Programme Analyst, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

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 leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality (GE) and gender mainstreaming translate into action globally. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts.

In South Sudan, UN Women actively engages in Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), WEE, EVAW Governance and women leadership, and Humanitarian action and UN coordination.  UN Women, South Sudan Country Office, leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action. UN Women’s mandate in humanitarian action includes mainstreaming gender in the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC); reviewing relevant policies and strategies; participating in cluster meetings and humanitarian working groups; strengthening the gender capacity of humanitarian actors (GIHA trainings); developing gender alerts and conducting gender analysis to identify gender gaps to inform Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) among others.

UN Women’s Role in Humanitarian Action:
UN Women’s work in humanitarian action is guided by global norms and standards. Building on the findings of the inter-agency Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) review based on the Accountability Framework of the IASC’s Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action Policy. The UN Economic and Social Council adopted resolutions E/RES/2012/3,1 E/RES/2013/62, and E/RES/2014/23 in 2012, 2013, and 2014, which recognize that humanitarian action can be strengthened by mainstreaming a gender perspective into all aspects of the humanitarian response. Similarly, the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in 2016 emphasized the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) to humanitarian action. As the impact of climate and conflict continues in the region, there is an increasing recognition among UN Women country offices that the development and humanitarian challenges arising from the crisis must be met with accelerated action and enhanced capacity with the support of the regional office. In October 2022, UN Women became a member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Action, the highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the United Nations system. This will enhance the coordination and operationalization of gender input to humanitarian response and recovery, as well as resilience building across the humanitarian peace and development nexus.

South Sudan Context:
Over a decade after gaining independence and six years after the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, South Sudan ranks 3rd on the 2024 Fragile States Index.  The humanitarian crisis persists due to a combination of factors, including sporadic armed clashes, political and regional instability, intercommunal violence, food insecurity, public health challenges, and climatic shocks. These issues have severely impacted people's livelihoods and hindered access to essential services such as Shelter and Nonfood items, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), education, and healthcare. 

In 2024, the ongoing economic crisis, the conflict in neighboring Sudan, and widespread flooding have exacerbated the needs of the population. Over 1 million people in South Sudan have been affected by flooding, with a quarter losing their homes and livelihoods.  South Sudan is ranked the second most vulnerable country to natural hazards globally, according to the 2024 INFORM Risk Index.  The country continues to experience extreme climate shocks, including recurrent floods, droughts, and heat stress, with little time for communities to recover. The cumulative effects of climate change have created a situation of perennial vulnerability, wiping out local adaptive response mechanisms. The country has faced recurrent floods, and as of 15th November 2024, about 1.4 million people remain affected by flooding across 44 counties and the Abyei Administrative Area. More than 379,000 people are flood-displaced across 22 counties, including Renk and Malakal, thus increasing vulnerability as the area bears the impact of the Sudan crisis.

By 20th November 2024, over 850,000 refugees and returnees had crossed from Sudan to South Sudan since the conflict began in mid-April 2023.  The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has also reported an alarming surge of refugees due to intense fighting in Sudan. It is noted that over 20,000 Sudanese have crossed into South Sudan between 2nd to 8th December 2024, tripling the number of refugees entering South Sudan. Approximately 75% of those entering through Renk are women and children, many of whom end up stranded at transit sites in Renk and Malakal. The influx of refugees, returnees, and migrants fleeing conflict in Sudan has significantly increased the population in Renk, putting immense pressure on local infrastructure, resources, and services. The refugee and returnee women and girls are already affected by limited access to food, healthcare, water, sanitation services, shelters, protection, and livelihoods, but they still face heightened vulnerability to flooding in the transit and IDP camps. The overwhelming number of arrivals is straining South Sudan's already limited infrastructure, especially in border areas, where congestion in transit centers increases protection risks for women and girls, including gender-based violence (GBV) and health threats.  It is against this background that UN Women secured funding from the Government of Japan through the Supplementary Budget Fund to respond to the needs of women and girls in Malakai and Renk through the Enhancing Resilience of Women and Girls in Transit and IDP Sites within the Upper Nile State project.

Under the overall guidance of Gender and Humanitarian Action and working closely with the GiHA and Coordination Consultant, the Project Analyst will be an integral part of advancing UN Women’s deployable capacity and serve as gender capacity to support the UN’s coordinated responses in the Country Office. The Analyst will contribute to the expansion of gender-responsive peace, development, and humanitarian nexus programming portfolio through substantive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders in the triple nexus space. Further, a key focus will be advancing UN Women's programmatic response in relation to addressing gender-based violence in emergencies, and along with the peace, development, and humanitarian nexus (conducted in close consultation with the GBV, WEE, and WPS teams) will be another thematic focus area. 

Contribute technically to the development of project strategies in the area of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in South Sudan:

Provide substantive technical support to the implementation and management of the Humanitarian Project:

Provide technical assistance and capacity development to Humanitarian project partners:

Provide technical input for the monitoring and reporting of the Humanitarian and DRR project:

Provide substantive inputs to building partnerships and resource mobilization strategies:

Provide technical support to inter-agency coordination on Humanitarian Action to systematically integrate gender and social inclusion:

Provide substantive inputs to advocacy, knowledge-building, and communication efforts:

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

Education and Certification:

Experience:

Language:

Statements :

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.