Finance Manager – Grants

Landscape Alliance
Landscape Alliance transforms science into action, unlocking the power of trees, forests and agroforestry landscapes to advance planetary health and human well-being. Landscape Alliance is the operating name of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the International Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF). CIFOR and ICRAF are independent International Organizations and CGIAR Research Centers.

Landscape Alliance is looking for a

The Finance Manager – Grants is responsible for:

• Providing overall financial leadership, risk management and oversight for the projects under his/her team.
• Managing all financial aspects of all grants and donor funds, ensure compliance with grant agreements and develop procedures, policies and guidelines around financial management and reporting for all donor funded projects under his/her team.
• Leading in the provision of technical financial support to the Grants Finance Officers, Scientists and Project Managers for donor funded projects under his/her team.

Reference number: 202630

Job status:
In-progress

Job category:
Local Position

Duty station:
Nairobi/Bogor, Kenya

Summary of responsibilities

1.
Grants Monitoring
,

• Lead and supervise budget monitoring for all grants under your team.
• Continuously review, develop and implement monitoring mechanisms that ensures expenditure is within the agreed donor budgets and that there is no overspends on any of the restricted grants.
• Be a key player and advisor in the issues of grants accounting and management to ensure accurate coding of expenses and full compliance with both CIFOR-ICRAF and donor requirements.
• Oversee and coordinate budget vs expenditure review meetings for projects under your team to provide feedback and analysis to the stakeholders on expenditure trends and areas with significant over- or under spending and propose subsequent actions.
• Ensure a complete record of all pertinent documents of the projects allocated to your team are well kept and accessible. f. Lead in the development of financial management mechanisms that minimize financial risk and maintain internal financial control safeguards/mechanisms on restricted grants activities.
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of relevant donor policies, regulations, and procedures. h. Plan and coordinate occasional project field site visits to ensure financial controls and procedures are in place for the various donor projects under your team.
• Lead and oversee liaison with Program Management Unit on the development of Letter(s) of Agreement with partners, project start-ups and setups in myTree and OCS, creation of budget codes, budget updates and project tracking & closure for projects under your team.
• Key resource on financial requirements of new donors and overall responsible for communicating these requirements to project staff and partners.
• Coordinate and oversee preparation of projects performance reports including funding status and burn rates for sharing with the project managers for grants under your team.
• Ensure regular updates and feedback sessions are held between the finance leads and contacts for the various grants and the project managers for grants under your team.

2.
Grants Reporting and Compliance :

• Coordinate the preparation, review and submission of all donors financial reports that comply with donor requirements in all aspects for grants under your team.
• Implement donor reporting and compliance framework that ensures donor reports under your team are accurate and submitted on time to mitigate reputational risks with the donors.
• Lead in the coordination of responses to respective queries and clarifications in relation to donor reports from donors and other stakeholders.
• Review and Approve reports for grants under your team for signature on the specific projects’ finances to donors and other users in compliance with CIFOR-ICRAF standards and as specifically pre-determined by the donor as mentioned on the signed Grant Agreements and Donor’s General Conditions.
• Follow-up to ensure donor final financial reports for grants under your team are…