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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women South Sudan has developed a Strategic Note for the period 2019-2021 which is aligned with the South Sudan Development Plan and the United Nations Cooperation Framework (2019-2021). Within this plan, targeted gender equality and women’s empowerment interventions are undertaken to increase development effectiveness. To this end, UN Women supports an integrated community aimed at consolidating response particularly at state level. The integrated model combines for example, functional literacy with economic empowerment and capacity building; and functional literacy and economic empowerment for peace building and ending violence against women.  The integration of gender equality is intended to ensure that mainstreaming takes place in all areas of operations and programming, and real progress is made in supporting South Sudan in reducing gender inequalities and improving the lives of women.

The key programmatic areas for UN Women South Sudan elaborated in the Strategic Note and annual work plan are as follows:

 1) Increase women's leadership and participation;

2) Increase women's access to economic empowerment and opportunities;

 3) Prevent VAWG and expand access to services; and

4) Increase women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response.

Women’s economic security is critical for the eradication of poverty and achieving sustainable development because when women have ownership and control over productive resources and access to productive work, they can ensure a better livelihood for their families and communities.  Furthermore, when women are economically empowered, they are more likely to attain political and social empowerment.

Since 2014, UN Women have been implementing a humanitarian assistance programme aimed at addressing critical gender gaps in humanitarian response and enhancing resilience and wellbeing among women and girls in IDP settlements and their host communities. The programme components include improving access to livelihood opportunities; preventing/ reducing violence against women and girls in the target communities and building and sustaining peace.  The Programme also strengthened the capacity of the Ministry of Gender and Humanitarian Affairs, and other international and national humanitarian actors, including the coordination system (especially the HCT and the Cluster system).

Reporting to the Deputy Country Representative, the Programme Specialist-Women’s Economic Empowerment and Humanitarian Action will continue to implement and provide overall oversight to UN Women’s South Sudan work in the area of women’s economic empowerment and women peace and security and humanitarian action.

Duties and Responsibilities

Design and develop programmes in the areas of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Humanitarian Action in the South Sudan:

• Translate the priorities of the new Strategic Note into programme interventions into WEE and Humanitarian Action;
• Design and formulate programme/ project proposals and concept notes;
• Draft inputs to country strategy documents, briefs, policy dialogue and other documents related to WEE and Humanitarian Action

Manage the implementation and management of the WEE and Humanitarian Action programmes:

• Prepare and launch Request for Proposals (RFPs); review partners proposals and budgets and progress reports for the implementation of Humanitarian Assistance Programme funded by the government of Japan and Germany                                                                                                                                                                                  
• Manage the day-to-day implementation of WEE and humanitarian programme activities to ensure timely execution and delivery of expected results;
• Oversee the programme delivery by the implementing NGO partners, ensuring effective use of resources and compliance with UN Women rules and procedures as well as with donor or fund requirements;

Manage capacity building initiatives

• Design a standard process and train partners on management of women empowerment centres based on best practices in other parts of the country and the sub-region
• Lead the development of standard manual for vocational skills and business management training for partners

• Support the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare to advocate to decision makers (government, private sector and development partners) for the adoption/review of the relevant policy instruments and to mobilize the resources required for the functioning of the Women Enterprise Fund model for South Sudan
• Organize training and knowledge sharing events targeting women organizations, national and local government authorities, NGO partners and other community members;
• Provide guidance to team members and partners including capacity development training on Results Based Management tools and performance indicators; gender mainstreaming in policies and humanitarian programming; procurement and financial management; livelihoods; peacebuilding and ending violence against women as necessary

Manage Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting activities

• Manage the submission of partner financial and narrative reports
• Conduct timely field monitoring of activities and prepare accurate and comprehensive reports on operations and performance with regular and timely submission
• provide technical inputs to Country Office donor and UN Women reports
• Organize project quarterly review meetings with partners

Manage Communication and Knowledge Management initiatives

• Liaise with the Communication’s focal person and NGO partners to prepare press releases and human-interest stories to be published by the South Sudan media houses, UN Women Regional Office in East and Southern Africa Region and the UN Women HQ websites.
• Contribute to the systematic collation of good practices and lessons learned;
• Produce relevant knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.

Support Representation and Coordination

• Support the Deputy Country Representative to coordinate Results Group 4 on Empowering Women and youth” of the South Sudan Cooperation’s Framework (UNCF) through organizing meetings, compiling meeting minutes, consolidating quarterly reports and workplan.
• Represent UN Women in other results group as assigned by the Country Office
• Provide technical support to the development of strategic approaches to policy dialogue, resource mobilization, partnerships, and outreach.

Manage the people and financial resources of the WEE programme 

• Ensure WEE and Humanitarian programme activities are implemented in accordance with the annual workplan and budget;

• Supervise WEE team members; Mentor and coach staff and conduct timely performance assessments; 
• Oversee recruitment processes, as necessary. 
• Ensure team members adhere to security rules and regulations

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality programme design and inputs to Strategic Note 
• Timely and quality of programme delivery in line with budget and workplans, and in line with all UN Women operational rules and regulations, including security 
• Timely and quality monitoring and evaluation of programmes  
• Relations with partners and stakeholders 
• Quality reports and timely submission 
• Regular communication with other agencies and partners 
• Quality of advocacy and communication initiatives 

Competencies

Core values

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity

Core Competencies

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

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge of Women’s Economic Empowerment and Humanitarian Action 
• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills 
• Strong knowledge of Results Based Management 
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making 
• Strong analytical skills 
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising and develop strategies 
• Ability to interact with both the organization and the general public, good interpersonal skills and organizational proficiency

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master degree (or equivalent) in development studies, gender issues, economics, political science, international relations, public policy, law or other social science fields.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage 

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in designing, managing and implementing projects in conflict and/ post-conflict environment;
• Relevant experience in operational/financial issues especially in humanitarian/post conflict contexts.
• Professional experience in addressing gender equality issues and women’s empowerment.

Language Requirements

• Written and oral proficiency in English and one other UN language is strongly preferred.
• Additional Arabic language skill is highly desirable.