Finance and Grants Officer

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

ECR operates global portfolios from offices in Geneva, and country-specific programmes from its operations and project centres located in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

RBM Partnership to End Malaria

The RBM Partnership to End Malaria is the largest global platform for coordinated action towards a world free from malaria. It is comprised of over 500 partners - from community health worker groups and researchers developing new tools, to malaria-affected and donor countries, businesses and international organisations. 

Since its inception in 1998, the RBM Partnership has played a critical role in global efforts that reduced malaria deaths by half and saved 10.6 million lives. The Partnership is now committed to building on these significant gains and ending malaria for good.

Expansions in financing, strong political commitments, novel diagnostic and preventative measures, and multi-sectoral coordination have facilitated this progress. The RBM Partnership is central to the global fight against malaria and has played an essential role in mobilising political will and financial resources, as well as scaling up innovative interventions to put the world on a path to eliminating malaria.

Despite these gains, malaria still poses a significant threat to public health and sustainable development. Malaria continues to affect the poorest and most marginalised disproportionately and restricts human development and poverty alleviation. The African continent accounts for over 90% of the global malaria burden and therefore stands to gain the most from malaria elimination.

Malaria is a smart investment that contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goals, including ending poverty and ensuring quality education. 

RBM's Vision is a world free from the burden of malaria.

The RBM Partnership is a global health initiative created to implement coordinated action against malaria. It mobilizes for action and resources and forges consensus among partners. The Partnership is composed of a multitude of partners, including malaria endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions. The partners join the RBM Partnership on a voluntary basis through their commitment to a malaria-free world.
The RBM Partnership is based in Geneva and hosted by UNOPS.

Under the direct supervision of the Finance Manager, the Finance and Grants Senior Officer will perform the following functions:

• Participate in the planning of financial resources, continuous analysis and monitoring of financial progress and presentation of forecasts for the planning and management of the programme;

• Support financial oversight on the programme activities in line with internal control procedures, financial and fiduciary guidelines and standards for all financial and related transactions.

• Contribute to the preparation of programme workplan’s and engagement processes focusing on budgets, 

• Coordinate with operations and the programme teams in the preparation and consolidation of cash-flow forecasts ensuring inputs are correctly extracted 

• Participate in the identification of programme risks, preparation of assurance activities and programme audit activities including implementation of the recommendations;

• Monitor and review the financial transactions, status and guide the program team on funding, budget and expenditure status 

• Coordinate with operation, programme and Geneva finance team to verify, correct, and improve quality of financial related activities of the programme including financial reports and audits.

• Support the Finance Manager during Audit and Finance Committee meetings including recording of minutes and ensuring all necessary records are stored correctly

• Provide guidance to operations and programme teams to ensure budgets are prepared in accordance with established procedures, ERP protocols and clients guidelines that facilitate the reporting requirements;

• Contribute to the development of financial accounting and reporting system to improve financial management, enhanced financial oversight and transparency, and allow for systematic analysis of financial expenditure including the setting up of budget structure in the ERP system.

• Develop financial reporting formats and budget templates that enable information to be readily available to the stakeholders and can be analyzed for presentation to different audiences. 

• Prepare  draft financial statements and reports for the Finance Manager’s clearance, certification by UNOPS Finance and for submission to donors in compliance with established reporting requirements;

• Monitor budgets, commitments, funding, exception reports for unusual activities and transactions, investigate and take corrective actions including on unposted vouchers and budget check errors;

• Reconcile expenditures ensuring timely corrective actions are taken on budget, financial reports management and budget performance reports through budget revisions, journal entries etc;

• Review and approve payments ensuring complete supporting documentation, certification from programme managers, correct accounts, obligation and receipts, sufficient budget and funding;

•  Involve in project closure activities of the programme focusing on financial aspects including supporting UNOPS finance to clear balance sheet accounts and issue final financial statements;

• Timely response to UNOPS finance requests to resolve financial data issues;

• Support the operations and programme teams to conduct Due Diligence Assessments (DDAs) of the implementing partners and manage follow-up actions related to financial recommendations;

• Support the operations and programme teams to perform periodic grants monitoring and oversight activities focusing on financial aspects, providing recommendations and mitigating solutions;

• Review grant budgets and financial reports against approved budgets, to provide feedback on financial aspects to the implementing partners, operations and programme teams;

• Provide day-to-day guidance to programme teams and implementing partners to enhance understanding and compliance with grants guidelines, grant agreement, and UNOPS requirements;

• Liaise directly with the implementing partners and support RBM programme teams to resolve bottlenecks related to the financial management aspects and reporting requirements as agreed in the grant agreements;

• Highlight grants risks and delays to the operations and programme teams as appropriate;

• Coordinate with the operations and programme teams to maintain a database and archives of all financial grant related information and documentation for all the implementing partners;

• Supervise  timely  and proper  financial  and  grant’s operational and financial  closure  process  of completed  projects  

• Contribute to the coordination and follow up on the audits and assurance activities of implementing partners;

• Support programme teams to update and maintain grants and contracts tools that will ensure timely review and deadlines of reports submission assigned by project and internal requirements.

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for personnel and partners on finance related topics.

• Participation in the organization and conduct of training for operations and programme teams covering financial management aspects, policies and guidelines, processes and the use of systems and tools;

• Compile grants financial management lessons learned and share across all implementing partners;

• Oversee team's contributions to Finance knowledge networks and communities of practice on finance and grants management;

• Guide team's collection of feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices;.

Team Management:

• Facilitate the engagement and provision of high quality results and services of the team supervised through effective recruitment. work planning, performance management, coaching. and promotion of learning and development.

• Provide oversight, ensuring compliance with team members with existing policies and best practices

• Advanced University degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) preferably in finance, administration, development studies, economics, project management or an equivalent degree in related fields is required.
• Bachelor's degree in related discipline in combination with additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree

• A minimum of two (2) years of relevant experience at the national or international level with responsibility for financial management support, project accounting, budgeting and financial reporting or related fields is required;

• Practical experience with UNOPS, or other UN agencies financial procedures in the areas of accounting, budget, reporting and other financial controls including operations of imprest account is desirable;

• Experience working with grants projects, including monitoring financial performance, reviewing financial reports and providing capacity building support to grantees, is highly desirable;

• Previous experience with, and a good knowledge of the development and humanitarian sector/working with UN, Donors, NGOs is an advantage;

• Solid computer skills are required. Proficiency with Google Suite is highly preferred.

• Fluency in written and oral English is required. French would be an asset.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

• Geneva, Switzerland is a family duty station.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.