Program Finance Officer at Center For Reproductive Rights

Primary Responsibilities:

• Perform financial tracking and reporting activities for the Africa Program.
• On a monthly basis, budgets are conducted for the actual assessment of the Africa program, and forecasts are adjusted as required.
• Perform periodic analysis of partner and personnel advances and vendor/supplier bills; monitor all invoice payments, payroll and related statutory payments, and disbursements to partner organizations; and ensure correct coding on the payment request form and in the financial reporting system.
• In close coordination with the Program Manager-Africa, respective budget holders in the Africa team and the institutional Grants Manager, manage all financial management aspects of sub-grants under the Africa Program, including:
• Coordinating with the Programs team to ensure effective and timely sub-grant assessments, approvals, disbursements, financial reporting, financial monitoring (including spot checks), and audits of all sub-grants (where relevant).
• Ensuring that tools for efficient sub-grant management, monitoring, and reporting are put in place and use and that they are in line with applicable Center and/or donor’s standards.
• Support the program leads in correspondence with program partners regarding finance-related issues pertaining to the funded projects.
• Maintaining a database of all sub-grants, including funding applications, pre-grant assessments, partnership agreements, progress reports, monitoring reports, sub-grant disbursements, audit reports, and close-out documents.
• Supporting the Senior Manager, Program Finance and the program technical leads in providing induction, coaching, guidance, and feedback to the Center’s program partners in Africa to ensure proper financial management of funded projects.
• Provide reconciliation on reported expenses vs disbursements.
• Review expenses to ensure they are posted to the correct project, grant, and unit.
• Support the technical teams in formulating, monitoring, and reprojecting budgets.
• Track and monitor program budgets once the Operating Year Budget is approved and conduct periodic budget reviews.
• Prepare reports to guide management in decision-making, including quarterly sub-grant status reports (internal sub-grants management and risk reports and any other documents or reports that may be requested) to inform ongoing oversight and management of sub-grants.
• Ensure the timely and accurate preparation of donor financial reports and ensure that all financial reporting requirements are met.
• Track lobbying costs for program teams and report on them accurately
• allocations for contributing projects
• Ensure timely submission of activity accountability reports and concur reports by program staff.
• Manage program procurement processes, including ensuring awareness and consistent application of the Center and/or donor procurement requirements and provide continuous capacity-strengthening support on procurement matters to the Africa program team.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Finance, Commerce or Business Administration is required.
• Professional certification in project management or other courses related to grants management and professional qualification in accounting, CPA, ACCA, or equivalent will be a significant advantage.
• A minimum of 8+ years of professional experience in developing, managing, and analyzing large and complex program budgets, sub-grants management, and other relevant aspects of program financial management at a comparable International Organization, Non-Governmental Organization, Donor Agency, or Embassy is required.
• Extensive experience working with computerized accounting systems, including familiarity with the use of scalable Enterprise Resources (ERPs) and other e-based communication channels and tools.
• Must have strong interpersonal skills and maintain effective working relationships with Center staff as well as other personnel.
• Strategic leadership skills in Budgeting, financial planning, and forecasting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills: interpersonal, especially the ability to adapt financial and accounting professional know-how to Donor and grant funding requirements.
• Tenacity and Drive with the ability to work with strict deadlines and adapt to a fast-paced, dynamic work environment.
• Excellent at Dealing with issues proactively and in a timely manner and avoiding backlog and delays in program work plans.
• Possess excellent orientation to detail and data analytics skills necessary to handle and collate detailed financial data requirements by donors while also adhering to the internal Centre for Reproductive Rights accounting and reporting standards.
• Able to provide guidance to Technical Managers and project teams and direct reports; to work independently and interdependently in cross-functional work areas.