Finance Intern UNOCHA Somalia

Contract

This is a Internship contract. It usually requires 0 years of experience, depending on education. More about Internship contracts.

Background

Somalia’s prolonged humanitarian crisis is characterized by ongoing conflicts, climate shocks including floods and drought, communicable disease outbreaks and weak social protection. Since the beginning of 2020, two additional shocks have contributed to a deterioration of humanitarian conditions: the desert locust infestation and the COVID-19 pandemic. Flooding displaced 840,000 people in the first 10 months of 2020 and destroyed infrastructure, property, and 144,000 hectares of agricultural land. Somalia also experienced the worst desert locust invasion in 25 years; tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and pasture were damaged, with potentially severe consequences for agriculture and pastoral-based livelihoods. Communities living in conflict areas were severely impacted by armed violence. COVID-19 directly impacted the lives of Somalis, worsening patterns of vulnerability. This came on top of ongoing disease outbreaks such as cholera, measles and, recently, vaccine-derived poliovirus. Lower Shabelle Region of South West State continues to bear much of the brunt of those affected by the negative impact of the shocks mentioned.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Assisting with financial aspects of SHF allocation process
• Providing support in Implementing the financial aspects of the SHF Accountability Framework
• Providing support in knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing on finance with the SHF implementing partners

• Performs other related duties, as required

  Assisting with financial aspects of the SHF allocation process:

• Regular follow-up with Implementing Partners to obtain financial reports;

• Review of interim and final financial reports and supporting documents to ensure compliance with the signed SHF agreements, budgets and guidelines;
• Follow up on disbursement of funds and refund of balances from partners;
• Review of grant agreements and supporting documents to ensure accuracy, consistency, reasonableness, compliance with the United Nations Financial Rules and Regulations (UNFRR) and the Country-based Pooled Funds (CBPF) Guidelines;
• Receipt & review of audit reports from contractors and ensure projects records are updated as necessary.
• Provide support with project revisions and no-cost-extension requests

Providing support in Implementing the financial aspects of the SHF Accountability Framework:

• Participate in conducting financial spot-checks and monitoring in line with the SHF operational modalities;
• Facilitate and provide support during audits, including notification of partners, sharing of pre-audit documents with auditors and closure of audits in the grants management system.
• Liaise with partners, SHF/HFU staff and other third parties in verifying expenditure supporting documents during spot-checks and audits

Providing support in knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing on finance with the SHF implementing partners

• Identify and synthesize best practices, lessons learned and recommendations to be integrated into fund management efforts and channelled into decision-making processes;
• Promote awareness of SHF guidelines, operational manuals, clauses in partner agreements, UNFRR and best practices;
• Plan and participate in training for implementing partners and other stakeholders.

Performs other related duties, as required

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Business Management: Communication

Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

Business Management: Project Management

Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Business Management: Monitoring

Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results

Finance: Financial reporting and analysis

Understands changes in regulatory, legal and ethical frameworks and standards for financial reporting in the public sector. Ability to extract, evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful and coherent manner to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring. Understands the benefits of integrated reporting, including non-financial resources such as human, social and intellectual capital, and environmental and governance performance

Finance: Contributions management

Ability to receive, record, report and manage contributions received

Finance: Accounting (General)

Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, frameworks, standards, regulations, policies and trends, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations

Finance: Audit (General)

Understands how regulations and professional standards in internal and external audit underpin audit work in the public services.

Understands the key stages of audit work, including planning, documentation, testing and reporting.

Ability to examine and verify accounts and records.

Understands wider mechanisms for assurance and scrutiny.

Understands the law and best practice relating to anti-bribery and corruption controls and the fraud risks faced by public bodies.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Applicants must be enrolled in a graduate degree program (Master’s or higher) or have graduated from a graduate degree within the last 12 months.
• A diploma/Certificate of Professional or vocational training in the fields of Accounting, Financial Management, financial controls, or auditing (Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Fraud Examiner, Chartered Accountant or equivalent) is required.

Experience, Knowledge, and Skills

• Experience is not required.

Language requirements (Required / Desired)

• Fluency in written and spoken the English Language is required.
• Fluency in written and spoken Swahili language - is required