**Re-advertisement** Risk and Compliance Officer, NOB, Bridgetown, Barbados, Open to Nationals of Barbados

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

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, Opportunity

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. Therefore, the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

How can you make a difference?

Job organizational context:

The Risks and Compliance Officer is to be positioned in Offices with significant and complex programmatic and operational risks and challenges which require a dedicated position to support the Senior Managers in making sure that resources are continuously, effectively and efficiently geared towards achieving results for children.

The incumbent may supervise lower level staff.

Purpose for the job:

Under the supervision of the Operations Manager with reporting lines to the Representative and the Deputy Representative, the Risk and Compliance Officer will be supporting strengthening risk assurance and compliance efforts across the Multi-Country Office.

He / She will be asked to support in providing complementary expertise, and monitoring related to the management of risks, including but not limited to the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of risk management practices at a process, systems, and entity level.

He / she will ensure the achievement of risk management objectives follows organizational rules and regulations, and acceptable ethical behavior; internal control; information and technology security; sustainability; and quality assurance. Moreover, he / she will provide support in the analysis and reporting on the adequacy and effectiveness of risk management and internal controls.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1. Risk management support

• Provide support the office in the annual risk assessment process and support the monitoring, reliability of reports and their compliance with applicable rules and regulations.
• Provide support in the monitoring of risk mitigation action plans including a mid-term review.

• Provide support during the office peer reviews process, provide support to office management team in ensuring the risk management approach is embedded in any project/proposal, in office governance committees’ review of submissions and in any major decision made by the management.

  2. Compliance support

• Provide support in the review of the office systems, procedures and processes for compliance with organizational rules and regulations.

• Support the office in enforcing and strengthening internal controls to ensure that systems are in place to prevent, detect and report non-compliance. Support the process for the preparation of the annual Statement of Internal Control (SIC) by the office;
• Review internal work processes in Programme and Operations to ensure that accountabilities are clear and placed at the adequate levels as per global policies and/or best practices;
• Support the office to ensure smooth preparedness of internal and external audit, conduct a quality assurance and follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations and provides feedback to the management.
• Support in the review the conformity of statutory and non-statutory committees, assess committee members have been trained/oriented on their roles and responsibility.

3. Fraud Risk Management support

• Support the management of the office in collecting evidence to respond to OIAI’s queries when initially assessing allegations of fraud and misconduct or during actual investigations;

• Support the office, under the leadership of the Deputy Representative Operations, to ensure the implementation of the global anti-fraud strategy, suggest internal fraud prevention mechanisms and alert the management on any fraudulent issues as well as unethical behaviors detected.

  4. Create awareness/capacity building

• Support the implementation of a continuous learning and development plan for the Risk and Compliance function.

• Support management in providing staff with access to relevant training and that staff and other personnel understand key UNICEF policies including PSEA, Fraud and Ethics.

  5. Any support needed from the regional office

• On request, support the Regional Office in conducting reviews exercises in countries where Risk and Compliance positions are not established, or in supporting any other review in the area of expertise (Peer reviews, assessment…);

• Participate to a network/community of risk and compliance specialists at both regional and global level for experience sharing, updated working documents as well as office rules and policies.

Other duties/responsibilities:

In cases where the incumbent has managerial responsibility of staff, the incumbent will ensure timely and effective performance management of staff, providing practical advice and guidance to ensure individual and team objectives are met.

Impact of Results:

The Risk and Compliance Officer is expected to be fully knowledgeable in the field of the work, to work with minimum supervision and therefore exercise judgement, take initiatives, establish work priorities and ensure follow-up actions.

The ability to support assessment, mitigation, monitoring, review and reporting on the most significant risks that could potentially harm the organization, is a critical element of UNICEF’s risk and internal control performance management framework. Risk management skills are necessary to safeguard UNICEF’s reputation, resources, continuity of operations and reputation to fulfill our primary mission to save and protect children, globally.

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

• A university degree in Business Administration, Finance/Accounting, or Audit is required. Audit, Investigation or Accounting certifications are considered as assets.
• At least 2 (two) years of continuous professional work experience in Risk and Compliance or another directly relevant area, such as internal audit. Experience in financial management, particularly developing and implementing financial control systems, ERM, audits, internal control preferably with international organizations, NGOs and UN. Field experience /familiarity with Emergency is 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…

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

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:

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

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.