Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Economic empowerment is one of the priority areas of UN Women. Investing in women’s economic empowerment, including income security, decent work, and economic autonomy, sets the stage for greater gender equality, poverty eradication, and inclusive economic growth. Cognizant to this and aligned to the global, regional initiatives and country priorities, UN Women Ethiopia Country Office’s Women Economic Empowerment thematic priority in Ethiopia is devoted in creating opportunities for women/girls and their businesses by promoting and supporting enabling environments, institutional capacities and women’s access to and control over resources/services including technologies, financial and non-financial services, and access to decent jobs among others. UN Women works with different government sectors and development partners to promote women’s economic empowerment and increase their access to economic opportunities and outcomes, especially for those who are most excluded, including women migrant workers. And as the blueprint for the governance and coordination of international migration, it is critical that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are central in its implementation. UN Women works to help ensure that migrant women’s human and labour rights are effectively promoted and protected at all stages of migration, and that the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration is human rights -based and gender- responsive.

Under Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Portfolio, since 2023 UN Women Ethiopia office has been implementing the global Germany-funded Making Migration Safe for Women programme in with the goal of ensuring that international norms and standards for protecting and promoting migrant women’s rights are strengthened and the development and implementation of national migration policies and laws are gender-responsive. The programme has also aimed to improve the use and collection of sex- disaggregated data and provide robust evidence and research on migrant women to inform national policy making.

It is in this context that UN Women in Ethiopia is seeking to recruit a Programme Associate to support the WEE Programme Portfolio including the MMS Project and members of the Programme Team in the effective development, implementation, monitoring and knowledge management tasks in consistent with UN Women rules and regulations.

Under the overall supervision of the Deputy Country Representative in Ethiopia, the Programme Associate will work under matrix supervision by the MMS National Coordinator and Women’s Economic Empowerment team leader, the Programme Associate works in close collaboration with the Programme and Operations teams to ensure successful programme implementation and reporting. The Programme Associate will dedicate fifty percent of her/his time to supporting the MMS project and the remining fifty percent to the WEE portfolio.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide administrative and logistical support to the formulation and management of the WEE Programme and MMS Project

• Provide administrative support in the preparation and implementation of work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements.
• Assist the programme team in the drafting of Terms of Reference (TOR), call for proposals (CFP) and Internal Memos and related,

• Undertake logistical and administrative arrangements for organization of meetings, workshops and missions and assist the programme team in conducting trainings to key stakeholders and partners,
• Support the programme team in tracking use of financial resources, follow up with Implementing Partners (IPs) for timely reporting, review of reports from the same,
• Provide inputs to the preparation of procurement plans related to the programme and project activities; provide technical guidance to the Project/programme team and responsible parties on routine delivery and reporting of programme supported activities and finances.
• Closely work with programme and finance team in ensuring timely fund transfers and reporting as per the plans /agreements with implementing partners,
• Identify sources and gather and compile data and information for the preparation of documents, guidelines, speeches, policy briefs and position papers.

Prepare and administer project budgets in full compliance of UN Women rules, regulations, policies, and recording and reporting systems:

• Formulate the budget, control allotments, monitor expenditures, and prepare revisions according to the needs of the Office.
• Track the appropriate and timely use of financial resources.
• Create projects in Quantum, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds; operational and financial close of a project,
• Implement and maintain control mechanism for development projects through monitoring budgets preparation and modifications and budgetary status.
• Undertake corrective actions on un-posted vouchers, including vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions and unapproved vouchers. Respond to RO /HQ requests to resolve financial data issues.
• Input data in Quantum and monitor status. Keep stakeholders and clients informed for timely action and/or decisions.

Provide administrative support to the financial management of the Project:

• Review accounts receivables for UN Women project and follow-up with.
• Create requisitions for procurement, travels and process payments for suppliers and consultants.
• Monitor the setup of budgets in Quantum to ensure they are in accordance with budgets agreed with donors and are input into Quantum at the detailed Activity ID level.
• Monitor each month over-expenditure of budgets and follow up with Budget Owner.
• Monitor regularly transactions posted to projects ensuring actual expenditure has been recorded against correct budget category and activity, take timely corrective actions as required.
• Monitor proper follow up of advances to implementing partners, review their financial reports together with project coordinator.
• Keep stakeholders and clients informed for timely actions/decisions and review status reports for quality control.
• Associate revenue and expenditure in commitment control for non-core project.
• Provide inputs and take necessary actions to facilitate timely financial project closure.
• Support financial donor reporting by providing timely information and taking necessary actions as required by UN Women Virtual Global Service Centre for financial donor reporting.
• Assist in drafting annual reports of the programme and uploading of cleared reports to RMS.
• Support the registration of new contracts and vendors and ensure expenditures are aligned with budget lines.
• Communicate and follow up with the operations team in facilitating gender responsive procurement.

Facilitate Knowledge Building and Knowledge Sharing

• Provide administrative support synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices related to programme management and finance.
• Provide administrative support to the organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.
• Assist the team in holding regular Programme team meetings and take minutes of the meetings and follow-up with the team members on implementations agreed action points,
• Assist in dissemination of knowledge products generated under WEE programme portfolio and MMS project,
• Keep an updated physical and digital archive of all WEE Programme and MMS project documentation/ knowledge products,
• Assist suppliers/service providers in the production of knowledge products, the editing and design activities,
• Assist the team in internally designing and production of quality knowledge products and promotion materials

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge of financial rules and regulations and accounting principles.
• Strong knowledge and application skills of IT tools and understanding of management systems.
• Strong knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.
• Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems.
• Ability to administer and execute financial and accounting processes and transactions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in programme/project management, social sciences, finance and accounting, business management or other related fields, with 4 years of experience or Master’s degree with 2 years’ experience.

Specialized national or international certification in accounting and finance is an asset.

Experience

• Progressive experience in administration or programme management/support.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.

. Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.