Antecedentes

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined of the UN Charter, UN Women is a leading supporter of efforts towards ensuring that national policies and budgets incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women's GRB programmes at cross-regional, regional and country-level have made a significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacity, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability to gender equality. The programmes have also launched partnerships with UN agencies and other development partners and resulted in increased support for GRB around the world.

UN Women's approach to GRB has focused on introducing strategic and sustainable changes into budgetary processes. This approach has been pursued by assisting governments to introduce measures for incorporating gender into their public finance management systems (PFMs), and building the capacity of planning and budgeting officers to apply GRB with a view to ensure those budget policies and outcomes are gender-responsive. This approach also emphasizes the importance of bringing gender equality advocates, parliamentarians and other stakeholders as key players in the budgeting process.

At the South Sudan Country Office level, UN Women's GRB programming seeks to support the Government of the Republic of South Sudan under the PFM to transform planning and budgeting processes and policies to reflect responsiveness to principles of gender equality and make concrete changes in resource allocations towards women's priorities.  To achieve this, UN Women emphasizes the importance of building multi-dimensional partnerships with actors at national and state levels including a wide range of institutions starting with the ministry of Finance and Planning, UN Agencies and national women's machineries.

Over the past years, the Government of South Sudan has affirmed its commitment to strive for gender equality in the country through the R-ARCSS commitments of which include the 35% participation of women in the Executive making Public financial management (PFM) a key pillar in reforms aimed at building more credible, transparent and accountable government. The PFM reforms are the focus of multilateral financial institutions and bilateral aid agencies, and in many cases, drive donors’ financial support. The PFM reforms are expected to contribute to the wider state-building objectives after the conflicts and which include transparent management of public finances, regular payment of salaries of civil servants, better service delivery to the citizens, and better allocation of resources in support of reconstruction priorities.

However, the current state of PFM implementation and reform in South Sudan is in flux. To deliver the reform agenda and the development goals set forth in the national development strategy, the country needs to ensure fiscal discipline and strategic allocation of resources which is Gender Responsive. The Revitalized Peace Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) signed on September 12, 2018, has created an opportunity to return to a development path, particularly in the conflict-affected states. In this environment, it would be critical to help the country both at national and sub-national levels to maintain core public financial management functions while consolidating the gains made. 

Objective and Methodology: 

The main objectives of this assignment are to support government partners identified as responsible parties in South Sudan (PFM) to strengthen their skills and knowledge on applying the Gender-responsive budgeting methodology to sector budgeting and to strengthen the government’s capacity for GRB implementation broadly on a national level. The goal of this technical support aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Finance and Planning to implement the gender-responsive budgeting and gender analysis into the programme budget planning and implementation processes.

UN Women will facilitate how to transform GRB as theoretical knowledge into a sustained and institutionalized strategy into national policy frameworks for attaining gender equality at all levels in South Sudan. Finally, it is expected to help South Sudan streamline and harmonize the GRB processes wherever feasible and serve as a coordination mechanism to speak with a common GRB understanding at national and sub national levels.

Proposed methodology:

The consultant will work under the overall leadership and guidance of the Ministry of Finance and Planning together with UN Women in identifying key entry points based on which a GRB Framework will be developed based on technical and advisory support.

Deberes y responsabilidades

In this regard, UN Women is looking for an International GRB Consultant preferably a strong economics background, who will take responsibility for providing technical support to Government partners on engendering the PFM.

Under the overall guidance of the Country Representative, the consultant will work directly with Deputy Representative and the Ministry of Finance and Planning in providing technical expertise on GRB with a holistic approach to address opportunities and challenges in promoting sustainable development. The consultant will promote and strengthen the capacity and efforts necessary for inclusion and mainstreaming gender perspectives in national economic reform and transformation processes in line with international standards. The role of the consultant at the PFM Technical Committee will include the following;

• Lead on systematic gender analysis the Government of South Sudan’s public financial management system, including policies, strategic planning, budget preparation and execution. Integrate gender analysis into planned assessments of the PFM system, including diagnostic, institutional and technical capacity assessments where relevant;
• Build awareness of gender equity in PFM with relevant stakeholders and provide recommendations to the oversight architecture to promote and institutionalize gender-equitable PFM reforms and policies across the budget cycle process.  Advise on gender-sensitive Key Performance Indicators to monitor the performance of PFM reforms;
• Advise on the promotion of innovative approach on the progressive application of affirmative actions in PFM according to international standards;
• Contribute towards capacity building plans, propose and develop methodologies, guidelines and knowledge products to strengthen technical capacity on gender issues including: conceptual clarity - gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting among others;
• Ensure that the national gender machinery substantively contributes to engendering the development and implementation of national policies/plans relevant for PFM;
• Provide technical backstopping for the discussions within the oversights mechanism and providing analysis of sex-disaggregated statistical data and perspective for engendered reform of public finance management. Engage with line ministries, statistics office and relevant civil society actors for information and evidence of the impact of the national budget on gender equality;
• Where necessary, organize and conduct gender and or related capacity strengthening for concerned individuals/groups to ensure their comprehensive understanding and participation in the PFM reform process with clear knowledge of their various roles;
• Will be responsible for promoting and advocating for equal participation of both men and women in development and policy-making initiatives of PFM to ensure sustainability and ownership;
• Any other related functions assigned to the Gender Advisor as circumstances may dictate.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality technical advice and support;
• Leadership in area of expertise in the region;
• Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner;
• Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders;
• Contributions to resource mobilization;
• Timely and quality knowledge products;
• UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to GRB.

Competencias

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

• Excellent knowledge of Gender Responsive Budgeting;
• Strong knowledge of the region;
• Excellent networking skills;
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising;
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Excellent analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting;
• Share knowledge across the organization and build a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Strong people management skills.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in International Development, Economics, Political science, Social science, Gender/Women studies, human rights, international relations or other social science fields is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with 5 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 10 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for Gender Responsive Budgeting; ideally with some experience in developing countries;
• Technical experience in GRB;
• Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning;
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
• Experience working with the UN is an asset;
• Experience working in the Europe and Central Asia region is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official language is an asset.

Application Process:

The application must include:

• Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Personal History Form P11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

Please note, the system will only allow one attachment, and, hence please combine the multiples files while uploading the attachment.

Qualified women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

Note:
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.