Associate, Accountant

Description

About Evidence Action

Evidence Action aims to be a world leader in scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest places. Last year Deworm the World reached 280 million people with deworming medications, partnering with governments to launch, scale, and sustain mass school-based deworming programs. Meanwhile, Dispensers for Safe Water provided 4M people across rural Africa with clean water, saving thousands of young lives. The approach relies on an innovative and human-centric design to deliver clean water at the source.

Evidence Action has a presence across 10 countries, including Cameroun with major offices in Nairobi, Kenya; Delhi, India; and Washington, D.C. Evidence Action’s programs have been recognized by GiveWell, the Skoll Foundation, the Life You Can Save, Giving What We Can, and covered in the Economist, NPR, and the New York Times.

Background on the program

Reducing poverty and spurring growth in developing countries requires strategic, high-value investment of scarce resources, whether they come from donors, governments, or communities. Interventions to reduce the burden of poverty need to be rigorously identified, tested, and scaled up to be cost-effective and have high impact.

Evidence Action develops and de-risks models for such interventions that allow tens of millions of people to be served and return on investment be measured. We bridge the gap between rigorous research and pilot interventions on one hand, and institutionalized programs on the other. By focusing on promising approaches backed by rigorous evidence, we support programs that are measurably effective; by seeking to solve the challenge of scale, we provide cost-effective impact for many.

Renowned for its cost-effective impact, our Deworm the World Initiative combats worm infections by working with governments to deliver mass school-based deworming programs. Since 2014, we have supported governments to implement high quality programming, helping deliver over 1.5 billion deworming treatments globally. Deworming is proven to improve the nutrition, cognition, school attendance, and long-term economic prospects of children.

Job purpose

● To ensure the integrity of accounting information by recording, verifying, consolidating, and booking transactions and proper serialization and safe filing of documents.

● The position has access to organization’s confidential information that need to be protected by adhering to organization’s value by keeping information confidential.

● The Officer, Finance, will act as a resource and/or coordinate resources between Field and country-based programs, and perform other duties as defined by the Country finance lead/leadership.

Duties and responsibilities

A. Team Management – 10% of role

● Will regularly communicate with program and regional leads to identify capacity needs and oversee Finance function.

● Responsible for developing/refining and regularly reporting on Key Performance Indicators and Metrics to management concerning the teams’ operations and capacity/gaps.

● Represent Finance team in various program meetings.

B. Accounting: 80% of role

• Manage the office petty cash
• Initiate payment in the system after reviewing payment documents
• Input data into the Accounting System and Bills from service providers.
• Verify the service providers’ invoices and make recommendations before payment.
• Ensure timely settlement of utility Bills for field and satellite offices.
• Coordinate successful Field office meetings/ workshops/training.
• Verify held staff budgets and accountability returns before they are forwarded to the Country Manager or Budget holders.
• Review expenses report and justifications before approval.
• Participate in Procurement process where necessary.
• Ensure that internal controls are adhered to in the day today office operations.
• Make sure all expenses are compliant to Evidence Action policy and approved by the Finance country lead.

C. Budgeting, disbursements and accountability: 10% of role

• Continuous and effective budget tracking.
• Ensuring proper budget utilization, proper cost allocations, communication and consultation with program and Grants team, full accountability of funds and accurate charging to donor as per their budgets;
• Prepare periodic budget forecast;
• Prepare cash request for specific period

Work Hours and Considerations

● Primary work hours and location must include business hours (9:00am-5:00pm), Monday to Friday, in Evidence Action’s office.

● Off-hour work may be required as necessary for overseeing/completing planned activities, participating in international conference calls across time-zones, or responding to emergency situations.

● Some travel. The Officer, Finance will visit offices across Cameroun, and other countries within Africa

when necessary for the purpose of training, project management, and meetings of program and country

staff.

Requirements

Education:

Bachelor in accounting or Business administration or any related field with management science

Experience:

Min 2 years’ work experience in a position with similar responsibilities.

Skills:

● Strategic and tactical critical thinker with good analytical and problem-solving skills.

● Confident decision maker who can communicate directions and solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical staff.

● Understanding of the business role Operations and Logistics function within the programs and organization, and to set objectives based on that.

● Demonstrated leadership in managing others.

● Metrics driven performance philosophy.

● Proficiency with Microsoft Windows 7 and 10, Skype, Microsoft Office 2013-16

● Demonstrated mastering of Excel and Google spreadsheets.

● Good English written and verbal competence.