Programme Officer (Budget and Quality Assurance) at UNICEF

Under the direct supervision of the Nutrition Manager (Diets and Practices), the staff member will be responsible for the following:

1. Develop and review proposal budgets and financial projections to ensure alignment with the overarching Nutrition and Child Development Section’s strategy and resource mobilization needs
2. Track and manage effective and efficient utilization of budgets ensuring compliance with results-based principles and standards, UNICEF guidelines as well as donor conditionalities.
3. Develop high quality financial reports and analysis and input into internal and external financial reports and communication products
4. Track and manage timely development of partnership agreements and recruitments
5. Track and manage timely completion of office-wide key performance indicators for financial and risk management (HACT)

Purpose for the job

As a Programme Officer – Budget and Quality Assurance based in Abuja, the incumbent will support the Nutrition and Child Development Section team in preparing planned activities budgets, proposals and reports, streamlined structures and processes, ensure funds utilization is in-line with donor approval, responsible for grants management and close monitoring of funds with knowledge of quality assurance, support on timely submission of expenditures and donors reports to HQ and donors, so that UNICEF’s financial accountability is not jeopardized at this critical stage in the Programme.

How can you make a difference?

The Programme Officer – Budget and Quality Assurance based in Abuja, Operations will be entrusted with the following five pillars, the core focus of all operations functions: Valuing People, Valuing Money, Valuing Risk Management, Valuing Systems and Structures, Valuing Partners.

Key functions/accountabilities:

1. Support planning and coordination of financial mapping for planned nutrition grants including salary cost distributions, etc. in partnership with the Programme Monitoring and Reporting Team.
2. Work with field offices and the Nutrition and Child Development Section to track budgets and expenditures in accordance with donor conditionalities and UNICEF principles.
3. Support output leads in overall grant management, including review, timely fund allocation to outputs and field offices, expenditure monitoring, and variance analysis
4. Monitor field office budgets and workplans based on donor approvals and allocations, using VISION and other data sources to ensure financial transparency.
5. Prepare detailed budgets and financial forecasts for donor proposals in coordination with output leads and the Programme Monitoring and Reporting Section, incorporating financial gaps and cash flow analyses where necessary.
6. Track, manage, and maintain user‑friendly dashboards and summaries on budgets, expenditures, and supplies to inform programme planning and reviews.
7. Support field offices to strengthen grants management and administrative systems for nutrition.
8. Ensuring quality assurance of financial inputs for donor and other reports.
9. Support the section in tracking of key KPI indicators and follow up actions for UNICEF’s Harmonized Approach for Cash Transfers (HACT)
10. Provide analytics and summaries for weekly and monthly Country Management Team and other review meetings on budgets and finance.

Education:     

A university degree (minimum Bachelor) in one of the following fields is required: Finance / Accounting / Business Administration / and or Economics or another relevant technical field.

Experience:   

1. A minimum of one year of relevant professional work experience in managing donor funded projects and financial management or related field
2. Demonstrable experience of planning and managing high value budgets, multi-year grants and diverse donors
3. Excellent knowledge of and hands on experience in excel, PowerPoint and PowerBI is critical
4. Demonstrable problem solving, quantitative and analytical skills; strategic and creative thinking.
5. Strong organizational, planning and coordination skills. Exceptional project management skills with attention to detail.
6. Ability to articulate and present ideas both in written presentation and orally to team as well as external audience.
7. Knowledge of the UN rules, procedures and regulations and/or working experience for the UN or other international development organization would be an asset
8. Developing country work plan and budget and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset