Background

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. 

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to sustainable development, economic transformation, women empowerment and improved livelihoods in Sudan through women’s effective contribution to employment, job and income creation.

This project is developed to enhance women’s economic empowerment in the context of Sudan’s current efforts to end poverty, strengthen social cohesion, stability and build lasting peace, while bridging the Humanitarian-Development and Peace pillars. This first phase will build women’s capacity in agribusiness focusing on ‘baby food making, fish preservation, fish processing and fish net making’. These are areas that already have a comparative advantage, are culturally and economically dominated by women, accepted as their spaces, but up to date have received very minimal strategic attention and support.

UN Women’s unique approaches to Women Economic empowerment, tested in many countries in the region, will be leveraged to fast track project implementation. This will include enhancing access to skills and technology, supporting women to organize in cooperatives or networks, improving access to business development and finance, as well as access to markets. Baseline study will be conducted to assess where women are in the various value chains to determine entry points and opportunities to support them better. Women involved in the project will also be linked to relevant public and private institutions to help them access services and influence policy.

The project will reach out to empower urban, peri-urban and rural women and girls in the most vulnerable situations including women with disabilities, women survivors of GBV, women and girls in Refugee and IDP camps to become vibrant economic change agents. It sets out to reach at least 500 primary beneficiaries over 1 year. Its implementation will contribute to SDGs localization in Sudan ‘leaving no one behind’.

General Objective: To contribute to sustainable development, economic transformation, women empowerment and improved livelihoods in Sudan through women’s effective contribution to employment, job and income creation

Specifically, the project sets out to:

1. Increase productivity of women small farm/business holders in food processing and support technology that reduces their physical burden of work.
2. Improve women’s access to finance and increase their capacity to invest in agribusiness, especially processing baby food and fish preservation and processing.

Promote women’s opportunities to move up the value chain in food and fish processing by building their business development skills.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the oversight of the Country Representative and the guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist/Manager (international), the incumbent will be substantively responsible for the technical and financial management of the project including financial accounting and reporting, budget revision, donor reporting, procurement tracking, human resource administration and the general administration,

Specifically, s/he will:

1. Prepare and update project annual and quarterly work plans
2. Prepare and participate in quarterly work planning and progress reporting meetings
3. Draft TORs for key inputs (i.e. personnel, sub-contracts, training, and procurement) and submit these to Programme Specialist/Manager for review and CR clearance
4.  Provide technical advice to project beneficiaries, review technical reports and monitor technical activities carried out by Implementing Partners (IP)
5. Ensure that all agreements with implementing agencies/partners are prepared, negotiated and agreed upon and are in line with UN Women internal procedures and operations
6. With respect to co-implementing partners and external project implementing agencies/ subcontractors:
   • ensure that these agencies deliver the outputs in accordance with their letters of agreement or contracts, and
   • provide overall supervision and/or coordination of their work to ensure the production of the expected outputs.
7. Assume direct responsibility for managing the project budget by ensuring that:
   • project funds are disbursed properly;
   • expenditure is in accordance with the project document and project work plans;
   • ensure that accounting records and supporting documents are properly kept and financial reports are prepared;
   • financial operations are transparent and financial procedures/regulations are properly applied; and
8. Supervise local or international short-term consultants working for the project.
9. Prepare project progress reports and the project final report and organize Project Steering Committee meetings, review meetings and evaluation missions, in coordination with Programme Specialist, for review and CR clearance
10. Ensure the timely submission of work plans, reports, outputs and other deliverables WEE Analyst for review and CR clearance, as appropriate

Regularly report to and keep Senior Managers up-to-date on project progress and implementation issues.

Competencies

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge or the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Core Values and Ethics:

• Demonstrate cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multi-national environment
• Support the Organization’s corporate goals
• Comply with UN WOMEN rules, regulations and code of conduct
• Integrity

Teamwork:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Build effective client relationships and partnerships;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Build and share knowledge;

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Excellent oral and written skills;
• Listen actively and respond effectively

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong project management skills;
• Possess knowledge of organizational policies, procedures and systems relating to the position and apply them consistently in work tasks.
• Strong analytical report writing skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

University degree (preferably post-graduate degree) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences or related field;

Experience:

• At least 5 years of extensive experience in project management, planning and implementation, familiarity with donor funded development projects is an asset;
• Strong analytical skills, oral and written communication and team building skills;
• Substantial experience in leading teams of national and international experts;
• Excellent working level of English and Arabic languages, both writing and speaking.
• Good knowledge of UN system’s financial, human resource and administrative support systems, especially ATLAS system;
• Proven Computer skills – MS Office word and excel, internet and communications;

Languages Required:

Fluency in the English and Arabic language.