Job: PROJECT FINANCE OFFICER, SWAAYAM - (OPEN TO INDIAN NATIONALS ONLY)

Location :

Nagpur, INDIA

Application Deadline :

06-Oct-13

Additional Category

Women's Empowerment

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Post Level :

SB-3

Languages Required :

English  

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year (renewable)

Background

UNDP in India is implementing a women’s empowerment programme SWAAYAM across four states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The programme funded by the IKEA Foundation applies an integrated approach to women’s empowerment combining social, economic, political, legal and environmental dimensions. From Uttar Pradesh, where the programme has worked with 50,000 women from poor and marginalised groups, the programme is now being scaled up to reach an additional 2.2 million poor and marginalised women across twelve districts in four states - Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar and Sonbhadra (in U.P.), Banaskantha, Patan (in Gujarat), Durgapur, Udaipur (in Rajasthan), Jalna, Wardha and Yavatmal (in Maharashtra).

To further engage with the communities, UNDP is now looking for motivated women and men as Project Officer who will relevant academic and professional expertise and are energetic to engage with rural communities. This is not a desk job environment; instead the focus is on the field. Successful candidates will be catalytic in mobilizing women from poor and marginalized communities out of poverty.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the State Manager and overall guidance of the Programme Coordinator, the Project Finance Officer will monitor the financial management of UNDP's partners to ensure the achievement of the programme's goals at the field level. S/he will undertake the following functions:

Financial Monitoring:

• Monitor project deliverables of NGO and private sector partners, contractors and Self Help Group organizations against all project inputs, assets and financial documentation;
• Field monitoring to review project deliverables and gather regular feedback from project beneficiaries;
• Field monitoring to review assets, local registers and financial documentation of partners Field monitoring of project inputs.

Financial Analysis:

• Identify financial risks and issues, and under guidance form supervisor, develop response strategies;
• Regularly interact with local partners to identify risks and financial issues;
• Report findings to supervisor;
• Propose solutions to overcome identified issues, develop training programmes, monitoring plans and other.

Capacity Building in Financial Management and Accountability:

• In consultation with supervisor, advise, coach and train partners in accountably overcoming financial issues and demonstrating best practices in financial accountability;
• Provision of regular coaching;
• Deliver training programmes to project beneficiaries;
• In consultation with supervisor, networking with new partners to improve impact of training programmes.

Ensure Public Accountability of Projects:

• In consultation with supervisor, ensure that budget commitments of UNDP, partners and contractors are communicated prior and after implementation of project.

Financial and Administrative Management Support (20%):

• Administrative support for management of small office including travel logistics, asset management and administration of local contracts;
• Inputs in preparing project risk and issue logs, financial reports, request for proposals and other documentation.

The Project Finance Officer will demonstrate the highest standards of integrity and accountability in the implementation of UNDP's programmes.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

• Sound knowledge of financial rules and regulations and accounting;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills;
• Result orientation and ability to work independently and meeting deadlines;
• Strong gender sensitivity;
• Ability to prioritise assignments and requirements, and multitask as needed;
• Good interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work with people and multi sectoral teams to achieve results.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Focuses on impact and result and responds positively to feedback;
• Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors;
• Monitoring aptitude in rural context.  

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• University Degree in Accounting or Finance. Postgraduate qualification in this field is desirable.

Experience:

• At least 5  years of progressively responsible finance experience of large projects at the national or international level;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.

Language:  

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Hindi. 

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

More Info and Application