UN Women: Budget Specialist

Background

The duration of the assignment is for 364 days. Whereas an external candidate will be offered a temporary appointment; subject to release agreements, staff members in UN Women may be administered as a temporary assignment and staff members in the UN Common system may be administered under a loan arrangement.

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 organization 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 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, and reporting to ensure the availability and effective and optimum utilization of UN-Women financial resources according to plans and approved allocation and compliance with UN-Women financial regulations and rules, policies and procedures to meet UN-Women commitments, goals, and objectives.

The Budget Specialist is also responsible for 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 Specialist will also liaise with the finance unit for reporting and with programme colleagues for budget execution in accordance with the programme of work.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide technical support in budget planning, analysis and management:

• Analyze past/current fiscal operations, estimate revenues and expenditures, evaluate trends in patterns of resource allocations, analyze records of present/past operations, analyze budget proposals for budgetary objectives and present thoroughly researched information/conclusions/recommendations, including reports containing an analysis of the office’s financial situation (expenditures versus budget allocations) to facilitate budget preparation, planning and approval processes;
• Prepare financial forecast of core and non-core resources contributions for planning purposes;
• Provide the required support and backup to the Budget team for the formulation of the Integrated Budget and Regular Budget, as applicable;
• Clear project budgets to ensure that they reflect all required costs, as needed;

Provide technical support in budget monitoring, oversight and control:

• Identify operational and financial bottlenecks in budget management and approval and resolve problems and/or recommend solutions;
• Establish and implement control mechanisms for 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 within authorized spending limits. Take action in cases of variances;
• Review and clear allocation/redeployment requests from offices and recommend actions;
• Prepare GL journal entries

Provide advisory support and technical guidance:

• Oversee and monitor the cost recovery policy and formulation of required templates and guidance;
• Serve as technical resource person for Quantum/Budget Module;
• Provide technical advice to UN-Women personnel on overall budget management topics, processes and procedures;
• Collaborate with UN-Women’s Quantum helpdesk and coordinate requests from various departments;
• Act as the Budget Unit’s focal point and support internal clients with technical and/or advisory support as needed;

Contribute technically to knowledge management and capacity building:

• Design and/or introduce learning tools, best practices and innovations in budget business operational practices and management including drafting of policies, guidelines, design of templates;
• Capture, synthesize and/or codify lessons learned and best practices in resource management practices
• Disseminate information and tools to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge;

Provide any other support as requested by supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators

• Budget activities and documentations are implemented/processed according to UN-Women rules and regulations, policies and procedures;
• Effective and efficient support to budget planning, preparation and management of UN-Women resources;
• Sound policies and advice;
• Effective support in oversight, control, and monitoring of programme and project resources;
• Timely and accurate professional support and advice to on budget related topics.

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: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Solid knowledge of complex budget, financial rules and regulations, preferably UN/UNDP/UN-Women Financial Rules and regulations;
• Ability to extract, interpret, analyze and format data across the full range of budget functions, including planning, monitoring, oversight and reporting;
• Solid Knowledge of the administration and management of various funding modalities and mechanisms in the UN-Women environment
• Strong knowledge in project budget formulation and costing
• Ability to identify and resolve data discrepancies and operational problems.
• Demonstrated business acumen and judgment;
• Analytical skills and success in implementing budget/financial re-engineering, management systems development, policy design, innovation and knowledge product development;
• Solid knowledge of the application of wed web-based financial management systems (such as Atlas);
• Knowledge of, and ability to apply financial rules, regulations and procedures in the UN is an asset;
• Advanced knowledge of office software packages, spreadsheet and database (MS Word, Excel).

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Financial Management, Economics, Business, Public Administration, or other related area. A first-level university degree in combination with 2 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of 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
• Budget and fund management experience using an ERP financial system;
• Experience in providing financial and budget support to programmes/projects;
• Solid experience in the usage of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.);
• Experience in supporting multiple offices and/or portfolios of programmes and projects is an asset;
• Experience using an online web-based management System is an asset.
• Work experience within the UN System is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of the other 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.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.