Short-Term Finance Support and Capacity Strengthening Consultant – Winrock International

Job Description

Title:  Short-term Finance Support and Capacity Strengthening Consultant  

Reports to: Operations Director 

Dates: February 2025- April 2025 

LOE : Up to 65 days  

Location: Lilongwe, Malawi 

Project Summary:  

The Market Transitions to Enable New Growth Opportunities (MTENGO) project is a five year, USDA-funded project implemented by Winrock International in the Northern and Central regions of Malawi. MTENGO uses a farmer-first approach grounded in market incentives to increase resource-efficient, reliable production from Malawian agriculture in the face of climate unpredictability. MTENGO’s approach will enable farmers to:   

1. Diversify and achieve stable returns from their farming portfolio through climate smart farming by responding to market demands with diversified production;   
2. Increase access to water for productive purposes through improved water management practices;   
3. Make ecosystem services work for farmers by improving farmer access to, and collective management of, water, soil, and forest products; and   
4. Increase access to markets and finance so farmers can make climate smart investments.   

Position Objective:  

The MTENGO project seeks a project finance professional with USG-donor experience to engage in capacity strengthening opportunities with the project finance staff and to provide support on daily financial and administrative tasks.  

Where identified, provide capacity strengthening opportunities to project staff to ensure comprehensive understanding and application of Winrock and donor policy and procedures. Supplement capacity development activities with daily, in-office support on financial and administrative tasks and functions to ensure timely and complaint project financial management.  This includes but is not limited to: 

• Collaborate with project finance team and other project staff to clear advances in a timely manner with all proper documentation and approvals  
• Support project finance team to align project spending descriptions with Quickbooks entries.  
• Collaborate with project finance staff and technical team to ensure spending aligns with correct activity codes.  
• Review finance vouchers with project finance team and support timely voucher approval, payment, and uploading.  
• Support project finance team with month end closing tasks and timely submission of finance reports.  
• Support finance lead to manage the working budget and create monthly wire requests in coordination with the Technical, MEL and Operations teams. 
• Coordinate with project Finance Officers to ensure proper cash planning and bank reconciliation 
• Review petty cash control and processing and support finance team and Operations Director in updating. 
• Coordinate with project drivers and technical staff to ensure vehicle millage tracker is accurately used.  
• Review payroll controls and practices with project Operations Director and finance team to strengthen controls and train on enhanced controls. 
• Coordinate with Regional Accounting Team to provide refresh training on Winrock International financial management policies and procedures and cascade a mini training to appropriate technical staff. 
• Support team to strengthen systems and practices to ensure timely VAT reporting. 
• Support finance team to track and manage subrecipient cost share reporting. 
• Other tasks as assigned by project leadership and Regional Finance 

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting or related field; Certified Public Accountant (CPA) qualification strongly preferred ;  
• Minimum 8 years’ experience increasingly responsibility leading financial management, administrative, and/or procurement of donor-funded programs required, USDA or USAID experience preferred;  
• Familiar with coordinating with governmental offices to ensure the organization’s operation comply with local laws preferred; 
• Familiar with Winrock International internal processes and controls preferred 
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint including SharePoint cloud storage;  
• Strong analytical and computer skills, especially spreadsheet and financial analysis; and  
• Must have a strong customer service orientation, ability to demonstrate the highest level of ethical standards at all times, ability to multi-task and juggle competing priorities while ensuring quality output.  
• Excellent written and oral communication skill in English required  
• Ability to travel to Lilongwe, Malawi and spend at least 60 days in country 

 Winrock is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and value diversity and inclusiveness. Winrock recruits, employs, trains, promotes and compensates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law.

At Winrock we have a clear mission: Empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources through unwavering dedication to accountability, equity, innovation, integrity and transformation.

Winrock knows that its success comes from the hard work and steadfast dedication of its diverse workforce. Winrock remains committed to maintaining diversity, inclusion and equity across the entire organization