Armenia – Support Coordinator in Yerevan

Starting Date : 1st March 2021

Location : Yereva, Armenia

Duration of Mission : 6 months

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency.

The association leads in average 190 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 5 million people in 20 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

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General Context

On 27 September 2020, heavy fighting broke out along the border in and around the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh —the most serious escalation since 2016. Civilian casualties have been reported on both sides, while many houses and public infrastructures in the conflict zone, such as schools, roads and communication networks, were also damaged. According to official statements, around 90.000 people – equivalent to two-thirds of the Nagorno-Karabakh population – have been displaced as a direct result of the conflict. Nearly 90% of the spontaneous arrivals were women and children, and the majority of them fled to the capital Yerevan as well as to the cities of Goris and Sisian. Following heavy clashes, the President of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister of Armenia, and the President of Russia signed a 9-point statement on cessation of hostilities on 9 November 2020.

The massive influx of spontaneous arrivals is adding pressure on already limited resources in cities and localities where they seek safety. Moreover, the pandemic of COVID-19 and the post-conflict situation affect the capacity of the hosting communities to provide sustained support. While the health care system is stretched, MHPSS needs increased significantly.

PUI’s Position/ Strategy in the Country

Première Urgence Internationale is an NGO resulting from the merger of Aide Médicale Internationale (AMI) and Première Urgence (PU) in 2011. Following the conflict escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of September 2020, PUI decided in October to organize a first exploratory mission in order to meet state authorities and humanitarian actors in Armenia, and thus evaluate the support that the organization would bring to this response. In light of the fast evolution of the context and the ceasefire signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan, PUI decided to organize a second needs-assessment in December, in particular in MHPSS. Indeed, the conflict’s escalation is part of long-term tensions that had already impacted the mental health of Armenians, but the war has definitely exacerbated pre-existing MHPSS needs. Considering the results of these two assessments, PUI wants to contribute to the reduction of the suffering of host communities, spontaneous arrivals and returnees affected by the conflict in Armenia through a MHPSS approach at first. Thus, PUI recently submitted a proposal to an institutional donor. The funding of this project should be confirmed soon.

For 2021, the major objective of PUI is to bring about strong sectoral improvements in MHPSS in Armenia and look into new PUI sectors to include in our mission strategy over 2021. In this context PUI is looking for a strong and experienced head of mission.

As part of our activities in Armenia, we are looking for a Support Coordinator in Yerevan.

Overall Objective

The Support Coordinator actively oversees and supports the administration, HR and logistics of the PUI mission in Armenia.

She/he is accountable for the sound financial, accounting and budgetary management in compliance with donors’ regulations. She/he ensures the supervision of the logistics aspects of the mission as well as the management of human resources, administrative and legal records. Considering it is an opening mission, it is expected that the Support Co will have a major role to play regarding support (registration of the NGOs, purchases, choice of guest/office, national recruitment, pay scale etc.).

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Finance/Budget/Accountancy: He/she ensures the implementation of accounting and financial tools for the mission. She/he ensures the close financial management of the mission, she/he will be able to manage, follow-up and provide specific information on the financial situation, including budgetary elements, accounting elements and mission cash flow position. She/he actively participates in drafting the budgets on new proposals and the financial reporting of projects. She/he is responsible for the monthly accountancy and annual closure.
• Human Resources: He/she ensures the implementation of HR tools on the mission (Salary grid, Draft of contracts, HR data base, Internal regulation…). She/he is responsible for the administrative management of the local and international teams, for the definition/updates of procedures and HR management tools in accordance with labor regulations and PUI’s HR policies. She/he monitors risks linked to HR matters with the help PUI’s legal counsellor and by participating in monthly HR meetings.
• Administrative/Legal Management: She/he supervises administrative matters in link with Armenian administrations and governmental bodies. She/he ensures the legal status and functioning of the mission are compliant with Armenian’s law.
• Logistics: She/he ensures compliance with PUI and donors’ logistics procedures. She/he validates the procurement plans for each project and according to PUI”s internal procedures. She/he ensures the sound management of assets and more globally supervises the office functioning.
• Coordination: She/he participates in the coordination of the mission. She/he supports the Head of Mission and headquarters in decision making by providing all information on the mission financial, administrative, legal, HR and logistics aspects.

Specific objectives and linked activities

1. ENSURING SOUND FINANCIAL, BUDGETARY AND ACCOUNTING MANAGEMENT

Finance

• She/he creates and updates monitoring tools (Allocation table, BFU, etc.) to ensure a strict and close financial follow up of the mission and mitigates financial risks. She/he is charge of financial analysis and shares her/his conclusions with the mission coordination team, relevant mission managers and the mission’s desk in HQ.
• She/he ensures the implementation of financial, accounting and budgetary procedures in line with PUI and donors’ requirements.
• She/he ensures expenditure procedures are respected and implements an internal control system. He/She also participates in the validation of procurement files.
• She/he is responsible for financial audits on the mission and supervises the transmission of the necessary documents and information for audits made in HQ.
• She/he is responsible for briefing new expatriates and local employees on these rules and organizes ad hoc training when necessary.

Budget

• She/he handles, in coordination with the HoM, the yearly budget development, and makes sure it is regularly updated.
• She/he is responsible of designing new budgets in link with the Program Team and the HoM. She/he ensures the budget respects the donors’ requirements/procedures and ensures the fair financial coverage of the mission among projects based on the mission allocation table.
• She/he prepares each month the budget follow-up of each project and prepares a monthly analysis of the situations (forecast/actual expenses, discrepancies, budget flexibility, etc). She/he communicates her/his conclusions to the coordination team, the project managers and HQ. .
• She/he ensures funds are correctly allocated for each project, respecting the contractual framework in terms of eligibility rules (date, nature and procurement procedures) and reporting intervals. She/he pays special attention to the respect of donor’s requirement/procedures.
• She/he prepares projects financial reports to donors; he/she sends them to the Head of Mission for prior validation and transmission to headquarters.

Accounting

• She/he supervises the expenses allocation in the cash/bank books ensuring quality through regular checks and controls. She/he supervises the accountancy integration in SAGA and the monthly closure. She/he crosschecks the monthly audit files and exchange rate calculation. She/he sends the monthly accounts by email to HQ and makes sure paper accountancy is sent as well on a regular basis.
• She/he is responsible for the correct archiving of accounting documents according to the rules established by HQ.

Cash Management

• She/he monitors on a regular basis the mission cash flow situation.
• She/he prepares the monthly cash request to HQ based on the the forecasted expenses needed by the programme and support teams. She/he ensures the amount requested will cover the mission needs over the period, taking into account possible donor payments carried out locally.
• She/he is responsible for the bank accounts and the safe/cashbox management. She/he is charge of the cash transfers and payments in strict respect of the cash management security rules.

2. MANAGING THE MISSION LOCAL AND EXPAT HUMAN RESOURCES

HR Policy

• He/she ensures HR policies and internal rules and regulations are regularly updated, known by the teams and followed properly. She/he provides managers with all the necessary support for the proper implementation of those rules.
• She/he keeps up to date with legal rules and regulations and makes sure PUI’s procedures abide by them.
• She/he creates and updates procedures and tools in relation with recruitment, remuneration, administrative management, disciplinary aspects and the management of individual career within the organization.

Administrative management

• She/he participates and validates recruitment requests, contractual amendments, disciplinary sanctions and end of contract decisions.
• She/he supervises the recruitments process (offer, candidates, and interviews), validates local staff work contracts and organizes new staff integration.
• She/he supervises the mission arrivals and departures of expat staff (bookings, travel documents, transit, vacation requests, return sheet…) in coordination with the Head of Mission and headquarters.
• She/he ensures the constitution of administrative files for the personnel, and monitors that employee documents are in line with the country’ labour law for both expat and local staff (registration with local authorities and embassies, etc)
• She/he elaborates the local staff remuneration grids (fixed and variable elements), defines the complementary advantage packages (compulsory or not: medical cover, per diem, insurance, travel expenses…) and ensures their implementation, once validated by the Head of Mission and Headquarters.
• She/he supervises monthly pay operations for local staff, monitors absences and leaves, validates tax and social security calculations and ensures their timely payment
• She/he is responsible for defining and implementing appropriate work conditions, in particular concerning health and safety rules.
• She/he anticipates and prevents social conflicts and participates in crisis management where necessary. Conflict prevention may require the organization of a personnel representation system, if inexistent.
• He/She is attentive to the risk of abuses of authority (between local employees or from expatriates towards local employees, in whatever form) and reports all inappropriate behavior to the Head of Mission.
• She/he organizes and manages sanitary and medical repatriations in case of work related accidents with the field medical coordinator (if necessary) and the headquarters medical manager.

3. ENSURING THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL MANAGEMENT OF THE MISSION

• She/he ensures the registration of PUI in Armenia and with the different State respecting administrative procedures, legal and fiscal requirements.
• She/he organizes the legal protection for the mission, in particular by identifying one or more local partners capable of providing the necessary advice (lawyer, NGO network, etc.).
• She/he supervises and validates the contractual documents for the mission (with the authorities, NGO partners, suppliers, insurers, vehicle and rented property owners…) and ensures their monitoring.
• She/he monitors administrative and legal changes which could impact the mission and/or the project implementation.
• She/he is responsible for the good relations with PUI Armenian’s legal counsellor and obtains advice and support on all legal matters (changes in law, relations with authorities, validation of contractual documents, etc.)

4. ENSURING THE SOUND APPLICATION OF THE LOGISTICS PROCEDURES

• She/he supervises the work of the Logistics Manager and the logistics staff, including the service staff.
• She/he will send procurement plans drafted to HQ in order to get the approval.
• She/he validates tenders, bid analysis and the selection of preferred providers, ensuring the quality of the files and the fair procurement choices.
• She/he supervises the correct implementation of the logistics procedures, with a particular attention to the procurement process.
• She/he controls the presence of an updated assets and stocks inventory lists, the quality of the fleet management and the provision of quality support services in PUI’s premises.

Profile

Training:

• Financial/accounting management
• Human resources management
• Logistics procedures understanding

Professional Experience:

• Minimum 1 year experience in a Finance Coordination position for an INGO
• Experience in human resources management
• Experience in grants and audit management
• Experience in dealing with local authorities and various partners

Knowledge and Skills:

• Good knowledge of institutional donor procedures (ECHO, UN agencies, CdC, USAID, etc.)
• Advance Excel compulsory
• SAGA

Language: English

Proposed Terms

• Employed with a Fixed-Term Contract
• Monthly Gross Income: from 2 200 up to 2530 Euros depending on the experience in International Solidarity + 50 Euros per semester seniority with PUI
• Cost covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…
• Insurance including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation
• Housing in collective accommodation
• Daily living Expenses (« Per diem ») of 600 Euros
• Break policy: 5 working days at 3 and 9 months.
• Paid Leaves Policy : 5 weeks of paid leaves per year + return ticket every 6 months