Moldova: Programme Analyst, Women, Peace and Security/Humanitarian Action

Jun 20, 2022 | UN Women
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At the regional level, UN Women works to drive forward the WPS Agenda in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). This includes support to regional bodies and civil society organizations, collaboration with UN agencies and support to UN Women’s field offices. Regional work includes support to the implementation of regional and National Action Plans on WPS, regional dialogue work on inclusive peace and mediation processes. Our interventions support projects that increase women’s participation and influence in decision-making to prevent and resolve conflicts, as well as engender humanitarian response. We promote gender perspectives in policy development and work to strengthen the protection of women affected by crisis and/or conflict. We also amplify calls for accountability and advance the status of women in post-conflict/crisis settings.

Under the project ‘Advisory support for Strengthening Gender Responsiveness of Humanitarian Actions and Refugee Response in Europe and Central Asian region’ funded by the Government of Iceland, UN Women has been working to strengthen the gender responsiveness of humanitarian action in the ECA region through advocacy, coordination, policy advice and through providing technical advisory support to country offices, in line with the Government of Iceland’s foreign policy and priorities. Icelandic funds enabled UN Women to strengthen gender equality in Peace, Security and Humanitarian efforts and response in the region, notably enhanced capacity, and partnerships with national and international institutions.

Additionally, under its regional WPS and Humanitarian Action (HA) portfolio, UN Women is working on two projects in Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan - with specific results relevant to each country’s context. The overall objective of the projects is to support States in Central Asia in the rehabilitation and reintegration of their citizens returned from conflict zones. The projects will increase advocacy and contribute to national efforts to effectively mainstream gender and human rights perspectives in policy frameworks, processes, and measures to address Screening, Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (SPRR) at the national level. The projects will also leverage experience gained from work in the four participating countries to facilitate information exchange and dialogue on gender-sensitive recovery and rehabilitation measures with other Member States in the Central Asia region.

In 2022, a new project was added to the regional WPS/HA portfolio. The Germany funded regional programme ‘Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Contexts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)’ with the Peace and Security section and the Regional Office for Arab States, was expanded to the ECA region under a new Afghanistan-related component. With this expansion, the ECA Regional Office launched a series of targeted initiatives to support the continued and increased participation of Afghan women human rights defenders, women peacebuilders, women leaders and women-led organizations essentially in the diaspora to protect the progress on gender equality and to ensure that women’s rights leaders have a voice in peace dialogues and processes.

Over the past twelve few months, the region has been marked by further instability (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, as well as overall Central Asia due to the crisis in Afghanistan), requiring the Regional Office to strengthen its regional WPS portfolio response, coordination, management and oversight to better support Country Offices with the immediate peace and security challenges in the region. In light of the further instability and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, UN Women will reprogramme its ongoing interventions to better support the regional programming and country-level offices, with a specific focus on Ukraine and Moldova Country Offices as well as neighboring countries, with immediate peace and security challenges, requiring the Regional Office to strengthen its technical capacity to respond to the increased demands from those countries.

Reflective of the above, UN Women is seeking a Programme Analyst to provide advanced adiministrative, financial and logistical support. Programme Analyst will provide technical support and coordinate the financial management of the projects and programmes within WPS/HA Portfolio in Europe and Central Asia Region.

Under the overall guidance of the Women, Peace and Security Policy Advisor at ECA Regional Office, the Programme Analyst works with Regional Programme Coordinator on the day-to-day functions of the TORs and is responsible for providing assistance to country-level offices and Regional Office to ensure the effective programme implementation of WPS/HA Portfolio across the Region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Coordinate the financial planning, analysis, provision and reporting of the Regional WPS/HA Portfolio in accordance with UN Women internal control framework, rules, regulations, policies and procedures

  • Recommend and/or implement cost-saving and reduction strategies;
  • Review and/or verify financial transactions/activities, recording/reporting system, and audit reports. Co-ordinate with regional WPS/HA team on suggestions for amendments;
  • Review financial business processes and use of Atlas system to ensure accurate and complete reporting of financial transactions in accordance with the Internal Control Framework and Delegation of Authority and the timely flow of financial information in UN Women for management, monitoring and oversight purposes;
  • Analyze and oversee all financial resources within WPS/HA portfolio and provide high-quality professional advice on financial issues to the WPS/HA Programme Team and Regional Office management, as necessary;
  • Assist with risk assessment reviews for the Regional WPS/HA portfolio, by identifying areas of risk and providing recommendations and action plans for addressing issues raised;
  • Draft timely and accurate automated interim financial reports to donors as required under the donor agreements and other cost-sharing arrangements for submission to Virtual Global Service Centre Finance Specialists;
  • Write ad hoc financial Donor and other reports as requested.

Coordinate the monitoring and oversight of the projects/programmes financial management in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures

  • Draft all financial reports in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and ensure continued compliance;
  • Monitor the Regional WPS/HA Portfolio for compliance with IPSAS accounting standards by reviewing business processes and systems modules resulting in IPSAS compliant general ledger and financial statements;
  • Review Responsible Party advance procedures and test against UN Women policies to ensure compliance.  Investigate and follow up on any anomalies for timely action and resolution, as necessary;
  • Review all contractual arrangements with suppliers of goods and services to ensure that the financial terms and conditions of all contracts are being adhered to by the suppliers of goods and services;
  • Report to Regional Peace and Security Adviser and Operations Manager any case of non-adherence for timely action and recommendations for actions/decisions, as necessary;
  • Respond to questions and provide analysis as requested to the Finance Section.

Coordinate the audit process in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures

  • Coordinate the pre-audit preparations for the Regional WPS/HA Portfolio and complete the pre-audit checklist. 
  • Write responses to internal and external audit inquiries and other findings related to financial management for review/approval by Operations Manager and incorporate recommendations in the development in policies, procedures and practices;
  • Follow up and/or take prompt action to respond to audit and other findings;
  • Plan and track expenditures and performance audit of financial resources

Coordinate programme/ project budgets in accordance with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures

  • Coordinate all financial resources of programmes/ projects through planning, guiding, monitoring and controlling of the resources;
  • Prepare and monitor budgets of management projects;
  • Analyze and report on the budget approvals and the delivery situation of management projects;
  • Contribute to the proper mechanisms to eliminate deficiencies in budget management; 
  • Submit financial information for timely preparation of donor reports;
  • Prepare advance payments and direct payments for programme implementation and record them in SharePoint;

Participate in knowledge management and capacity building

  • Collect and compile lessons learned and best practices in project management in terms of financial management;
  • Store, manage and track programmatic, financial and other documents in SharePoint database for knowledge sharing purposes;
  • Contribute to business operational practices and management innovations.