Budget & Programming Officer NOA, Damascus

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

All applications should be received no later than 13 October, 2020.

CONTRACT TYPE AND DURATION

This position is open to Syrian or Syrian/Palestinian nationals only.

Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract (FT – NOA)
Duration: 12 months
Duty Station: Damascus
Number of required employees: 1

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.
In Syria, WFP provides food assistance to more than 4.6 million people each month. This includes families who require emergency assistance when affected by conflict and displacement and also those who need help to improve their nutrition and food security. WFP supports children across Syria with healthy meals and snacks at school, mothers with nutritious diets, and families and communities with sustainable livelihood projects.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Budget and Programming Officer will work in the Budget and Programming Unit and in collaboration with the other units of WFP.

Supervision received: This post is based in Damasus, Syria and falls under the direct supervision of the Budget and Programming, Head of Unit in Damascus.

JOB PURPOSE

To support the delivery of budgets, resource analysis, programming activities as well partnering with managers to apply best practice approaches that support the efficient, effective and compliant utilisation of funds.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Within delegated authority, the Budget and Programming Officer will be responsible for the following duties: (These duties are generic and thus are not all-inclusive nor are all duties carried out by all Budget and Programming Officers)

1. Contribute towards the development of Syria country office projects, plans, processes and procedures ensuring compliance with wider budget programming policies and WFP standards.
2. Create and review Syria country office project budget plans and monitor ongoing project performance against budget, ensuring adherence to guidance and policies, and providing financial analysis and advice to optimise resources.
3. Support monitoring of fund utilisation, and advance financing, loan and borrowing/repayment and refinancing arrangements; and alert supervisors to approaching deadlines for unassigned funds and potential resource shortfalls/surpluses.
4. Monitor actions related to project closure and resource transfer and refer potential issues to the supervisors.
5. Support senior colleagues in monitoring the resource pipeline to maximise operational effectiveness, following standards and processes, and providing advice on resource allocations based on severity of pipeline shortfalls using relevant pipeline tools.
6. Support resource optimitisation by particapting in what-if scenario analyses to match requirements with varying funding levels and estabilish the optimal assistance to be provided leveraging availabale cooprorate systems.
7. Support the preparation of food-demand plans to support management and usage of corporate Global Commodity Financial Facility as required.
8. Create and review budget and project documentation, and ensure relevant resource data is recorded in internal systems for reference, in line with WFP standards and procedures.
9. Collate and analyse data and contribute to preparation of accurate and timely reports and dashbords, to enable informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to senior management and external stakeholders.
   10.Contribute ideas to senior officers for improvement to systems, techniques, tools, processes and procedures to better monitor and manage budgets and funds.
   11.Support the capacity building of WFP staff in budgeting, fund management and operational planning through answering queries and contributing to updating training materials, manuals and guidelines.
   12.Follow standard emergency preparedness practices and contribute to technical recommendations and guidance and monitoring the management of financial risks.
   13.Other as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience: One year post graduate relevant professional experience if holding a Master’s Degree, and three years post graduate relevant professional experience if holding a Bachelor’s University Degree.

Language: Fluency (level C) in in oral and written communication in Arabic and in English.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

A degree in Statistics is also preferred.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
• Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
• Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
• Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Capability NameDescription of the behaviour expected for the proficiency levelInternal Controls & Risk ManagementUtilizes understanding of risk management approaches and internal controls to monitor projects and programmes to confirm regulatory compliance and ensure data integrity.Performance Budgeting, Analysis and ReportingAnalyzes budgets and forecasts to support the development of recommendations for senior leadership on financial and business planning matters in accordance with Value for Money principles.Resource ManagementMonitors trends in staffing and resource usage to anticipate and escalate potential issues to programme leaders.Performance ManagementApplies knowledge of WFP’s performance management system to manage resources and relationships to undertake monitoring actions or deliver straightforward evaluations of operations, programmes, or processes to WFP monitoring and/or evaluation quality standards.Programme KnowledgeApplies knowledge of WFP programme and supply chain principles to develop and/or review project budget plans.