Islamic Relief South Africa (IRSA) is a member of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a UK based international relief and development charity, which aims to alleviate the suffering of the world’s poorest people.
POSITION IDENTIFICATION
Job Title
Programs Finance Officer
Department
Programs
Location
Cape Town
Reporting Line
HOD – Programs
Contract
Fixed Term Contract – 1 year
Organization
Islamic Relief South Africa
PURPOSE OF POSITION:
The Programmes Finance Support Officer is responsible for providing hands on financial operations within programmes implementation by actively involving themselves in the preparing, tracking and adjusting budgets, ensuring every financial aspect is aligned with project goals.
This role requires deep-diving into the financial details, ensuring compliance, accuracy, and transparency at every stage of the programme lifecycle. The go-to person for any finance-related concerns and will have a hands-on impact in driving the financial success of each project. It serves as a crucial link between the pprogrammes and ffinance ddepartments, providing technical financial support to ensure accuracy, compliance, and accountability throughout the programme cycle. This role actively supports project managers and the grant focal person in budget design, expenditure monitoring, and financial documentation, enhancing financial literacy among non-finance staff while maintaining IRSA’s financial integrity and donor accountability.
The officer operationally supports Programmes, helping to align budget planning, execution, and reporting with donor requirements and IRSA standards. While financial decision-making rests with project managers and the grant focal person, this role ensures technical consistency, financial risk mitigation, and efficient use of resources across projects.
Given the interdependence of financial oversight and programme execution, this position will report program finance national coordinator, ensuring strong alignment with programme objectives while maintaining financial governance.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Budget Facilitation & Financial Support for Programmes
- Work with the Grants team to plan and lead the timely development of budgets for new proposals or concept notes, ensuring they are realistic and aligned with the designed or approved proposals and concepts,
- Monitor project budgets to confirm that they are structured correctly and match the available funding,
- Support project managers and the grant focal person in drafting and structuring project budgets in compliance with donor and IRSA standards by gathering programme inputs and working closely with the related representative from different departments to prepare initial budget drafts,
- Capture and document the preparation and formatting of budgets for internal approval and donor submission.
- Validate budget revisions to ensure consistency with programme modifications and funding restrictions,
- Monitor budget execution, identifying variances and advising project teams on corrective measures.
2. Financial Compliance & Documentation:
- Ensure that all programme financial activities comply with IRSA financial policies, donor requirements, and local regulations,
- Pre-screen financial documents (invoices, receipts, partner reports) before submission to Finance to ensure completeness and compliance.
- Develop and lead the implementation of technical financial documentation and coding, ensuring alignment with organizational and donor standards.
- Flag irregularities and raise red flags or provide a timely heads-ups to program finance national coordinator, overspending, or procedural non-compliance, and support corrective actions to maintain audit-readiness.
3. Financial Monitoring & Reporting:
- Generate and distribute financial reports regularly, summarizing spending against budgets, highlighting variances, and making recommendations to address financial issues,
- Support project teams in understanding financial reports and using them to make data-informed decisions,
- Ensure timely reconciliation of programme accounts and submission of donor financial reports,
- Ensure documentation is filed systematically for audits and internal reviews.
4. Coordination with Finance & Programmes Teams:
- Act as a liaison between Finance and Programmes, ensuring smooth communication and alignment on financial matters,
- Facilitate interdepartmental collaboration, ensuring Finance and Programmes teams work together effectively,
- Work with project managers to adjust budgets when unforeseen changes or requirements arise, ensuring they are still in line with donor funding restrictions,
- Resolve any conflicts related to budget allocation or financial understanding between Finance and Programmes teams to ensure smooth project execution,
- Resolve queries and bridge knowledge gaps between Finance and Programmes teams.
5. Process Improvement & Capacity Building:
- Provide basic training and guidance to Programmes staff on budgeting, financial policies, and best practices,
- Identify and suggest improvements in budgeting processes to enhance compliance and efficiency, ensuring Programme teams are equipped to meet financial requirements,
- Review existing financial processes regularly and propose improvements that can streamline budgeting, reporting, SLA’s and compliance efforts,
- Support internal capacity-building efforts by sharing financial expertise with non-finance colleagues.
Key Deliverables:
- Efficient and accurate capturing and documentation of programme budgets,
- Compliance with financial policies in programme financial processes,
- Increased financial literacy among Programmes staff regarding budget structuring and compliance.
Other Requirements
- Commitment to Islamic Relief’s mission and values,
- Travel occasionally to support field teams if required.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Experience in Finance
- Degree or diploma in Finance, Accounting, or a related field is advantageous but not required if relevant experience is present,
- Experience in budget preparation, financial compliance, or donor financial processes is beneficial.
KEY PERSONAL QUALITIES:
- Strong attention to detail in budget compilation and financial documentation,
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, especially when working with non-finance colleagues,
- Ability to explain financial concepts to project managers in a clear and supportive manner.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel,
- Strong organizational skills, with the ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple tasks.
KEY ISLAMIC RELIEF QUALITIES REQUIRED:
It is essential that the post holder shows a good understanding and sympathy with Islamic values and principles as well as commitment to IR’s vision and mission as per below:
- Excellence (Ihsan):Our actions in tackling poverty are marked by excellence in our operations and conduct which are deserving of the people we serve.
- Sincerity (Ikhlas):In responding to poverty and suffering our efforts are driven by sincerity to God and the need to fulfil our obligations to humanity
- Social Justice (Adl):Our work is founded on enabling people and institutions to fulfil the rights of the poor and vulnerable. We work to empower the dispossessed towards realising their God-given human potential and developing their capabilities and resources.
- Compassion (Rahma):We believe the protection and well-being of every life is of paramount importance and we shall join with other humanitarian actors to act as one in responding to suffering brought on by disasters, poverty and injustice.
- Custodianship (Amana): We uphold our duty of custodianship over the earth, its resources and the trust people place in us as humanitarian and development practitioners to be transparent and accountable.
Over and above operational requirements Islamic Relief South Africa will take into account the country’s and organizational Employment Equity imperatives.
Should you not hear from us after 2 weeks, you may consider your application unsuccessful.
Job Type: Full-time
Application Question(s):
- What is your salary expectation?
Work Location: In person
