Administrative and Finance Assistant

Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance. The agency provides partner countries with knowledge, skills and management expertise in:

• Democratic, economic, and financial governance,
• Stability, international security and peace,
• Sustainable development, climate and agriculture,
• Health and human development.

Expertise France designs and implements cooperation projects addressing skills transfers between professionals. The agency also develops integrated offers, assembling public and private expertise in order to respond to the partner countries' needs.

With a business volume of 192 million Euros, a portfolio of over 500 projects in 100 countries, and 63,000 days of expert missions every year, Expertise France promotes French and European development policy goals.

Context

The Middle East is currently experiencing a profound crisis. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq are both a reflection and a transmitter of this crisis, with growing potential to further destabilise neighbouring countries and the wider region. These crises have resulted in a humanitarian disaster affecting more than 13.5 million people who were forced to flee their homes from Syria, and more than 17 million people in need of humanitarian aid (12.2 in Syria and 5.2 in Iraq).

Lebanon is now home to the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita relative to its total population, putting a severe strain on the country’s fragile infrastructures, economy, and security. The population of Lebanon was estimated at about 4.8 million (including almost half a million Palestinian refugees) in 2013. Even though Lebanon has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, up to date it has taken in about a fourth of its own population. According to UNHCR, in September 2016 about 1,017,433 persons from Syria were registered as refugees in Lebanon. In the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017- 2020 (2018 update) (LCRP), the total number of people living in Lebanon is estimated at 5.9 million, with 3.3 million people in need. Among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon, which today comprises over 1.5 million people.

Programs Background

1- QUDRA

’Qudra – Resilience for Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises’ is a regional action financed by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the Madad Fund and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), seeking to strengthen the resilience of Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises.  QUDRA was launched in June 2016 and will end by August 31st, 2019. The second Phase of the programme, will be starting on September 1st 2019 at regional level for another 3 years and will be jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Expertise France (EF), Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID), Hungarian Interchurch Aid and the Belgium Development Agency in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Iraq.

Expertise France’s action within QUDRA 2 will focus on Lebanon and be part of the component “Education and Protection”. The project will seek to improve education, engagement and protection opportunities for children, youth and other marginalised groups through a comprehensive and local approach on protection. To do so, activities will revolve around two pillars:

1. Strengthening local and national systems and service delivery capacities of MoSA in targeted areas
2. Enhancing self-development and wellbeing of marginalized children and adults through protection and child protection activities.

Expertise France works within the framework of the LCRP and the MoSA National Plan for Safeguarding Women and Children. The Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) is a key partner of our action, as the activities will be implemented in at least 12 Social Development Centers of the MoSA through selected local NGOs.

2- SHABAKE

The SHABAKE project aims to strengthen the capacities of local NGOs on the long run, to enable them to become key and resilient stakeholders of the Lebanese civil society. The project is funded by Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and Denmark’s development cooperation (Danida) and is implemented by Expertise France.

The global objective of SHABAKE is to help local NGOs become lasting, key players in mitigating the effects of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon through strong capacity building and creating a direct link with international donors.

 The Shabake project will take place over a period of 3 years (2019-2022), and will be implemented through three main components:

1. Strengthening assets, capacities, and skills of the local Lebanese NGOs selected for a grant award.
2. Implementation by each NGO of a crisis-response project to reduce vulnerabilities.
3. Improving the participation of NGO partners in the development-aid ecosystem.

 Description of the Tasks:

Accounting:

• Ensure that the EF accounting process is compliant with EF and EU guidelines in collaboration with the Administrative and Finance Coordinator
• Record the accounting entries after proceeding with a payment after checking that the supporting documents submitted are compliant to EF rules and regulations
• Assist in the preparation of EF accounts and prepare end of month financial closure package including the bank accounts reconciliations, cash inventories and monthly financial report
• Assist in the preparation of the annual accounting closure pack
• Handle the filing of the supporting documents (i.e.: invoices, receipts, contracts, timesheets) in reference files as per EF filing rules and regulations
• Ensure a systematic electronic filing in addition to the hard copies

Finance:

• Assist the finance department with various tasks, including preparing budgets, monthly and quarterly financial reports and cash forecasts
• Check and ensure that all project invoices are aligned with the contracts clauses and terms in coordination with the Administrative and Finance Coordinator
• Assist in the consolidation of the BvA in collaboration with the different departments
• Support in the preparation of the project audits and annual HQ audit and follow up on the recommendations

Cash Management:

• Manage the petty cash and report any discrepancy to the line manager (including but not limited to issuing cash payments, cash inventory, change operations)
• Manage EF bank accounts and prepare the bank reconciliation at the end of each month (including but not limited to preparation of checks and transfers, bank visits, money withdrawal, bank statements request)
• Together with the Administrative and Finance Coordinator, prepare the cash forecasts and cash requests to be submitted to EF – Paris in collaboration with all departments (mainly procurement and program)

Administration:

• Conduct regular support duties (i.e.: English/Arabic translation, project related researches, financial and HR related benchmarks)
• Support the Administrative and Finance Coordinator with HR related tasks according to the needs
• Handle the relevant program administration according to EF Lebanon rules and regulations (i.e.: staff advances, communication)