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Programme Finance Officer

JOB PURPOSE:

• The role will provide a bridge between programs and finance by providing leadership and direction for effective grants management. The Program Finance Officer will be responsible and accountable for the day-to-day financial programming; will work closely with the Programme teams, and Partner organisations to ensure that the Kenya Programme office maintains a high standard of grants management (budgeting, reporting, system compliance, contract closure) and financial control. S/he will provide essential support to the Finance Manager to ensure maximum impact of OiK programme.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Partnership Governance and support – 40%

S/he will provide financial management support to the partner organizations through capacity building, development of proper administrative systems and procedures and strengthening the structures of governance. The Officer will be involved in organizational assessment of partners and advising on possible management risks to Oxfam. Conducting audit procedures on partners’ financial accountability (returns) and ensuring compliance with Oxfam’s grant policies.

• Conduct risk assessments, due diligence assessments and capacity assessments for both potential and existing partners and work with programme team to develop improvement plans to address gaps identified during assessments.
• Provide contracting support: input into preparation of grant agreements. Collaborate with the MEAL team to design reporting templates for inclusion in partner grants and in-partner training that directly addresses Oxfam and donor MEAL requirements.
• Providing support and advise to the Programme team on the analysis of partner budget proposals.
• Grant monitoring: Compliance with donor and/or grant contracts (GAL). Track disbursements, financial audits/reviews and analysis of partner grant progress reports, feedback, and follow-up. Input into decisions, monitoring visits and general correspondence with grantees and other stakeholders.
• Prepare journals for partner expenditure and reconcile partner ledger on a monthly basis.
• Involvement in internal financial processes and donor reporting for grant programmes.
• Providing teams with the required technical support and guidance of programme teams grant management capacity, understanding of donor compliance and budget management through targeted training of staff.
• Coordinating the assistance to partners to resolve outstanding audit issues identified in donor/or statutory audits, follow up to ensure those issues have been addressed conclusively.
• Coordinate the investigation of suspected violation of proper application of grant funds. Make recommendations for next course of action once such investigations are completed.
• Buils the capacity and provide finance support to partners on donor contract management towards improving the efficiency and effectiveness of programme delivery.
• Support Programme team to coordinate funds transfers to the partners and ensure that any unspent funds and disallowance are promptly refunded back to Oxfam.

Grants Contract Management – 20%

Provide specialized financial support in relation to the effective attainment of programme objectives and work with managers/budget holders to compile and review donor financial reports as required. Ensure that reports are accurate, of high quality and meet donor requirements, and are prepared for timely submission to the donors. Monitor the donor reporting schedules to ensure reports are prepared in a timely manner.

• Support program teams in budgetary proposal development in line with the country strategic plan to ensure adherence to requirements and integrity of the content.
• Work with the Funding and Systems Officer to develop systems for tracking reporting dates, the submission of claims and income received locally and ensuring locally secured income is entered in Oxfam’s systems.
• Provide training to budget holders and partners in the preparation of, and reporting against donor budgets in the appropriate formats as required. Work with the Donor Accountant to provide training on donor compliance and contract management for staff and partners.
• Provide quality checks on all financial reports to ensure these comply with donor requirements.
• Liaise with external auditors for donor reports with the responsibility for follow up and resolution of audit queries and issues.
• Acquire and maintain detailed knowledge of all regional donor reporting requirements, and other financial and logistical requirements and advise programme staff as necessary when they are preparing budgets and reports.

Budget and expenditure monitoring – 20%

Work closely with the Finance Manager in the monitoring and management of OiK programme expenditure and budgets, especially donor-funded projects and transactions posted by other offices. This includes supporting the programme teams to help them use allocated budgets flexibly, supporting annual programme budget preparation, programme management meetings, and field visits as well as providing support to programme teams with project budget work and appraisal.

• Work with the logistics team and budget holders in project design and implementation as per donor requirements.
• Follow up with the respective managers/budget holders in ensuring that the grant budgets are uploaded into the Oxfam system on time.
• Prepare monthly financial monitoring reports in the required donor format and currency and discuss these reports with budget holders/program teams for proactive management of the contracts.
• Highlight key risks in relation to grants management (underspend, overspends, disallowances, compliance risks etc), and work with the finance manager and budget managers to provide solutions on how such risks can be mitigated.

Financial Management Information Systems & Procedures – 10%

Ensure proper use and maintenance of financial systems-Peoplesoft, for all financial matters relating specifically to the OiK program.

• Maintaining up to date financial records and managing grant balances including project budgets, as well as managing any unauthorized grant expenditure.
• Ensure that necessary financial information is promptly and accurately uploaded into the Peoplesoft system.
• Uploading forecast journal – work with Finance Manager, Funding team and Program team to ensure that country budget forecasts are accurate and up-to date.
• Ensuring that all grants that have ended are promptly reconciled and closed in the system; follow up to ensure any outstanding reconciliation issues that may hinder contract closure are addressed, and contracts closed thereafter.

Other administrative roles – 10%

• Support in both internal and external audits.
• Review of payment vouchers/invoices, payroll, staff claims etc before payments are made for completeness of documentation and compliance to organisation and statutory policies.PERSON SPECIFICATION

Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam needs to be able to:

• Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, SOLIDARITY and EQUALITY (read more about these here).
• Ensure you commit to our ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES (including adhering to the Code of Conduct).
• Be committed to our feminist principle, and to applying them in your day-to-day behaviour and your work. Be ready to keep learning, with accountability to those who experience oppression as a result of their identities, such as their gender, race/ethnicity, disability, class, or LGBTQIA identity.”
• Be committed to undertaking Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adhering to relevant policies, to ensure all people who come into Oxfam are as safe as possible.

TECHNICAL SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE

Required

• A university degree in Finance.
• Professional qualification e.g. completed ACCA or CPA (K).
• Minimum of 3-5 years working experience in managing partner grants, audit, budgeting and donor reporting.
• Ability to engage with stakeholders and easily build relationship with team within and outside the organisation.
• Demonstrates a high level of initiative.
• Good communication and report writing skills.
• Passionate and demonstrates maturity and ability to deliver with minimum supervision.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a culturally diverse organisation.

Desired

• Knowledge and understanding of project cycle.
• Ability to communicate in Swahili language.
• A demonstrated commitment to gender equality and social justice.
• Demonstrated experience of staff management, coaching peers and junior staff.

Civic Space and Digital Rights Officer

JOB PURPOSE:

• The Civic Space & Digital Rights Officer will be responsible for the implementation of the Re-centering the Civic Internet through Partner Engagement that looks to enhance digital freedom of expression and freedom of information. The role will be under the Governance and Accountability Programme which involves work to promote, protect and advocate for civic space freedoms as well as Tax Justice. The key areas of focus for this role will be to implement specific Civic Space projects through effective project management approaches, supporting partners to strengthen organizational capacity so as to deliver high quality and impactful civic space and digital rights projects/programmes, to establish and maintain linkages with other thematic and programmatic areas as well as with relevant state and non-state actors at national, regional and global level. The Civic Space & Digital Rights Officer will be required to implement campaigning and influencing strategies, support in the undertaking of research and monitoring, evaluation and learning as well as ensuring that the programme mainstreams gender and active citizenship. The Officer will also contribute to resource mobilization for financing of the projects to ensure that the Civic space programme is fully resourced and sustained.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Management, Implementation and Resourcing – 30%

• Ensure that plans and objectives contribute to the broader country programme strategy and particularly on Civic Space and Digital Rights, as well as involve collaboration with other programmes.
• Effective, timely and quality delivery of project activities and deliverables.
• Continuously monitoring implementation of the project activities including budget tracking and prepare monthly and periodic reports for sharing with Oxfam management, development partners and stakeholders.
• Ensure continuous coordination with the MEAL Advisor in implementing the monitoring and evaluation components of projects (for Oxfam and partners) and documenting the lessons learnt for their application, quality assurance and for adjustments to the project where necessary.
• Support in initiating new programme/project strategies that help achieve impact on the project activities in close collaboration with Oxfam staff and other stakeholders.
• Work with other Oxfam project/programme staff and partners in developing new programme/project interventions and fundraising for project or programme financing.
• Perform any other tasks related to the project which maybe advised by the management from time to time.

Partnership management, coalition building and support – 40%

• Brokering, networking and managing partner relations with project partners, strategic partners, coalitions, networks and Governments and Assemblies in the project areas.
• Support the partners in delivering the project targets and objectives including MEAL support, monitoring of partner project activities, review of work plans and budgets, facilitating linkages, learning as well as reporting.
• Maintain regular communication and positive relationships with other Oxfam staff, project partners, people we work with and stakeholders.
• Ensure and coordinate regular monitoring, quality, review and timely submission of partner narrative and financial reports.
• Ensure compliance of Oxfam and donor requirements on project delivery and reporting by partners.

Research, knowledge generation, campaigns and policy influencing – 25%

• Implementation of specified components of the project under the Governance and Accountability Programme that include Civic space protection, digital rights and freedoms, and active citizenship.
• Through technical guidance, to support relevant research, policy analysis, and lobbying on the realization of the rights to freedom of expression and information taking into consideration gender, inequality and active citizenship.
• Continuously scan the external environment and maintain a broad network with potential partners to identify project opportunities to expand support partners on the Civic space protection and influencing and campaigning strategies and activities.
• To support the design and implementation of public offline and digital campaigns relevant to the programme.
• To coordinate with the Communications and MEAL advisors on the documentation of the programme and partner information, learning and case stories for programme visibility and fundraising.

Human resource management – 5%

• Manage consultants and researchers as required, in accordance with Oxfam policy and procedures.

Person specification

Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam needs to be able to:

• Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, SOLIDARITY and EQUALITY (read more about these here)
• Ensure you commit to our ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES (including adhering to the Code of Conduct):
• Be committed to our feminist principles, and to applying them in your day-to-day behaviour and your work. Be ready to keep learning, with accountability to those who experience oppression as a result of their identities, such as their gender, race/ethnicity, disability, class, or LGBTQIA identity.”
• Be committed to undertaking Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adhering to relevant policies, to ensure all people who come into Oxfam are as safe as possible.

Technical skills, knowledge and experience

Skills

• Professional/technical qualifications – a bachelor’s degree in law, human rights, international relations, political science, media, communication, or other relevant field.
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task between direct project implementation and partner management with positive outcomes.
• Proof of ability to work independently to deliver project outcomes and results as well as any other tasks that maybe delegated from time to time.
• Proven ability to analyse complex contexts, monitor change and translate this analysis into problem solving strategies that can be communicated in developing appropriate plans which have impact.
• Proven analytical and conceptual thinking, high level research, project management knowledge and skills and experience in using participatory tools and methodologies for assessment, programme identification, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including strong negotiation skills with diverse teams.
• Great partnership building skills including facilitation and networking skills.
• Fund raising, donor reporting and budget management skills.
• Ability to gather and apply lessons learnt and to communicate this learning effectively to influence others in action – both internal and external audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and sensitively with different value systems and cultures.
• A high level of self-awareness, initiative, sound judgement, personal energy and flexibility.

Knowledge

• Knowledge and/or experience in implementing human rights, freedom of expression and/or democratization issues in Kenya.
• Experience in national, regional and international mechanisms for promoting and protecting human rights.
• Good knowledge of and experience in developing advocacy and campaign strategies and plans and successfully achieving external impact and change.
• Strong programme management and quality knowledge, with the ability to ensure consistent quality against standards and to implement effective monitoring and evaluation systems to assess and adjust performance.
• A strong understanding of the civic space, gender, women’s rights, development issues and the political and economic context of Kenya.
• Commitment to and good knowledge of working with networks, coalitions, and a partnership approach across the spectrum of Oxfam’s work, including innovative approaches to capacity strengthening.
• Fluency in English with knowledge of Swahili an added advantage.

Experience

• At least 3 years’ experience in designing, managing, and delivering on civic space, digital rights or human rights programmes.
• Proven experience in working in complex, dispersed organizations with evidence of facilitating and integrating a specific area of expertise across a wide network, contributing to vision setting and implementation with impact, some level of decision-making and the delivery of agreed results.
• Politically astute, with high impact influencing and persuasive skills and personal gravitas to gain respect and build and maintain strong, credible relationships, with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong organizational and personal management skills, with ability to prioritize work issues to meet deadlines with minimal supervision and adjust to constantly changing situations while maintaining focus on delivery and follow-through.
• Demonstrated experience in managing partners including effective oversight and capacity building as well as mobilizing and organizing marginalized communities and groups to influence positive change in their lives.
• Demonstrated experience in managing and working with researchers and consultants including developing strong terms of reference and effective supervision.

Essential

• Self-Awareness: Ability to develop a high degree of self-awareness around own strengths and weaknesses and impact on others.
• Agility, complexity and ambiguity: Ability to scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways
• Mutual accountability: Ability to explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.

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