Finance Officer (Mubende) at Catholic Relief Services

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion, or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.

CRS’ Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Portfolio

Under the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation strategic priority area, CRS aims to ‘drive uptake and scaling of nature-based solutions and novel financing mechanisms to support national and community level efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change’. CRS currently has three projects which fall explicitly under this strategic priority area, and is in discussions with other donors to start additional and related programs:

• Restore Africa, which aims to restore 560,000 hectares of land with 352,500 smallholder farmers across 31 districts (Climate Asset Management funded)
• Accelerating and Scaling Climate Smart Jobs within Restore Africa - Market Linkages for Livelihoods and Land Restoration (M4R – FCDO funded) in 17 districts, focusing on 60,000 small-holder farmers and 40,000 hectares also engaged in Restore Africa.
• Mixed-Use Agroforestry in Refugee Hosting Districts (World Bank / MinWE funded), targeting 17,550 hectares and 87,782 smallholder farmers

These projects aim to assist smallholder farmers, with an average landholding of 2 hectares (minimum 0.5 hectares, maximum 20 hectares) to diversify production within their agroforestry systems, including through payments for carbon sequestration through integration of trees into their plots. The projects also aim to incentivize smallholder farmers to be able to invest in activities which restore health to their soil and increase productivity over time, as well as meet their own food security and economic needs.

You will support the Finance Department in managing accounting systems, policies, and procedures, ensuring compliance with CRS’ established accounting standards, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), donor regulations, and legal requirements. Your role will contribute to the delivery of high-quality programs that serve the poor and vulnerable. As part of an experienced finance team, you will help coordinate daily financial activities by preparing and delivering accurate and timely financial services.

• Grant Management Support: Provide input on grant management procedures to ensure they enable subrecipients to manage their grants efficiently, transparently, and in compliance with donor financial regulations.
• Transaction Review and Validation: Review and validate supporting documentation before processing financial transactions to ensure accuracy, completeness, and proper authorization.
• Financial Recording and Analysis: Record financial transactions following proper authorizations. Review and analyze various accounts to detect irregularities, advise on corrective actions, and prepare adjusting entries as necessary.
• Subrecipient Financial Oversight: Assess, evaluate, and monitor subrecipient financial management processes in line with policy. Strengthen partners’ capacity in financial accounting and transaction management.
• Disbursement Monitoring: Track disbursement and receipt schedules, alert relevant project or grant staff of upcoming payments or liquidations and maintain communication and follow-up to ensure timely financial resource management and compliance with deadlines.
• Reporting and Budget Support: Prepare periodic and ad hoc financial reports, perform variance analyses, and assist project or grants staff in decision-making. Support budget maintenance to ensure proper management of financial resources.
• Capacity Building and Guidance: Provide guidance to projects, grants staff, subrecipients, and partners on financial accounting policies and procedural compliance. Deliver training and other capacity-building activities as needed.
• Treasury and Cash Management: Perform assigned treasury and grants-related duties, including cash payments, receipts, and cash forecasting, ensuring segregation of duties is maintained.

Applications will only be accepted electronically via the following link: 👉https://form.jotform.com/253171050059550