Project Analyst (PFM)

The Republic of South Sudan became an independent state on July 9, 2011, following 97.8% of the population voted for cessation from Sudan in the January 2011 Referendum. The signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement on 12 September 2018 and formation of Revitalized Government of National Unity are believed to put South Sudan back on reconstruction and development paths. South Sudan remains fragile, and the economy is near oil revenue-dependent, although it has other untapped potentials of natural and mineral resources. The situation is worsened due to shocks finance and devaluation of the currency, which is 200 SSP to USD dollar in March 2024. 

The budgetary allocation to the subnational governments which stood at minimum level in the national budget has also been severely reduced. The states have vast service delivery responsibilities at the subnational levels. With the support from Government of Japan, and African Development Bank, South Sudan started to establish unified and harmonized domestic resource generation system at the sub-national levels. But 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, inter alia to serve service delivery needs of the vulnerable population and returns of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their places of origin and mitigate risks of conflict spill-over in the relatively peaceful states. 

The Government of South Sudan through the supported from UNDP and other Development Partners, has engaged in a comprehensive review of the National Development Strategy aims at greater policy coherence and builds on updated fragility assessment, country-wide stakeholder consultations, the integration of the SDGs, Gender mainstreaming and the incubation of a financing strategy leading to revised NDS for the period 2021 -2024 and State Development Plans, which lay the grounds for a holistic planning and financing process towards the implementation of the priority areas of SDGs by 2030. Therefore, the support to state revenue generating system and public accountability is being aligned to the national development strategy, the South Sudan Peace Agreement, State Development Plans, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation framework (UNSDCF). 

This programme of reforms seeks to address myriad challenges in PFM at the state-level and where necessary at the national level. South Sudan as a nascent federal state faces many development challenges in planning, budgeting, accounting, auditing, and oversight. Strengthening PFM will make government financial processes more transparent and officials accountable, essentially instil confidence in citizens to pay taxes and to support national efforts in aid contribution from development partners contributes to creating a more even playing field for businesses to invest towards economic growth in South Sudan. The interim constitutional provisions have been reinforced by the Public Financial Management and Accountability (PFMA) Act 2011, which provided the procedures governing transfers to the states by the national government. Three categories of grants are to be allocated and transferred from the national government budget to the state and the counties each year, namely conditional, unconditional, matching or equalization grants. The allocations of conditional grants to each of the 10 states and 3 Administrative Areas are based on formula-driven, considering the population and financial resources of the state, and other indicators determined by the South Sudan Fiscal and Financial Allocation and Monitoring Commission (SSFAMC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Planning (MoF&P).

Position Purpose 

Under the direct supervision of the Governance Team Leader and guidance of the Deputy Resident Representative (Program) in close collaboration with Governance Adviser and management, the Project Analyst (PFM) is will take the lead on provision of substantive project management and technical advice, build capacity of counterparts in  transparent, sustainable domestic revenue generating system for state governments, expenditure efficiency, and provide strategic framework for public financial management work of the PFM project . The Analyst will also be involved in the capacity building of the sub-national tax officers and support public financial management institutions on their responsibilities to safeguard public funds.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.
 

1.Provide robust technical advice to counterparts of the PFM Project 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 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.

2.Promote linkages between the Public Financial Management and other Accountability and Transparency mechanism related to PFM project focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• 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.

3.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.

4.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 Quantum;
• 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, in close consultation with the PFM team, the effective application of RBM tools, elaboration and implementation of coherent work plans, project and programme documents, preparation of compelling proposals and achievement of results;
• Ensure compliance of operation with UNDP rules and regulations

5.Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the CO, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Participation in the training for the operations/projects staff on Administration;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

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 Project Analyst will supervise two Project Associates of the project.