UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

In the East and Southern Africa region, UN Women’s work is covered by 11 country offices which includes Sudan country office, 1 Multi-Country Office and 1 Programme Presence. The Strategic Note is one of the main strategic planning documents for UN Women Country Offices (COs). It articulates country level strategy and main results in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) and UN Women’s global Strategic Plan (SP) with an indication of the resources needed to achieve these results. Typically, in UN Women, Strategic Notes cover 4 years and include information on the context, lessons learned, proposed programme including the corresponding Theory of Change (ToC), partnerships and UN System coordination, sustainability strategy, programme management and operations, monitoring, knowledge management and evaluation, resource mobilization, communication and advocacy, as well as risk management and Human Resources plans. SNs build on the findings of evaluations of previous work, joint UN Common Country Analysis (CCA), consultations with civil society, governments, development partners, other UN agencies and other relevant actors or institutions.

The UN Women Sudan country office is seeking to contract an International Consultant to support the Country Office in developing its Strategic Note. The Consultant would work in close collaboration with Sudan country office and the team.

Objective of the Assignment:

The Consultant will be required to carryout some or all of the following tasks working in close consultation with the country office team and the Country Representative and drawing on UN Women’s most current SN Guidance for Country Offices.

• Develop a roadmap and inception report outlining the key steps of the SN development work.
• Conduct a desk review of relevant key documents including the results and recommendations of mid-term and final country portfolio evaluations (CPE) of previous SN, findings of recent external/internal audits, Cooperation Framework and other strategic evaluations such as corporate and regional evaluations, when available, the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), the Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP), Common Country Analysis reports, SDG monitoring data and previous UN Women reports; key normative frameworks such as Beijing+25; CEDAW, voluntary national SDG reports, etc.
• As part of data gathering process, facilitate initial consultations internally with UN Women Sudan staff as well as external partners (government, CSOs, UN Agencies, Donors etc.) in the country for initial inputs into the strategic notes content and direction from their respective perspectives;
• Conduct Focus group discussions, stakeholder interviews where necessary and prepare de-briefing notes for sharing key findings with UN Women country Representative and key technical persons.
• Draft reports from all consultations and planning sessions with staff and external stakeholders, including the initial SN draft outline; 
• Work with the Country office team to develop session agendas and facilitate workshops (stakeholders workshop as well as validation workshop) with the UN Women team in order to develop various components of the SN including but not limited to the Theory of Change, Results Framework (DRF and OEE); 3-years budget  risk matrix and HR;
• Based on the Theory of change and working with UN Women Country office staff develop the results and resources table (indicators, targets and timeline)
• Draft the first version of the Strategic Note as per the UN Women Guidance on SNs including coordinating the submission of inputs required from various staff;
• Coordinate the drafting of annexes to the strategic note which should be completed by staff members.
• Incorporate the comments from validation sessions with external stakeholders, Regional and Global Technical Review Committees and the global PRG into a complete Strategic Note package consisting of all the relevant attachments as per the Guidance note.
• Prepare the power point presentation for the global PRG jointly with the CO team
• Take on related tasks within the scope of the assignment as might become necessary

Deliverables:

1. Inception report
2. Reports of the consultations with various stakeholders and the desk review of key documents
3. Draft SN document containing all the relevant attachments as per the UN Women Guidance
4. Final SN document containing all the relevant attachments as per the UN Women Guidance

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Strong commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Strong organizational skills and self-direction;
• Ability to prioritize and work under pressure with colleagues at all levels;
• Strong communication and interactive facilitation skills;
• Have excellent analytical, writing and synthesis skills;
• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Demonstrate an ability to produce quality results on time outsourced and work under pressure

Education:

• Master's degree in international relations, gender, sociology, demography, economics, law or other relevant disciplines.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in programme management, including programme design, programme coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building, ideally in gender equality and women’s empowerment focused programmes particularly in the East and Southern Africa region.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning including the preparation of or guiding teams on results frameworks and theories of change related to gender equality and human rights issues.
• Experience in participatory planning and coordination, including the ability to coordinate, probe and stimulate discussions.
• Experience with the United Nations system, good knowledge of the UN Women mandate and its programmatic frameworks and rules and United Nations procedures would be an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of French and Portuguese would be an 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.