The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center, is seeking applications from enthusiastic fresh graduates or final-year undergraduates who are looking to gain professional experience in budgeting and finance. The intern will be based at IWMI’s headquarters in Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.

Scope of internship

During the internship period, the selected candidate will report to the Senior Officer – Budgeting and Finance and will provide cross-functional support to the Finance Division and the Business Development Unit (BDU).

The Budgets and Analysis team in Finance supports the financial proposal development, budget implementation, and budget monitoring and analysis for IWMI. The BDU is responsible for identifying funding opportunities, managing IWMI’s pipeline of proposals and supporting the proposal development process. The intern will work alongside the Budgets and Analysis and BDU team members to support the project budget development and contracting process. The intern will also work closely with several departments and teams at IWMI, including the Research division and the Program Management Office.

By the end of the internship, the intern would gain a thorough understanding of the proposal life cycle, from opportunity identification, budgeting through to contract signing. They would learn how to craft compelling financial proposals and develop a comprehensive set of skills and knowledge essential for a career in budgeting in the development sphere. They would also develop essential skills in communication, teamwork and relationship management. The intern will gain the opportunity to work in a multicultural and multidisciplinary international research for development (R4D) organization, focusing on a global portfolio that comprises Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

IWMI is an Executive Level (non-public sector) Training Organization approved by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka).

The intern will engage in the following areas of work:

• Assist in updating IWMI’s internal budget template regularly in order to ensure accuracy and appropriate version control.
• Assist in reviewing IWMI internal budgets prepared by project leaders.
• Assist in reviewing partner budgets when IWMI is nominating project partners for a proposal.
• Assist in the transfer of proposal budgets from the internal IWMI format into the required donor format by researching and understanding donor budget guidelines, while ensuring maximizing full cost recovery.
• Assist in preparing budget narrative documents where relevant.
• Assist in tracking cost-recovery progress for the organization, by maintaining accurate cost recovery information for contracted proposals and high-probability pipeline projects.
• Contribute to implement improvement to the overall budgeting process at IWMI.
• Assist in ensuring all documentation related to financial proposals is filed efficiently and in a timely manner in the BDU SharePoint folders.
• Assist to upload proposal development budgets and proposal budgets into IWMI’s ERP system.
• Assist in developing and/or improving financial dashboards at an organizational level.
• Update databases regularly for reporting purposes.

Requirements

• Undergraduates or fresh graduates with a degree in business administration, accounting, finance or another related field. Final year undergraduates in any related discipline, with a strong aptitude can also be considered.
• Registered or part-qualified students with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka)/Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)/Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT)/Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
• Strong attention to detail.
• Computer literacy and proficiency in Microsoft Office (specifically in Excel and Word).
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment with strong teamwork skills.
• Willingness and desire to learn and grow.
• Having a basic knowledge of constructing and understanding budgets will be an added advantage.
• Experience working with ERPs such as SAP and OCS and dashboard reporting (ideally Power BI) will be an added advantage.

Benefits

IWMI will provide a monthly stipend to the selected candidate during the internship period.

The duration of the initial internship contract will be 6 months, with the possibility of extension for another 6 months based on performance, requirements of IWMI and the availability of funds. This is a nationally recruited internship and only Sri Lankans are eligible to apply.

To apply, visit www.iwmi.org/jobs. Applications must be submitted by 24:00 (Colombo time) on December 30, 2024 (Monday).

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is an international, research-for-development organization that works with governments, civil society and the private sector to solve water problems in developing countries and scale up solutions. Through partnership, IWMI combines research on the sustainable use of water and land resources, knowledge services and products with capacity strengthening, dialogue and policy analysis to support implementation of water management solutions for agriculture, ecosystems, climate change and inclusive economic growth. Headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, IWMI is a CGIAR Research Center with offices in 15 countries and a global network of scientists operating in more than 55 countries. www.iwmi.org

IWMI believes that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary working environment. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.