Finance and Grants Manager

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks a Finance and Grants Manager to provide strategic and operational leadership for the financial and grants management of the REAP Program. The role ensures that program resources are planned, safeguarded, utilized and reported in accordance with the Mastercard Foundation grant agreement, approved budgets, ILRI policies and applicable statutory requirements. The position serves as the principal finance business partner to program leadership and coordinates financial oversight across participating countries, workstreams and implementing partners, enabling timely decisions, strong accountability and effective delivery of program results. The position reports to the Head of Finance, with a dotted reporting line to the REAP Program Director

ILRI is an international organisation working for better lives and better planet through livestock. ILRI’s mission emphasises the interconnections between people, animals, and the environment, aiming to improve the lives of more than 300 million people in low- and middle-income countries through livestock science that supports equitable and resilient livestock systems, ultimately contributing to food systems transformation with climate and environmental benefits. This mission is delivered through two core strategic objectives: co-designing and deploying sustainable, science-based livestock solutions, and leveraging science to inform and influence policy and investment decisions.

ILRI is a member of the CGIAR, a global research alliance that works to transform food, land and water systems in a climate crisis and is the only CGIAR centre dedicated to addressing multiple development challenges through sustainable livestock solutions.

About the program: REAP is a five-year multi-country initiative intended to advance education and relieve poverty by enabling 1,000,000 financially disadvantaged young women and men, aged 18 to 35 years, to access new work opportunities in sustainable feed and livestock value chains across the seven countries. The Program will equip young people with technical, entrepreneurial, financial; digital and workplace capabilities linked to real economic opportunities and enable financially disadvantaged young people to access work, finance, productive assets, markets and income-generating opportunities that improve household resilience and wellbeing. Among its participants, the Program will target 70% young women and at least 5% youth with disabilities and will include refugees and displaced young people where relevant and legally feasible.

The programme will support youth-led and youth-inclusive enterprises to enter, stabilise and grow in feed and livestock markets; strengthen market systems, services, and commercial relationships; and improve policy, finance, innovation, extension, and other enabling systems required for youth-led enterprises to succeed and generate additional employment opportunities. Across these areas, it applies gender-transformative and inclusive approaches to address restrictive gender and social norms, reduce barriers to young women’s participation, and strengthen their agency, voice, leadership and access to resources and opportunities. Safeguarding measures are embedded throughout the programme to protect young people from harm and support their safe participation.

Led by ILRI, the consortium includes ICARDA, IITA, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and ICIPE, working with downstream delivery partners, enterprise-support organisations, financial institutions, government and private sector actors.  ILRI delivers directly in Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal, ICARDA in Egypt and Morocco, and IITA in Nigeria and Zambia. ILRI holds the grant, subcontracts each consortium member and is accountable to the Foundation for how partners use and report funds, so partner financial oversight is a core part of this role.

• Lead preparation, consolidation and periodic revision of the program budget across workstreams, countries, partners, cost categories and implementation periods.
• Translate approved workplans into annual budgets, rolling forecasts, cash-flow projections and resource-allocation recommendations.
• Monitor expenditure and commitments against approved budgets and implementation plans; investigate material variances, agree corrective actions with budget holders and track actions to closure.
• Prepare monthly and quarterly financial analyses covering burn rate, commitments, forecast-to-complete, funding gaps, co-financing obligations, cost-recovery exposure and key financial risks.
• Advise the Program Director, PMU and country leads on the financial implications of operational decisions, implementation delays and proposed changes in scope.
• Coordinate budget reallocations and donor approval requests where required, including tracking line-item variances against the 10% limit above which prior Foundation approval is needed, maintaining a complete record of approved changes.

• Interpret the grant agreement, approved budget, reporting instructions and financial conditions, and translate them into clear guidance and controls for program teams and partners.
• Apply the financial governance framework including cost allocation, charge out and shared cost rules, and ensure ILRI and partner charging follows it.
• Lead preparation, review and submission of complete, accurate and timely quarterly donor financial reports, forecasts and supporting schedules, and inputs to each designation for periodic transfers
• Monitor and track financial reporting deadlines, audit requirements, approval workflows, deliverables, and other grant compliance obligations through the ERP System (OCS), proactively following up with responsible stakeholders to ensure timely completion and compliance with donor and organizational requirements.
• Ensure expenditure is allowable, allocable, reasonable, adequately supported, recorded in the correct period and charged to the appropriate budget line and workstream.
• Coordinate responses to donor financial queries, expenditure verification requests and compliance reviews, ensuring supporting evidence is readily available within donor deadlines and retained in line with agreement terms.

• Lead financial due diligence and risk assessment of implementing partners before contracting and periodically during implementation.
• Review partner budgets and contribute to agreements to ensure that the Foundation terms ILRI must pass down to partners are included and that the reporting requirements, payment terms, eligible costs, audit rights, controls and close-out obligations are clearly defined.
• Review partner cash requests, financial reports, supporting documents and liquidations before recommending approval and subsequent disbursement.
• Monitor partner advances, expenditure, outstanding balances and reporting status; escalate overdue, unsupported or ineligible amounts and coordinate recovery or corrective action.
• Set up and oversee financial controls for participant support and access to finance mechanisms (grants, startup and asset support, revolving funds and guarantees), covering disbursement, verification, repayment and program closeout, and ensure Foundation approval is obtained before any mechanism is introduced or changed.
• Ensure partners, suppliers, consultants and other recipients of grant funds are screened against applicable sanctions, and antiterrorism lists before contracting or payment, with records retained in line with donor requirements.
• Develop and deliver risk-based financial capacity strengthening and monitoring plans for partners and country teams.

• Establish and monitor effective controls over program income, expenditure, assets, procurement-related financial checks, advances, partner payments, records and approvals.
• Maintain the program asset register, prepare the annual asset use report for the Foundation, and ensure Foundation approval is obtained before any asset is sold, transferred or disposed of.
• Maintain the program financial risk register, assign mitigation actions and report significant or emerging risks to program and institutional leadership.
• Coordinate donor, external and internal audits and spot checks, including audit planning, document readiness, management responses and timely closure of agreed findings.
• Promote segregation of duties, complete audit trails and timely escalation of suspected irregularities in line with institutional procedures.

• Prepare and maintain program cash-flow forecasts and the inputs to each periodic transfer to support uninterrupted implementation while minimizing excessive idle balances.
• Monitor donor receipts, program balances, partner disbursements, advances and cash requirements across participating countries.
• Assess foreign-exchange exposures and work with ILRI Treasury on mitigation measures within the approved policy.
• Review and clear payments, ensuring all transactions are supported by appropriate documentation, accurately recorded, properly approved, and compliant with ILRI policies, Mastercard Foundation grant requirements, and established internal control procedures.
• Oversee and monitor program payables, receivables, and outstanding balances, ensuring timely resolution, accurate financial reporting, effective cash flow management, and compliance with donor requirements, organizational policies, and financial controls.

• Ensure program structures, budgets, reporting dimensions and partner records are correctly established and maintained in the relevant financial and grant-management systems.
• Oversee monthly and year-end reconciliations, period-end reviews, accruals, corrections and closure of outstanding receivables, payables and advances.
• Develop practical dashboards and standardized reports that provide program leadership with a reliable view of financial performance and required actions.
• Plan grant close-out early, including final expenditure, partner liquidation, asset disposition, audit, refunds, record retention and final donor reporting.

• Lead, supervise and develop the Program Accountants, setting clear workplans, deliverables, review controls and service standards.
• Coordinate finance support across the PMU and participating countries to ensure consistent application of program and institutional requirements.
• Build effective working relationships with program leadership, technical teams, Finance, Grants and Contracts, Legal, Procurement, People and Culture, Internal Audit, partners, auditors and donor counterparts.
• Provide targeted financial training and practical guidance to budget holders, program teams and partners.

• Master’s degree in finance, accounting or business-related field,
• Full professional accounting qualification (CPA (K) or ACCA) and active membership in ICPAK or an equivalent recognized professional accounting body.
• Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in finance and grants management, including at least 3 years in a supervisory or management role. Experience with donor funded programs across several countries, including managing subawards to partners, is required. Experience managing Mastercard Foundation-funded programs is an added advantage.
• Experience using enterprise resource planning and financial reporting systems, with advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel. Experience with dashboards or business-intelligence tools is desirable
• Proactive and Service oriented: provides efficient, high-quality service to the program
• Integrity: Honest, above reproach and appropriate in actions / behaviour and transparent in conduct.
• Result Oriented/ Focused: Ability to consistently meet set goals. Focused, efficient and goal oriented. Ability to direct others to perform set duties.
• Professionalism: Application of ethics, principles, standards and expertise in all areas of work.
• Teamwork, Interpersonal Relations: Working and relating with others in mutual support and respect towards common goals and shared vision. Builds and nurtures strong and authentic reciprocal relationships. Avoids domineering or patronizing behaviour.
• Multi-cultural fit & Respect for Diversity: An ability to work effectively, respectfully and inclusively with people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives is critical for all staff members.
• Communication: Ability to express oneself, share and exchange information clearly and proactively, in a timely and client friendly style.
• Innovation & Creativity: Ability to generate new ideas and ways of working to continuously improve existing work processes, practices, concepts

ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). ILRI also does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.

To find out more about ILRI, visit our websites at http://www.ilri.org/

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