UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.
For every child,
Organizational Context and Purpose for the job :
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.
Job organizational context :
The CAR CO currently operates in a complex humanitarian environment, and a rapidly changing context while its CPD (development programme) is well funded. The main office is based in Bangui and supported by 4 Field Offices, located in Bouar, Bossangoa, Bambari and Kaga-Bandoro. Due to the increased funding available especially resources from donors, volume of the office’s reporting requirement has increased since early 2019. Ensuring the quality and timeliness of donor reports, situation reports, flash updates, funding proposals and other external communication materials is essential for optimizing the office’s resource mobilization capacity and demonstrating “value for money” to donors through effective communication of results for children.
Purpose for the job :
Under the supervision of the Partnership Specialist in charge, the post will contribute to the reporting functions in the Country Office, including timely preparation and completion of donor reports, situation reports, flash updates, proposals, presentations, briefing papers. The incumbent will manage donor reporting and other programmatic documents in collaboration with all the programme sections, the planning, monitoring and evaluation section and external communication section based on the workflow and tools. The position also has a critical role of continued capacity development of the team in result-based reporting, analytical writing and other skills required for quality donor reporting that is fundamental to the CO’s partnership management, advocacy and resource mobilization.
How can you make a difference?
Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks :
1. Support to quality and timely donor reporting :
- In coordination with programme sections, ensure quality and timely donor reporting by providing guidance and quality control and review and editing of donor reports. Ensure timeliness and quality reporting. This includes gathering of information, consolidation, editing, layout and branding of all required reports on contributions/grants (development/emergency) available for UNICEF-CAR ;
- In reviewing the reports ensure compliance with special requirements, quality of data and systematic results-based reporting ;
- Monitors donor reporting schedule and provides timely reminders and workflow to programme sections to ensure that all donor reports are sent on time ;
- Edit and review donor reports both English and French and other relevant documents for donors (e.g. human interest stories) based on the organizational quality standards, provide feedback to submitting programme sections and produce final version of documents to be reviewed by the Deputy Representative, in line with the office’s workflow/ QA tools ;
- Review of all the proposals developed by the office to ensure quality, coherence, alignment with organizational goals and standards ;
- Search updated guideline and templates for specific donor reports and share them with programme sections to ensure the compliance to specific guideline required by each donor or specific funding ;
- Ensure all documents including donor reports and proposals as well as feedback from donors if any, are shared and archived in the office’s share drive/share point ;
- Propose tools and corrective actions on operational procedures to ensure that effective work processes on donor reporting management, as well as a record management system for donor reports / proposals are in place ;
- Ensure that the donor reports are developed as a part of the office’s knowledge management and sharing, including detailed analysis of bottlenecks in programmatic implementation, coherence between programmatic results achieved and fund utilization reports and documenting lessons learned and good practice case studies.
2. Quality assurance of other programmatic reports, documents and materials :
- Ensure the compliance with requirements and conditions of donors and UNICEF standards and guidelines on donor reporting, including managing a quality assurance system with appropriate tools ;
- Coordinate with staff to plan, compile, review, edit and archive high quality mandatory UNICEF programmatic reports, including the Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC), SitRep, Country Office Annual Report, programme briefings, Reviews Summary, etc. ;
- In collaboration with the Advocacy and External communication Unit, ensure the quality of advocacy, communication and informational materials for resource mobilization ;
- Ensure the accuracy of data and data sources used in all the reporting and make sure the more recent data from official or verifiable sources are used.
3. Analysis and monitoring of the partnership management :
- Organize data and information, prepares and maintains records, documents and control plans for the monitoring of actual and potential donors, proposals and reports ;
- Analyze and provide recommendations to improve the systems and processes to monitor grants and performance against key indicators related to partnership management (contribution management, donor reporting) ;
- Contribute to the development and updating of the office-wide resource mobilization strategy consistent with the overall CPD and budget, based on a careful analysis of the international cooperation landscape ;
- Facilitate the office to explore options for resource mobilization and identify and scale up successful approaches.
4. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building :
- Identify capacity strengthening needs of the CO on result-based reporting, analytical writing, and external communication for a strengthened advocacy/resource mobilization capacity. Provide on-site support or training to programme colleagues on these topics and provide feedback on the quality of donor reports or other materials ;
- Identify or design various capacity development activities (individual, group, or existing online training, etc) based on the capacity needs of the CO to ensure that most up-to-date information and guideline are provided, and the team’s reporting capacity is enhanced ;
- Participate actively in the community of practice and other corporate networks of partnership management/donor reporting or resource mobilization communities for knowledge sharing and learning ;
- Roll out the reporting mechanisms while ensuring the linkage with monitoring/evaluation and result-based management, through capacity development of the team, troubleshooting and revision or updates of internal workflow or quality assurance mechanism as required ;
- Construct, update and manage the office’s document archive system related to partnership management, including donor reports and proposals, contribution agreements, records of extension of grants and others ;
- Contribute to constant knowledge management by compiling and sharing recent articles, data, newslines and other documents or information of programmatic interest regarding the country context and/or situation of children and women at country, sub-regional and global levels.
Impact of Results :
Effective oversight, technical assistance and guidance provided by the Reports specialist will ensure the quality and timeliness of donor reporting, fundraising proposals, the country office annual report and all other documents/materials for resource mobilization. This will help optimize the office’s capacity for resource mobilization and/or leveraging resource for children through effectively demonstrating “value for money” of the contributions made by donors. The end result is an increased reputation and credibility of UNICEF- CAR as the result-based, accountable and transparent organization vis-à-vis donors (both development and emergency contexts). This will in turn, help the office build sustainable and optimal partnerships, ultimately contributing to enhanced resource mobilization and advocacy for children’s rights. The post will contribute to improved UNICEF’s capacity in achieving results for children through :
- Making recommendations on the appropriate inclusion and/or exclusion of substantive data as well as use of language, style and image of publications, presentations of documents, all of which can enhance or damage the external and internal perceptions of the CO ;
- Contributing to improved and streamlined donor reporting and strengthed quality of donor reports and other documents related to partnership/external communication and reporting ;
- Working collaboratively with all the programme sections and with key colleagues such as the monitoring and evaluation officer, gender specialist and external communication specialist, etc. ;
- Ensuring that the workflow and donor reporting strategies/tools are fully used and capacity development of the team in related skills is organized in a continued manner.
Incorrect and/or late reporting can damage the credibility of the organization. Inadequate knowledge on the organization’s guideline on reporting and written communication could undermine the quality of the reports.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Recruitment Qualifications :
Education :
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in International Development, Programme/Project Management, Business Administration, Financial Management, Economics, Social Sciences, Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Development studies or equivalent professional work experience in the communication area ;
- A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
Experience :
- A minimum of three (3) years progressively responsible professional work experience in communication, reporting, fund raising, programme design, programme management or monitoring and evaluation and other relevant areas. Emergency background is an asset ;
- Advanced ability to express clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written form ;
- An experience in donor relationship and resource mobilization is an strong asset ;
- Specific skills in report writing and editing.
Language Requirements : Perfectly fluent in English and fluent in French required. A strong analytical writing skill both in English and French is a must.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks :
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.