Senior Manager, Portfolio Financial Management: Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme (Zip) – Temporary

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together implementing country and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of more than 981 million children and the prevention of more than 16 million future deaths.

THE ROLE

Please note this is a temporary role, until 31st December 2025.

The Portfolio Financial Management team provides end-to-end financial expertise to the Country Programmes Delivery Team to ensure compliance with Gavi’s fiduciary policies, procedures, and practices. It also ensures that financial risks identified within the grant portfolios are effectively mitigated and managed in accordance with sound financial management practices, are consistent with the grant agreement.

Where necessary, and in consultation with other relevant teams, the team develops feasible plans to address the risks. The team oversees the provision of financial support to countries with different levels of complexity and adapts approaches as appropriate. Further, it leads in the provision of Financial Management capacity building support to countries with a view to strengthening and using country public financial management systems. The Portfolio Financial Management team also ensures that the most cost-effective means to achieve programme objectives have been considered in grant design.

The Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme (ZIP) is a new Gavi, cross border initiative, aimed at reaching populations/ Zero-Dose children who fall outside the country led prioritization efforts and hence not included or are missed out in the mainstream Gavi support. The programme covers 11 countries in the Sahel (7) and the Horn of Africa (4), where some 4 million or more Zero -Dose children live. In these countries there are populations often moving across porous borders due to their nomadic lifestyle or they have been displaced by conflict or other natural disasters such as flooding. These populations are often untraceable and not tracked by governments and have large numbers of Zero-Dose (ZD) children.

• In the Sahel, World Vision International (WVI) will lead a consortium of organisations across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Mali;
• In the Horn of Africa, International Rescue Committee (IRC) will lead a network of international and local partners, to reach vulnerable ZD populations in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.

The programme is to be implemented over the Gavi 5.0 strategic period 2021-2025, having commenced in July 2022, with an initial 3–6-month inception phase, to be followed by phase 2 for a period of 18mths (Jan 2023-Jun 2024) and a final phase 3 for another 18mths to Dec 2025.

The Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme is a large sub-set of a broader initiative to reach Zero dose and under-immunised children, spanning a larger number of Gavi partner countries, termed the Equity Accelerator Fund (EAF).

Role Summary:
The role of the Senior Manager, Portfolio Financial Management – Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme will be to conduct management and mitigation of financial risks and capacity gaps throughout the grant management cycles for the Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme; negotiate and finalise grant agreements with lead implementers; ensure compliance with Gavi’s fiduciary policies and requirements; provide financial technical support and to engage in developing and putting in place guidance, tools and processes that ensure the improved management of fiduciary risks, oversee financial performance of the grants and support the Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme team in presenting progress to management and the broader Secretariat.

The Senior Manager, Portfolio Financial Management will work within the Portfolio Financial Management team with direct reporting lines to the Head, Portfolio Financial Management. He/She will work closely with the ZiP Programme team housed within the Country Programmes Delivery – Fragile & Conflict countries Team. This is a high priority initiative for Gavi in some of the most difficult environments for immunisation programmes and the role will require flexibility and resilience.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

The scope of work for this position includes
• The following are the specific tasks for the 3-6 month inception period that is now concluding:
o Review financial reporting for the inception phase period;
o Identify key lessons learnt to inform rest of the implementation period with respect to grant financial reporting, GA amendments etc.;
o Conclude on the desk assessment reviews of lead implementers and determine the need for inclusion of any grant conditions.
• The following are the specific tasks that will have to be undertaken by the PFM focal point until the end of the award period ie 2025:
o Review of grant agreements and negotiate contractual terms, for fiduciary/financial related matters, to the extent applicable;
o Country team and implementor engagement at various points during the implementation period;
o Monitoring and reporting during the life of the grant:
 Follow-up and review of financial reporting done by the 2 entities every 6 months;
 review of annual audit reports; cash reporting etc;
 Review of forecasts prior to disbursements and disbursement validation sign offs;
 Follow-up on audit related issues and any grant conditions;
 Other routine fiduciary monitoring and engagement;
o Assurance related
 Engagement of/with monitoring agent, when applicable;
 Engagement with other assurance providers for example, External Auditors; Fiduciary agents (where applicable) etc;
o Possible in-country visits/missions;
o Review and negotiation of the 2nd phase (starting 1 July 2023) budget including any revision to contractual/GA terms.

• Other EAF engagement
o Sharing of lessons learnt from Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme grants/ Equity Accelerator Funding to the Portfolio Financial Management Team, and how this may apply to the wider country specific Equity Accelerator Funding grants, particularly to Fragile & Conflict countries;
o Provide guidance to teams (e.g., based on lessons learnt), ensuring consistency in approach to various PFM related issues affecting Equity Accelerator Funding (EAF) grants;
o Lead on consistency to approach to different implementers (e.g., standard grant agreements, specific Portfolio Financial Management guidance on say Internal Cost Recovery/Overhead costs, other best practices etc);
o Develop guiding principles on the understanding of fiduciary higher risk appetite…what does this mean practically when implementing grants in Fragile & Conflict context;
o Develop tools/standard metrics that can be used in guiding budget reviews, trend analysis etc in Fragile & Conflict countries.

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistent with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• A master’s degree with a finance leaning: MBA, Accounting, Finance or Auditing;
• A professional certification in Audit, Accounting or Financial Analysis (e.g., CPA, ICMA, CFA).

WORK EXPERIENCE

Essential
• Minimum 10 years of demonstrated progressive experience in public financial management, financial analysis, and decision-making, obtained with an international accounting firm and bilateral or multilateral aid agency, government department, or industry;
• Experience in financial, regulatory, and grant-making or contracting processes;
• Public and Global Health experience/exposure, including engagement with senior officials at Ministries of Health & Finance;
• Familiarity with financial management in Gavi supported countries, and a first-hand knowledge of assessment and capacity building approaches and techniques, in developing countries.

Desirable
• Experience of working with bilateral and multilateral development agencies, including an aptitude for, and knowledge of, current issues in development;
• Sound knowledge of public financial management, internal controls, internal audit, and good understanding of risk management;
• Experience of working in or with countries in fragile and conflict settings;
• Sound knowledge of internal controls, International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), internal audit, supreme audit institutions (SAIs) and good understanding of risk management.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Adaptable mindset. Ability to find solutions in the most difficult environments;
• High level analytical and policy / procedures development skills;
• Negotiation and conflict management skills;
• Excellent computer literacy specifically with Microsoft office products (word, excel, PowerPoint, access, Business Intelligence etc.);
• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Excellent presentation skills and High-level financial analysis skills;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment with cross functional and multi-disciplinary teams in a collaborative style;
• Good knowledge of institutional or organisation policies, systems, and procedures.

LANGUAGES

• Written and spoken fluency in English;
• Knowledge of French is an asset.

CONTACTS

• Director, Portfolio Financial Management;
• Heads, Portfolio Financial Management;
• Portfolio Financial Management Focal Points;
• Director & members of the Zip project Team;
• Senior Country Managers and Heads within Country Programmes department;
• Collaboration with all teams in Secretariat;
• Gavi-eligible countries’ officials / staff;
• Peers in Implementing partner or other development partners’ offices and agencies.