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.

In South Sudan, women continue to face significant barriers to economic participation, particularly in access to financial services, productive assets, markets, and business opportunities. Despite gradual progress in financial sector development, women remain disproportionately excluded from formal financial systems and are less likely than men to own bank accounts, access credit, or use digital financial services. These challenges are more pronounced among low-income, rural, conflict-affected, and marginalized populations.

Women’s financial exclusion is driven by a range of structural constraints, including limited asset ownership and collateral, low and irregular incomes, limited financial and digital literacy, weak market linkages, and restrictive social norms that constrain women’s economic participation and decision-making. In fragile and conflict-affected contexts such as South Sudan, these challenges are further compounded by weak infrastructure, market disruptions, displacement, and limited institutional capacity.

Financial inclusion is widely recognized as a key enabler of women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development. Access to affordable, appropriate, and gender-responsive financial services can strengthen women’s livelihoods, increase business growth, improve resilience to economic shocks, and support women’s participation in economic recovery and development processes. However, improving women’s access to finance also requires strengthening the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem and addressing barriers that limit women’s ability to effectively utilize financial services and opportunities.

The private sector plays a critical role in advancing financial inclusion and enterprise development, particularly through financial institutions, fintech companies, cooperatives, and other market actors that design and deliver financial products and services. This is particularly important for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and women collectives, where women-owned and women-led businesses continue to face significant constraints in accessing affordable financing, business development services, and market opportunities. Addressing these gaps requires integrated approaches that combine access to finance with entrepreneurship development and market linkages.

UN Women South Sudan’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme aims to enhance the economic resilience, productive capacity, and sustainable livelihoods of women and youth, particularly those affected by conflict, displacement, and economic exclusion.  Through its Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio, UN Women works with government institutions, financial institutions, private sector actors, development partners, and civil society organizations to strengthen the enabling environment for women-led enterprises and expand access to gender-responsive financial and business development services. The programme supports women entrepreneurs and MSMEs through integrated interventions that enhance business capacity, improve market access, and promote inclusive and sustainable economic opportunities for women.

The Programme Analyst will provide technical leadership to advance the financial inclusion and enterprise development components of UN Women South Sudan Country Office's Women Economic Empowerment initiatives.

Reporting to the Programme Specialist, Women Economic Empowerment, the Programme Analyst (Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion) will support the delivery of UN Women interventions on advancing gender-responsive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development support for MSMEs and Women Collectives. The Programme Analyst will work in close collaboration with the Programme and Operations teams, the UN Women regional office for East and Southern Africa (ESARO), and Headquarters personnel, Government officials, UN entities, multi- and bilateral development partners, and civil society, ensuring successful UN Women programme implementation within the portfolio.         

Contribute technical inputs to the development of programme strategies and technical approaches to advance gender-responsive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development support for micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs).

• Provide technical and analytical inputs to the development of programme strategies, concept notes, project proposals, and workplans related to women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, enterprise development, and MSME support.
• Support research, data collection, and analysis on issues related to women’s entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and private sector development in South Sudan.
• Contribute to the preparation of briefing notes, background papers, presentations, and technical documents related to the Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio.

Provide substantive technical and operational support for the implementation and management of the gender-responsive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development programme in the assigned state

• Coordinate the day-to-day implementation of enterprise development and financial inclusion activities in the assigned state, ensuring timely delivery of outputs and achievement of planned results.
• Coordinate technical and logistical arrangements for programme activities in the assigned state, including training, workshops, field missions, stakeholder consultations, and review meetings.
• Liaise regularly with implementing partners and local stakeholders to ensure timely implementation of activities, compliance with programme requirements, and submission of quality reports and supporting documentation.
• Support the management of calls for proposals, partner selection processes, and partner capacity assessments.
• Follow up with implementing partners to ensure timely implementation and reporting of programme activities.

Provide technical assistance and capacity development support to project/programme partners in the assigned state.

• Provide technical assistance to implementing partners to support the effective implementation of programme activities, workplans, and agreed deliverables in the assigned state.
• Support the design, coordination, and delivery of training, coaching, mentorship, and capacity development initiatives for women and youth entrepreneurs, MSMEs, women collectives, VSLAs, cooperatives, and partner institutions.
• Assist in identifying capacity development needs of partners and beneficiaries related to entrepreneurship development, business management, financial literacy, and market access.
• Facilitate coordination and collaboration with financial institutions, private sector actors, Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs), business development service providers, and relevant government institutions engaged in programme implementation in the assigned state.

Provide technical input to the monitoring and reporting of the programme/project

• Monitor implementation progress in the assigned state against approved workplans, indicators, and targets, and identify implementation gaps, risks, and corrective actions.
• Collect, compile, and analyze programme data and implementing partner reports to support results-based monitoring, including tracking of MSME growth, access to finance, job creation, and enterprise development outcomes.
• Conduct field monitoring visits and provide inputs to mission reports and monitoring findings.
• Provide substantive input to quarterly, annual, donor, and ad hoc reports, focusing on programme outputs, outcomes, lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations for programme improvement.
• Maintain programme documentation, databases, and records related to programme implementation and results.

Support financial and administrative management of the programme

• Monitor programme expenditures and budget utilization against approved budgets and workplans.
• Support the preparation of budget revisions, financial tracking tools, and financial reports.
• Review implementing partner reports and supporting documentation for completeness and compliance with programme requirements.
• Support administrative and operational processes related to programme implementation, including procurement and recruitment processes where required.

Contribute to building partnerships and resource mobilization strategies

• Provide inputs to stakeholder mapping, partnership development, and resource mobilization initiatives related to women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion.
• Compile and maintain information on donors, private sector actors, financial institutions, and development partners relevant to the programme portfolio.
• Support the preparation of partnership briefs, donor profiles, concept notes, presentations, and visibility materials.

Provide technical inputs to inter-agency coordination on gender-responsive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development support programme, to achieve coherence and alignment of UN Women programmes with other partners in South Sudan

• Participate in relevant technical working groups, coordination meetings, and stakeholder engagements related to women’s economic empowerment, enterprise development, and financial inclusion.
• Provide inputs to background notes, presentations, and briefing materials for inter-agency coordination processes and external engagements.
• Support coordination with government institutions, UN agencies, development partners, civil society organizations, and private sector actors involved in programme implementation.

Provide inputs to advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts

• Support the preparation of communication and advocacy materials related to women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and enterprise development. 
• Assist in organizing advocacy campaigns, knowledge-sharing events, workshops, and consultations. 
• Document lessons learned, good practices, success stories, and programme achievements to support knowledge management and visibility efforts. 
• Contribute to the development of knowledge products and communication materials for internal and external audiences.

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

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: 

The incumbent may provide day-to-day coordination support to programme associates, consultants, interns, and implementing partners engaged under the Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio, as delegated by the supervisor

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Good knowledge of gender-responsive enterprise development and financial inclusion in conflict affected contexts
• Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings 
• Good analytical skills
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising and develop strategies 

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/ women’s studies, international development, or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of progressively responsible work experience in development programme/project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building is required.
• Experience in the area of gender-responsive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development support programme is desirable.
• Result-based management experience including in designing, monitoring and evaluating programs and projects.
• Experience coordinating and liaising with national and sub-national government partners, UN, International Financial Institutions, private sector and/or donors is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.

• Knowledge of Arabic would be advantageous.

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.