disbursement risk ratings based on documented fiduciary risks and characteristics of WAs, based on departmental guidelines, providing inputs to risk based disbursement master table to record; 
  • Providing inputs on financial management and disbursement in the preparation of Financing Agreements and letters to the Borrower for new projects or as amendments and revisions for existing projects, as required; 
  • Assisting in the initial review of audit reports and mission reports by identifying transactions or amounts that require examination or follow-up with Borrowers, following up on timely submission of financial and audit reports and reports indicating action taken on supervision mission recommendations; liaising with internal and external clients as required; 
  • Assisting in the finalization and dispatch of audit compliance and other financial management correspondence to Borrowers; 
  • Researching and collecting data from internal and external sources for reports/queries, for monitoring closure status and ensuring appropriate follow-up;
  • Supporting officers with the contract management of Regional FM Officers, including monitoring missions and contract cycle;
  • Assisting in the preparation and administration of financial management workshops or other capacity building events; and 
  • Ensuring that relevant financial documents are stored in FMDB and ARTS systems;
  • Performing analysis on programme-related financial data (e.g. annual work plans and budgets, disbursements, audits), including extracting and professional use of data from IFAD's corporate systems; and
  • As appropriate, supporting activities related to the oversight of project financial management in coordination with and under the overall guidance of the (Senior) Finance Officers. 

2. FINANCE ADMINISTRATION LEADERSHIP: The incumbent will support the supervisor in providing leadership in the provision of specialized activities in support of a financial operation, typically either at the global or regional level. 

3. COUNTRY-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE BUILDING AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING SUPPORT: The incumbent contributes to the collation and dissemination of good practices, lessons learnt and results in close collaboration with the country and regional teams and other IFAD staff. This may include identification of project training needs and contribution to the organization of related trainings, workshops, and capacity building of project staff in program implementation, financial and budget management. S/He will also support organizing knowledge sharing events at country-level, and prepare short analytical knowledge management papers on relevant thematic issues to promote knowledge sharing between various programmes, within the division and the remainder of IFAD. 

4. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS: The incumbent is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the personal use of assigned IFAD resources, including equipment, and supplies.

Key Performance Indicators

The incumbent works under the close leadership of the supervisor, who is accountable for the achievement of overall service delivery results, which include timely and efficient processing of disbursements. The incumbent will provide initial analysis on the handling of complex and intricate finance operations and financial reporting, for final decision by the supervisor who will provide authoritative financial advice which impacts the fundamental work of the Fund. Incumbents play a supporting role in the delivery of a complete finance operation.

Working Relationships

The incumbent is constantly involved in working closely with colleagues on the finance team and with client departments and staff in the analysis of specialized and complex processes. S/he works seamlessly with Regional Financial Management Officers and  other finance analysts and associates as relevant, adopting a pooled approach across all regions and portfolios to handle incoming disbursement requests and requests from senior finance colleagues. These relationships are important to ensure that financial deadlines are met and that proposals and action adhere to financial policies and rules.  External work relationships normally require an exchange of information with immediately served client counterparts in projects and governments. A positive outlook of IFAD as a credible/reliable development partner is emphasized in the maintenance of relationships with counterparts.

Job Profile Requirements

Organizational Competencies:

Level 1:

  • Building relationships and partnerships - Builds and maintains effective working relationships
  • Communicating and negotiating - Communicates effectively; creates understanding between self and others
  • Demonstrating leadership - Personal leadership and attitude to change
  • Focusing on clients - Focuses on clients
  • Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating - Continuously seeks to learn, shares knowledge & innovates
  • Managing performance and developing staff -
  • Managing time, resources and information - Manages own time, information and resources effectively
  • Problem-solving and decision-making - Demonstrates sound problem-solving and decision-making ability
  • Strategic thinking and organizational development - Personal influence
  • Team working - Contributes effectively to the team

Education:

  • Advanced university degree from an accredited institution in a technical relevant area. The advanced university degree may be substituted by a first university degree and at least four (4) additional years of relevant professional experience over and above 
  • Areas – Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, Banking.
  • Degree must be an accredited institution listed on https://www.whed.net/home.php.

Experience:

  • At least two years of progressively responsible professional experience in financial or development institutions and/or government service.
  • Position-specific experience: Qualifying work experience in finance operations management and/or loan/grant administration with international financial institutions, development cooperation agencies, etc., would be preferred.

Languages:

  • English (4 - Excellent)
  • Desirable: French, Spanish, or Arabic

Skills:

  • Procedure interpretation: Ability to interpret established, formal guidelines to address and recommend solutions or further actions required
  • Written communication: Ability to use written communication as a main tool in profession, including for speech writing; clear, succinct and convincing written communication; highly professional, balanced and diplomatic language
  • Project financial management: Excellent know-how in project financial management, e.g. internal controls, rural investments, project audit and funds flows
  • Disbursements, Payroll and Payments: Know-how in financial checks required for disbursements of loans and grants, payments and payroll transactions to reduce risk of error, fraud and non-compliance with rules, maintenance of clean vendor master files, arrears and debt management of loans
  • Financial reporting & accounting: Know-how in financial reporting, statutory and other reporting as well as advanced application of IFRS standards, derivatives, loan credit risk, financial regulations, policies, rules and procedures applicable to IFAD and IFIs
  • Time management: Adherence to deadlines under time constraints and pressure (e.g. to deliver governing body documents on time); ability to coordinate and manage complex workflows and in-house and external teams
  • Client orientation: Strong critical thinking combined with communication skills to liaise between the business and technologies to understand business problems and needs, document requirements and identify solutions
  • Interpersonal skills: Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with others (e.g. visitors, clients, callers, etc.), including senior individuals (e.g. high-level meeting participants)
  • Problem solving: Strong systemic and structured thinking, ability to identify and dissect problems into components and formulate a comprehensive set of creative viable and sustainable solutions and strategies
  • Expertise in using institutional information technology systems and business applications.

Other Information

IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD. In accordance with IFAD's Human Resources Policy, the President can decide to assign them to any of the activities of the Fund. All International Professional staff members are required to be geographically mobile and positions in the professional category are subject to changes in location at any time in line with strategic priorities and reform initiatives in IFAD.

In the interest of making most cost effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

Applicants for vacancies in the National Professional Officer (NPO) category must be nationals of the country in which the position is located (Kenya). IFAD is committed to achieving gender diversity. Women are particularly encouraged to apply.

This vacancy is now closed.
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