Assistant for Office Administration and Finance

GIZ- Internal/External Vacancy Announcement #099/2020

Land Governance in Ethiopia (LaGo) 

As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, the federally owned Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the German Government in achieving its development-policy objectives.

In Ethiopia, GIZ has been working for more than 40 years in bilateral cooperation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and on commission of the Ethiopian government and international donors. 

In order to strengthen agricultural productivity and production and to modernize agriculture in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Agriculture is pursuing strategies for nationwide land use certification and land consolidation. The widespread fragmentation of agricultural land is a major challenge for a more productive agricultural sector. However, legal and social framework conditions for the fair and participatory reorganization of the agricultural area are limited. The responsible regional authorities also lack the required capacities and expertise to implement land consolidation procedures. The population is skeptical towards the government’s reform intentions, mainly due to negative experiences and less participatory processes in the past.   

In this context, the TC project pursues the objective of creating sound conditions for the implementation of participatory land consolidation procedures. As such, the framework conditions for increased agricultural productivity are improved, and thus contribute to improving the living conditions of smallholders as well as to economic development in the concerned rural areas. Hence, the target group is the rural population in the selected project areas, and in particular landowners whose agricultural productivity is impaired by the fragmentation of their land. 

Activities will be carried out in the following intervention areas:

• Strengthening the competencies of staff of relevant national and regional authorities and civil society organizations
• Development and piloting of participatory procedures and guidelines with Ethiopian authorities/organizations
• Support in the development of legal frameworks to ensure a constitutional approach to land consolidation.

In selected pilot areas, sensitization and communication measures for the local population will be carried out in coordination with other TC projects and support will be provided for the training of land consolidation committees (LCC) as well as for voluntary parcel swaps. The project’s implementing partner is the Rural Land Administration and Use Directorate in the Ministry of Agriculture.

GIZ Ethiopia is looking to recruit an ASSISTANT FOR ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE to support the LAND GOVERNANCE PROJECT

The assistant will report to and be supervised by the team leader. 

Responsibilities:

The assistant is mainly responsible for:

• General office administration according to GIZ internal regulations
• Up to date bookkeeping and monitoring of expenses
  

Duties: 

Administration & finance

The assistant:

• Carries out tasks according to GIZ regulations;
• Secures a smooth workflow providing all necessary work materials to team members;
• Oversees necessary action for office space
• Prepares financial reports regularly and upon request
• assists with creditor and debtor administration, including local subsidies and agreements with national appraisers
• prepares transfers and/or other bank documents and checks these before execution
• makes monthly payments and foreign currency transactions and optimizes these
• is responsible for administrative aspects of financial management, e.g. bank withdrawals, direct debit orders
• checks unexpected entries in the cash book
• prepares the monthly payroll for GIZ national personnel
• is responsible for deducting taxes, social security and adjustment payments
  

Other duties/additional tasks

The assistant:

• photocopies and scans documents as needed
• reports without delay to the persons responsible for office administration and accounting on all problems in financial administration and compliance with rules
• is responsible for filing administration and finance documents and treating information confidentially
• performs other duties and tasks at the request of management
  

Qualifications

• Diploma or comparable professional education in administration, accounting or similar;
• Fluent command of the English and Amharic language,
• Computer literacy (MS package, and internet-based research)
• Ability to cope with stress and to organize/prioritize workload under tight deadlines
• Discipline and punctuality;
• Resilience and patience;
• Availability for in-country duty travel to project sites
  

Professional experience

• At least 1-2 years’ work experience in a comparable position;
• Experience with international organizations, government entities and NGOs are highly appreciated.
  

Other knowledge, additional competencies

• Willingness to upskill as required by the tasks to be performed – corresponding measures are agreed with management.