The Republic of South Sudan became an independent state on July 9, 2011, after 99% of the population voted for cessation from Sudan in the January 2011 Referendum. Whilst the attainment of independence South Sudan opened an unprecedented window of opportunity to turn the devastation of over 20 years of civil war, displacement and underdevelopment into a new era of peace and prosperity. The signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement on 12 September 2018, ongoing National Dialogue and expected formation of Revitalized Government of National Unity are believed to put South Sudan back on reconstruction and development paths. he overall security situation in South Sudan remains fragile.

South Sudan is a near complete oil revenue-dependent economy since its independence in July 2011, although it has other untapped potentials of natural and mineral resources. The recent volatility and sharp fall in global oil prices coupled with the drastic reduction in oil production levels since the onset of the conflict in mid- December 2013 has significantly reduced oil revenue receipts which in turn impacted fiscal imbalances and the overall macroeconomic stability in the country.

The budgetary allocation to the subnational governments which stood at minimum level in the national budget has also been severely reduced due to the extreme austerity measures adopted. The states have vast service delivery responsibilities at the subnational levels. Support from Government of Japan, and African Development Bank, South Sudan has started establishment of unified and harmonized domestic resource generation system at the sub-national levels and significant capacity gaps remain in revenue administration.

The subnational governments particularly the ones in relatively peaceful states step-up their efforts to diversify and generate domestic resources in a systematic manner; enhance the capacity of tax officers; develop sustainable and efficient revenue generation system as a medium-term objective interalia to serve the service delivery needs of the vulnerable population and incentivize returns of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their places of origin. Such initiative is expected to mitigate the extent risks of conflict spill-over in the relatively peaceful states and prevent to some extent, potential adverse development fallouts at the local level.

The Revitalized Peace Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) signed on September 12, 2018, has created an opportunity to return to a development path, particularly in the conflict-affected states. In this environment, it would be critical to help the country both at national and subnational levels to maintain core public financial management functions while consolidating the gains made. This project would contribute to the mitigation of the impact of the conflict on service delivery at the subnational levels, thereby laying the foundation for the implementation of the current peace agreement.

The support to state revenue generating system and public accountability is being aligned to the national development strategy, resolutions of conflict in South Sudan peace agreement, the United Nations Interim cooperation framework (ICF), and the UN Cooperation framework (UNCF). UNDP’s Support to Public Financial Management Project is financed by the Government of Japan and Africa Development Bank.

Under the direct supervision of the Team Leader, Strategy, Policy and Capacities for Economic Management (SPACE) in close coordination and collaboration with management, UNDP programme and operation units, the SPACE team and project’s counterparts, the Technical Specialist will take the lead on provision of substantive project management and technical advice, build capacity of a unified, transparent, sustainable domestic revenue generating system for state governments and provide strategic framework for UNDP public financial management work.

The technical specialist will also be involved in capacity building of the sub-national tax officers and support public financial management institutions on their responsibilities to safeguard public funds. The main functions of the PFM Technical Specialist are:

The Public Financial Management Specialist champions the Public Financial Management work for the SPACE unit and UNDP in South Sudan

Provide robust and innovative technical advice to counterparts on Public Financial Management, Accountability and Transparency sourcing more specialized expertise where necessary

Promote inter-linkages between the Public Financial Management and other Accountability and Transparency mechanism in South Sudan

Promote partnership, resource mobilization, networking and knowledge sharing within UNDP and the UN System in South Sudan

Lead and coordinate delivery of UNDP’s Public Financial Management (PFM) project

Provide robust technical advice to counterparts on Public Financial Management, Accountability and Transparency sourcing more specialized expertise where necessary, focusing on the achievement of the following results

• Provide technical assistance on core policy imperatives of non-oil revenue diversification subnational needs including taxation and accountability roadmaps for adoption by the subnational level;
• Develop good working relationships with key Ministerial counterparts at the state level;
• Provide substantial inputs into policy debates on public financial management with the government, development partners and CSO counterparts
• Provide direct technical advice to counterparts, including training seminars, knowledge products, and other key Project activities.
•  Ensure that capacity building support to counterparts are carried out in a timely and appropriate manner; work with counterparts to develop their work plans and develop checklists for all counterparts to help in implementation;
• Provide technical assistance to the subnational governments to develop taxpayer’s education and public tax sensitization programme in collaboration with the national government and other stakeholders
• Provide technical support toward strengthening states non-oil revenue systems as well as integration with the national revenue systems and develop a joint training programme for both national and state tax officers
• Provide technical guidance for the development and operationalization of standardized training manual on non-oil administration, standard operation procedures, collection manual, tax audit and oversight responsibility for subnational governments and develop training programmes on non-oil revenue administration, conduct short and medium-term training for subnational tax officers;
• Produce policy brief/note on non-oil revenue and resource mobilization

Promote linkages between the Public Financial Management and other Accountability and Transparency mechanism in South Sudan focusing on the achievement of the following results

• Ensure complementarity between activities to support fiscal frameworks and development plans and broader planning processes;
• Ensure work on public financial management activities, such as strengthening budget, state development strategies/plans  and procurement processes, effectively anchored with planning and aid management activities.
• Build the capacity of state Parliamentary Public Accounts and Budget Committees to properly oversee public sector expenditures and the outputs of public sector bodies;
• Provide technical expertise and recommendations on public financial management issues as they relate to the political transition at the state government level, especially on transparency, revenue generation and public expenditure management;
• Provide and source technical expertise to improve financial management to specific high priority institutions;
• Work with other parts of UNDP and the UN Country Team to provide technical expertise and practical recommendations on how to improve financial management in emerging administrations as part of overall recovery and stabilization efforts

Promote partnership, networking, and knowledge sharing within UNDP and the UN System, focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Promote information sharing and coordination with UN agencies and with other key PFL stakeholders;
• Coordinate closely with other UNDP programmes and projects to enhance integration and ensure coherence in Public Financial Management, Accountability, and Transparency initiatives, especially in complex conflict and post-conflict settings;
• Be the focal point on public financial management, transparency and accountability reforms for the UNDP Country Office and UN Country Team.
• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to project country goals and activities;
• Make sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice including corporate communications repositories;
• Design appropriate learning strategies for counterparts, in conjunction with technical experts and counterparts.
• Build strategic partnership and engagement with government counterparts and development partners, prepare innovative proposals, and project documents for resource mobilization in discussion with the international development partners engaged in the Public Financial Management fora in the country

Lead and coordinate delivery of UNDP’s Public Financial Management (PFM) project

• Develop annual work plans that contribute to the delivery of PFM outputs;
• Oversee delivery and implementation of the work plan and take forward corrective action as necessary;
• Manage and oversee the budget for PFM project in support of the overall financial management;
• Provide regular and effective people management and mentoring of the Public Financial Management project team;
• Manage the delivery of the work plan and its outputs through consultants, contractors, and NGOs, including developing terms of reference, participating in procurement, selection and hiring, and overseeing their delivery to ensure high-quality outputs;
• Work with the UNDP CO and project monitoring and evaluation specialists to ensure regular and effective monitoring and evaluation of all Public Financial Management project activities, including the initial development of appropriate baselines and targets;
• Contribute to the identification of risks and issues and updating of risk logs in ATLAS;
• Contribute to quarterly, mid-year and annual reporting project reporting and prepare relevant briefs as necessary.

• Coordinate with the World Bank, African Development Bank, and other donors to ensure clear roles and responsibilities in PFM and to avoid duplication of activities;
• Coordinate with other UN and UNDP programmes especially the Joint Programme on Recovery and Resilience Building.

• Identify new areas of support and facilitate implementation of new initiatives, together with project counterparts;
• Liaise with counterparts and prepare agreements including work plans, budgets, and schedules of payments;

Ensure compliance of operation with UNDP rules and regulations

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies: 

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies:

• Creates effective advocacy strategies;
• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses.

Results-Based Programme Development and Management: Contributing to results through the provision of information:

• Provides information for linkages across programme activities to help identify critical points of integration;
• Provides information and documentation on specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Provides background information to identify opportunities for project development and helps to draft proposals;
• Participates in the formulation of project proposals.

Building Strategic Partnerships: Identifying and building partnerships:

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
• Promotes UNDP’s agenda in inter-agency meetings.

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches: Developing new approaches:

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;
• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

Resource Mobilization and implementing resource mobilization strategies:

• Analyzes information on potential bilateral donors and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach;
• Identifies and compiles lessons learned;
• Develops a resource mobilization strategy at the country level.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Developing tools and mechanisms:

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;
• Effective presentation and report-writing skills; strong analytical and strategic skills as well as good written and oral communications skills.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise: In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter:

• Understands more advanced aspects of the primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;
• Strong experience of managing staff and consultants to ensure effective delivery of work plans.

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNDP’s Goals: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies:

• Performed analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at the country level

Client Orientation: Contributing to positive outcomes for the client:

• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates an understanding of client's perspective;
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

Competencies and Selection Criteria

Innovation - Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Leadership - Ability to persuade others to follow

People Management - Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Communication –Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Delivery - Ability to get things done while exercising good judgment 

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Financial Management, Business Administration, Economics or relevant field is required

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of technical expertise in Public Financial Management issues including budgeting and planning,
• Experience in domestic resources mobilization is desirable and such experience  in a post-conflict environment will be a distinct advantage;
• Excellent experience in technical assistance in public financial management is an experience in taxation, customs, and budget processes will be a distinct advantage;
• Demonstrated experience in capacity development, coaching and mentoring, organizational development while working with government counterparts Ministry of Finance will be an asset
• Excellent command of written and spoken English and strong reporting skills for purposes of donors is essential;
• Excellent command of common Microsoft Office programs;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Language Requirements

• Strong written and spoken skill of the English language. Knowledge of Arabic Language is an asset

Kindly note that this vacancy announcement is NOT for South Sudanese nationals 

To start the application process, applicants are required to register at http://jobs.undp.org by creating a personal profile and completing UNDP Personal History Form. Please note that UNDP only accepts degrees from accredited educational institutions. Only applications received through http://jobs.undp.org will be considered and applications received after closing date will not be considered. Due to the large number of applications received for UNDP South Sudan vacancies, only applicants short-listed for written test and interview will be contacted.

General Information

UNDP is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staffs and encourages applications from qualified female candidates and persons with disabilities.

UNDP is a United Nations organization whose staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity, neutrality and impartiality. This includes respect for and commitment to human rights, diversity, and non-violent means of dealing with all kinds of conflict. UNDP staff are expected to uphold these values at all times, both at work and outside. Only persons who fully and unconditionally commit to these values should consider applying for UNDP jobs.

UNDP has zero tolerance of sexual abuse, abuse of authority and exploitation.

The United Nations does not charge fees at any stage of the recruitment process (application, testing, interviewing, etc). The United Nations does not concern itself with information related to bank accounts.