Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) mandate provides support that enhances national capacity and ownership to enable national partners to formulate gender-responsive laws and policies and to scale up successful strategies to deliver on national commitments that promote gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights. For the Sudan, though women form the majority of the population, they have less opportunity in terms of access to resources, economic opportunities as well as protection of their rights. While acknowledging that women's rights and gender equality issues are central to reconciliation, consolidation of peace, reconstruction and development processes, this calls for critical support and investment in actions which promote and protect their rights, access to livelihoods as well as a need to strengthen women’s leadership at all levels.

UN Women has developed a long-term programme for Sudan since 2005 which aims at addressing priorities identified by the Sudanese women in different forums as well as assisting in consolidating the gains already made through the different activities which have already been undertaken.

UN Women has also programmes for Blue Nile State (BN) for building capacities of Women CSO partners for strengthening their role in the development agenda.

In view of the above, UN Women, seeks to recruit a Project Coordinator in who will support the management of programme activities which focus on women’s participation in peace building and improving women’s access to environmental services.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Sudan Country Representative, and through the guidance of the Programme Specialist, Women, Peace and Humanitarian Action, the Project Coordinator, will perform the following specific tasks:

1. Contribute to strategic advice to UN Women management on peace building, Environment and conflict management issues in Blue Nile State:

  1. Provide strategic analysis on issues relating to peace and development in BN with a view to assessing their impact on UNW programming and enabling the best support to BN state Office to mainstream peace building, environment and conflict management.
  2. Provide UNW Senior Management with regular reports and updates on gender, environment conflict analysis and peace-building opportunities.
  3. Assist the UNW, and, as appropriate, the Country Representative, in identifying “entry points” for peacebuilding, environment and conflict management initiatives and developing appropriate strategic responses.
  4. As appropriate, assist relevant stakeholders in identifying relevant risks and opportunities for peace building, environment and conflict management in BN state.
  5. Strengthen UNW relations with respective government counterparts at both national and state levels, including advice support in critical negotiations and agreements.
  6. Provide strategic and policy guidance to UN Women interventions in the areas of responsibility, advising the Country Representative as appropriate, as well as represent UN Women in forums relevant to the thematic area.
  7. Ensure that UNW programming on WPS builds on the overall UN Women’s comparative advantages, adds value to existing UN support, and strengthens contribution to the attainment of national priorities as well as building the capacities for the realization of gender equality and women’s human rights.
  8. Ensure UNW substantively contributes to engendering the development and implementation of BN state government policies and plans relevant to women’s peace and environment at all levels.
  9. Provide technical support on conflict resolution, environment and peace building intervention planning and implementation, including proposal development and technical guidance.
  10. To work with other UNW national programmes to ensure linkages between the WPS and provide update information on the situational analyses and intervention planning, and to ensure timely monitoring, evaluation and documentation of interventions;
  11. To support rapid, multi-stakeholder assessments and field visits for the identification of appropriate interventions by the UNW and its partners.
  12. To provide technical review and support to UNW partner activity development and implementation.
  13. To ensure effective UNW coordination and communication with relevant State Government Ministry, UN/INGO/LNGO, civil society and other key stakeholders.

2. Support the integration of peace building, environment and conflict management into UNW programmes

  1. Support, through training and knowledge networking, the creation of a critical mass of UNW,  UN and partners with the necessary skills in conflict prevention, environment conflict analysis and conflict sensitive programming.
  2. Support the integration of critical conflict prevention elements within UNW-supported programmes, strategies and other planning processes such as the Juba Peace Agreement.
  3. Feed critical inputs into UN policy and inter-agency processes related to conflict prevention, environment and peace building, and facilitate improvement synergies in joint UN programmes addressing peace building elements.
  4. In the context of existing BN programme, support the capacity building efforts of national state-level counterparts in the field of conflict transformation, conflict analysis and conflict sensitive development.
  5. Identification of areas for support and interventions within the thematic/sectoral areas assigned that includes conflict prevention, environment and peace building.

3. Effective management and accountability of the WPS portfolio:

  1. Develop results-oriented work plans, and providing technical assistance to their implementation and reporting .
  2. Analyse reports from partners for quality control, undertake field missions, analysing key events and changes in context and provide substantive and appropriate advice and briefs and support, sharing experiences/reflections sessions of good practices, and dissemination of lessons learned.
  3. In collaboration with the M&E Programme Specialist, undertake financial and substantive monitoring and evaluation of the projects, identification of operational and financial problems and development of solutions.
  4. Organize training required for activities within the thematic areas and related work on gender indicators and gender statistics.

3. Creation of strategic partnerships and implementation for timely delivery of the results:

  1. Contribute to the development and strengthening of networks and forge partners at state, county and community levels, with government, key women’s organizations, UN agencies and bi-lateral development partner organisations to ensure optimal collective knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues.
  2. Development of partnerships with the UN Agencies, relevant government institutions, private sector, and civil society, particularly women's organizations at community and state and federal levels for securing gender equality and women's peace and security based on strategic goals of UN Women Annual Work plan for 2021-2022, particularly the goal of women’s peace and security, and emerging priorities in the country as approved through UNDAF.

4. Resource Mobilization:

  1. In close consultation with the Country Representative and in liaising with donors, support resource mobilisation through the development of concept notes and project proposals / documents, identifying potential sources of funds;
  2. Sustain donor confidence in UNW capacity to deliver by supporting the implementation of set procedures for donor reporting, and the provision of timely, regular and quality donor briefs and reports as may be required from time to time.

5. Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Country Representative.

Summary of key functions:

Contribute to strategic advice to UNW management on peace building, environmental and conflict management issues in BN;

  1. The integration of peace building, environmental and conflict management into UNW Blue Nile State programme;
  2. Technical support for the identification of strategic entry points for peace building, environmental and conflict management, and for the development of concrete conflict prevention initiatives in Blue Nile State;
  3. The establishment and strengthening of strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, regional and international actors and development partners in Blue Nile State.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.  Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. 

CORE COMPETENCIES:

Ethics and Values:

Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents

Organizational Awareness:

Building support and political acumen

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation

Working in Teams:

Building and promoting effective teams

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

Creating an emotionally intelligent organization

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES (Related to the Post):

Technical Competencies

  1. Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards, shows commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals of UN Women’s and displays cultural, gender, religion, race, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  2. Ability to establish and maintain strategic partnerships with government institutions, donors, civil society partners and other UN agencies.  Has proven expertise in resource mobilization and strong negotiation skills.
  3. Excellent personal and professional communication and presentation skills abilities; Has the ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor the progress of the projects and activities within the area of responsibility and achieve planned results.
  4. Strong teamwork spirit and interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavour; ability to build trust through operating with transparency and creating an open, positive and enabling environment; ability to work in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
  5. Sound judgment and decision-making skills, with the ability to make effective timely decisions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, conflict resolution and peace building and gender studies.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years experience in development work with specific emphasis on women’s equality focusing on women’s peace and security, especially in conflict and post conflict reconstruction, women in peace building.
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience in development, monitoring the implementation and the evaluation of development projects and resource mobilization.
  • Recognized experience in the field of gender and development.
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in English
  • Ability to work in Arabic will be an added advantage.

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

UNWOMEN is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.