The Position:

The GBV Specialist - Team Lead is located in Sudan Country Office. Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the GBV Specialist - Team Lead provides leadership and advice to the Country Office and sub-offices on all aspects related to planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of UNFPA Sudan  gender and GBV activities. The GBV Specialist - Team Lead supervises staff under the Gender / GBV / Social Norms profile.  
 

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead United Nations agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2026-2029 articulates the organization’s response to a complex global environment, providing a roadmap for resilience and renewal. It is designed to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This mandate is pursued through a focus on four interconnected outcomes: ending the unmet need for family planning; ending preventable maternal deaths; ending gender-based violence and harmful practices; and adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact and sustained results and ensure effective external relations, communications, and partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results.
 

Job Purpose:

Women and girls in Sudan continue to bear the greatest burden of Sudan’s escalating humanitarian crisis, facing extreme risks to their lives, protection, safety, health, basic human rights and dignity. In 2025, the HNRP identified GBV as a life-threatening concern resulting from conflict-related sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual exploitation and abuse, and an estimated 12.1 million people were at risk of GBV. In 2026, the risk has only increased, now reaching 12.4 million people, with women and girls comprising the majority.  The compounding effects of violence, hostilities, and influx of returnees into areas with decimated social and health services create a volatile protection landscape with heightened risks of GBV, including sexual violence.

The GBV Specialist - Team Lead ensures timely effective and efficient implementation of GBV  programming, manages the GBV Programme Unit, and actively participates and ensures UNFPA  representation in sector working groups. He/She will develop strong, collaborative relationships  across the organization to ensure an integrated response, internally and with external partners. The Gender/GBV Specialist will ensure the application of effective programme planning, monitoring and evaluation  principles; identify bottlenecks in gender, lead GBV prevention and response, support programing on harmful practices such and FGM/C and early marriage in the country; devise strategies to address them and ensure application of a resilience approach in the humanitarian response while addressing the humanitarian-development nexus programmatic implementation; provide leadership to ensure that  technical knowledge is updated and disseminated for effective implementation.
 

You would be responsible for:

A. Strategic and technical guidance on GBV prevention and response,  and support and oversight of gender and social norms programming

As team lead, the GBV Specialist will work closely with the internal and external stakeholders, including UNFPA staff at the country office, suboffices, and the Arab States Regional office, implementing partners, interagency counterparts, national and state authorities, and donors to provide strategic and technical guidance in the areas of gender, GBV prevention and response, programing on harmful  practices such as FGM/C and early marriage, and to represent UNFPA at the GBV AoR for coordination, planning, and advocacy.
 

The GBV Specialist - Team Lead will:   

• Provide strategic and technical guidance to the GBV programme, with the Sudan context in mind, and in line with up-to-date international guidelines (including but not limited to IASC Guidelines for GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Settings), existing tools and good practices;  
• Offer guidance and insight for ending harmful practices such and FGM/C  and early marriage, through the Social Norms Specialist and in coordination with stakeholders, in line with guidance by  Regional Office /HQ using existing tools and good practices;  
• Provide GBV perspective and expertise to coordinate with the SRH, youth, and social norms teams to strengthen SRH and GBV integration into programme implementation; promote availability of integrated services, ensuring timely, context-sensitive response to the needs of persons at risk of GBV.
• Support the integration of gender and age-sensitive and gender transformative approaches into GBV and SRH programmes, promoting rights-based and sustainable impact in UNFPA services.
• Provide day-to-day on the job guidance to and technical supervision of the GBV  programme team, ensuring implementation in line with the minimum standards and ethical guidelines for working with persons at risk of GBV, including survivors.
• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of gender, GBV prevention and response  activities related to the UNFPA humanitarian response program in line with local priorities and according to UNFPA policies and procedures.  
• Oversee achievement of programme results by ensuring appropriate data collection, analyses, monitoring, and advocacy are applied by the GBV team, in collaboration with M&E, information management, and communications colleagues.  
• Oversee the GBV budgets and work planning in line with donor commitments, ensuring responsible management of funds.
• Ensure the UNFPA mandate is fully present within the humanitarian - development nexus and that implementation of GBV programming is achieved in the most effective and efficient manner.
• Maintain knowledge management of all information from the GBV team in the relevant UNFPA folder system for accountability and documentation purposes.

B. Strengthening advocacy, partnership and resource mobilization 

• Review the political, social and economic environment relevant to gender, GBV  prevention and response, and ending harmful practice activities, advocate for the rights of women and girls to protection, and pursue opportunities  for UNFPA assistance and intervention based on need. 
• Assess implications of new policies, legal developments, and GBV strategies on programme execution and ensure appropriate, streamlined  implementation. 
• Participate in the advocacy and evidence-informed resource mobilization efforts of the Country Office by ensuring the inclusion of GBV-specific information into relevant documentation, including sitreps, flash appeals, project summaries, campaigns,  speeches, donor profiles, and participating in related donor meetings and public  information events.  
• Ensure UNFPA leadership in gender, GBV prevention and response, and ending harmful practices, is present throughout interagency collective planning, developing and implementing of the humanitarian response, including throughout HRP / HNO processes, CERF and other pooled fund proposals, and in joint mobilization of funds with other UN agencies.  
• Manage the GBV team; ensure synergy and harmony with all members, provide role  clarity, supportive supervision, and technical guidance while ensuring accountability and achieved goals.
• Ensure the development and documentation of knowledge products and lessons learned for current and emerging gender, GBV prevention and response, and ending harmful practices activities, through the analysis of projects, strategies, innovative approaches, and best practices, and working closely with communications.   
   

C. Carry out any other duties as may be required by the UNFPA CO management 
 

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

• Advanced degree (master's or equivilent) with specialization in areas such as social work, public health, gender, law/human  rights, international relations, and/or other related social science disciplines.  
   

Knowledge and Experience: 

• A minimum of seven (7) years of proven specialized experience in GBV prevention and response, and experience in this  field at international level in humanitarian and nexus settings.  
• Demonstrated leadership and management experience within a multinational and multicultural environment. 
• Technical knowledge of current developments on GBV related morbidity and mortality reduction. 
• Ability to develop and coordinate GBV programs that target refugees, IDPs/returnees and their  host communities.  
• Strong expertise in capacity development 
• Knowledge and understanding of the GBV in low resource settings, particularly in the areas of  GBV. 
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, networking, and negotiation skills
• Ability to express clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written and oral forms. 
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS word, Excel, etc),  experience with web based management systems. 
   

Languages: 

• Fluency in English. Working level Arabic is desirable.  
   

Required Competencies: 

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity, 
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system, 
• Embracing cultural diversity, 
• Embracing change

Core Competencies: 

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,

Functional Competencies:

• Business acumen 
• Implementing management systems 
• Innovation and marketing of new approaches  
• Generating, managing and promoting the use of knowledge and information;  
• Facilitating quality programmatic results
• Leveraging the resources of national  governments and partners, and building  strategic alliances and partnerships
• Client orientation
   

Managerial Competencies:

• Providing strategic focus 
• Engaging internal/external partners 
• Leading, developing and empowering people/  creating a culture of performance 
• Making decisions and exercising judgment
   

Compensation and Benefits:

This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable.

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts. 

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.