Consortium Senior Finance and Grants Manager
Kampala
- Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
- Location: Kampala
- Grade: Mid level - Mid level
-
Occupational Groups:
- Banking and Finance
- External Relations, Partnerships and Resource mobilization
- Managerial positions
- Grant writing
- Closing Date: 2024-11-10
BACKGROUND:
The International Rescue Committee’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded over 90 years ago, the IRC is a leading humanitarian and development organization with presence in more than 40 countries. Across contexts, the IRC is committed to delivering innovative, high-impact programs tailored to the needs of communities affected by crisis.
The IRC has been working in Uganda since 1998 supporting refugees, vulnerable host communities, and various institutions in the country notably the government, community-based organizations, civil society, and the private sector. Currently, the IRC in Uganda has a presence across five sub-regions and six refugee settlements, implementing programming in the sectors of health, protection and rule of law (PRoL), women’s protection and empowerment (WPE), economic recovery and development (ERD), and education. IRC Uganda also implements cross-cutting programming focused on systems strengthening and accountability to affected persons.
Program Overview:
The IRC is soon to begin implementing an Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kampala (EKN)-funded 4-year project ‘PROSPECT SRHR’ in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda to enable women, men, adolescents and youth achieve their Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights.The PROSPECT SRHR project aims at improving the sexual reproductive health and social wellbeing of adolescents, youth, and women in West Nile by reducing maternal mortality, the number of teenage pregnancies, instances of SGBV and child marriages, and rates of new HIV infections. The project will be implemented in 6 districts with three cluster offices in Yumbe, Adjumani and Terego. The project will work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Sports, and the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social development, and district local governments as well as other development and implementing partners in the region.
SCOPE OF WORK:
The Consortium Senior Finance and Grants Manager will oversee the financial and grants management aspects of the PROSPECT SRHR project. This role is crucial in ensuring effective financial oversight, compliance, and accountability for the project including all the consortium of partners - the International Rescue Committee (IRC), World Vision (WV), Reach A Hand Uganda (RAHU) and Humanity & Inclusion (HI) – as well as IRC implementing partners. They will be responsible for overseeing all grants processes including reporting, compliance and expected deliverables; executing financial and budget management including management of sub-awards for the consortium and implementing partners; maintaining oversight of the consortium and implementing partners’ project accounting operations and ensuring compliance with donor conditions, policies and procedures; and developing tools and processes for tracking performance of the project to meet donor requirements.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:
Finance and Accounting
- Lead the annual budgeting process with the support of the technical and grants teams and oversee regular budget analysis and reforecasting.
- Coordinate with the Consortium Team Leader and project and finance leads from each partner to prepare annual project spending plans, and update on a timely basis.
- Manage all project financial reporting including reviewing and consolidating monthly / quarterly partner financial reports and generating donor financial reports, ensuring reported information is accurate and compliant with donor rules, regulations, and reporting requirements.
- Execute quarterly spending report consolidation and ongoing financial management (e.g., monitoring of budget to actuals) for all the consortium and implementing partners.
- Execute monthly Budget Variance Analysis for the project and monitor spending for partners and other subgrantees.
- Work with IRC’s Partnership finance team to oversee the financial sub-award management for consortium and implementing partners, including disbursement management and tracking.
- Ensure that financial records and accounts are compiled accurately and on time, in accordance with international accounting standards and donor regulations.
- Support the DDF to oversee and collaborate in the documentation of financial policies and procedures, including regular review and improvement of internal controls across all Consortium Partners and ensure adequate orientation and training on all policies and donor guidelines.
- Review funding allocations to enable proper guidance to the project and proper coding; work with HQ to manage the draw-down of funds to the country program.
- Provide training to partner project and finance staff on finance tools and processes specific to project financial management and provide support on identified financial management issues.
- Closely monitor all financial activities and keep the team leader informed of any situations that could negatively impact internal controls or financial management performance.
Grant Management and Compliance
- Manage the grant, finance and compliance processes for the whole project, ensuring that all consortium and implementing partners adhere to donor requirements.
- Maintain up-to-date comprehensive knowledge of donor guidelines and provide training to IRC and partner staff on donor-specific compliance requirements. Ensure immediate reporting of suspected compliance issues through appropriate reporting mechanisms and distribute information on reporting concerns.
- Oversee grant and amendment management using tools like Integra and OTIS for precise opportunity tracking and program adjustments.
- Monitor grants results and spending, addressing concerns swiftly. Help coordinate project cycle meetings, distribute preparatory guidance, monitor required actions, and ensure follow-up on actions.
- Handle reporting requirements and deadlines, including creating and distributing reporting schedules and templates, consolidating, reviewing and writing reports to meet donor standards, and ensuring document quality. This includes managing all consortium and implementing partner deliverables as a part of the reporting process.
- Work with IRC’s compliance unit to develop the risk matrix and oversee the risk management process including coming up with the mitigation strategies.
- Inform project staff across partners of award changes and coordinate donor, technical, and partner meetings for project transitions and monitoring.
- Maintain constructive relations with the donors and partners, attending meetings and addressing compliance inquiries.
- Work with the Consortium Communications Officer to ensure professional, donor-compliant documentation and visibility of the project.
Partner Support
- Collaborate with the Partnerships team to plan, implement, monitor, and close-out partnerships, including following the correct processes for sub-award agreements, compliance and monitoring.
- Ensure consistent implementation of sub-grant processes and procedures across the program, including pre-award compliance checks, agreements, disbursements, reporting, timelines, and necessary partner capacity-building.
- Conduct regular compliance checks for partners, providing reports to the Team Leader and sharing a compliance matrix with the Grants Coordinator, Partnership Coordinator and Deputy Director Finance (DDF)
- Work with the Partnership team to develop partner monitoring tools in line with the IRC Partnership system (PEERS) and donor compliance guidelines; conduct monitoring of all consortium partners on a quarterly basis.
- Facilitate training to all consortium finance and non-finance staff on issues both identified during monitoring and those that can enhance the systems strengthening of the respective partners.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, or CPA, ACCA equivalent. Proof of Certification to be submitted and presented.
- A master’s degree (In Finance and Accounting) is an added advantage.
Experience
- Minimum of 5 years of mid-senior management experience in financial management and grant administration in an NGO or international development context.
- Proven experience managing finance or grants for large-scale donor-funded projects, particularly in the health or social sectors and/or West Nile region.
Functional knowledge, skills and ability:
- Strong knowledge of financial management principles, accounting practices, and budgeting processes.
- Familiarity with donor regulations and compliance requirements of major donors. Experience with EKN preferred.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex financial data.
- Computer literate with significant experience in Excel. Accounting package knowledge (Integra system and PBi) will be an added advantage.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively and professionally in a multicultural team environment and maintain confidentiality.
- Demonstrated attention to detail and ability to follow procedures but also uses initiative, meet deadlines, and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
- Flexibility to adapt to changing requirements and circumstances.
- Strong commitment to promoting SRHR and gender equality.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
- High ethical standards and integrity in financial practices.
Gender Equality & Equal Opportunity
We are committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer generous benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. We welcome and strongly encourage qualified female professionals to apply.
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we value diversity in our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request reasonable accommodation.
Professional Standards
IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.
NB: This advert will close on 10th November 2024.
Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.