NGO Jobs in Nairobi, Kenya - AAS

African Academy of Sciences

Position Title: Grants Accountant
Vacancy Announcement No: AAS/GA/18/002
Department: Finance
Reporting to: Head of Finance and Grants
Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 3 Years Renewable

Closing date: 8th June 2018
Organisation Overview: The AAS is a pan African organisation whose headquarters are in Kenya. The Academy has a tripartite mandate of pursuing excellence by recognising scholars and achievers; providing advisory and think-tank functions for shaping the continent’s strategies and policies; and implementing key science, technology and innovation programmes that impact on developmental challenges through the agenda setting and funding platform – the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA).
Position Overview: The Grants Accountant is responsible for preparing programmes financial statements, maintaining cash controls, providing financial reporting and analysis to the AAS.
The incumbent performs post-award grant administration and related accounting duties working closely with the Academy finance team in carrying out financial management, budgeting, compliance of grantees, reporting to funders and conducting variance analysis.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities;
Financial Planning, Budgeting and Grant Analysis
·         Initiate the process of planning and developing budgets for new grant proposals and ensuring grantees’ budgets are aligned to AAS policies as well as donor requirements
·         Work with the programme managers and the Head of Finance in reviewing and approving budgets submitted by grantees and ensure financial analysis and forecasting is done to aid in decision making
·         Offer the technical backstop to grantees and ensure they are equipped on how to develop budgets and budget narratives for grant application
Grantee Assessment and Capacity Building
·         Assess the financial capacity of new grantees in-order to mitigate against financial risks and losses to the Academy by reviewing their internal controls, identifying areas of weakness and advising accordingly during site visits
·         Support programme managers in the granting making process, ensuring grant agreements are well executed
Grant Monitoring and Financial Reporting
·         Promote accountability of grants processes, funds and compliance to funders’ requirements. Ensure adherence to reporting timelines by developing and maintaining a grant tracking database to monitor the flow of grants from the time full grant documentation is received to the time the first payment is made
·         Verify reported expenses to ensure they are allowable, allocable, and reasonable by maintaining a comprehensive timetable for grant financial reporting from grantees to the funders and follow-up to ensure adherence of reporting timelines
·         Provide financial backstopping to grantees when implementing grants to achieve set objectives. Review of grantees reported expenses through cross examination of expenses and providing feedbacks
·         Analyse financial transactions to ensure that they are correctly charged, and financial positions provided to funders are a true and fair representation of financial position. Support the Head of Finance in reviewing and consolidating grantees financial reports for grants within specified funder formats, ensuring accuracy and compliance with funders’ requirements
·         Advise the programme managers and the management on current financial status by ensuring accuracy and correct coding of financial transactions and reconciliations of grants financial reports in the financial system
·         Facilitate smooth, prompt (timely), and quality implementation of grants by preparing adhoc operating reports, analysis and financial statements from general and subsidiary ledgers for Management consumption
Facilitation of Grant Audits
·         Mitigate financial risks by ensuring internal controls are put in place by providing support to the development and implementation systems and streamlining processes within the finance functions
·         Support the audit process by addressing issues raised in audit exercises and following up on audit recommendations to ensure they are implemented
·         Implement best practices on grant closure procedures and monitor how effectively high-risk grants and contracts follow comprehensive grant closure steps to ensure proper standards are upheld in management of grants
Fund Disbursement and Financial Accounting
·         Process and disburse funds to grantees by ensuring funds are available in order to facilitate smooth implementation of projects. Monitor bank balances to ensure timely inter-bank transfers and healthy cash flows are maintained
·         Prepare monthly bank reconciliations and maintain accurate and updated records of bank correspondences, bank Instructions and confirmations
·         Promote accountability through accurate posting of financial data and correctly coding of expenses in the financial system. Ensure financial processes are adhered to for true and fair reporting; including examination of physical documents, conducting accuracy tests
·         Monitor and initiate the negotiating with banks for fixed deposits placements, and other Investments and monitoring on expiring FDRs
·         Participate in committees as assigned in the execution of its duties and mandates and advise the procurement committee on financial matters
Academic Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Finance/Accounting or related field
Professional Qualifications
·         Complete professional qualification in CPA-K/ACCA;
·         Member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya.
Knowledge and Experience
·         At least 5 years’ relevant experience in finance management with at least 2 years in grants accounting working with multi-national funders
·         Working knowledge of grants accounting and financial management systems
·         Advanced excel and analytical skills (Dashboard reporting, Power BI)
·         Experience in sub-grantee management and capacity building
Skills and Attributes
·         Ability to outline and communicate effective objectives and action plans
·         Good analytical ability and numerical skills
·         Demonstrate a high degree of sensitivity, confidentiality when dealing with internal and external customers
·         Innovative and able to take initiative
·         Have a high sense of accuracy and attention for detail
·         Have good problem analysis and reporting skills
·         High moral standing with impeccable integrity
Application Process
All Applicants must CLICK HERE to download and fill our job application form from the AAS website.


Position Title: Manager, Strategy and Evaluation
Vacancy Announcement No: AAS/MSP/18/001
Department: Programmes
Reporting to: Director – Strategy and Partnerships
Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 3 Years Renewable
Closing date: 8th June 2018
Organisation Overview: The AAS is a pan African organisation whose headquarters are in Kenya.
The Academy has a tripartite mandate of pursuing excellence by recognising scholars and achievers; providing advisory and think-tank functions for shaping the continent’s strategies and policies; and implementing key science, technology and innovation programmes that impact on developmental challenges through the agenda setting and funding platform – the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA).
Position Overview: The Manager for Strategy and Evaluation oversees the implementation of the strategy at the AAS, which includes developing a monitoring and evaluation framework, key performance indicators and reporting guidelines to evaluate performance of the AAS and its programmes against plans, budgets and strategic objectives.
They will also assist in identifying, articulating, and evaluating current science, technology and innovation (STI) policy issues; transforming ideas and emerging STI challenges into a policymaking framework; and providing a constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information among key stakeholders.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
·         Work closely with the leadership of the AAS to support the development of an overarching strategy to accelerate science, technology and innovation in Africa and ensure the direction of the scientific research agenda meets the strategic aims of the AAS

·         Maintain an overall view on the programmes and ongoing projects ensuring that interdependencies are raised quickly and addressed from a technical and operational perspective
·         Lead the implementation of a comprehensive, strategic, goal-based development plan to attract, build, and maintain effective and mutually beneficial relationships with individuals, communities, foundations, and corporations capable of contributing significantly to AAS
·         Lead research and analysis across a range of multiple sectors, topics and fields. This will also involve leading horizon scanning activities and contribute to the development of new schemes and initiatives, working in partnership with other funders where appropriate
·         Undertake research and assist in the preparation of responses, submissions and reports on matters relating to the regulatory bodies and other stakeholder relations
·         Responsible for the management and development of the business’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI) infrastructure to facilitate analysis and reporting of performance against plans and budgets, as well as strategic objectives
·         Manages the development of weekly/quarterly/annual performance reports for the programme and functional leaders as well as facilitating cross-functional performance reviews for the leadership
·         Supports the maintenance of an effective strategy department inclusive of management, coaching, and development of strategy management personnel and identifying and advising on areas for enhancement and focus
·         Develop strategic threat identification and evaluation processes as well as overseeing their adoption across the programmes
·         Develops different possible scenarios for the mitigation of possible risks and provides recommendations for the management of these scenarios
·         Responsible for the development of weekly/quarterly/annual strategic risk reports for the senior strategy management as well as the organisation’s top leadership
·         Plays the role of a strategy coach to all departmental leadership within the business, providing much needed support in the formulation of individual department strategies. The Strategy Manager owns strategic plans and ensures compliance with these strategies.
Professional Qualifications
·         Member of a reputable Institute of Scientific Research or relevant professional body
Knowledge and Experience
·         Working experience in a strategy position within a scientific and dynamic business environment
·         The candidate will have gained substantial exposure to corporate strategy management, with direct exposure to top management strategy formulation and decision making
·         Have experience being a central piece of a wide range of strategic decision-making processes and as a result have become comfortable assessing a business and making appropriate choices
·         Candidate will be a natural collaborator with an ability to establish and maintain lasting relationships both internally and externally
·         Proven experience in facilitating technical and strategic design processes, and developing workflow processes and tools
·         Proven experience in leading a team and of direct line management
·         Knowledge of Science, Technology and Innovation landscape on the African continent
Skills and Attributes
·         Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to foster and develop close working relationships
·         Excellent management and leadership skills; demonstrated ability to build cohesive teams, develop talent, and, achieve organizational goals through teamwork
·         Have enthusiasm, commitment to results with good planning and organisational skills
·         Strong communication skills, presentational skills and ability to address public audiences
·         Good financial and budgeting capability
·         Able to work in an international and multi-cultural setting
·         High moral standing with impeccable integrity
Application Process
All Applicants must CLICK HERE to download and fill our job application form from the AAS website.


Position Title: Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Vacancy Announcement No: AAS/ME/18/005
Department: Programmes
Reporting to: TBD
Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 3 Years Renewable
Closing date: 8th June 2018
Organisation Overview: The AAS is a pan African organisation whose headquarters are in Kenya. The Academy has a tripartite mandate of pursuing excellence by recognising scholars and achievers; providing advisory and think-tank functions for shaping the continent’s strategies and policies; and implementing key science, technology and innovation programmes that impact on developmental challenges through the agenda setting and funding platform – the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA).
Position Overview: The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will be responsible for the implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework for the organisation’s projects and contribute to the design and implementation of related core M&E research and development activities of AAS.
The incumbent will work under the guidance of the Programme Manger to ensure that proper monitoring and evaluation is carried out at outcome level and for ensuring that projects at AAS maintain their strategic vision and that all activities result in the achievement of intended outputs in a cost effective and timely manner.
Specific Responsibilities:
Monitoring and Evaluation
·         Operationalise the M&E framework designed for the Academy including and not limited to designing program M&E tools for data collection, verification, and management and reporting as well as data audits;
·         Contribute to the development, design and planning of projects for a clear and feasible strategy towards impact that is in line with AAS’ mission and strategy, and projects and include clearly defined measurable indicators of outputs, outcomes and impact
·         Contribute to outcome and evidence-based strategic decision making at AAS and promote a culture of evidence-based learning and adaptation
·         Support Programme Managers to develop systematic and realistic monitoring plans that capture quantitative and qualitative data to report on project performance indicators
·         Follow up on monitoring and evaluation exercises for various initiatives for the Academy
·         Conduct capacity assessments on existing monitoring and evaluation system
·         Lead the design and implementation of ex-post and ex-ante evaluations of AAS technologies and interventions using robust methods of impact evaluation
·         Monitor and evaluate overall progress on achievement of results as well as the sustainability of the project results and report periodically to management team
·         Participate in a multidisciplinary team to develop, implement and evaluate strategic management plans to improve AAS programming effectiveness
·         Build the capacity of project staff in monitoring and evaluation and specifically how to demonstrate impact.
Administration
·         Develop and maintain a system for archiving M&E guidelines, tools, data files, analysis files, reports and presentations for major activity undertaken
·         Develop programme and operational reporting templates that facilitate the acquisition and aggregation of information in programmes, including input for impact related success stories
·         Support in gathering, summarising and disseminating relevant technical updates on programme planning monitoring, evaluation and operations research within the programmes
·         Coordinate midterm reviews and evaluation of programme activities and ensure proper documentation of innovative approaches and best practices for dissemination and sharing experiences to promote repeat applications or scalingup in different community settings
·         Support Programme Managers in preparing quarterly/annual reports on projects progress.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience
·         Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration or any other related field
·         At least five (5) years relevant experience in monitoring and evaluation
·         Strong training and facilitation skills with an ability to initiate and manage change and to recognize and adjust to rapidly changing conditions
·         Strong communication and presentation skills including ability to write reports
·         High level interpersonal and cross-cultural skills including ability to build alliances and collaborative relationships with sensitivity to diversity
·         Strong quantitative and analytical skills, verbal skills and ability to communicate technical information clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical colleagues
·         Ability to work in an international and multi-cultural setting
·         High moral standing with impeccable integrity
·         Proven success in designing, implementing, and operating project M&E systems from project initiation to closeout stages
·         Experience in managing M&E database systems
·         Expertise in analysing data using statistical software
·         Proficiency in computer applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook express including financial and statistical packages.
Application Process
All Applicants must CLICK HERE to download and fill our job application form from the AAS website.
All applicants must submit the filled application form, curriculum vitae, and a cover letter submitted by email to recruitment@aasciences.ac.ke, with the Position and Vacancy Number as the Subject no later than 8th June 2018.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted