UN Women: Finance and Budget Specialist

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 171,387 USD and 220,969 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.

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division formulates corporate strategies aligned to the corporate objectives, promote transparent budget planning of resources from all funding sources in line with the organization’s priorities and advocates fiduciary integrity by ensuring that internal controls and risk management are fully in place. The Division monitors and reports on corporate programmes and budget implementation to ensure coherent achievement of results in keeping with the UN Women Strategic Plan and United Nations Strategic Framework. The Division also ensures coherent and integrated strategic analysis, planning and budgeting across UN Women while providing advice to senior management.

The Budget and Finance Specialist reports to the Chief of Budget for guidance and supervision and is responsible for providing support in budget planning, preparation, allocation, management and monitoring to ensure the availability and effective and optimum utilization of financial resources according to plans and approved allocation and compliance with UN-Women financial regulations and rules, policies and procedures to meet the Organization’s commitments, goals and objectives.

The Budget and Finance Specialist will be responsible for the regular budget management, fund allocation and performance monitoring in accordance with established operational procedures, establishment and management of projects and outputs in the system, support and improve budget management as required. The Budget and Finance Specialist will also liaise with the finance unit for reporting, liaising with programme colleagues for budget preparation and execution in accordance with the programme of work, and report monthly as per the requirements of UN Programme Planning and Budget Division. They will also coordinate financial reporting for the regular budget and be responsible for carrying out similar functions for other types of budgets funded from regular resources.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage the budget planning and preparation process:

• Lead the coordination of the overall budget planning process for both the programme plan and performance, and resource requirements;
• Guide the formulation of the programme plan narratives in line with the Secretariat requirements and CPC recommendations;
• Provide detailed input with respect to resource requirements for budget submissions;
• Review, analyze and finalize cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements, including programmatic aspects, ensuring compliance with the organization strategic plan and other legislative mandates;
• Review, analyze and finalize programme budget/financial implications in light of additional mandates;
• Provide substantive support to the processes of relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies to secure approval of the Organization’s proposed programme budget from the General Assembly (i.e. coordination and consolidation of the management response to questions from the CPC, ACABQ, and Fifth Committee).

Manage budget monitoring, oversight and control:

• Issue allocations and authorize redeployment of funds when necessary, ensuring appropriate expenditures;
• Review and finalize budget performance reports, analyzing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures;
• Identify operational and financial bottlenecks in budget management and approval and resolve problems and/or recommend solutions;
• Establish and implement budgetary control mechanisms and monitor budgetary status versus authorized spending limits and budget delivery results. Take appropriate and timely action to ensure compliance;
• Prepare and modify budgets for UN-Women management projects to ensure expenditures stay within authorized spending limits.Take action in cases of variances;
• Review requests from offices and recommend actions for budget approval;
• Review and clear GL journal entries to make adjustments to contributions and expenditures.

Provide advisory support and technical guidance:

• Serve as technical resource person for Quantum Project/Budget Module and focal point for UN-Women regular budget;
• Serve as Liaison officer for UN Programme Planning and Budget division (PPBD);
• Provide advice to UN-Women staff on budget issues, processes and procedures;
• Collaborate with UN-Women Quantum helpdesk, divisions’ focal points, and PPBD on corporate issues related to project/budget modules to ensure UN-Women needs and interests are taken into account in systems development and updates;
• Provide substantive support to senior management with respect to relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies, in their review of the Entity’s programme plan and its revisions in the aim of securing approval from the General Assembly;
• Provide advice and guidance, including briefings, to heads of Sections and senior management on changes to the RB budgetary process and procedures;
• Represent UN-Women in inter-departmental meetings in matters related to RB resource requirements, programming and budgetary issues;
• Keep Management up-to-date on documents/reports/guidelines that have a bearing on matters related to program budgets, ensuring compliance with intergovernmental recommendations and decisions as well as with United Nations policies and procedures;
• Provide support to the ASGs in meetings of legislative organs (e.g. preparation of management responses; briefing notes; talking points).

Lead knowledge management and capacity building:

• Design and/or introduce, learning tools, best practices and innovations in budget business operational practices and management including drafting guidelines and policies;
• Contribute to the development of knowledge base in budget planning, preparation and management through capacity building and conducting and/or organizing training events and activities on budget planning principles, processes, policies, rules and procedures;
• Identify, participate in the development and/or recommend enhancement/updates/improvement in Quantum budget modules;
• Capture, synthesize and/or codify lessons learned and best practices in financial management and services. Disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge.

Impact of Results:

The key results have an impact on the effective and efficient budget planning, preparation and management of UN-Women regular budget and regular resources. Sound policies and advice, proper oversight, control and monitoring of programme and project resources, and timely and accurate budget oversight and control to enhance the UN-Women reputation with governments, donors as a trusted partner and reliable custodian of funds and fosters a culture of accountability.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Effective and efficient coordination of the regular budget planning and preparation process;
• Effective oversight, control and monitoring, and timely reporting of regular budget resources;
• Effective and efficient support to the budget planning, preparation, and management of UN-Women voluntary contributions
• Timely and substantive support to management during relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies review sessions, to secure approval of UN-Women budget proposals;
• Sound policies and advice to management and other colleagues on regular budget-related matters.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge and expertise in budget/financial principles, planning and management;
• Solid knowledge of complex budget, financial rules and a regulations, preferably UN/UNDP/UN-Women Financial Rules and regulations;
• Demonstrated business acumen and judgment;
• Conceptual/strategic skills and success in implementing budget/financial re-engineering, management systems development, policy design, innovation and knowledge product development;
• Solid knowledge and experience in the application of complex financial systems and web-based management systems (such as Oracle);
• Advance knowledge of office software packages, spreadsheet and database (MS Word, Excel).

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master`s degree or equivalent in finance, administration, accounting, economics, business management or other related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in financial planning, budget management, and operations, at least (3) years in a large international and/or corporate organization preferably in the UN system and its organizations is required
• Experience using modern ERP financial systems such as Oracle and web-based management systems is required.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required
• Knowledge of another UN official working language is an asset.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (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.)