The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees delivers lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The IRC has worked in Ethiopia since 2000, providing essential services through direct and partner-led programming. Currently, the IRC provides multi-sectoral assistance through emergency response and longterm resilience-building. In Ethiopia, the IRC delivers various educational services to children, their parents or caregivers, and government-run primary schools. The IRC operates directly and indirectly throughout all regions of Ethiopia, except for the Southwest Region. The IRC works through seven field offices – in Adama, Hawassa, Asossa, Gambella, Somali, and Shire, and four satellite offices in Aleta Wondo Harar, Bahir Dar, and Shiraro. The IRC directly operates in Oromia, Somali, Tigray, Beninshangul-Gumuz, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP), Sidama, Gambella, and Harari regions. The IRC operates directly and through its partners in Amhara and Afar regions. The IRC implements development, humanitarian, and life-saving emergency programs through different sectors, including Environmental Health, Health and Nutrition, Economic Recovery and Development (ERD), Emergency Rapid Response (ERR), Education (EDU), Child Protection (CP), and Community Wellbeing Initiative (CWI).

Background and Objectives of the FCDO UK Support for Girls’ Education and Improved Learning in Ethiopia

Education in Ethiopia is under stress with limited access and retention for marginalized groups and reduced levels for learning outcomes across all year groups. This is further compounded by different crises – conflict, climate-induced shocks, and residual impacts of COVID-19, with some children out of school for most of the past 3.5 years.

The “Ethiopia Support for Girls’ Education and Improved Learning (2024 – 2029)” program initiated by the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) aims to improve access to education for girls and marginalized groups and enhance their learning outcomes. The program will focus on four key components below:

1. School Leadership Support: Providing training, resources, and guidance to school leaders to enhance their capacity to manage schools and learning effectively.
2. Equity Support: The program aims to promote equity in education by addressing barriers that hinder access to education for marginalized groups, including girls and children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those in hard-to-reach areas. Strategies may include collaborating with Government ministries to strengthen policies to ensure equal student access.
3. Teacher Support:The program will train teachers, equip them with effective teaching strategies, and promote continuous learning. This support may include training workshops, mentoring programs, and access to educational resources.
4. English Language: The program will prioritize initiatives to strengthen English language instruction. This may involve training teachers in effective language teaching methods, providing language learning materials, and integrating English language instruction into the curriculum.

Scope of Work

The Finance Director will be responsible for overseeing financial management and financial operations for the project. As a part of the Senior Management Team, the Finance Lead provides the leadership and management necessary to ensure the project has the appropriate financial infrastructure and systems in place to support smooth project implementation. The Finance Director will ensure the program complies with FCDO financial rules and regulations and the host country’s labor, tax, and other relevant laws. The Finance Director will contribute to developing the project’s strategic and operational plans and will be responsible for ensuring and monitoring delivery against the agreed financial targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensures that all policies and procedures are in compliance with IRC and FCDO policies, procedures, and requirements.
• Establishes the project’s finance and supporting function policies, systems and procedures, and directs or performs their development, documentation, and implementation.
• Manages project finance activities and schedules to meet the financial reporting requirements and deadlines specified by HQ and FCDO. Prepares quarterly accrual reports, expenditure reporting, and burn rate projections.
• Provides project management and program staff with monthly actual-to-budget expenditure reports and project fund analysis and facilitates review and discussion.
• Ensures balance sheet reconciliations are completed on a monthly basis and in a timely manner timely basis and reviews final reconciliations and trial balances with the Team Lead.
• Closely monitors all financial activities and advises the Team Lead of all situations that have the potential to negatively impact internal controls or financial performance.
• Directs the preparation and approval of all FCDO financial reports regarding accounting, legal, and contractual requirements and ensures the review of such reports by the Chief of Party and HQ prior to submission.
• Enforces internal control policies and procedures.
• Maintains current knowledge of local government requirements related to financial matters and ensures compliance with tax regulations and other legal requirements.
• Establishes project finance roles and responsibilities matrix; ensures job descriptions are current; recruits and maintains qualified staff to perform finance functions.
• Develops and implements a training program for the project’s finance staff.
• Ensures constructive performance reviews are completed on a timely basis and facilitates discussion of performance and career options with project finance staff.
• Supervises all project office bank relations and bank account activities including negotiation of fees, interest and currency exchange rates.
• In compliance with IRC policy, establishes policies regarding cash holding limits, cash movements and foreign currency holdings of the project.
• Oversees the timely preparation, review and approval of all monthly bank accounts and cash reconciliations.
• Designs, implements, and monitors systems, procedures and reporting necessary to maintain on current basis accurate forecasts of cash requirements for meeting future spending, including commitments entered into and which obligate IRC to future spending.
• Assists with the preparation and revision of project budgets.
• Prepares the annual and monthly cash budgets based on approved funding.
• Prepares monthly pipeline analysis (spending forecast) on the project in coordination with the technical team.
• Coordinates and reconciles spending forecasts with CoP to reflect realistic data.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in Accounting, Business Administration, Commerce or Finance with a recognized professional certificate in accounting such as CPA, or a master’s degree in accounting.
• A minimum of 10 years in a similar financial, compliance, or operational role supporting FCDO commercial contracts and other international donor projects in similar contexts.
• Experience with budgeting and financial reporting requirements on multimillion pound, multi-year, FCDO commercial contracts.
• Experience with financial management and reporting on projects with substantial sub-awards.
• Strong knowledge of generally accepted accounting practices, financial reporting standards, financial management processes and procedures.
• Familiarity with FCDO commercial contracts rules and regulations, particularly those related to project expenditure management and forecasting requirements.
• Extensive experience in working with computerized accounting systems, standard spreadsheets and database programmes.
• Must have a proven track record of proactively identifying and communicating potential problems and proposing solutions.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills and professional patience and be able to interact, partner and thrive in a diverse environment.
• Experience in management of staff performance gaps and provision of additional training or managing a performance improvement plan.
• Fluency in English required.