Consortium Finance Specialist Full Time

General Information

Humanity & Inclusion is an independent and impartial international aid organization working in poverty, exclusion, conflict, and disaster situations. Working alongside persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony are focused on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions, and promoting respect for their dignity and their fundamental rights. Humanity & Inclusion is a not-for-profit organization with no religious or political affiliation. It operates as a federation comprising a network of associations that provide it with human and financial resources, manage its projects, and implement its actions and social mission.

The Consortium Finance Specialist is responsible for supporting and monitoring the financial aspects of operational partnerships and consortiums. S/He is responsible for producing and ensuring the production of quality financial information for and from our partners and contributing to the application and dissemination of the budget framework, donor rules, tools, procedures, and financial standards among partners. Directly reports to the Finance Manager with a strong functional line with the COO.

Location: Addis Ababa/Mekelle to be decided

Missions / Responsibilities

Mission 1: Strategy and steering

• Implements & monitors the action plans for HI’s financial strategy within his or her area of responsibility.
  • Updates financial information and monitors financial indicators within his or her area of responsibility.
  • Monitors and reports to his or her line manager and functional manager on the financial risks of which he or she is aware and contributes towards their mitigation.
  • Helps to identify financial and legal risks for HI within his or her area of responsibility.

Mission 2: Standards and expertise

• Deploys all of HI’s financial policies, processes, and tools within his or her area of responsibility.
  • Ensures that HI’s legal obligations are met and produces the required financial documents.
  • Reports any changes in standards, case law, or the practices of other stakeholders in the financial field of which he/she is aware.
  • Complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Implements and complies with procedures for archiving financial documents, and publishing and updating them in the dedicated workspaces.
  • Contributes to internal control within his or her area of responsibility and applies identified corrective actions.

Mission 3: Operational implementation- Grant
Grant Planning

• Direct and coordinate project office financial planning and budgeting functions.
  • Follow up the liquidity position of the project office cash position so that business cash flow adequately supports project activities.
  • Participate in the development, implementation & evaluation of a sound financial management system
  • Contributes to the quality of partners’ financial information & regularly monitors the partners’ reports against their documentation.
  • The position holder is responsible to monitor the budget utilization per each budget in the agreement and give timely advice to each partner and program team about the budget status
  • Implementing grant tracking/monitoring system, monitoring grant expenditures.
  • Analyze business performance/results by budget, program result, of the partners’ offices, and other jobs or funding as required.
  • Identify the capacity building need and give technical and job support to HI’s Programme area project manager, Finance officers, and partner finance staff.
  • Review the sub-grant document which is under the assigned grant before the advance is liquidated.

Grant Monitoring and Records

•  Review the Program outline (PO) on NAVSION BFF to ensure the approved budget on the Excel sheet Vs uploaded on the system reads the same
  • Upload the assigned grant-awarded budget on the BFF system and Mapping of the budget to the funded program which is prepared by the Program Office with Work Breakdown Structure-WBS.
  • Support program team in annual budget preparation to ensure the budget is accurate, and reasonable and incorporates all costs like apportion cost
  • Quarterly/as per the agreement to receive report/ record the partners’ report to NAVSION for internal monitoring purposes.
  Grant Closure & Auditing
  • Facilitate donor audit for assigned grants per donor requirement including TOR preparation & review.
  • Before the grant closes, confirm that all the outstanding payments, outstanding Advances, partner advances, and NRs (not related to the grant) per the assigned grant were cleared before the grant closes.
  • Support annual audit and Maintenance of Audit report

Responsibility 1: Contributes to the quality of financial information of the consortium

• The support to the Consortium Lead (Chief of Party) to ensure that grant resources are utilized for their intended purposes and to ensure that financial reports are prepared on an accurate basis.
  • Supervise all grant management and reporting on grant performance, as well as provide financial and technical management to ensure the best use of resources through sound budgeting, monitoring of the consortium expenses, and timely preparation of donor financial reports
  • Produces an analysis of partners’ capacities in the financial field (e.g. budget monitoring tools) and, based on this analysis, builds a capacity-building plan for these partners.
  • Checks the supporting documents partners provided and their accounts’ accuracy and conformity before validating payment requests.
  • Participates in budget construction and adjustment with the budget holders. Provides budget holders with regular budget monitoring reports and assists them in using tools.
  • Enters any cost-accounting changes & budget modifications related to partnerships into the Financial Information System (FIS).
  • Helps partners organize themselves to meet the deadlines in the financial calendar.

Responsibility 2: Contributes to the financial management of institutional funding (the GFFO consortium) in compliance with ‘’GFFO” guidelines and contractual obligations

• Assists with drafting funding proposals for institutional donors; compiles multi-programmed proposals when the programmer is lead.
  • Optimizes funding schedules (coverage of office and support costs) in the drafting or revision of institutional funding proposals.
  • Ensures that donor obligations are realistic and compatible with HI procedures (payment dates and methods and financial reports, methods for justifying expenditure, exchange rates, audits, etc.)
  • Informs budget holders of institutional donors’ financial rules and verifies their application.
  • Verifies funding expenditure monitoring and provides budget holders with donor budget monitoring reports. He or she monitors consumption rates, issues alerts in the event of a risk of non-compliance with flexibility rules, and anticipates slippage by preparing contractual amendments with his or her interlocutors.
  • Produces financial reports for institutional donors in conformity with donor guidelines.
  • Prepares payment requests for donors, and partners and informs line manager in the event of a (possible) delay in payments.
  • Enters information concerning donor contracts into the FIS: donor budgets, cost-accounting and budget modifications, schedules, reports, etc.
  • Prepares responses to questions from internal and external auditors.
  • Archives the budgets and financial reports shared with institutional donors (with internal and external versions) in the dedicated storage spaces.

Responsibility 3: Assist the Finance Manager in other Grants/Contracts Management.

• Prepare the financial reports.
  • Produce BFU/BPM to be shared for PMs either from BFF or NAV.
  • Provide any support needed from the finance team.

Mission 4: Profession facilitation

•  Maintain Compliance with Government rules and regulations and facilitate HI and partners in proposal submission, approval process, reporting, and evaluations.
  • Contributes towards the facilitation of the profession’s development in his or her area of responsibility.

Mission 5: Emergency Preparedness and Response

• Contributes to the program’s emergency preparedness actions and, during an emergency, adapts his/her work modality to contribute to HI’s effective humanitarian response.

Specific qualifications required

•  Qualification: Master’s degree in Accounting, Finance or Financial Management, or professional qualification in accountancy (ACCA, CPA)
  • Experience: 5+ years of experience managing finances for GFFO, EC, or EU, Knowledge of other institutional and private donors and Managing consortium grants will have added value
  • In-depth knowledge of ECHO financial management rules and regulations and/or other comparable grant management.
  • Experience managing Consortium grant programs or sub-granting mechanisms within or outside HI

Additional Required Skills

• Ability to adopt new software and financial management systems, e.g. NAV, BFF
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel and Outlook
  • Project Financial Management
  • Good team player
  • Good communication skills both oral and written
  • Good accounting, analytical, and review skills
  • Ability to deliver to tight deadlines
  • Ability to facilitate participative processes
  • Fluency in written and spoken English language.