General

Description of assignment title: Development Coordination Specialist

Assignment country: Sudan

Expected start date: 06/01/2023

Sustainable Development Goal: 17. Partnerships for the goals

Volunteer category: International UN Volunteer Specialist

DoA reserved for persons with disabilities: No

Host entity: UNRCO

Type: Onsite

Duration: 10 months

Number of assignments: 1

Duty stations: Khartoum

Details

Mission and objectives

In September 2019, then-Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok requested that Sudan be declared eligible for the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund. On 16th October, the Secretary-General in his response declared Sudan eligible to the PBF for a period of five years. Since 2018, the PBF has approved over USD 60 million in funding to Sudan to support key peacebuilding priorities including durable solutions, rule of law, local peacebuilding, and women’s and youth empowerment. The PBF has eleven active projects in Sudan, two recently approved projects, six completed projects, and one in the pipeline. In January 2021, a Peacebuilding Fund Secretariat was established under the auspices of the DSRSG/RC/HC Integrated Office to provide assistance to the coordination, monitoring, evaluation, and communications of PBF-funded projects. The Sudan Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) is a pooled funding mechanism that, since December 2020, has mobilised and channelled resources to UN Agencies to assist peacebuilding and stabilisation in Sudan in support of the UNITAMS mandate. In an effort to improve coherence and complementarity, as well as increase impact, coordination and cost efficiency, the DSRSG decided to merge the two secretariats into one Joint MPTF-PBF Secretariat. The Joint Secretariat will be responsible for the coordination, monitoring and evaluation, and communications of all PBF and MPTF investments in Sudan, and based in the Integrated Office of the DSRSG/RC/HC.

Context

The political crisis in Sudan remains unresolved, although domestic, regional and international efforts continue, aiming at facilitating a political solution to restore a credible civilian-led democratic transition following the military coup of 25 October 2021. The lack of political agreement and of a fully functional Government has contributed to insecurity in various parts of the country affecting civilians, as well as to the deterioration of economic, humanitarian and human rights situation. Given the pause in donor financing, the socio-economic situation and the external position of Sudan remain very challenging. External financial support is crucial for bringing stability to the Sudanese economy, which is suffering from hyperinflation and unsustainable foreign debt. Increasing prices and persistent unemployment further strain consumption and erode people’s purchasing power and their ability to meet their basic needs, especially among the most vulnerable segments of the society. The combined effects of economic and political crises, conflict and displacement, climate shocks, including droughts and floods, and poor harvests have significantly affected peoples’ access to food in Sudan. 34 percent of the general population (over 15 million people) have been food insecure in 2022 , an increase of 7 percent compared to a year earlier. Households headed by women were more food insecure than their male counterparts by 11 percent, primarily due to limited access to the labour market. The latest analysis of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification for the Sudan estimated that between June and September 2022, up to 11.7 million people were classified in IPC phase 3 and above (crisis), including 3.1 million in IPC 4 (emergency). Further inadequacy of food is impacting 1.1 million children going hungry as the country faces its worst food crisis in recent years. For 2023 , humanitarian partners estimate that about 15.8 million people – roughly 32 per cent of the population – will need humanitarian assistance. This is a 1.5 million increase compared to 2022 and is the highest since 2011. The food security cluster has the highest number of people in need – 11.7 million, followed by WASH – 11 million, and the health cluster – 10.1 million people in need. Overall, the four most significant risks are conflict, disasters associated with natural hazards, disease outbreaks, and economic deterioration. In this context, UN in Sudan is embarking on the formulation of a new Interim Strategic Framework to guide its collective efforts in support of national development needs and priorities during the period 2024-2026. Interventions along the humanitarian-peace-development nexus will help to effectively reduce people’s needs, risks and vulnerabilities, supporting prevention efforts and thus, shifting from delivering humanitarian assistance to promoting lasting peace and socio-economic progress.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: 1. Support the Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team in the development, imple-mentation coordination and monitoring of the UN Interim Cooperation Framework 2024-2026 in support of the implementation of Agenda 2030, including in the area of food secu-rity.

•  Supports coordination and follow up of the UN Interim Cooperation Framework with the RC, RCO and UNCT (including WFP, FAO, IFAD and other UNCT members)
•  Provide relevant support to UN coordination mechanisms and UNCT activities, including UNCT meetings and joint work through UN thematic and sub-groups, with a focus on the prosperity agenda and the support to productive sectors of the economy;
•  Support the preparation of regular background and briefing materials on the implementa-tion of the UN Interim Cooperation Framework;
•  Other coordination tasks as required. 2. Support and undertake constant monitoring of humanitarian, development and peace building (HDP) nexus priority interventions with a focus on food security and livelihoods
•  Liaise with relevant UN entities to support coordination on UN food security and liveli-hoods initiatives. Some of the important current initiatives include but are not limited to: UNICEF’s Mother and Child Cash Transfer Plus (MCCT+) Programme, WFP’s Sudan Emergency Safety Nets project, and FAO’s work to support the operationalisation of Su-dan’s ‘National Pathways’ for food systems.
•  Follow related project activities together with the respective implementing teams and pro-vide substantive input as required; 3. Assist the Resident Coordinator and the Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office in the day-to-day management of the Office
•  Provide substantive and logistical support for the organization and reporting of relevant meetings of UN coordination structures and assist with key inputs into meetings (briefing notes, speeches, presentation materials, documents, etc.);
•  Monitor and report on priority areas directly relevant to the Resident Coordinator’s man-date;
•  Provide support to the Resident Coordinator’s substantive agenda and correspondence, including the organization and preparation of field visits.
•  Coordinate analysis/research on areas of relevance for the RCO work; During the first month of the assignment, the Special Assistant to the Resident Coordinator / Development Coordination Specialist will work jointly with his/her direct supervisor finalize an agreed upon work plan. The final work plan will be discussed and mutually agreed to by the Special Assistant to the Resident Coordinator / Development Coordination Specialist and his/her supervisor. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:
•  Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by read-ing relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
•  Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
•  Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
•  Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publica-tions/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
•  Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
•  Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Eligibility criteria

Age: 27 – 80

Additional eligibility criteria

This assignment is funded by the Government of Japan, therefore only Japanese nationals are eligible to apply.

Nationality

Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Donor priorities

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Requirements

Required experience

5 years of experience in

•  Previous track record of working on partnerships with a wide range of national and inter-national partners/interlocutors, focusing on impact and results required;
•  Ability to extract, interpret and analyse data and resolve operational problems required.
•  Previous experience in drafting reports/correspondence and speaking notes required;
•  Previous experience with international organizations in developing countries or in the insti-tutional environment of development cooperation would be an advantage;
•  Previous food security-related analysis and programming work, included other related ar-eas such as rural development, land use and environment would be an advantage;
•  Demonstrated knowledge of/experience in Sub-Saharan Africa would be an advantage;
•  Knowledge about the UN and RC systems would be an advantage

Area(s) of expertise

Development programmes

Driving license

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Languages

English, Level: Fluent, Required Arabic, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable

Required education level

Master degree or equivalent in Development studies, International relations, or Socio-economic studies and experience in the field of international development

Competencies and values

☒ Accountability ☒ Adaptability and Flexibility ☒ Building Trust ☒ Client Orientation ☒ Commitment and Motivation ☒ Commitment to Continuous Learning ☒ Communication ☒ Creativity ☒ Ethics and Values ☒ Integrity ☒ Judgement and Decision-making ☒ Planning and Organizing ☒ Professionalism ☒ Respect for Diversity ☒ Self-Management ☒ Technological Awareness ☒ Working in Teams

Other information

Living conditions and remarks

Khartoum, Sudan, is a relatively safe duty station. Following the military coup on 25th of October 2021, Sudan in general, but Khartoum in particular, has been subject to occasional disruptions of normal work modalities including road and bridge blockages during protests. From a security perspective, civil unrest and criminality remains the dominant threat to UN personnel and operations in Sudan. Khartoum is classified as a C category family duty station. From a health perspective, an assessment conducted by WHO in November 2021, focusing on four private hospitals usually utilized by UN staff and their dependents, revealed that “the assessed hospitals are generally having the capacities to provide the emergency and other essential services”. With regard to isolation factors and other living conditions, there are limited social amenities for relaxation or exercises.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy