Resource Mobilisation Specialist, Africa Portfolio 1

Since 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has inspired a new way of working collaboratively to end malnutrition, in all its forms. With the governments of SUN Countries in the lead, it unites people—from civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers—in a collective effort to improve nutrition. The SUN Strategy 2021–2025 (SUN 3.0) prioritises country leadership and focuses on supporting systemic change at the country level. It seeks to capture the ambition of SUN countries and guide the work of all actors at all levels aligning concerted action behind and responding to commonly agreed national priorities set out by governments in SUN countries. 

SUN 3.0 is committed to fundamental, non-negotiable aspects of effective nutrition action, including equity and the principle of leaving no one behind. For its third phase, the SUN Movement will drive forward gender equality and enshrine youth leadership across the Movement.  SUN 3.0 will strengthen partnerships to achieve greater impact on nutrition through food systems, health systems, social protection systems, actions by the private sector and humanitarian and development actors, and through education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and climate change adaptation.

The SUN Movement Secretariat (SMS)  plays a central role in enabling the multiple members and structures of the Movement to work together to advance progress on country-level priorities and the global positioning of nutrition.  

The SUN Movement Secretariat comprises personnel  based in Geneva and in various regions globally.  All parts of the Movement – member governments, the SUN Global Support System - the GSS, consisting of  four SUN networks (Civil Society, United Nations, Business, Donors) and the SUN Movement Secretariat, together with the SUN Movement Coordinator, work together to align and focus efforts on priorities within countries.

The SUN Movement Secretariat is hosted by UNOPS.

Role of the Resource Mobilisation Specialist

The purpose of this role is to support predictable and sustainable long-term funding and country financing capacity to meet SUN country financing requirements for nutrition.

The role reports to the SMS Regional Representative, Africa Portfolio1 in Dakar, servicing SUN countries in West and Central Africa.

• Working in close collaboration with SUN Focal Points and GSS, support the organization  of resource mobilization roundtables at country level.

• Support SUN members to build sustainable nutrition financing lines in national budgets through stronger domestic and external resource mobilisation.

• Facilitate GSS response to SUN countries’ technical assistance requests in the area of financing for nutrition. 

• Map and analyse existing and potential sources of financing relevant for nutrition, including within post-COVID recovery plans, as well as climate, agriculture or humanitarian financing. 

• Guide countries on innovative sources of financing, including debt swaps and impact bond, and funding from non-traditional donors.

• Develop and maintain an information repository on nutrition funding sources to enable countries to prepare for funding opportunities.

• Contribute to the identification of relevant e learning opportunities to boost the capacities at country level when it comes to budget tracking, national nutrition plan costing and financial gap analysis, and resource mobilization strategy elaboration

• Identify best practices and inform global-level discussions on how to make financing sources work better for nutrition.

• Facilitate donors’ and partners’ nutrition investment towards countries’ national budgets and multisectoral nutrition action plans.

• Develop/strengthen partnerships and collaboration with financing sources that place nutrition at the centre.

• Keep Head of Country Action and SMS Regional Representative, briefed on broader policy dialogue in the region, regarding development financing and how it pertains to nutrition.

• Prepare meetings & conferences, including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations on resource mobilization.

• Conduct research on innovative approaches to donor interactions, including lessons learned from private sector investments.  

• Provide substantive input into outreach/publicity material geared towards partners and donors.

• Coordinate and monitor the implementation of capacity building activities on strategic finance issues.

• Support the TT in identifying and responding to SUN Country requirements in the area of finance for nutrition. 

• Bring analysis to the TT on matters of sustainable, domestic, private and innovative finance – nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive.

• Foster learning on finance across the SUN Movement and between SUN Countries and other Movement stakeholders.

• Support the Movement’s work to articulate nutrition finance goals as well as nutrition financing activities including advocacy, technical assistance and piloting

• Work across teams at the SMS to identify and disseminate best practices for improving countries’ access to funding from global sources.

• Generate country-specific lessons and identify opportunities for increasing domestic resource mobilization for nutrition.

• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to resource mobilization and partnership-building activities.

• Plan and contribute to the development of the organization-wide capacity, processes and knowledge on resource mobilization

• Master’s degree in a relevant field for example business administration, economics, finance, international relations or social science or political science or related fields.
• A bachelor's degree with a combination of two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted  in lieu of the master's degree

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in resource management, development financing, or resource mobilisation within SDG framework is required.
• A minimum of three (3) years of professional work experience in an international setting is required, preferably from a development agency, IFI or other relevant financing body for nutrition is required.
• Experience in developing and implementing resource mobilisation efforts is required.
• Experience structuring and analyzing quantitative, financial models to inform decision-making is required.
• Experience from managing relations with governance bodies  of international organisations is desired.
• Experience with innovative approaches to development finance is desired.
• Demonstrated understanding of the principles of the SUN movement  is desired.
• Experience working in the nutrition sphere is desired.

• Full working knowledge of French and English is required

1. Contract type :International Individual Contractor Agreement (IICA)
2. Contract level : ICS 10 / IICA 2
3. Contract duration :  Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• Dakar, Senegal is a UN Family Duty Station
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.