Country Portfolio and Grants Analyst at United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Functional Responsibilities:

Portfolio grant cycle management

• Prepare and review grant award requests, draft grant agreements and subsequent amendments, using the approved templates ensuring that all agreements and amendments are constructed and issued in line with UNOPS legal and financial rules and regulations;
• Act as the secretary of the Grant Selection Committee and facilitate the decision-making process of the committee through coordination with Grantees (Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners) and all relevant teams to ensure quality documentation promptly;
• Ensuring that the onboarding of new partners is adapted to the partners’ needs and is aligned with SHF and UNOPS rules and regulations
• Supports to operations team in reviewing grant budgets, and financial reports against approved budgets, to provide critical feedback to the Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners, programme teams, operations and support services, as relevant;
• Verify reporting requirements are adhered to and ensure teams liaise closely with relevant teams in UNOPS and SHF on any delays or other difficulties;
• Review disbursement requests and ensure payments are processed based on the grant agreement, agreed disbursement schedules, and agreed targets and results;
• Support the design and formulation of processes related and relevant to UNOPS OI for grants - including risk management, quality assurance and quality control;
• Communicate with and provide guidance/advice to Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners on grant-related and financial matters, in collaboration with the Operations Team;
• Resolve operational and process issues related to grant management, and refer complex issues as relevant (supervisor and/or operational team) with recommendations for courses of action;
• Contribute to the coordination and follow-up on spot checks, reviews and audit recommendations of Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners;
• Support the coordination of the process of operational and financial closure of grants and projects;

Contracts Management

• Support drafting Terms of Reference for subcontractors and consultants, suitable firms/institutions and support the evaluation of proposals received and recommendations for contract awards and negotiations as per UNOPS procurement policy;
• Initiate drafting and finalization of Contracts with vendors, including Amendments;
• Maintenance of Contracts filing system/database and support the implementation of Procurement Strategy;
• Monitoring compliance and risks as regards Contracts Management.

Capacity Strengthening and Risk Management:

• Organize and support Partner’s capacity development and training in financial and any other organizational management aspects that may arise from the Country Monitoring Agent’s capacity assessments and highlighted in Risk registers;
• Support training opportunities to be able to provide contributions on the relevant tools, approaches and procedures, and ensure effective project implementation.
• Provide day-to-day help and guidance to the Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners to ensure their understanding of, and compliance with, any relevant operational guidelines, terms and conditions of the grant agreement, and UNOPS requirements;
• Actively liaise with UNOPS grants teams to align to the extent possible Primary Recipient/Implementing Partner capacity development efforts as well as streamlining and harmonizing of practices and tools with UNOPS Geneva;
• Actively compiling lessons learned and best practices, and sharing knowledge and best practices within the UNOPS Geneva Office and with Primary Recipients/Implementing Partners, on financial and organizational management.

Knowledge, , Grant Systems Administration and Documentation

• Draft lessons learned and best practices, and share knowledge and best practices within the project team and other relevant fora.
• Ensure that all records are collected and maintained, both hard and electronic copies for easy reference and retrieval.
• Support and influence the design and adoption of a suitable grant management system and ensure efficient use of the system.
• Maintain a database /archive of all grant-related information and documentation of all the Implementing Partners.
• Collaborate with country stakeholders and SHF Technical Advisory Services to feed information relevant to SHF portfolio investments to SHF partners and/or teams;
• Review collate and analyze data on potential opportunities to inform SHF strategic positioning and contribute to an ongoing database of identified entry points for SHF engagement with Governments and potential investors;
• Support research to monitor needs, trends and developments to inform market shaping, enabling environment and grant funding work to further evolve SHF workstreams;
• Support development of knowledge assets around innovation scaling from analyzing lessons learnt and good practices;
• Draft and finalize talking points, including for the Directorate, and contribute to the drafting and development of documents, articles, and publications.
• Support the organization of events, workshops and conferences as required.

Education/Experience/Language requirements:
Education:

• A master’s degree in political science, international development, social sciences, environment-related sciences, water and sanitation engineering, economics, and business.
• A Bachelor's degree with a combination of two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the master's degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years experience as a Project Officer/Analyst with a development organization, public health, or finance institutioni required;
• Experience in grant management, budgeting, and/or contract management is required;
• Strong computer skills, including internet navigation and office applications (Google Workspace/MS Office); good knowledge in the use of Excel spreadsheets/Google sheets is required;
• Good knowledge of UN contractual and accounting principles and modalities is strongly desirable;
• Previous experience with UNOPS is desirable;
• Experience in collating and analyzing information and preparing concise reports for decision-makers is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English (i.e. writing, reading and speaking) is required.
• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language, particularly French, is an asset.