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 destabilize neighboring 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. 

Stabilisation and resilience background

The “Stabilisation and Resilience” unit runs 2 projects in Lebanon: QUDRA and SHABAKE.

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.  The programme launched in June 2016, has been jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Expertise France (EF) and Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID) in programme partner countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Iraq.

In Lebanon, Expertise France has been implementing QUDRA between 2016 and 2019. Now EF is going to implement QUDRA2, another 3-year Programme, with a continuation of activities, starting in September 2019. The project seeks to improve social stability between communities in Lebanon through a comprehensive and local approach of protection for children and adults. To do so, activities revolve around four pillars: (i) support to Social Development Centers (SDCs) of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), (ii) Child Protection activities, (iii) Protection activities and (iv) campaigns and communication activities (through CFI).

Expertise France works within the framework of the LCRP and MoSA National Plan for Safeguarding women and children in close partnership with Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA).

The Programme will be implemented in at least 12 SDCs of the MoSA. Expertise France will select local NGOs as implementing partners, following a precise Programme drafted by EF with MoSA.

2. SHABAKE

The SHABAKE project aims to strengthen the capacities of local NGO’s 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 the 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 by a strong capacity building and a direct link with international donors.

Shabake has a 3 years long approach, and will be implement through three main component parts:

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.

* The Expertise France office in Lebanon currently implements three other projects outside the scope of this position.

Job description

Working under the authority of the Administrative and Finance Manager, the Administrative and Finance assistant will have the following responsibilities:

Accounting:

• Ensure that EF accounting process is compliant with EF and EU guidelines in collaboration with the Administrative and Finance Manager
• Record the accounting entries after proceeding with a payment after checking that the supporting documents submitted are compliant to EF rules and regulations
• In cooperation with the admin and finance manager , to 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 contract’s clauses and terms in coordination with the Administrative and Finance Manager
• 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 Manager, 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 Manager 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)

Profile

• University degree in a relevant field (business administration, finance, accounting, management)
• At least 3 years of experience in the nonprofit sector in administrative, accounting or financial support department
• Excellent MS Office skills, with proficiency using MS Excel is mandatory
• Precision and rigor
• Diplomacy and negotiating skills are priorities
• Good knowledge of international donors’ rules and regulations, especially EU regulations is a distinctive advantage
• Excellent reporting and writing skills
• Professional working knowledge of English & Arabic are required. French is an asset
• Good coordination and team work skills