Finance Officer (Global Partnership for Education) - The World Bank

Established in 2002, the Global Partnership for Education ("Global Partnership" or GPE), formerly the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, has grown and evolved to become the premier partnership focused on basic education in developing countries. Its members include 59 of the world's poorest developing countries, over 30 bilateral, regional, and multilateral agencies; development banks; the private sector; civil society groups; and teachers organizations. The Board of Directors is the Global Partnership's governing body, sets its policies and strategies and approves all funding.

The mission of the Global Partnership is to galvanize and coordinate a global effort to deliver a good quality education to all children, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable. To that end, the Global Partnership helps its member countries to build and implement sound education sector plans and has allocated approximately $4.1 billion in education grants to date. The Global Partnership mobilizes international financing and promotes/ efficient use of international and national resources to support developing countries' education goals and sector strategies.

With about 78 staff, the GPE Secretariat is hosted by the World Bank in Washington, D.C. As a consequence of the partnership taking a greater leadership role in achieving international development goals in education, the Secretariat is developing its capacity to support country-level processes and to meet expectations from the partnership’s stakeholders to achieve concrete results and education outcomes for children in developing countries.

 

Duties and Accountabilities:

The position reports to the Senior Financial Officer within the Operations group of the secretariat.  The position has the following responsibilities:

1. Support the quality assurance process for GPE grants with particular emphasis on the fiduciary aspects of the process. More specifically:

• Reviews grant proposal documentation and under the guidance of the Sr. Financial Management Specialist;
• Engages with relevant partners to ensure that fiduciary risk has been appropriately addressed; and
• Ensures that the grant budget is consistent with the grant targets, that the budget is reasonable, and implementable in the time frame proposed.

2. Responsible for monitoring financial performance and compliance of GPE funded programs. More specifically:

• Ensures that financial reporting requirements related to GPE grants are complied with;
• Reviews relevant reports (implementation status reports, audit reports, annual reports etc.) for overall portfolio monitoring and analysis;
• Analyzes progress on grants and identify at risk grants; and
• Engages with relevant stakeholders under the guidance of the Sr. Financial Management Specialist and in coordination with relevant Secretariat teams, to diagnose the issues and support corrective action.

3. Conducts financial analysis of GPE funded programs. More specifically:

• Develops a database on unit costs of common GPE activities and identifies and explains trends and discrepancies;
• Works with other internal and external stakeholders as appropriate to benchmark costs of GPE funded programs (particularly overhead costs); and
• Performs ad hoc analysis of GPE grants and portfolio to support internal and external stakeholder queries.

4. The Finance Officer will also support the meetings and work of other team members, and participate in Secretariat-wide activities in support of other teams as necessary.

 

Desired skills and experience

• Master's degree in a relevant finance discipline, or professional accounting qualification combined with a bachelor’s degree in a relevant finance discipline is acceptable 
• At least 5 years’ prior relevant experience working in the field of financial management (public financial management, auditing, consulting etc.).
• Experience in the education sector is preferable
• At least 3 years relevant work experience in international development
• Experience in budget review and financial analysis of grants essential
• Knowledge and experience of working with multi-lateral and bilateral agencies, International NGOs, and developing country partner governments is highly desired
• Familiarity with cross-cultural dynamics, and good negotiation skills
• Willingness to work in a complex environment and travel occasionally
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to function in a flexible manner, where persuasion and facilitation skills are strongly valued
• Excellent communication skills in English and French, both written and verbal
• Strong knowledge of and commitment to the principles of the Global Partnership for Education

For further details and to apply, please go to www.worldbank.org/careers and under “current job openings” seek vacancy number 150062. Deadline for applications is February 13, 2015