The Ugandan Jobline

Job Title:   Grants and Finance Specialist  

Organisation: ChildFund International

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Manager, Resource Acquisition & Management

About the Company:

For over seventy years, ChildFund International has provided support to deprived, excluded and vulnerable children to have the capacity to improve their lives and opportunities to become young adults, parents and leaders who bring lasting and positive change to their communities. We promote societies whose individuals and institutions participate in valuing, protecting and advancing the worth and rights of children. Our core commitment is child-centered change that will ensure healthy and secure infants, educated and confident children, and youth who are skilled and engage meaningfully in the affairs and decision-making processes within their communities. ChildFund Uganda is working in over 30 districts to develop the capacities of local community-based organizations to be able to mobilize resources and implement programs that improve the well-being of deprived, excluded and vulnerable children.

Job Summary:   The Grant and Finance Specialist supports ChildFund International’s resource mobilization and management by providing grant acquisition guidance and support that includes, budgeting, variance analysis, reporting  and  administrative support services. The specialist ensures effective, timely and efficient implementation of the CO’s grants portfolio. Role holder handles handle issues related to the fiscal, administration and regulatory management of grants and contracts from award receipt through close-out.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks; acquire relevant knowledge and skills to enable you to understand the safeguarding policy and procedures; promote strong safeguarding practices; perform your duty and responsibility to safeguard, report violations, and promote appropriate behavior; and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the organization’s policies and values.
• Ensures CO compliance with ChildFund’s Post-Award grant management and financial Policies, Procedures, and project management standards.
• Provides leadership to costing and budgeting processes to support project/grants development to successful proposal submission and resultant execution of awarded projects.
• Participates in award start-up meetings with donors and grant staff to gain full understanding of the criteria and requirements necessary to manage each award and refines operational policies and procedures relevant for effective and efficient management of grants, contracts, and sub-awards.
• Monitors Country Office capability to execute grant/contract activities, including timely execution of deliverables, authorizations, and payments, as well as management of advances to sub-awardees.
• Leads the Country Office in developing remedial action plans to correct deficiencies in the execution of grants and contracts portfolio.
• Provides technical assistance on organizational grant management standards and procedures and donor regulations for project planning and close-out phases of grant implementation.
• Responsible for ensuring proper organizational registration in salesforce of all newly funded grants/contracts at Country level.
• Collaborates with the Assurance Team in preparation of grant reviews and post-review findings that implicate grants management and compliance.
• Ensures the proper use of Salesforce to record grant activity from award to project close-out.
• Assist Project Implementation Teams organize Project close-out workshops.
• Strengthens the capacity of the CO to apply Project Management standards and skill.
• Maintain an updated pricing list to support proposal development,
• Key team member in the CO resource acquisition efforts supporting the development of proposal budgets and budget narratives.
• Responsible for aligning proposal budgets into the format of the donor.
• Supporting pre-award Partner reviews and following up on identified areas for improvement.
• Provide joint review of the draft project agreement prior to Management approval ensuring that critical donor demands are highlighted and understood.
• Participate and provide project budget understanding, highlighting key donor rules & regulations to Project teams,
• Ensure that the budgets are appropriately coded to assure both Internal and External reporting,
• Support the internal registration of new grants and/or MPPs.
• Working with Project teams, calculate monthly cash requests and ensure that projects are funded in a timely manner.
• Track grant accountabilities and keep the Supervisor abreast of key developments.
• Prepare, post reviewed and approved grant entries for accounting purposes under the guidance of the Cluster Senior Accountant while observing proper controls and ensuring that all supporting documents are available.
• Performs balance sheet account reconciliations related to grant/MPPs accounts on a monthly.
• Support the Grants Management Team in trouble shooting grants implementation.
• Carry out variance analysis of actuals against the plan and outlooks and writes the necessary reports for internal clients.
• In conjunction with the Programs department, participates in follow-up of the causal factors for the variances in performance and support the development of strategies to address the same.
• Responsible to donor financial reports.
• Support the project team in grant closeout including developing the project disposition plans.
• Supports grants audits and the resolution of issues raised by the auditors.
• Maintains and ensures compliance with ChildFund internal control procedures and donor requirements for Grants and cost-sharing.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• 5 – 7 years of experience managing/overseeing the full grant lifecycle of a funded grant, cooperative agreement, or contract in a similar job area in a child focused development organization.
• Bachelor’s degree in , Accounting, Finance, Project management or other related disciplines.
• Professional accounting qualification (CPA/ACCA or a field related to the organization’s core program, or equivalent relevant work experience (MA preferred, a bachelor’s).
• Certification from a reputable service provider in Project Management (PMP, PMD) is preferred.
• Experience with US government (USAID, USDOS, USDOL) on implementing grants, cooperative agreements and/or contracts strongly preferred.
• Previous experience in proposal development is highly desirable and will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in managing budgets and cost projections.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and facilitating capacity building, program/training, coaching and/or mentoring project staff in the basics of grant management.
• Prior experience working in the development sector on donor funded projects.
• Prior experience working with Salesforce and SharePoint
• Extensive computer proficiency in MS Office applications with a good command of excel.

Required Competencies

• Strong analytical skills including successfully performing budgeting, financial reviews, determination of responsibility, and other forms of quantitative analysis.
• Ability to handle and prioritize multiple tasks and work autonomously under pressure of deadline required.
• Demonstrated diplomacy in building relationships, working collaboratively within a growing organization, and within broader external coalitions.
• Strong knowledge and skills of Word, Advanced Excel skills, PowerPoint, Visio, Project, and Adobe.

ChildFund’s Core Competencies

• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.

Other Required Competencies

• The ability to speak, read, and write fluently in English.
• Strong verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations. (Technical competency.)
• Proficiency with MS PowerPoint. (Technical competency.)
• Demonstrated inclusive leadership skills, with a commitment to fostering a culture of learning and collaboration among teams. (Leadership competency.)

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and Interested applicants should apply online at the link below

Click Here

Deadline: 13th September 2024

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