Job Title:  Finance & Administration Officer  

Organisation: World Education

Duty Station: Lira, Uganda

About Organisation:

World Education, a division of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI/WE) is dedicated to improving people’s lives around the world through greater heath,  education and socioeconomic equity for individuals and communities, and to providing an environment where people of passion can pursue this cause.

Job Summary:   JSI/WE is seeking a Finance & Administration Officer for a five-year USAID funded Targeting the Learning Crisis (TLC) Activity in Uganda, which aims to create sustained, measurable improvements in development outcomes in Basic Education through Targeted Instruction for foundational skills, a learner-centric pedagogy that reorganizes math and reading instruction based on children’s actual learning levels, rather than on the prescribed grade-level syllabus. The Activity seeks to implement cost-effective, sustainable, and impactful programming, centered around Targeted Instruction pedagogy for P3-P5, Targeted Instruction and other evidence-based approaches for P1-P2, and evidence-based early childhood education for pre-primary years, in order to significantly improve math and reading learning outcomes for Ugandan primary students.

Reporting to the Regional Program Manager, the Finance and Administration Officer is a full-time position based in Lira. S/he will assist with a variety of project operations as they relate to administration, procurement, and logistics.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• • Provide support to the Finance team in processing staff and vendor third party payments and preparation of payment vouchers with respective supporting documents.
  • Process staff travel allowances, perdiems and staff project working advances and post them in QuickBooks.
  • Maintain petty cash function, flow records and entering transactions in the petty cash tracker on a daily basis.
  • Review of staff accountabilities.
  • Assist with preparation and logistical support for workshops, meetings and seminars as requested.
  • Prepare travel advances for staff and outside coaches/facilitators for field visits and workshops.
  • Establish an indexed filing system in the finance section and ensure financial documents are filed as per the filing system.
  • Maintain financial and accounting records and monitoring systems to record and reconcile expenditures, balances, payments, statements and other day-to-day transactions.
  • Provide supervisory line management and technical guidance to the Administration Assistant/Receptionist supporting the her/him and be responsible for his/her performance.
  • Immediate handling of staff inquiries and follow up HR issues that arise during staff meetings.
  • Liaise with the HR Manager for support and advice on all HR issues for regional staff
  • Administers staff leave roster and coordinate timesheets and appraisals etc.
  • Provide on-going support and mentoring to project Staff with regard to project financial systems and procedures.
  • Interface and work with cross functional teams within the organization;
  • Ensure that in your line of duty, you are aware of child safeguarding principles and guidelines and apply it in your day-to-day roles as you interact with communities and children.
  • Ensure promotion of safe child practices and mitigation, prevention and reporting of violations of children to ensure compliance;
  • Carry out other tasks as assigned by your supervisor or designee.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• University degree in a relevant field, such as accounting, finance or business management and administration;
• At least three (3) years of relevant experience working in financial management and administration, preferably with international projects;
• Experience with QuickBooks accounting system strongly desired;
• Working with Mobile Money payments systems is strongly desired;
• Ability to work independently, take initiative and manage various activities in a team setting with minimal supervision;
• A proven ability to work as part of a team and to be self-managing;
• Must be able to maintain confidentiality for all project and staff proprietary matters.
• Excellent skills in Microsoft Word, Excel;
• Good communications and interpersonal skills;
• Relevant experience with USAID-funded programs and knowledge of USAID rules, and regulations and past experience with international development sector strongly desired;