Grant Management & Finance Coordinator

Background

The Global Disability Fund (GDF) (formerly UNPRPD) is a multi-partner trust fund dedicated to advancing disability-inclusive development globally. It supports the implementation of the CRPD and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by providing technical assistance, policy guidance, and financial support to governments, UN agencies, civil society, and businesses.

The GDF is hosted within the UNDP Governance team in the Bureau of Policy and Programme Support (BPPS). The GDF Secretariat operates in accordance with its own Strategic Plan and agreed annual work plan approved by its Steering Committee. As GDF expands its strategic reach and portfolio, it is essential to ensure that its impact, effectiveness, and accountability are continuously monitored and evaluated. 

The Grant Management & Finance function within the UN Global Disability Fund MPTF operates in accordance with UN financial regulations, donor requirements, and the 2025–2030 Strategy. The function has been strengthened to address the increasing scale and complexity of programmes and the growing diversity of the donor base. The Grant Management & Finance Coordinator role ensures enhanced financial oversight, risk management, and policy compliance.

UNDP provides integrated programmatic, policy and financing solutions to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  In this context, UNDP has created a Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Crisis Bureau (CB) are the two anchor Bureaux of the GPN. 

The Bureau for Programme and Policy Support (BPPS) plays a central role in developing relevant policies and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS designs and implements global projects and provides technical expertise and advisory services to countries and engage in global policy processes across a wide range of thematic and cross-cutting issues, including poverty and inequality, governance, climate change, environment, energy, sustainable finance while ensuring that human rights, gender equality, and social inclusion as central to its approach.  

The Crisis Bureau (CB) spearheads UNDP’s efforts to support countries on a key challenge: how to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from fragility and crisis. CB addresses the risks that precipitate crises, prevent early exit from them, and perpetuate long-term dependency on humanitarian assistance.  Guided by UNDP’s Crisis Offer (2022), CB works within the GPN and with Regional Bureaux (RBx) and Country Offices (COs) to implement solutions across prevention, response and recovery that help break the cycle of protracted fragility and crisis. 

Position Purpose:

The Global Disability Fund (GDF) is seeking a highly qualified Grant Management & Finance Coordinator to lead its end-to-end grant management and financial oversight. This role ensures effective proposal development, donor compliance, financial governance, and risk management in alignment with the 2025–2030 GDF Strategy, which advances disability-inclusive development and global partnerships.

The Coordinator will oversee grant lifecycle management, including supporting proposal development, donor engagement and reporting, financial oversight and governance compliance including risk mitigation. This role fosters strong grant accountability and financial stewardship in a complex multi-stakeholder environment, ensuring funding is secured, allocated efficiently, and aligned with disability inclusion priorities.

The ideal candidate brings expertise in international development, grant and financial management, pooled funding, and multi-stakeholder governance. They should demonstrate leadership in proposal development, financial oversight, compliance including risk management within joint UN programming and disability inclusion initiatives.

This position requires a strategic professional adept at navigating complex funding landscapes, ensuring grant and financial processes work seamlessly and transparently to drive impact. The Coordinator will collaborate with Technical, Partnerships, and Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) teams to strengthen GDF’s grant and financial systems.

The Grant Management & Finance Coordinator reports to the head of GDF  Secretariat. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

Coordinate Proposals (pre-Grant)

• Manage relationship with the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) Office on grant-related financial and administrative matters
• Develop Terms of Reference (TOR) for proposals and liaise with the technical team to ensure alignment with programme goals
• Manage end-to-end planning, launch, and implementation of funding rounds for country programmes in alignment with the GDF Strategy
• Launch and manage the end-to-end proposal submission process, securing necessary approvals from MPTF and programme committees
•  Oversee due diligence on non UN entities before grant allocations. 
• Ensure proposals align with donor requirements and UNDP financial and operational policies.
• Input into programme design in collaboration with the technical team to align funding with strategic objectives
• Manage contract drafting and negotiations, guiding agreements through internal approval processes
• Mediate contract review/negotiations with third parties to ensure alignment with funding and programme needs
• Liaise with the UN Country Teams on financial and administrative issues related to grant development
• Maintain working knowledge of the fund agreement process (for both contracts and grants), ensuring proper template usage
• Support the engagement with donors and the development of proposals for resource mobilization.

Manage End-to-End Grant Management Lifecycle (post-Grant)

Grant Financial and Administrative Management

• Manage all financial and administrative aspects of grants, including planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring of programmes
• Monitor grant disbursements and fund utilization including preparing variance and risk analysis
• Liaise with UN Country Teams on financial and administrative matters related to grant implementation, reporting, and compliance

Monitoring and Reporting

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive dashboard tracking the financial and operational status of programme proposals, donor financial commitments, and grant expenditures, ensuring alignment with financial targets
• Oversee annual reporting from countries, coordinating both technical and financial reports to ensure compliance with donor requirements and organizational policies
• Provide weekly updates to the  Head of the GDF Secretariat on financial status, compliance issues, programme performance, and performance related risk mitigation strategies
• Ensure timely and accurate responses to financial inquiries from internal stakeholders and external donors

Programme Adjustments and Closure

• Coordinate grant extensions and cost modifications, ensuring proper documentation and approval processes
• Oversee  programme closures, ensuring compliance with MPTF office requirements and smooth transitions
• Collaborate with MPTF to complete contract amendments (donors and grantees)

Ensure Governance and Financial Compliance of Grant management

• Ensure adherence to GDF governance processes and compliance with  MPTF financial rules and regulations. 
• Provide ongoing financial guidance to Technical Teams to ensure clarity on budget management and resource allocation according to donor policies in coordination with the MPTF office .
• Monitor programme grant budgets and expenditures against agreed budget lines
• Prepare financial analysis, forecasts for the GDF Steering Committee and Donor meetings.
• Advice grantees on  risk mitigation strategies to prevent financial discrepancies or fraud

Donor liaison and Financial Updates

Donor Engagement 

• Monitoring and tracking the use of donor funds, ensuring compliance with financial regulations, and maintaining transparency and accountability in all financial transactions.
• Coordinating financial audits and support MPTFOs response to donor requests for additional financial information or clarifications,
• Support donor engagement through communication, stewardship strategies, and showcasing the impact of their financial contributions to build trust and encourage ongoing or increased support.
• Supporting resource mobilization by identifying opportunities for new or diversified funding, and preparing compelling financial proposals and investment cases.
• Work closely with grantees to address financial reporting queries and ensure alignment with donor expectations
• Ensure timely submission of financial reports in compliance with UNDP financial regulations and donor requirements 
• Coordinate with implementing partners to resolve financial reporting discrepancies and ensure adherence to reporting deadlines
• Support annual and interim financial reviews of country-level grants, ensuring transparency and accountability

 Input for Donor Proposals & Additional Funding

• Support prepare  donor proposals, ensuring alignment with GDF’s strategy. 
• Develop detailed budgets and financial projections for new proposals, incorporating cost recovery 
• Provide financial modeling and scenario analysis for multi-year funding commitments
• Track financial commitments from donors and ensure accurate recording of new contributions in financial systems

Support the Fund’s Global Progress Report

• Lead the financial section of the Fund’s annual report, ensuring accuracy and alignment with overall reporting

Team Capacity Building

• Provide financial guidance to Technical teams, ensuring clarity on budget management and compliance requirements
• Provide strategic oversight and mentorship to the Finance Specialist, ensuring efficient financial reporting, compliance, and internal control measures
• Support capacity building by guiding the Finance Specialist in grant financial management, donor 

Competencies:

Core  CoreBehaviouralCompetencies.pdf (undp.org)

Achieve Results:

• Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact    

Think Innovatively:

• Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems  

Learn Continuously:

• Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility:

• Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination:

• Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results    

Engage and Partner:

• Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration  

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

• Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

People Management:

UNDP People: Management Competencies can be found on the dedicated site. 

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy: System Thinking

• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Management: Portfolio Management

• Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization's programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity
• Ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives with regular activities for optimal return on investment. Knowledge and understanding of key principles of project, programme, and portfolio management

Business Management: Risk Management

•  Identify and organize action around reducing, mitigating and proactively managing risks

Business Management: Project Management

• Ability to select, prioritise and control the organizations programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity;

Finance: Financial reporting and analysis

• Understands changes in regulatory, legal and ethical frameworks and standards for financial reporting in the public sector. Ability to extract, evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful and coherent manner to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring. 
• Understands the benefits of integrated reporting, including non-financial resources such as human, social and intellectual capital, and environmental and governance performance

Finance: Financial risk management 

• Ensures financial resilience through proactive assessment of risk, implementation of controls and taking mitigating action. Understands risk and reward in relation to collaborative and commercial projects. 
• Ensures a culture of positive risk management

Business Development: Integration within the UN

• Ability to represent UNDP and productively share UNDP knowledge and activities; advocate for UNDP, its values, mission and work with various constituencies

Required Skills and Experience:

Education:

• Advanced university (Master’s degree) in International Development, International Relations, Public Administration, Public Policy, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field OR
• A relevant first-level university (Bachelor’s degree) in a relevant field AND two additional years of relevant work experience is required 

Experience:

Required:

• Minimum seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in funding grants  management and multi stakeholders’ initiatives on disability inclusion design and implementation including a minimum 5 years, of management responsibility in financial oversight, compliance, and risk management in a multi-stakeholder development setting
• Hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development programs on human rights issues with a strong understanding of disability inclusion applied to the development context. 
• Sound knowledge of pooled funding mechanism rules and regulations as well as UNDG guidance on joint programming
• Proven experience in developing MPTFs strategic and financial planning
• Proven experience in budget  planning and monitoring of pooled funds
• Experience in managing donors’ relations and strategic resource mobilization for MPTFs
• Sound knowledge of UNDP/MPTFO financial rules, donor requirements, and policy frameworks.

Desirable:

• Demonstrated expertise in conducting grant monitoring, financial compliance and developing risk mitigation strategies.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex financial data and provide strategic recommendations.

Language:

• Proficiency in English is required 
• Knowledge of other UN languages is a strong asse

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. 

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

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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