Finance and Administration Director for Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience (FSNR) Activity

Concern

About the role:

This is a new, 5 year role with accompanied terms based in Monrovia with frequent visits to project areas, local partners and Concern field offices with a salary of Grade 5 of range from € 47,694 to 52,993

You will report to the Chief of Party, and you will line manage the programme Finance team. You will also work closely with the Deputy Chief of Party, CLA Adviser, consortium members and local implementing partners (NGO and private sector).

This position is contingent on upon successful agreement award and USAID approval. We would like you to start in September 2022 (dependent on funding approval).

Concern Worldwide seeks a Finance and Administration Director for an anticipated Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience programme in Liberia (contingent on funding). This programme will be a five-year consortium between four international partners, with Concern Worldwide as the lead. The programme will aim to improve Liberia’s food and nutrition security and households’ resilience. The Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience Programme seeks to support food security, nutrition and resilience status by: 1) strengthening smallholder farmers, women and youths ability to sustainably produce a diverse mix of nutritious and high-value crops using climate smart agriculture practices; 2) increasing aggregation, farm-level processing, value addition and marketing of targeted staple and commercial crops to increase incomes and create employment opportunities especially for women and youth; 3) supporting economic development and resilience through alternative livelihood opportunities, improved access, and participation in markets for smallholder farmers, agriculture cooperatives, women and youth groups, and subsistence farmers; and 4) enhancing year round availability, accessibility, and the utilization of nutritious food by households in targeted communities to enable them to improve their health and nutrition.

Your purpose:

Concern Worldwide seeks a Finance and Administration Director for an anticipated Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience program in Liberia (contingent on funding). This program will be a five-year program. The program will aim to improve Liberia’s food and nutrition security and households’ resilience. The Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience Program seeks to support food security, nutrition and resilience status by 1) strengthening smallholder farmers, women and youths abilities; 2) increasing aggregation, farm-level processing, value addition and marketing of targeted staple and commercial crops 3) supporting economic development and resilience; and 4) enhancing year round availability, accessibility, and the utilization of nutritious food by households in targeted communities.

The Finance and Administration Director will be responsible for financial planning and management, logistical and administrative support to the project team, and ensuring that administrative, financial, contract, and procurement activities are carried out in a manner consistent with the objectives of the project, and in compliance with USAID regulations and MSI policies and procedures. S/he will maintain positive and productive relationships with the donor and local and international partner organizations throughout the co-creation process and program lifecycle.

You will be responsible for:

  • Ensure compliance with contractual obligations and deliverables in line with USAID regulations and MSI policies and procedures
  • Establish and implement procedures for project financial management, procurement, sub-contracts, and grants to ensure transparency, open competition, and good business practice
  • Participate in conducting recruitment, hiring, and management of project personnel
  • Manage project start-up and support initial work planning process
  • Establish procedures for financial operations, banking, and reporting
  • Develop monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports
  • Support compliance with USAID rules and regulations as well as Concern policies and practices.
  • Ensure full compliance with Liberian laws and regulations
  • Support regular communication and nurture collaborative relationships with all program partners and Concern head office.
  • Lead and support local partner finance staff on timely, accurate and complete budget preparation.
  • Provide support, including ad hoc and formal training on budget management and other finance-related skills as required, to local partner finance staff and budget holders to ensure that they pro-actively manage their funds in line with USAID and Concern regulations.
  • Take active measures to address equality issues, particularly relating to gender, in programme as well as operational (eg HR) activities.
  • Lead the Finance team to work collaboratively with the wider program team, including advocacy, partners, and others, to ensure cross learning and input into new program design based and delivery of the Country Strategic Plan.

Accountability

  • Promote and ensure compliance with the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) commitments and quality criteria
  • Ensure that all staff are familiar with the principles underpinning accountability, safeguarding and Concern’s Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) and work to ensure that information about Concern’s commitments on accountability and safeguarding are disseminated among program participants and communities
  • Ensure that complaints are welcomed, managed and responded to in a timely, fair and appropriate manner; ensure that sensitive complaints, including safeguarding concerns, are handled with utmost confidentiality and that the safety of the complainants and those affected is prioritised at all stages.

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

  • An accredited Chartered Accountant qualification.
  • 8+ years of demonstrated budget development and monitoring and financial reporting experience including at least five (5) years on international donor-funded activities
  • Knowledge of USAID financial reporting and compliance requirements
  • Demonstrated experience using Excel for project budgeting, forecasting and financial analyses
  • Ability to work well within a team, and to complete multiple tasks effectively and efficiently
  • Strong initiative and teamwork skills
  • Fluency in written and spoken English. Any Liberian dialects would also be an advantage.
  • Liberian candidates strongly preferred

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Prior experience as a Finance and Administration Manager/Director or comparable senior leadership position on similar, international, donor-funded programmes in complex countries, preferably with USAID funding.
  • Familiarity with USAID’s rules and regulations
  • Knowledge of Core Humanitarian Standards, Sphere and other international humanitarian guidelines and protocols

We would also like

  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.
  • Good sense of humour
  • Empathy with Concern’s goals and a commitment to capacity building, protection and participation.
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Demonstrated experience of team building and working in a participatory manner.
  • Flexible and adaptable approach to working in a changing environment

How to apply

All applications should be submitted through our website at

https://jobs.concern.net by closing date. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

All candidates who are short-listed for a first round interview will be notified via email after the application deadline.

Concern is an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all section of the community.

Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organisation, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies.

Your Personal Data

During this job application, you will provide Concern with your personal data. Concern takes its responsibilities towards this personal data very seriously and is committed to complying with all relevant data protection legislation.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on ensuring that the name of any employee or volunteer (existing or new), does not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).

Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will only be made following a successful clearance check being conducted on the applicant and such checks may be updated periodically during the course of the period of employment.

By submitting a formal application for paid or voluntary employment to Concern, you agree to Concern carrying out a clearance check as outlined above and that Concern will not proceed to recruit you should your name appear on any of the aforementioned lists.

In certain circumstances, donors may request that personal data relating to employees to work on the activities that they fund be provided directly to them – so that they can perform their own counter terrorism checks. This may involve transferring some basic personal data outside the EEA. It will be a condition of your employment contract that Concern be allowed to share this information with institutional donors for these purposes.

For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

You have certain rights under data protection legislation. For more information on how to exercise those rights please visit www.concern.net/about/privacy

Please only apply for this position if you are satisfied with the proposed processing of your personal data as outlined above.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.