Budget and Programming/Finance Assistant - SC5

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Armenian food sector is characterized by the low productivity of nutritionally diversified commodities, high production costs, fragmented producers, and limited post-harvest market infrastructures and opportunities. This in turn negatively impacts the Armenian population’s access to nutritionally diversified food and is resulting in worrisome levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. At the same time, inefficient post-harvest and supply chain processes entail low quality and safety standards which adversely affect the stability of supplies and which do not allow either the national or international commercialization of Armenian food products. Within its five-year Country Strategic Plan for 2019-2024, WFP Armenia has designed a new portfolio of programme activities aimed at developing food value chains within Armenia. Programme activities include trialling food value chain projects across the country, assessing impact and results, and scaling intervention designs that prove successful.These jobs are found in Regional Bureaux (RBs), Country Offices (COs), Area/Field Offices (AOs/FOs). The job holders typically report to a Programme Policy Officer or the designate. At this level, job holders are responsible for the completion of a range of specialized and/or standardized processes and activities requiring some interpretation of standard guidelines and practices. Job holders are able to recommend a course of action to staff at various levels and may allocate tasks to other support staff. They work under minimum supervision, perform basic analyses and compile reports to support information consistency and smooth implementation of programmes/projects.

JOB PURPOSE

Armenia has been experiencing different macroeconomic progresses which have been followed by the implementation of structural reforms over the last decade, but their results have not reached the Armenian society equally. This resulted into a weak, unevenly distributed growth and created structural inefficiencies leaving the population, economy and environment to be highly vulnerable to external shocks.

The COVID-19 pandemic made significant changes into all spheres of life, leaving the most vulnerable behind. WFP’s recent Food Security Assessment conducted nationwide in August 2020 revealed that the Armenian population was resorting to emergency coping strategies due to the pandemic. 15.3% of the population was already food insecure and up to 45,000 Armenians were in need of food assistance before the military escalation happened in September 2020. This sudden escalation of long-lasting military conflict in Nagorno Karabakh put an additional burden on all systems of the country, significantly increasing the existing level of food insecurity.

In response to these challenges, WFP Armenia Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for 2019-2024 is being revised in order to incorporate new mechanisms for providing assistance and adjust the existing activities to unexpected challenges. The School Feeding Programme remains the flagship activity aimed at the full nationalization of the Programme by the Government till 2023 and supporting other programmatic activities such as establishment of food value chains.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute to the review of budget plans, monitoring and analysis of project financial performance and make recommendations in compliance with WFP financial policies and procedures and best practices to support financial analysis and optimisation of resources. 2. Provide basic analysis on fund and grant balances to support maximum fund utilization and decision-making process, prepare periodic and ad hoc reports for internal and external stakeholders. 3. Contribute to pipeline management facilitating efficient monitoring to prevent and address pipeline breaks and maximise operational effectiveness. 4. Compile data and provide basic analysis, maintain accurate records and files and prepare periodic and ad hoc reports for further reviews, to support accuracy and efficiency of information presented to internal and external stakeholders.

5. Conduct random checks for incoming invoices against Purchase Orders, contracts and other supporting documentation to ensure the goods are received and services provided in accordance with WFP rules and regulations. 6. Forecast the following month cash needs with the support of all spending units and ensure that the bank balances are sufficient to cover the country office monthly cash needs. 7. Prepare bank transfer sheets and currency conversion requests. 8. Park financial transactions in the accounting system.

9. Calculate the amounts receivable for personal usage of WFP facilities, inventory sales etc. Prepare invoices and receipts. Maintain relevant spreadsheet registers. Timely deposit of the collected amounts to WFP bank account. 10. Maintain file register to ensure that all documents are maintained and filed in compliance with WFP standards and guidelines.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the related functional area is desirable. Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and Armenian languages. Fluent knowledge of Russian is an advantage.

Experience: Mnimum of 4 years of experience in assisting with the preparation of complex financial documents and supporting the performance of budget analyses.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Previous experience of pipeline data collection is desirable.
• Experience of working with SAP is desirable.
• Experience of working in Tableau is desirable

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Helps teammates articulate WFP’s Strategic Objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Suggests potential improvements to team’s work processes to supervisor.
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Explains the impact of WFP activities in beneficiary communities to teammates.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Articulates how own unit’s responsibilities will serve WFP’s mission.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Trains junior teammates on new skills and capabilities.
• Create an inclusive culture: Seeks opportunities to work with people from different backgrounds.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Serves as a peer coach for colleagues in same area of work.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Tracks progress toward goals and shares this information on a regular basis with supervisor.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Explores ways to consistently be more efficient and accurate in own areas of work and shares new methods of work with colleagues.
• Focus on getting results: Focuses on getting results and tracks trends in completion rates for own tasks to identify opportunities for efficiency.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Takes responsibility for own tasks and notifies supervisor as soon as possible of potential delays in meeting deadlines or commitments.
• Be Decisive: Independently decides what action to take when faced with critical choices in the workplace or in dangerous situations in the field.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Suggests opportunities for partnering with other units to supervisor.
• Build strong external partnerships: Identifies opportunities to work with colleagues and partners in the field towards common goals.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Develops an understanding of the value of WFP’s teams and external partners in fulfilling team’s goals and objectives.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Aligns own activities with supervisor’s priorities to fulfill internal and external partner needs.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Applications must be submitted online through WFP e-Recruitment System.

Internal WFP staff can access the VA through the internal WFP CAREER page via the link: http://newgo.wfp.org/services/e-recruitment

Make sure that you answer all mandatory questions accurately and to attach your updated CV in English.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application not later than Tuesday, 12th January, 2021.

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.