Project Manager (Roster)

Sudan is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis fueled by years of economic sanctions, chronic underdevelopment, conflict and natural disasters. The country has seen an overall increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance from 5.4 million people in 2015 to 9.3 million in 2020. Nearly 2 million people remain internally displaced, following decades of conflict. The majority are living in camps and settlements where conditions remain dire, and the root causes that led to their displacement remain unaddressed. Further, the country hosts more than a million refugees, providing safety and services, with host communities sharing their meagre resources. Some 6.2 million people are in need of emergency food assistance, and more than 2.7 million children suffer from acute malnutrition. Disease outbreaks, malnutrition, food insecurity, and climatic shocks, continue to affect the lives of Sudanese people. With fewer resources, people adopt negative coping mechanisms, exposing them to more protection risks—particularly gender-based violence and increasing school dropout and child labor.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations proposes a joint initiative between multiple UN agencies and partners, called Salaam Sudan, to ensure the vulnerable people have a platform to voice their concerns and receive critical information and support in times of need. Salaam Sudan will be a toll-free hotline center to enhance efficient and effective coordination of UN and partner agencies, funds, and programmes, and NGOs operating in Sudan. Under the leadership of the Government of Sudan (GoS), Salaam Sudan will collect and circulate information on the urgent and emerging priorities of affected populations, enhancing access to assistance, and linking callers to established protection referrals mechanisms. It will be an integrated call centre, based within the Humanitarian Aid Commission of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), and serve as a single point of contact to provide information about assistance available throughout the country, and to register feedback and complaints about the support provided.

The project manager is responsible to produce/read the project initiation documents (PID), Legal Agreement and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders to ensure the project(s) products are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the client. Success of the project(s) and hence Project Manager will be based on the Success Criteria of UNOPS engagements which are linked to the below responsibilities. The project manager is responsible for all aspects of the project life cycle. S/he must be able to apply, with some degree of autonomy, the below duties and responsibilities of the project success criteria:

Stakeholder Management:

•               Establish solid working relationship with the project board, partners, and key stakeholders

•               Manage communications and ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover products

•               Represent the project in the county, national, regional and international meetings related to the project when necessary

•               Lead on the development of relations with key government and humanitarian partners - including but not limited to: clusters, the Inter-cluster Coordination Group (ICCG), the Humanitarian Country Team, and bi-lateral partners, to establish and maintain accurate and timely two-way information flow, and document impact of information sharing and improved collective accountability

•               Leverage the Salaam Sudan Call Center to help strengthen collective accountability in Sudan by supporting Communicating with Communities partners and to engage with other accountability coordination mechanisms

Delivery and Performance:

•               Develop, maintain, and implement the approved project plans

•               Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental, and economic aspects into project life cycle.

•               Manage the  project resources and initiate corrective action where necessary

•               Liaise with any external suppliers

•               Authorize Work Packages

•               Advise the Project Board and Head of Programme of any deviations from the project plan

•               Identify and manage risks so that maximum benefit to stakeholders is achieved

•               Monitor and evaluate performance of service providers

•               Identify and report potential partnership opportunities for UNOPS to Partnerships Advisor and Head of Programme

•               Identify and report threats to UNOPS internal business case to Head of Programme

•               Oversee the update of internal and external information structures, policies and standard operating procedures to facilitate, support, and promote data and information sharing to/from affected populations and the humanitarian and wider community

•               Oversee the maintenance and development of data collection, data sharing, and reporting processes

•               Adhere fully to international standards for data protection

•               Lead on the development of an integrated database for handling, storing, archiving data in line with international data protection standards

•               Ensure the implementation of monitoring against the Salaam Sudan’s Accountability and M&E Framework. Maintain and advance quality assurance and monitor and evaluate procedures to ensure stakeholder satisfaction and professional service provision

•               Lead the coordination of a countrywide, multi-media, multi-pronged, inclusive visibility campaign to raise awareness of the Salaam Sudan’s Call Center among humanitarian actors and affected populations. The campaign must target vulnerable members of affected communities and should be culturally and language appropriate

Procedures:

•               Ensure that all organizational policy is complied with (Organizational Directives and Administrative Instructions)

•               Prepare the required narrative and financial reports, as per the legal agreements with the donors.

•               Ensure that all expenditure comply with UNOPS Financial Rules and Regulations (FRR).

•               Manage budgets, cash flow, and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.

Knowledge Management:

•               Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice

•               Actively interact with other PMs and the PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practice on the Knowledge System.

•               Provide feedback to Practice Leads on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies

•               Complete lessons learned as per reporting format

•               Incorporate lessons learned from others as per planning format

Personnel Management:

•               Lead and motivate the project management team

•               Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established

•               Ensure that performance reviews are conducted

•               Identify outstanding staff and bring them to the attention of the Head of Programme

•               Have a thorough understanding of UNOPS personnel contract modalities (including ICA and Staff)

•               Select, recruit and train existing and/ or new team members as required by project plans

•               Ensure safety and security for all personnel and comply with UNDSS standards

• Advanced University Degree in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science, Development Studies, or other relevant discipline with 5 years of progressive experience in project management with focus on team management and stakeholder management; and project development in international organizations is required
• University Degree (bachelor’s degree / first level) with a combination of 2 additional years of relevant professional experience in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science, Development Studies, or other relevant discipline, may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree.
• Experience in developing proposals and understanding donor reporting requirements is required;
• Excellent interpersonal communication and networking skills with fluency in English is required;
• PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification and/ or an equivalent project management certification is preferred;
• Previous experience with the UN in a humanitarian or conflict/post-conflict setting is highly preferred;
• Experience of working with contact/ information centres, databases, and archive systems in humanitarian crisis is preferred;
• Knowledge of protection principles and data protection standards is preferred;
• Working knowledge of Arabic is highly desirable
• Experience in handling projects that use call handling technologies, including Cisco and Motorola, data analysis and visualisation solutions such as PowerBI and Tableau, and professional-grade design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suites) is preferred.

Contract type: ICA
Contract level: IICA-2
Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

• 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.
• 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.

Sudan

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.