Young Africa (YA) International Job Opportunities

Young Africa (YA) International Job Opportunities

1. About Young Africa (YA) International

Young Africa (YA) International is an International NGO delivering employability programmes targeting disadvantaged young people in Africa.  YA has 2 centres in Zimbabwe, 2 centres in Namibia, and 2 centres in Mozambique.  Since its inception in 1998, YA has trained in excess of 30,000 young people in three countries.  In 2015, YA International set up a regional office in Harare, Zimbabwe to coordinate the scaling of YA work in Southern Africa.  In 2016, YA has set up in Zambia and Botswana as part of this scaling plan.  In each country, YA is registered as a local organization, managed by local people with oversight from local boards.  YA International is the ultimate legal owner of all YAs and this is facilitated by an affiliation agreement.

2. Background information on the task

YA international has signed an affiliation agreement with YA Zimbabwe, YA Namibia, YA Mozambique, YA Zambia and YA Botswana.  Section 5 of the Affiliation agreement compels YA affiliates to meet the following minimum standards as regards administration and financial management:

• Uphold sound financial management and administrative practices to achieve transparency, justify the use of externally and internally generated resources, and accurately measure the financial self-reliance of its centres. To facilitate this, each centre must put in place robust finance and administration policies to facilitate efficient and effective management of financial, human and material resources.
• The local YA board to ensure that sound finance and administration policies are drafted, adopted, implemented and reviewed when necessary.
• Work towards achieving financial self-reliance, and as such, they are expected to find innovative ways of generating their own income in order to grow local contribution to operations costs.  Should such innovations fall outside the ‘usual’ ways of generating income according to the YA business model, the affiliate must communicate to the founder and approval granted in writing to implement them.
• Ensure that executive powers are shared between centre Directors and the local board with the latter performing the more supervisory role.  The Director’s executive powers must be sufficiently segregated across the entire administrative structure to guard against misuse/abuse of funds.  
• Inform and share the details of applications [proposals and all documents submitted, grant agreements, project and audit reports] with YA International.  
• Exercise due diligence in its dealings with donors so as to maintain good relations. The founder will conduct periodic ad-hoc compliance checks of centres and, where necessary, institute measures for improvements.  
• Report on its financial position to the founder annually and as and when required.

Post signing these agreements with local YAs, YA International embarked on the next step of putting in place compliance systems and tools.  One of the measures that YA International took was putting in place an internal audit system; of the (i) financial, (ii) administrative and (iii) programme operations of local YA centres.  

 

The task –Purpose of the consultancy

 

Task 1:

1. Using the YA Internal Control Guidelines, carry out internal audits of Young Africa (YA) Mozambique and Young Africa Namibia.
2. Carefully read the Grant Agreements between YA Int and the respective Affiliate, and the relevant sections of the Finance and Administration Policy to ensure compliance. Specifically, identify:
   • any missing information from the financial and administrative processes,
   • the adequacy of supporting documents as per the YA Finance and Administration Policy and best practice.

 

Task 2:

Based on the findings of Task 1, recommend necessary corrections of the internal control weaknesses identified and work with the Finance teams to ensure that the corrections necessary are done and ensure the Affiliates are ready for pending external audits.

Task 3: 

Produce an internal audit report, highlighting internal control weaknesses identified and corrected, and recommendations for strengthening the controls going forward.

Separate specific TORs per Affiliate’s needs will be shared with successful Consultants, drawing from these broad terms.

Deliverables

1. 3 internal audit reports for the 2 Affiliates were audited, including recommendations on strengthening the internal controls going forward.
2. The reports should also highlight the external audit preparedness of the Affiliates and steps taken by the Consultant towards achieving this process.

 

3. Required competencies 
4. At least 10 years of working experience in NGO financial management/accounting,
5. Experience in managing EU grants is a must,

• Experience with finance and administration policy drafting and or review,

1. Ability to meet strict deadlines,

 

4. Period of assignment

The task is estimated to take 20 consulting days.

Affiliate	Auditing	Reporting
YA Namibia	5	2
YA Mozambique	10	3
Total Consulting Days	15	5

 

5. Application process

All applications must be submitted to ya.hub@youngafrica.org including a detailed CV, scanned copies of qualifications, a proposal stating the proposed methodology, a statement of the consultant’s competence and suitability to complete the task and a consultancy rate per day.  Applications must be received by the close of business on 19 September 2022.