Qualifications:
- An advanced university degree in social sciences, international relations, government and public relations, public or social policy, sociology, social or community development, or other related fields, is required.
- A minimum of fifteen (15) years of professional development experience that combines intellectual and managerial leadership in development cooperation at the international level, some of which served in developing countries and countries in fragile contexts is required.
- Relevant professional experience in any UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset including human rights-based approaches.
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Arabic or another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.
- Experience working in duty stations with significant operational field presence and emergency response is an important asset.
Person Profile:
• Strong programme and peoples management skills and track record at the international level including change management processes.
• International and developing country knowledge and practical field experience, in the areas of programme and operations, and with significant experience managing programmes in high threat, fragile and complex humanitarian contexts.
• Excellent representational and communication skills with judgment and capacity to ensure both "soft diplomacy" and advocacy in a humanitarian context with rights violations.
• Strong experience in policy development and advocacy and building capacity of weak national systems and capacities.
• Emergency preparedness and response, and related capacity building support experience at country and international levels.
• Proven knowledge and experience in formulating strategies and managing a large size programme (sectoral, development, humanitarian, advocacy, policy dialogue and capacity building, UN Inter-Agency, Multi-Donor Trust Funds).
• Substantive knowledge of application of a human rights-based approach in practice, and results based programming.
• Demonstrated capacity to build inter-sectoral and Inter-Agency strategic, technical and programme partnerships.
• Ability to direct and foster and negotiate strategic public and private sector alliances and partnerships and mobilize and leverage resources, e.g. multi donor trust fund modalities.
• Proven capacity to lead, motivate and develop a large team including in humanitarian crisis.
• Strong people management, emotional intelligence and diplomatic skills.
• Proven risk management skills and efficient management of financial resources.
• Ability to operate under high levels of pressure and demands.
Country Typology:
• Country Income Level: Sudan is a low-Income country
• Duty Station: Port Sudan is an “E” classified, non-family, and emergency duty station, with 7 field offices
• Office Size: 380 staff
• Annual Budget: Approx USD 200 million per year
• Good for 1st time Representative: No, recommended for current D2 or D1 applicants with prior Representative experience
• Schooling: this is a non-family duty station
• Healthcare: The system is inadequate, and medevacs are the norm rather than the exception
Brief country context:
The Republic of Sudan has great economic potential and opportunities to secure the economic prosperity of its population, including oil and mineral wealth, and an important agricultural sector with abundant livestock and fertile land. However, the long history of conflict as well as deep rooted political and tribal divides, corruption, and lack of transparency has greatly stalled social and economic development.
In August 2022, the Government of Sudan unilaterally announced a 2-year extension of the Transitional Government to implement the outstanding Articles of the Revitalized Peace Agreements The office may move from Port Sudan to Khartoum if security conditions allow.
The national economy is facing rising debt and significant depreciation of the Sudanese Pound (SP), what some believe to be real signs of potential hyperinflation. Since the onset of the global economic crisis and the continued signs of volatility in the national economy, the situation is expected to worsen during 2023, especially for the most vulnerable populations and push more people into deeper poverty.
On the humanitarian front, Sudan continues to face deteriorating conditions. The situation is worsened by endemic violence, conflict, access constraints and operational interference, public healtchallenges such as measles and cholera outbreaks and climatic shocks resulting in extraordinary flooding and localized drought. These in turn have a severe impact on people’s livelihoods, hamper access to education and water, sanitation and hygiene and health services. Protection concerns remain high, especially for women and girls. People affected by violence have limited access to formal justice as well as restriction in their movement and access to basic needs such as food.
The country programme implementation strategy will adopt a risk-informed approach programming which will allow for contextual analysis and build an effective link where possible to humanitarian action. Starting from 2023, the UNICEF country programme will offer a vision aligned to the revised National Development Strategy to build - rather than substitute for - capacity in social services delivery. As such this will be a core contribution of UNICEF to a humanitarian development peace nexus strategy aligned with other UN agencies and positioning UNICEF as a key actor for investing in capacity building of government institution to gradually take ownership of social service delivery by contributing public funds and reducing the reliance on Official Development Aid (ODA).
