Job Vacancies at Action Against Hunger International

Summary of the Position

The role will primarily involve providing the Regional Director, the HEARO board and Countries Directors/Senior Management Teams with independent, objective assurance that the key risks facing the Country Offices are being identified; appropriately mitigated; that residual risks are accepted on the basis of well-reasoned decisions; that appropriate systems have been designed to control risks and that both mitigating and control systems are operating as intended. The role will also involve provision of advice to HEAR Regional Director and Country Directors/ Country Senior Management Team on the effectiveness of existing management, information and administrative systems. 

Purpose

To design, implement and monitor internal audit function for ACF USA in compliance with approved policies, procedures and processes, donor requirements and international accounting/ auditing standards. The role will provide assurance and assistance to management when developing action plans to address weaknesses identified. 

Engagement

Collaborates with key stakeholders to provide an independent evaluation of the Country offices and HEARO Office Operational, Governance activities with an objective to effectively mitigate identified compliance risks and ensure policies, procedures and processes are adhered to in all operations and governance activities of the ACF USA. 

Delivery

To execute internal audits, grants audits, special reviews and investigations through overseeing the planning and scheduling of the work, preparation of the reports, identifying the risk areas and making appropriate recommendations for improved governance, risk management and internal control. 

Essential Role duties 

Implement Internal Audits, Grant Audits, special reviews and investigations and ad hoc assignments as required, both at HEARO and across different countries within the region

•  Primary responsibility for managing the day-to-day activities of the Internal Audit function in planning and performing financial, operational, and compliance audits.  
•  Research and assess the different countries’ governance, risk management and internal control processes effectiveness and appropriateness to achieve the Organization’s objectives and report on areas of improvement using the internal audit report 
•  Assist Regional Director with planning Country Offices’ Internal audits, grants audits, special reviews and investigations. 
•  Travels to Countries to conduct Internal Audits, grants audits, special reviews and investigations. 
•  Draft audit findings that clearly describe the conditions, criteria, cause and effect and recommendations to correct identified deficiencies. To work with various country management to develop action plans to address findings identified during Internal Audit, special reviews and investigations. 
•  Share draft internal audit reports with Countries Directors, Regional Director and the Audit and Risk Management Committee summarizing the work performed. 
•  Planning, monitoring and quality review of assurance engagements on key systems, processes, policies and controls carried out at the Country level. 
•  Carry out internal audit webinars for new staff as well as developing and reviewing training material relating to Compliance, Anti-Fraud, bribery and Corruption. 
•  Acts as link with external auditors when needed. 
•  Leads with follow up of fraud, bribery and corruption, misuse of resources allegations as well as conduct investigations of irregularities discovered by internal and external audit reviews 
•  To undertake non-audit work for management if required, e.g., a project, investigation or short assignments. 

Development and review of Internal Audit department’s plans, processes and procedures.

•  To ensure Internal Audit departmental processes and procedures are applied when carrying out assignments.  
•  Assist in continuously improving the Internal Audit function process through new/improved tools and techniques and staying abreast of changes in Global Internal Auditing standards. 
•  Play a critical role in the preparing and successful delivery of the Annual Audit Plan for HEARO for presentation to the HEARO Board and the Regional Director.  
•  To maintain adequate knowledge of technical developments in accounting, audit and corporate governance. 
•  Review of audit and compliance policies, procedures and processes. 
•  Ensure development of the annual objectives of the Internal Audit function in the region are in line with the Annual Audit Plan and HEARO Strategic Pillars. 

Establish working relationships with management.

•  To ensure that audits are carried out with professionalism and an appropriate level of communication with the relevant management team before, during and after the audit. 
•  Maintains relationships with senior management to develop and maintain an understanding of organizational and country processes, their challenges and risks and improvement initiatives; 
•  To promote a clear understanding of the role of Internal Audit function. 
•  Provide ad hoc advice and guidance to managers and staff at all levels, which can sometimes be done through delivering training sessions. 
•  Actively participates in Regional and other leadership meetings to provide strategic input on risk management 

Gender Equality Commitments   

•  Foster an environment that supports values of women and men, and equal access to information.  
•  Provide a work environment where women and men must be evaluated and promoted based on their skills and performance.  
•  Respect beneficiaries’ women, men, children (boys and girls) regardless of gender, sex orientation, disability, religion. race, color, ancestry, national origin, age, or marital status.   
•  Value and respect all cultures.   

Physical Demands 

•  and to concentrate on work, including typing, and turn out heavy volumes of work accurately, within short time frames under stressful situations in the context of a moderately noisy office with many interruptions.  
•  Must be able to proofread own work accurately so that only minor corrections are needed on an infrequent basis.  
•  The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  
•  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

•   The duties of the job require regular job attendance at least five days per week. Must be available to work outside normal office hours or on the weekends as required.  
•  Must be able to travel as required for standard domestic and international business travel as well as to the country offices if appropriate. Based on the country office needs, the time spent on field trips will be a minimum of 30% of his/her working time. While visiting the field, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases. 

Requirements
Required Qualifications

•  Bachelor’s Degree or its International Equivalent. Accounting, Business Administration, Finance or Related Field 
•  CPA/ACCA or CIA qualification is an added advantage 
•  Membership with relevant professional body. 
•  At least 7years professional work experience in auditing, accounting, or the equivalent with exposure to various aspects of finance. Experience working with US government, EU, UN and other multinational donors preferred. 
•  Ability to deal with sensitive and confidential issues using well developed discretion and judgement. Ability to maintain absolute confidentiality of information and communicate only appropriate information to individuals at the appropriate time. 
•  Exposure to dealing with senior management. 
•  Highly developed inter-personal, analytical and presentational skills  
•  Proven ability to use relevant Data Analytics and Audit Tools 
•  Strong knowledge of a variety of control environments.  
•  Ability to think strategically and at the highest conceptual levels 
•  Experience of following up fraud allegations  
•  Strong interpersonal skills with sensitivity to different cultures and humanitarian principles  
•  The job holder must be willing to travel internationally for a minimum of 30% per year on two-to-three-week assignments 

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Purpose

Provide operational and technical leadership and expertise in program development and quality assurance to support all Action Against Hunger’s programs at the Regional and Country level.

Engagement

Engages with country teams, regional & global specialists and operations department to provide technical support for programming and operations. Participates in relevant national and regional sectors coordination, representation, and communication to amplify Action Against Hunger’s programmes, realize cross-learning opportunities and ensure representation of Action Against Hunger with governments, donors, partners, sister agencies and Action Against Hunger Network on programs-related work; and Manages a multi-disciplinary team of regional technical specialists.

Delivery

Delivers a comprehensive portfolio of regional and country programmes aligned to the global strategy while ensuring resource mobilization, impact measurement and program quality targets are realized; and ensures a robust monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning system is in place and accurate timely reports are shared across the organization for decision making

Essential Job Duties

Maintain an integrated dashboard and meeting rhythm to monitor strategic alignment of portfolio and grant performance across all the country offices & at the regional level

• Ensure strategic alignment of country programmes, and grants with Action Against Hunger ISP and Action Against Hunger USA strategy, technical framework, and donor strategies.
• Develop a dashboard / online tool to assess program & grant performance at all stages of the life cycle to ensure high-quality and on-time delivery of our work (monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact measurement).
• Coordinate calls for proposals involving several countries.
• Manage coordinated planning, preparation, technical review, submission, and follow-up of high-quality concept note and proposal submissions, in response to donor calls or unsolicited applications.
• Maintain an updated institutional donor database and provide regular and proactive alerts on funding opportunities to countries that align with annual targets and program objectives.
• Maintain a donor-reporting matrix and ensure timely review and submission of high-quality donor reports.
• Coordinate the development of Action Against Hunger s program standards that ensure adherence in project design and implementation.
• Liaise closely with the network to stay informed on programmatic developments within the region.

Develop a system to receive, organize, prioritize, and respond to Country Team requests in a timely and high-quality manner & ensure high quality and timeliness of Regional Technical Team services provided to Country Teams

• Create an online ‘ticketing’ system to capture all request and needs for support from the Regional Team
• Establish a regular working rhythm / review with the Hub Director to assess trade-offs or priorities
• Develop service-level agreements with Country Teams, promising a response within a certain time
• Issue regular ‘feedback’ surveys and implement improvement opportunities as needed to deliver high-quality on-time service to teams
• Monitor trends in requests for support, to identify if systematic / broader changes are needed
• Strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting processes and tools that directly support program quality at the local level including supporting design of need assessments, evaluations and documentation priorities that captures key practices and lessons and maximizes the impact of Action Against Hunger’s projects in countries.
• Improve existing program development tools and lead creation of new tools and guides to improve quality of proposal development, reporting, and documentation across the region.
• Advise or advocate for regional training in areas identified as regional/ organizational priorities or based on observed needs of teams.

Deploy staff effectively to respond to country needs, ensuring highest priorities are fully addressed

• Develop a clear set of criteria to prioritize requests and deploy team members
• Develop strong working relationships with Program Directors & their teams
• Identify capacity needs of program staff and facilitate training and professional development opportunities on quality issues (e.g., M&E, project reporting, proposal writing) in close collaboration with the regional team.
• Develop staffing norms for the team (e.g., identify the volume of activity / work that can be handled by each regional specialist, and trigger discussion with the Hub Director about need for new recruitments or process changes when norms are surpassed)

Coordination, representation, and communication

• Actively engage with and coordinate on strategic initiatives and working groups with other relevant internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborate with External Relation (ER) to attract non-institutional funding for country and regional operations
• Represent Action Against Hunger at relevant programmatic meetings at regional level
• Foster alliances and partnerships to further the quality of Action Against Hunger’s intervention in the region with international organizations, donors, academic and policy institutions.

Human Resources - Selection, Placement and Training

• Contribute to the recruitment process of program/technical staff at regional/country level, including job description development and technical selection.
• Ensure induction, briefing and debriefing of relevant Action Against Hunger staff at Regional and country level
• Provide technical feedback about and contribute to performance evaluation of Regional Technical Specialists & Program Directors
• Identify ongoing training needs of Action Against Hunger and if feasible, develop training material and provide capacity building.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Technical Specialists in Horn and Eastern Africa Regional office (Regional Nutrition & Health, Regional Food Security & Livelihoods Specialist, Regional WASH Specialist, Regional MEAL Specialist and Regional SBC/Gender Specialist).

Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

• Must be available to work and travel outside normal office hours or on the weekends as needed or required.
• Must be able to travel coach fare for standard domestic and international business travel as well as to the country project sites.
• While visiting the field, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to sit for long periods and to concentrate on work, including typing, and turn out heavy volumes of work accurately, within short time frames under stressful situations in the context of a moderately noisy office with interruptions.

Gender Equality Commitments

• Foster an environment that reinforces values of women and men, and equal access to information.
• Provide a work environment where women and men must be evaluated and promoted based on their skills and performance.
• Respect beneficiaries’ women, men, children (boys and girls) regardless of gender, sex orientation, disability, religion, race, color, ancestry, national origin, age, or marital status.
• Value and respect all cultures.

Requirements

Qualifications & essential experience

• Minimum Master’s degree in any of our technical areas (Nutrition, Food Security, WASH, SBC, Gender, MEAL) or any other related field.
• A minimum of 5 years previous work in programs overseas with an international humanitarian organization in program management in an NGO sector

Requirements

• Experience working in humanitarian contexts, emergency and post-crisis, in all the steps of the Project Cycle Management;
• Experience with humanitarian coordination mechanisms
• Knowledge of the main humanitarian donors and of their reporting requirements; long term and developmental donors and foundations is an added advantage
• Capacity to write and review complex technical and donor reports
• Good anticipation, adaptation, and planning skills especially in a changing work environment, and good budgeting and grant management skills
• Good working knowledge of computer software, MS Office.
• Motivation to work within the humanitarian sector and to link it to other initiatives (research, external communication, outreach, etc.);
• Ability to manage and prioritize own workload, service mindset with strong problem-solving skills
• Ability to present clear ideas and arguments, providing distance support, training, and influence
• Proactive and taking initiative, autonomous and reliable
• Fluent written and spoken English; Working knowledge of French desirable