Project Finance Analyst

Background

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

UNDP India’s new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

• Strong, accountable and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
• Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
• Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.

South-South cooperation, gender equality and social inclusion are promoted across the pillars. The programme is supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, strategic innovation and accelerator labs, and data and digital architecture.

You are invited to join a team of future-smart development professionals to support India in achieving the national and globally agreed goals. As part of the UNDP team, your focus will be to work with diverse stakeholders to find country-specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and reach those furthest behind first.

Office/Unit/Project Description

UNDP India is seeking a Project Finance Analyst to support the effective financial management of the Health System Strengthening (HSS) projects within the Health Unit of the country office. The Project Finance Analyst will play a key role in ensuring the financial integrity of this large and complex nationwide project, supporting financial planning, donor reporting, and compliance with UNDP and donor regulations.

UNDP India has a long-standing partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), supporting large health initiatives at the national, state, and district levels. In alignment with government priorities and in coordination with UN agencies, UNDP’s health programming aims to strengthen the delivery of essential health services to the entire population of India, particularly focusing on equitable access to services and the principle of Leaving No One Behind (LNOB).

The Health System Strengthening (HSS) project includes two key initiatives, implemented across all states and union territories in India:

Health System Strengthening II (HSS II): Implemented in partnership with MoHFW and initially financed by Gavi until 2024, HSS II has strengthened India’s Universal Immunization Program (UIP) through digital innovations such as the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) and Co-WIN. These systems have transformed vaccine supply chain management and immunization tracking, ensuring better stock monitoring and accessibility. As of 2024, HSS II is now fully funded by state governments through Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) with UNDP under the National Health Mission (NHM). UNDP continues to provide technical and capacity-building support using state funding. This transition requires meticulous financial oversight, agreement management, and coordination with UNDP regional teams and the state health departments to ensure compliance with signed agreements.

Health System Strengthening III (HSS III): To address gaps in immunization coverage, HSS III is leveraging digital solutions to strengthen immunization systems, with funding from Gavi. Key components include the rollout of U- WIN, a digital immunization registry designed to track pregnancies, birth outcomes, and immunization events; the Community of Practice for Demand (CoP-D), which drives social mobilization and community engagement for immunization uptake; and a data analytics initiative to improve decision-making and monitoring of zero-dose cohorts at the district level.

Scope of Work

The Health System Strengthening (HSS) project team within the UNDP India Country Office Health Unit is responsible for the financial management of multiple funding streams, including Gavi funding for the HSS III project (U-WIN, Community of Practice – Demand, and Data Analytics) as well as state contributions from nearly all Indian states for the ongoing implementation of the eVIN initiative. The project is implemented in all Indian states and involves engagement with different implementing partners and consultants, leading to a large volume of transactions covering diverse activities. At the same time, the transition of eVIN funding from Gavi support to state-level financing(HSS II) requires systematic financial oversight, efficient cash flow management, and timely financial reporting to ensure uninterrupted project operations.

To strengthen financial management and enhance efficiency in managing donor funding, state contributions, and expenditures, the HSS team is seeking a Project Finance Analyst.

The Project Finance Analyst will collaborate closely with UNDP Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Project team and with the Country Office Finance and Operations teams ensuring efficient financial management within the project by overseeing budgeting, expenditure tracking, and compliance with UNDP and donor financial regulations. This role will lead to streamlining financial processes, establishing tracking systems, and supporting audits to maintain transparency and accountability. The role involves enhancing coordination between finance, regional, and state teams, ensuring financial sustainability and optimizing resource allocation for project success. This includes driving financial strategy, strengthening compliance and reporting, and building financial management capacity.

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting To: Project Operations Analyst, NPSA 9

Reports to this position: Project Finance Associate, NPSA 6

Ensure implementation of financial and operational strategies, adapt processes and procedures focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Ensure full compliance with UN/UNDP rules, regulations, and policies of financial activities, financial recording/reporting system and follow-up on audit recommendations; implementation of effective internal controls, proper functioning of a client-oriented financial resources management system;
• Undertake management of financial cost sharing and cost sharing agreements;
• ensuring elaboration of proposals and implementation of cost saving and reduction strategies in consultations with project team;
• Proactively assist in continuous analysis and monitoring of the financial situation, presentation of forecasts for project.
• Monitoring financial reports for unusual activities, transactions, and investigates anomalies on a regular basis;

Financial Oversight & Reporting:

• Ensuring the timely preparation and submission of Statement of Expenditure and financial reports while ensuring accuracy and compliance with UNDP policies and donor requirements.
• Guiding and leading the project’s finance, managing outstanding financial claims by expediting the certification process and settlement of pending payments to maintain smooth financial operations, pre- finance mechanisms and avoiding fund utilization gaps.
• Designing, refining and implementing financial tracking systems for real-time monitoring of state contributions, pending claims, and cash flow.
• Developing financial forecasting models to support budget planning and fund allocation strategies.
• Ensuring an efficient financial flow process while identifying and addressing bottlenecks.
• Provide high-level financial analysis and strategic recommendations to project leadership for informed decision-making.
• Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting, including Statements of Expenditure and donor compliance reports.
• Review multi-donor budgets and ensure accurate budget processing in the system, aligning with approved work plans.
• Identify gaps between the budget and expenditures and highlight them for corrective action.

Process Optimization and Operational efficiency:

• Reviewing existing processes for expenditure, certification, cross charging and payment mechanism.
• Lead the backlog clearance of financial certifications and ensuring the system is streamlined for future financial reporting.
• Maintaining a document management system and financial records to improve audit readiness and compliance.
• Leverage technology to design financial tracking dashboards for real-time, comprehensive monitoring of multi-donor budgets and fund utilization.

Risk Management and Compliance Strengthening:

• Establish a proactive risk management system to mitigate financial risks including cash flow shortages and funding gaps.
• Ensuring compliance with UNDP financial regulations, donor requirements, internal controls and accountability mechanism.
• Supporting audit preparations and responses to audits by UNDP and donors, in line with donor agreements, UNDP rules and regulations, policies, and procedures, and ensuring timely implementation of audit recommendations and findings.
• Develop and institutionalizing SOPs to streamline financial management and donor funding.
• Conducting periodic internal reviews to proactively identify financial compliance issues and address them before audits.
• Ensure that the project team adheres to the approved agreements regarding financial allocations, preventing unauthorized deviations in spending.
• Provide financial quality assurance to maintain adherence to project budgets and donor conditions.

Management of Staff and Coordination:

• Supervise and provide performance management support to the Project Finance Associate.
• Ensure effective workload distribution and oversight of financial documentation prepared by the Project Finance Associate.
• Conduct periodic performance reviews, providing guidance and capacity-building to enhance staff competencies.
• Promote a collaborative work environment and ensure alignment of financial responsibilities within the team.
• Maintain strong coordination with the Finance Unit and the Head of Finance to align financial strategies and reporting mechanisms.

Capacity Building & Coordination

• Providing technical guidance to finance and relevant project colleagues on financial documentation, reporting standards, and advance management.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration between finance, programme, and procurement teams to ensure seamless financial management through improved cross-functional workflows.
• Establish clear communication mechanisms for financial updates, reporting and decision-making.
• Conducting capacity building sessions for regional project analysists and operations associates to build long- term financial management capacity and ensure consistent financial practices.

Knowledge Building and Sharing

• Documenting lessons learned from financial management processes and recommending improvements for future projects linked to Government financing.
• Contribute to the development of financial best practices for government-financed health initiatives.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies

Core competencies

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously:  LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner:  LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site. 

Business Direction & Strategy           

• Strategic Thinking - Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP's objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP  

Business Management           

• Human- cantered Design - Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process             
• Client Management - Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real client needs.   

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A professional accounting qualification from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy, and/or Advanced University Degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Finance and/or Accounting is required. Candidates with professional accounting qualifications from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications, but with degrees that major in accountancy and/or finance must complete the Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited.
• Candidates satisfying the two above criteria are exempted from undertaking the UNDP Advanced Accountancy and Finance Test (AAFT).
• Candidates with MBA or Masters in finance with no accountancy qualification but with relevant experience must successfully undertake the UNDP Advanced Accountancy and Finance Test (AAFT) to be eligible for shortlisting.

Experience:

• Applicants with master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field of study are not required to have professional work experience. 
• Applicants with a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience in providing financial management services, and/or managing staff and operational systems. Experience of IPSAS and/or IFRS is required for external candidates.
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advanced knowledge of web-based management systems such as ERP financials and database packages is required.
• Proven experience in financial reporting, budgeting, multi-donor funding management, and compliance with international financial regulations.
• Experience with web-based management systems and ERP financials, preferably Quantum (UNDP ERP provided by Oracle).
• Proven familiarity with UNDP financial regulations and donor compliance frameworks.
• Proven ability to work independently and prioritize to meet multiple competing deadlines.
• Professionally qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.
• Strong ability to optimize financial processes, track expenditures, and ensure efficient fund disbursement within large-scale development programs.
• Excellent communication skills to collaborate across teams, advise on budget matters, and support project audits.

Required Language

• Fluency in English is required.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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