Deputy Regional Finance Director, World Vision WAR


15872-17R10195
AfricaSenegal
Dakar
Finance
Fixed term, Full-time
13-Nov-20
International Role - No - Only National applicants will be considered.
1-2 Years

*Preferred position: Dakar, Senegal. Other locations to be determined by home country of successful candidate within the West Africa Region where WVI is registered to operate.
*Please submit your CV in English.

WORK CONTEXT / BACKGROUND:
World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. The West Africa Regional Office (WARO) provides oversight to 8 National Offices where World Vision’s focus is programme implementation. The 8 National Offices (NOs) are Chad, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Central Africa Republic.
The West Africa Region is under the oversight and leadership of the Regional Leader (RL). The RL is accountable to the World Vision partnership to hold National Directors accountable for the effective implementation of the whole mission of World Vision in their respective countries through effective strategies & coherent goals and objectives between different entities within the region. The role of the West Africa Regional Office (RO) West Africa Regional Office (WARO) is to provide support and guidance to these National Offices for delivery of the mission of World Vision to implement child-focused transformational development, promote justice through advocacy and provide humanitarian assistance in situations of crisis or emergencies related to natural causes, conflict or other reasons.

PURPOSE OF POSITION:
The Deputy Regional Finance Director will support the Regional Finance Director (RFD) and the Global Finance Director, Grants & Programme in ensuring standards of excellence through general financial management, effective and efficient grants financial management, accountability and integrity in the region.
The position will focus on leading Regional Office initiatives and special projects as well as providing technical financial expertise to the Regional Office and National Offices in the areas of budgeting, financial management and risk management.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Financial Planning and Management:
Provide Technical support to the region’s strategic financial planning and budgeting processes:
• Support the RFD in the development of regional financial strategies to help achieve the WVI child-well being outcomes in West Africa.
• Support the RFD in the preparation of financial analysis for the strategic Investment through the Virtual Investment Review and multi-year planning.
• Provide Technical support in the review and consolidation of National Office’s annual budgets and plans.
• Support in financial planning, budgeting and reporting of the Regional Office.
• Review monthly funding requests from National/Regional Offices and ensure that they comply with their committed budget.
• Assist the RFD to ensure National/Regional Offices are monitoring their spending against budget commitments to assure that spending occurs only where there are commitments and to minimize year-end overspending.

Promotion of Financial Accountability and Reporting:

For the RO and NO allocated to this position for direct oversight:
• Provide Technical support to ensure appropriate financial and monitoring frameworks are in place, and operating satisfactorily, in each National/Regional Office to support WV’s ministry in the region. Involves assisting National Offices
• designing and improving internal control systems and project accounting systems.
• Support in the review and evaluation of the region’s financial performance and efficiency through the quarterly financial scorecard and periodic review of national office financial systems.
• Support National/Regional Offices comply with year-end closing processes.

Financial Systems and Processes:
• Support National Offices to prepare and comply with LEAP budgeting and reporting.
• Provide Technical support to National Offices in the implementation of global initiatives. (e.g. SunSystems 6, shared services & CAL, Horizon, etc.)
WVI Finance Manual:
• Support National/Regional Offices to comply with the WVI FFM by providing appropriate interpretation to policy guidelines.
• Support National/Regional Offices to update local policies and procedures that are consistent with the WVI Finance Manual.
• Support National/Regional Offices complete the FFM training modules designed annually by Global Finance.

Institutional Capacity Building and Knowledge Management:
• Mentor/support the second and third level finance staffs in the region to understand and meet the service requirements of their roles.
• Support financial capacity building in National Offices by providing training for finance and non-finance staffs.
• Support the development of financial tools and processes for continuous learning and development in financial management for National Offices.
• Support National offices to Work with the relevant Shared Service providers to implement agreed agreed shared services.
• Co-planning and Facilitate capacity building initiatives with Regional GAM Director at National/Regional Office especially as it relates to grants financial management and grants compliance.
• Ensure succession planning for NO Grant Finance Managers are in place
• Participate in and/or co facilitates large scale grants start up workshop in collaboration with the NOs and respective SOs.
• Develop a pool of grant finance experts, create an environment of experience sharing and promote best practices within the region
• Collaborate with Regional GAM Director in planning and delivering regional GAM meetings and workshops aimed at strengthening NO grant capacity.

Risk Management:
• Support RFD use the Audit trends analysis and results to improved West Africa National Offices internal audit results through implementation of audit recommendations.
• Support National Offices to implement internal Controls that helps prevent fraud and wastage in WV programs.
• Identify and maintain a risk register for the region and develop plans to mitigate any potential risks.

Grants Financial Management:
• Review Quarterly or Monthly Grant performance analysis and Grant Health Tracker to ensure corrective action taken by the Field Offices.
• Ensure appropriate grant financial monitoring frameworks are in place, and operating satisfactorily, in each National Office to support ministry objectives.
• Explore ways to reduce overhead costs on grants to ensure WV’s competitiveness without comprising ministry quality
• Liaise with NOs to ensure timely reimbursement of funds used to pre finance multilateral funded programs implementation
• Provide expert consultation regarding the implementation of cost allocation policy at project/grant level
• Proactively identify and escalate grant financial and/or operational management issues as necessary in coordination with Regional GAM Director

Grants Budget & Acquisition:
• Work with SOs in large scale (budget over $5m) proposal design workshops and review proposal budget to ensure grant proposals are competitive.
• Work with NOs and SOs to prepare and/or review proposal Budget amendments, and extensions of the life of an award any other award budget modification.
• Work with the grant acquisition and management team to promote effective relations and support to National Offices prioritized to grow grants or balance their funding portfolio.

Others:
• Perform special projects for the RFD as necessary. This could include researching key finance ratios to set benchmarks; developing training material for use by NO/RO finance staff (e.g. PowerPoint presentations); identifying alternative options for cost-cutting; researching cost allocation methods within the region; investigate problem areas in RO/NOs; compiling socio-economic data to assist with a model for the effective allocation of resources, etc.
• Act on behalf of the RFD during their absence.
• Attend and participate in devotional meetings.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:
• Bachelor's degree in Administration or Accounting. Professional qualification such as CPA/CIMA/ACCA or Master's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Management or other applicable field to financial compliance.
• Proven experience in working with grant related projects in implementing government grant regulations and capacity building.
• Deep understanding of NGO finance environment and models of programme/project delivery; experience in managing complex funding arrangements.
• Ability to engage and work collaboratively with diverse group of stakeholders to implement partnership initiatives.
• User Certificate in SunSystems Financial Application Software.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working for large INGO.
• Ability to work with multi-cultural and diverse teams to achieve results.
• International work experience or exposure.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Proven ability to manage competing priorities.
• Able to solve complex problems and to exercise independent judgment.
• Must be a committed Christian, able to stand above denominational diversities.
• Attend and able to lead in devotions and Chapel services.
• Certificate in Fraud Examiner.
• Excellent in written and spoken English and French is REQUIRED
• Understanding of international accounting standards and government grant regulations.
• Strong time management skills, responsive and ability to meet strict deadlines.

Preferred Skills, Knowledge and Experience:
• Technical skills in IT/Finance related to financial systems (SunSystems), OLAP Cube, Horizon, Lotus Notes, eLearning & capacity building and wvcentral.
• Understanding of programme/project management within NGO context.
• Experience in preparing and facilitating large group meetings.
• Good information presentation skills.

Work Environment/Travel:
• The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time.