Programme Budget Officer, NOA, (364 days), Warsaw, Poland, #127461 (Open for Polish Nationals Only)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a champion.

Since February 2022, Poland has become home to estimated 2 million refugees (registered and unregistered), whereas 1.6 million refugees so far have sought the temporary protection and around one million of these refugees still have active registration for temporary protection in Poland. In the early weeks of the war, more than 100,000 people were fleeing Ukraine each day and Poland was taking the major brunt of the migration. At the peak of this displacement there were an estimated 3.5 million refugees from Ukraine in Poland. Around 90 percent of the refugees are women and children. This was, and remains, a mothers-and-children crisis. UNICEF declared an L3 emergency in March 2022 and provided successful and well-regarded humanitarian response, targeting more than 75 percent of the refugee population. In March 2023, the response was scaled down to L2, but the humanitarian needs remain. UNICEF reached out to around 1 million refugees during one year of its operations in Poland and these activities, by their nature, also have a positive spill-over effect on host communities and children from other nationalities.

As the office exits from humanitarian action/response, the recovery/resilience/development programmes remains in the country and continue to support the Poland Government on specific thematic areas.

How can you make a difference?

Under the guidance of the Deputy Country Coordinator, the position will be responsible for monitoring and allocating incoming funds to the appropriate programmes according to the planning and will support managing donor grants within the Poland RRO. Additionally, s/he will monitor fund utilization in accordance with donor conditions and timeframes, provide input to relevant sections, including donor reporting, and support the development of reports for the Senior Management and the Emergency Management Team regarding key management indicators.  The post analyses the programme budget proposals for completeness, correctness and conformity with the programme and budget guidelines; advises Programme Chiefs and partners on the conformity with the programme and budget processes, from planning to implementation.

Key accountabilities:

1. Provide technical and organization support to the management of the Funds

• Monitors the utilization of all funding sources and produces regular updates for the Emergency Management Team (EMT) and Programme Management Team (PMT).
• Ensures timely allocation to respective programmes of new grants. Works in collaboration with the Implementing Partnerships, Monitoring and Reporting (PMR) Specialist and Budget Owners to ensure the overall compliance with donor and grants conditions when allocating the re-phasing funds.
• Monitor grants expiry dates with the objective of ensuring that all funds are fully utilized prior to grant expiry dates.
• Provides quality assurance of financial information including in donor reports, proposals, work plans and programme documents; checks the accuracy of the budget calculations of project proposals before their finalization.
• Supports the capacity development of programme staff to improve the description of expenditures that appear the financial reports; ensures that donor reports receive timely budget/financial information.
• Retrieves information on costs of programme elements, such as staff and related costs from automated files and complies them in standardized and customized reports.
• Enables de institutional memory within the office through development and maintenance of record keeping allocations forms and emails; ensures the filing of and access to all the financial and budget related files on proposals, donor reports and all other financial documents.

2. Provide technical and organizational support to the management of reports

• Monitors allocation and expenditures trends; generates, prepares, and shares with members of the management team the financial progress reports adapted from VISION and brings to the attention of the Deputy Country Coordinator, PMR Specialist, and Chiefs of Sections any deviations of delays for corrective measures.
• Prepares and timely submit monthly Management Indicator reports to the meetings of management team, including analysis on key programme indicators.
• Provides reports on budget utilization during reviews (mid-year, annual and mid-term reviews).
• Help prepare periodic or ad-hoc financial and performance management reports relating to country office and donors including preparation of necessary documentation for any eventual audit or verification mission
• .

3. Provide VISION Support for results creations

• Update and maintain results structure on VISION including PIDB coding.
• Provides on-going support to programme staff on the appropriate VISION budget work process, routine operation, and utilization of the system.
• Process requests for grants extension ahead of expiring dates in VISION.
• Perform other relevant duties.

4. Plan cost distribution and payroll

• Prepares cost distribution for all staff in the RRO and advises section chiefs on standard cost and conditions of Grants utilization in payroll. Works with Finance on CD uploads.
• Supports staff payroll run by ensuring that adequate funds are allocated for staff salary and cost distribution uploaded for all staff.

5. Capacity building and knowledge management:

• Builds the capacity of Programme Assistants and colleagues on financial monitoring and grant management.
• Monitor/document process and effectiveness of working with these individuals/organizations.
• Prepare background communication and promotional materials for briefings and visits of media, Goodwill Ambassadors, donors, National Committee representatives and other special interest groups. The task includes preparing information materials (e.g., press releases, programme summaries, country fact sheets and media kits), and assisting in the planning, logistics and administrative arrangements.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• University degree in Finance, Accounting, Administration, social sciences, human rights or any other related fields of discipline relevant to the job is required.
• A minimum of 1 year of relevant professional experience in programme administrations, accounting, budget, and programme monitoring work experience is required. Prior experience in programme management, and finance functions is an asset.
• Knowledge of and proficiency in VISION (SAP), strong computer skills, including familiarity with UNICEF software tools, Excel spreadsheets and demonstrated capacity to produce reports using graphs and charts, are required.
• Ability to express clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written and oral form in English.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as a strong asset.
• Experience in setting up and managing financial trackers and dashboards.
• Fluency in Polish and English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Builds and maintains partnerships (1)
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (1)
• Drive to achieve results for impact (1)
• Innovates and embraces change (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)
• Thinks and acts strategically (1)
• Works collaboratively with others (1)

Functional competencies required for this post are…

• Planning and Organizing (2)
• Applying Technical Expertise (2)
• Analyzing (1)
• Persuading and Influencing (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. 

Remarks:

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with children, is a safeguarding response role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) applies.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.