Building Resilience in Ethiopia (BRE):

The Building Resilience in Ethiopia (BRE) programme is co-funded by UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and USAID over three years (2019-2022) and is intended to assist Ethiopia to ‘become more resilient to climate and humanitarian shocks.’ Under the BRE programme, OPM is the Managing Agent for the delivery of technical assistance (TA) across three work streams: health, disaster risk management (DRM) and finance.

The finance workstream under BRE will support the Federal Ministry of Finance in better preparing for and responding to disasters. The intended outcome of the finance workstream is to ensure that Ethiopia’s public finances are more resilient to shocks. The work programmes are currently under development but broadly aim to improve budgeting practices for humanitarian response, strengthen links between planning and budgeting, and build a better understanding of the costs of current climate and humanitarian risk faced by the government. The Finance workstream is a cross-cutting workstream and will work closely with the Health, Safety Nets and Disaster Risk Management workstreams, falling under the broader BRE programme.

As the BRE is designed to be flexible to responding to emerging needs as they arise, OPM is looking to recruit Public Finance Management (PFM) Consultant that can support the Finance Workstream to provide direct support to the Ministry of Finance in order to support the development of financial systems related to the COVID-19 response.

Rationale:

The COVID-19 outbreak has the potential disrupt the routine work of the Ministry of Finance as they engage in the short-term response to this complex emergency which in turn will have a knock-on effect of interrupting the technical assistance that BRE has been providing in developing shock resistant financial systems.  The BRE program will recruit short term PFM technical experts to assist with the preparedness and response which will provide a real time opportunity to assess and identify gaps in the systems to support shock responsive finance systems which support an emergency response. The BRE team will ensure that this role fills a gap that is specifically identified as a short term need by the Ministry of Finance. The BRE Finance Advisor in the Addis Ababa office will monitor the work of the expert on a weekly basis to ensure that the PFM experts are fulfilling the needs identified by the Ministry of Finance and if this is not taking place effectively BRE will terminate the short-term technical assistance. The BRE Team is actively communicating with the NDRMC, EPHI, the PHEM Partners Working Group and OCHA to communicate the gaps that are being identified by the BRE Government partners and communicating possible areas where technical assistance is being provided to reduce the risk of overlap.

The Role of the Public Finance Manager consultant:

BRE is seeking to recruit a PFM consultant in the Finance workstream to be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An Ethiopian national, the PFM consultant will work under the leadership of the BRE Finance Workstream Manager and the Finance Workstream leads. The post holder will work closely with government officials from the Ministry of Finance, alongside other officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopian Public Health Institute and National Disaster Risk Management Commission as required.

Purpose:

The purpose of the support will focus on working with the Finance Workstream to provide direct support to the Ministry of Finance in order to support the development of financial systems related to the COVID-19 response. Work will include,

·         maintaining strong and productive working relations with government counterparts,

·         Contributing to and coordinating technical inputs,

·         Continual liaison between the wider BRE team and government.

Responsibilities:

The PFM Consultant will provide support Finance Workstream in the areas indicated above and will be working closely with other BRE team members based in Addis Ababa and in the regions. They will perform tasks and undertake responsibilities as follows:

S/he will perform tasks and undertake responsibilities as follows:

1.       Support the direct provision of technical assistance within the Ministry of Finance and the broader BRE focal ministries, in order to support the MOF in the COVID-19 response. This will involve working with national technical experts and remotely, with international experts.

2.       Support the BRE Finance Workstream in coordinating the COVID-19 support to the MoF, acting as the key focal point, liaising between MOF, the BRE central team and donors;

3.       Maintain excellent working relations with MOF officials, ensuring continual dialogue on the opportunities provided by the BRE programme and ensuring that BRE’s technical assistance aligns with and meets government’s immediate needs in relation to COVID-19 response.

Competencies

Required:

o    A postgraduate (Masters) degree in Economics or public policy, or an equivalent professional training;

o    Ten years of experience in Public Financial Management;

o    Experience working in the Ministry of Finance;

o    Proven sense of initiative, results orientation, and leadership qualities, as well as effective teamwork skills;

o    Excellent inter-personal and communication skills with a proven track record of developing and sustaining collaborative relationships with partners.

o    A proactive team player, with good coordination and liaison skills.

o    Fluency in English and Amharic;

o    Strong computer skills: MS Office, MS Excel in particular.

Desired:

o   An understanding of disaster risk financing.