Back Financial Management Officer

A. About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an intergovernmental regional organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders.

Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees.

ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change and regional cooperation.

For details please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

B. Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP.

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five years’ project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE). The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans and investments.

Financial management plays a vital role in order to satisfactorily implement all the required components as planned within the fiscally agreed budget. It would involve preparation of yearly expenditure budget against the planned activities and its disbursement accordingly. It would require preparation of various financial statements and returns to comply with World Bank regulations, for Bank funded projects.

Accordingly, a qualified and experienced Financial Management Officer will be required to assist the Financial Management Specialist (FMS) in preparing and regulating project budget and expenditure.

The objectives of this staff position are to:

• Assist in strengthening the financial management capacity of ADPC in the implementation of CARE Project through the provision of financial management expertise and advice and support;
• Support ensuring that ADPC’s financial management system and financial statements (“Financial Statements”) are in accordance with international accounting standards in compliance with the regulations of the World Bank;
• Coordinating and assisting the FMS so that all financial management processes of the CARE Project are carried out in compliance with the Financing Agreement, World Bank Guidelines and ADPC’s policies and their associated regulations.

C. Statement of Intent

The Financial Management Officer will support the FMS and Finance Department, ADPC in the further development of ADPC’s finance and accounting management system making it better at providing timely and reliable information for decision making, accountability, project management and auditing purposes and ensure consistency and compliance with ADPC’s fiduciary requirements.

The Financial Management Officer will be based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Note:

It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

D. Duties and Responsibilities

The Financial Management Officer will support:

Budgeting and Planning

• Support the in preparing the budget according to the annual Work Plan of the CARE Project.
• Assist in preparation of CARE Project’s annual Cash Plan on the basis of the annual Work Plan.
• Support in finalizing and uploading annual budget on the FMIS and assist FMS in preparing monthly monitoring reports comparing actual expenditure against the budget.
• Assist the in preparing annual and quarterly disbursement forecasts for all components of the CARE Project in line with project’s procurement plan and Work Plan/Cash Plan.

Funds Management

• Assist in preparing cash forecasts on quarterly basis in coordination with the CARE Project team and submit to the donor for advance and replenishment of advance.
• Support in preparing and processing Statement of Expenditure (SoE) withdrawal application in accordance with the Bank’s Disbursement Guidelines

Expenditure/Payment Processing**

• Assist in ensuring compliance with ADPC’s control framework and CARE Project specific requirements (e.g. Operations Manual, SOPs and the World Bank’s fiduciary guidelines etc.), rules and procedures while processing payments.
• Help in managing financial aspects of the contracts under implementation, including payment terms, purchase orders and variation orders.

Financial Reporting

• Assist in preparing quarterly financial summaries and submit to Project Director and the World Bank in time for review and approval.
• Support in preparing ADPC annual financial statements ensuring that a separate note on CARE is included in the financial statements.
• Assist in preparing periodic financial reports as needed and specified for the CARE Project.

Any other relevant task assigned by the supervisor

E. Qualifications

• A master’s degree or equivalent - in Financial Management or similar.
• At least 5 years of relevant work experience, after acquiring stipulated qualification, in financial management, audit or accounts. Prior experience of donor funded and public sector projects will be accorded due weightage.
• Experience with reputed accounting firms is an advantage.
• Excellent English language writing and communications skills
• Excellent computer skills including MS Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and accounting software

F. Reporting Relationships

The Financial Management Officer will report to the Chief of Finance Department. S/he will also coordinate with the CARE Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

G. Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for 2 years

H. Selection Method

The staff will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations.