Senior Finance Associate G7

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WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

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.

Background- Palestine Country Office

Over the past five years, socioeconomic conditions in the State of Palestine have deteriorated and a protracted protection and humanitarian crisis has undermined the food security of millions of Palestinians. 1.8 million people are food insecure across Palestine and the aid dependency ratio is increasing. Rising inflation, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and now also spurred by the Global Food Crisis, has contributed to reductions in the purchasing power of Palestinians and increased food insecurity. For Palestinians engaged in agriculture and herding, climate-related obstacles, including droughts and rising temperatures, increasingly impede productivity.

Building on the strengths of its 2018-2022 country strategic plan, WFP Palestine’s new plan for 2023–2028 will address the needs of Palestinian communities through a humanitarian‑development–peace nexus approach, responding to immediate humanitarian needs and simultaneously addressing longstanding socioeconomic vulnerability.

While food assistance, through cash-based transfers and in-kind food to meet essential needs, remains WFP’s largest activity, this will be complemented by livelihood and resilience building interventions to address issues of poverty and poor labour-force participation, which have been identified as one of the key drivers of poor access to food, and to strengthen resistance to shocks. Nutrition integration will be integrated throughout the programme, to address immediate and underlying causes of micronutrient deficiencies.

WFP Palestine has demonstrated longstanding commitment and contribution to the strengthening of capacity at the national level, through strategic partnerships with various government line ministries, to enhance the consideration of food security, shock-responsiveness and nutrition-sensitivity in national systems, programmes, policies and plans. WFP is engaged in joint programming and implementation with other United Nations agencies. Under the new CSP, WFP is expanding its enabling services – in the form of a CBT platform, CFM, logs sector – to continue supporting the wider humanitarian community to achieve collective outcomes and continue supporting the people we serve.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: A bachelor's degree from a recognized university in accounting, finance, economics, or a relevant field is required for this position.
• Language: General Service (Headquarters): Fluency (level C) in English language. Fluency (level C) or intermediate knowledge (level B) of another official language may be required depending on the location of the post or area of responsibility.
• General Service (Field): Fluency in both oral and written communication in the UN language in use at the duty station and in the duty station’s language, if different.
• Experience: A minimum of seven years of working experience in finance and accounting is required. A minimum of four years of experience in a supervisory capacity is necessary.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

These jobs are found in Country Offices (COs), Regional Bureaux (RBs), and Headquarters (HQ), and report to the Head of Unit, Chief or Finance Officer. At this level job holders have independent responsibility for technical, specialized work including planning, organization and coordination, and setting objectives. They deal with issues that are often undefined and involve areas of uncertainty and complex inter-relationships. The instructions received are broad and the job holders are expected to consistently demonstrate a high degree of responsibility and initiative to respond independently to queries. Job holders have a level of expertise and knowledge to adapt and develop systems and processes in order to continually improve the level of support provided. They are expected to motivate and develop a team of support staff and/or are responsible for specialized support service(s) where the work is undertaken with the help of specially designed techniques, methods and processes.

JOB PURPOSE

To support planning and coordinate the delivery of finance, budget and administration support services, and supervise and provide guidance to a team of staff ensuring transparent and efficient utilization of financial resources.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Act as an escalation point in providing procedural and technical support to staff within the areas of finance and budget, to ensure compliance with WFP financial policies, rules and regulations.
2. Participate in the development and implementation of financial policies and procedures, interpret and assess the impact of changes and make recommendations on follow up actions, to support setup and implementation of proper accounting procedures, systems and internal controls.
3. Contribute to the improvement of internal processes, enhancement of corporate systems and design of tools, to support transparent and efficient utilization of financial resources.
4. Monitor the daily cash position in order to optimize the use of surplus cash and maximize returns on investment through the liquidity portfolio.
5. Ensure that payments are processed in a timely manner, resolve complex issues relating to the disbursement or replenishment of funds in line with WFP rules and regulations.
6. Contribute to the preparation, implementation and monitoring of budgets for service provision projects on-demand activity, monitor expenditure and budget forecasts, to ensure that relevant future funding requirements are met.
7. Co-ordinate with other teams in order to ensure that all financial and administrative services are being performed efficiently and in line with the needs of the wider team.
8. Monitor account balances and oversee the recording of financial transactions in an accurate and timely manner to avoid the occurrence of an overdraft.
9. Monitor, control and analyse general ledger accounts in order to initiate and achieve corrective actions.
10. Prepare and analyse financial and statistical reports based on the established frequency and provide recommendations for further actions to the Finance Officer or other staff, to facilitate informed decision-making.
11. Co-ordinate and supervise work of other support staff, and support their learning and development in management of financial resources (e.g. managing the petty cash account, review and analyse vendor and balance sheet accounts, etc.), to ensure services are delivered consistently and to the required standards.

12. Prepare and submit the month-end financial report within the set deadlines.

13. Manage cash for the country office ensuring monthly cash replenishment reports are prepared accurately and on time.

14. Monthly payroll preparation involves all the deductions and reimbursements to employees, ensuring accurate and timely financial transactions in accordance with company policies and regulations.

15. Conducting monthly closure for open items such as Purchase Orders (POs), Purchase Requests (PRs), and advances, followed by the preparation of a detailed report for submission to headquarters, ensures transparent overview of financial activities within the reporting period.

16. Responsible for CBT system- Finance section, include facilitating top-ups to beneficiaries, and communicate with all parties for any technical issue.

17. Remain on stand-by at all times and follow standard emergency preparedness practices in order to meet immediate emergency requirements for further service on job and in the field.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Coaches team in the most effective ways to communicate WFP’s Strategic Objectives to WFP team and partners in the field.
• Be a force for positive change: Implements new methods or tools to improve team’s work processes and productivity.
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Maps team’s activities and tasks to specific successes in beneficiary communities to showcase positive impact.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Explains to teammates how each unit contributes to the overall WFP mission.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Identifies skill development opportunities such as training modules or on-the-job experiences for self, colleagues and direct reports.
• Create an inclusive culture: Facilitates team building activities to build rapport in own unit.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Facilitates the pairing of junior colleagues with coaches within own team.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Proactively anticipates potential challenges and develops mitigation plans to ensure that team meets goals and targets.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help team be more innovative and accurate in their respective tasks and areas of work.
• Focus on getting results: Monitors team’s deliverables and provides feedback to ensure outcomes are delivered consistently and accurately.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Provides accurate guidance to team on expected responsibilities and tasks, whilst also upholding own commitment to the team.
• Be Decisive: Sets an example and provides guidance to junior team members on when to escalate issues when faced with challenging issues in the workplace or in the field.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Facilitates partnerships with other WFP units to accomplish missions in the field.
• Build strong external partnerships: Sets an example and provides guidance to team on how to build relationships with external partners.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Articulates to colleagues or direct reports the value of contributing to other WFP teams and agency partnerships in fulfilling WFP’s goals and objectives.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Organizes, monitors, and prioritizes own and team’s efforts to ensure that they will fulfill the needs of internal and external partners.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Capability Name Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level

Internal Controls & Compliance Utilizes understanding of risk management approaches and internal controls to monitor projects and programmes to confirm regulatory compliance and ensure data integrity. Performance Budgeting, Analysis & Reporting Analyzes budgets and forecasts to support the development of recommendations for senior leadership on financial and business planning matters in accordance with Value for Money principles. Resource Management Monitors trends in staffing and resource usage to anticipate and escalate potential issues to programme leaders. Financial Mgmt. & Accounting Principles Applies knowledge of financial and accounting principles and practices to ensure compliance with WFP policies, applicable procedures and accounting standards. Supply Chain and Operations Knowledge Applies working knowledge of WFP programme and supply chain principles to develop and/or review project budget plans.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

This section is optional to describe additional responsibilities & knowledge required for the specific job of financial resources.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has experience analysing, interpreting data and generating reports at national level.
• Coached and trained a new staff member in the RM function.
• Highly desirable qualifications include professional certifications like Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

By 26 February 2024

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WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.