Finance Officer (Mubende) Full Time

Title: Finance Officer

Department: Programming (Restore Africa)

Report to: Senior Finance Officer

Duration: Full-time

Job Location: Mubende, Uganda

Vacancies: One (1)

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.

Job Summary:

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.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• 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.

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• A bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, economics, business administration, or a related field is strongly preferred. Relevant accounting courses or professional qualifications (e.g., CPA, ACCA, or equivalent) are an advantage.
• Minimum of five years of relevant accounting experience. Additional relevant experience may be considered in lieu of formal education.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• Knowledge of relevant public donor regulations is preferred.
• Proficiency in MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio) and web conferencing tools.
• Familiarity with Project Insight or similar financial reporting/accounting software is an advantage.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to detect and report inconsistencies effectively.
• Conscientious, accurate, and thorough, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Commitment to ethical conduct, in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, and results-driven.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues, partners, and stakeholders.

Required Languages: Excellent command of written and spoken English required knowledge of local languages from districts where RESAf is implemented an advantage.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 30% in the CRS field location.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviors and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Personal Accountability—consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity—consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust—shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others—works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn—seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change—continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others—builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset—understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team principles.

Key Working Relationships:

• Supervisory Responsibilities: None.
• Internal: Country Representative, Finance, Programme & Admin Staff, Vendors.
• External: Banks, Statutory Bodies, SR Partners and Auditors.

“Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.”

Tagged as: Catholic Relief Services, Uganda