Donor Relations Specialist (Budget), P-3, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Temporary Appointment 364 days)

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 120,185 USD and 157,373 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, commitment

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

Watch our Year in Review.

How can you make a difference?

Under the guidance of the Resource Mobilization Manager, the Donor Relations Specialist will support the office with capacity building and leadership on various EU financial and contractual issues (80%), in close coordination with concerned stakeholders within the Programme and Operation teams. Notably these tasks will include working on the financial reports to the EU, verification exercises, and other related tasks related to EU financial contributions. Furthermore, the position will support with the compilation and quality review of other non-EU related financial transactions and reports (20%), such as the Financial Transaction System (FTS) report for humanitarian funding, proposal pipeline inputs to the salary analysis and other documents. The overarching purposes is to build the capacity of programme managers and relevant staff related to financial implementation of EU grants.

European Union-related work (80%)

1. Capacity building to ECO staff on all aspects of EU and ECHO financial implementation and financial reporting.

• Coordinate training sessions for Ethiopia-based staff with input from the PPD Brussels Desk to increase the skills and knowledge of EU and ECHO financial procedures and guidelines related to financial management, compliance and accountability.
• In collaboration with PPD, identify past financial errors and build capacity of staff through one-on-one and group training sessions.
• Work closely with programme staff to regularly review financial transactions to ensure alignment with donor agreements.
• Support field-based staff to better understand financial transactions in line with overarching donor agreements, to strengthen financial management, compliance and accountability.

2. Support PPD with EU assessments, RERs, verifications, and ECA exercises. Potential areas of support include:

• Identify key actors for each verification mission and build constructive relationships.
• Verify that UNICEF requirements for conducting verification missions are adhered to.
• Perform quality review of information prior to release to verifying body and initiate meetings/discussions with relevant functional heads where required.
• Support process of resolution in the event of ineligible expenses and conduct rigorous process of review of criteria for determination of ineligible expenses as part of DFAM.

3. Provide guidance, advice and support for verification missions.

• Identify recurrent issues and follow up with relevant UNICEF divisions to determine corporate positions.
• Help develop and issue relevant guidelines and provide other corporate guidance to the office with a programme undergoing verification.
• Conduct analysis and develop lessons learned from verifications to drive process improvement.

Other Donor Relations-related work (20%)

1. Review of interim and final financial reports.

• Work closely with the Donor Relations and Reports Specialist in the quality review of all donors financial reports before submission externally.
• Provide guidance to ECO staff to ensure alignment between the financial reports and the detailed transaction lists generated from Insight.

2. Review of proposal and concept note budgets for alignment with Country Office and global guidelines.

3. Provide quarterly inputs to the humanitarian Financial Tracking System.

4. Provide financial analysis and updates related to the donor funding pipeline for mail poll and mid-term review PBRs as requested.

5. Other tasks as required

• Perform other duties and back-up functions to other staff in the unit during their absence, as required.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Finance, Development Management, International Development, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in audit, accounting, compliance, evaluation, finance, risk management, business administration, management/operations, or related field.
• Knowledge of the United Nations system, its key actors and coordination mechanisms. Knowledge of UN/UNICEF corporate governance and organizational structure. Understanding of UN/UNICEF rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. In-depth knowledge of internal controls and proper accounting procedures and systems.
• Highly desirable: Knowledge of EU’s financial and contractual requirements, familiarity with EU’s control instruments.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.