PARTNERSHIP 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.

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.

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:

Strengthening assets, capacities, and skills of the local Lebanese NGOs selected for a grant award.

Implementation by each NGO of a crisis-response project to reduce vulnerabilities.

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

Overall purpose of the role:

Working under the authority of the Partnership Finance Specialist, the Partnership Finance Assistant will be particularly in charge of financial supervision, reporting and accountability of partner NGOs. S/He will be involved in the monitoring of all financial activities of the partner NGOs within the project period, as well as supporting in the partners assessments. Moreover, he/she will be in contact with the partner NGOs of the project, and he/she will coordinate their reporting efforts.

This process will support the grant manager in assessing the compliance of the NGO partners with Expertise France's regulations and internal procedures.

In general, the overall purpose of this position is to assist the Partnership Finance Specialist in the development of sound grant management processes to ensure Expertise France's compliance with its donors.

Financial & Administrative Support:

• Make sure that all financial reports of the partner NGOs are received by the set contractual deadline.
• Follow up the financial partnerships with NGOs regularly and make sure it fits internal rules regarding supporting evidence and take necessary actions when needed in coordination with the Partnership Finance Expert.
• Make sure that administrative and financial procedures linked to project implementation are followed by the NGO partners.
• Follow up and ensure that all administrative/financial documents related to project implementation are up to date and stored in an organized way.
• Support in managing partner’s cash flow to ensure timely and secure transfer of funds to meet program needs.
• Support the Partnership Finance Specialist in the preparation or amendment of partner budgets.
• Assist the NGO partners & the Partnership Finance Specialist in the preparation & monitoring of the budget forecasts.
• Support in drafting partner contracts & templates for NGO reporting.

Reporting, documentation, and knowledge management

• Follow up with NGO partners on their reporting (compare both narrative and financial)
• Collect data/reports from NGOS and ensure the accuracy of data/reports.
• Checking partners’ financial reports and supporting documentation
• Present reliable monthly financial reports to the Grants Manager and alert when necessary on budget / and supporting documentation issues.

Profile

• Relevant University degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or any other relevant field.
• At least 3 years of relevant experience in compliance, grant management, or any other related field.
• Knowledge of the Lebanese civil society and the Lebanese aid ecosystem in general.
• Good computer skills: MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook).

• Fluency in English & Arabic (written and spoken). Knowledge of French would be an asset.
• Excellent reporting skills.
• Strong relationship skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and detail-oriented.
• Previous work experience with international agencies would be an asset.
• Expected starting date is Mid-January 2021 or Feb-2021