Durable Solutions Specialist

Background

Durable solutions are integral to the 2030 Agenda and essential for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the global commitment to Leave No One Behind. In Sudan, this commitment is more urgent than ever amid the ongoing conflict, which has triggered one of the largest internal displacement crises globally. As of May 2025, an estimated 11.3 million people are internally displaced, up from 3.8 million before April 2023—representing over 13% of the world’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Sudan also currently hosts over 841,000 refugees, primarily from neighbouring countries.

Hostilities that began in Khartoum in April 2023 have since expanded across all regions, deeply impacting urban centers and resulting in widespread displacement. A majority of the displaced are being hosted within communities, placing significant strain on already vulnerable households. Many IDPs reside outside formal sites, limiting their visibility to response mechanisms. Sudan also continues to host refugees, many of whom have experienced secondary displacement, further increasing vulnerabilities and pressures on host communities.

The compounding effects of prolonged conflict, rising food and fuel prices, disrupted markets, and non-payment of public sector salaries have significantly eroded community resilience. According to the June 2024 Food Security Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) Snapshot, 25.6 million people in Sudan are projected to experience high levels of acute food insecurity between June and September 2024. Reports of gender-based violence, especially affecting displaced women and girls, continue to rise.

While humanitarian assistance remains vital, it is not sufficient to meet the scale of needs. A sustainable pathway forward requires a long-term investment in recovery and resilience. Durable solutions—focused on voluntary, safe, and dignified return, local integration, or resettlement—are critical to restoring lives, stabilizing communities, and supporting national recovery efforts.

To that end, Sudan adopted a Five-Year National Strategy on Durable Solutions in 2023 for IDPs, returnees, refugees, and host communities. The strategy offers a framework for coordinated action by government, humanitarian, development, peace, and stabilization actors, and aligns with the UN Common Approach and Priorities 2024 Furthermore, the National Plan for the Protection of Civilians (NPPOC) remains a key reference for advancing solutions, protection, and longer-term recovery, depending on evolving conditions on the ground.

The Durable Solutions Working Group (DSWG), co-chaired by UNHCR, UNDP, and DRC under the leadership of the **Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT)/UNCT, was reactivated following the fallout in Khartoum. The DSWG plays a pivotal role in facilitating coordination, promoting technical dialogue, and advancing area-based planning for durable solutions. To localize efforts, state-level DSWGs have been reactivated in Kassala, Gedaref, and White Nile, supporting joint return monitoring and aligning programming with peacebuilding and resilience objectives. Plans are underway to scale up and reactivate DSWGs in Khartoum, Sennar, and Al Jazirah, ensuring broader geographic coverage and strengthened field-level coordination in response to growing displacement and reintegration needs.

To further strengthen the collective response, a Durable Solutions Unit (DSU) has been established under the RC/HC’s strategic guidance. The DSU will enhance advisory and coordination functions and serve as a shared resource across national and sub-national levels. It will support stakeholders—including the Government, DSWG, UNCT, HCT, civil society, and international partners—on policy alignment, joint planning, and durable solutions programming. The unit will also work closely with the Peace and Development Advisor in the RCO to ensure synergy with broader peacebuilding and development efforts.

The UNDP administered Durable Solutions Specialist position aims at enhancing UN support to at the national and local levels on development solutions strategies to address internal displacement, including considering prevention and response strategies. The main purpose is to provide catalytic support to UN RCs and UN Country Teams (UNCT) to advance the Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement. 

Position Purpose

The Durable Solutions Unit (DSU) has been established within the Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) to enhance collective efforts toward sustainable solutions to internal displacement in Sudan. Guided by the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement, the DSU is led by a Durable Solutions Advisor, supported by a core team including a Solutions Planning Officer and Information Management Specialist. The unit serves as a shared coordination platform to strengthen linkages across humanitarian, development, and peace actors, and will work in close collaboration with the Peace and Development Advisor, the Durable Solutions Working Group, and national and sub-national stakeholders.

Under the direct supervision of the UN Resident Coordinator, and the administrative supervision of UNDP Head of Recovery and Resilience Pillar, the Durable Solutions Specialist leads the DSU and coordinates efforts across key stakeholders to operationalize the Durable Solutions Strategy for Sudan. This includes working with the UN Country Team (UNCT), national and local authorities, the Durable Solutions Working Group (DSWG), and regional DS coordination platforms. The Specialist ensures alignment between global guidance and country-level implementation by linking Sudan’s efforts with international technical partners such as Joint IDP Profiling Services (JIPS) and Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), and collaborating with the Global Solutions Hub co-led by UNDP, UNHCR, and IOM.

The Durable Solutions Specialist plays a central role in facilitating the transition from humanitarian relief to resilience-focused, HDP nexus-oriented programming. This includes supporting area-based approaches, mobilizing financial resources, and strengthening the capacity of national and local actors to respond to displacement challenges. The position is administered by UNDP and embedded within the RCO, ensuring a unified and coordinated approach under the strategic leadership of the RC/HC. The Specialist also ensures that the DSU actively supports coordination structures, including the national DSWG and its state-level counterparts, enabling joint planning, coherent policy dialogue, and harmonized implementation of durable solutions across Sudan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide high- level strategic and technical advisory support to the UN RC and UNCT to lead national/local partnerships on solutions and for UN strategies and programmes to have a solutions approach to displacement

• Provide advice and coordination to support the UNCT on strategic engagement and agency programming on solutions to internal displacement across humanitarian, development and peace actors. 
• Act as a link between the RC and individual UN agency programmes, keeping abreast (to the greatest extent possible) with relevant UN agency programme interventions and initiatives.
• Promote/advise on leveraging programmatic investments by development and humanitarian actors against advocacy goals linked to the inclusion of IDPs in national level planning and prioritization with stakeholders
• Provide technical and operational tools to support the authorities and UN Agencies and DWSG members, as well as other stakeholders, to integrate the multi-sectoral developmental responses required to resolving internal displacement. Ensure durable solutions is mainstreamed into the work of UNCT coordination mechanisms as relevant.
• Support to strengthening conceptualization and integration of durable solutions into the Humanitarian-development-peace nexus work by UN Agencies and other relevant stakeholders. 
• Provide combined humanitarian, development and peace data analysis and evidence and development of pathways to solutions in cooperation framework and in HRPs, where relevant.
• Organize or contribute to joint-impact assessments and analyses, advocating for joined up approaches, identification of collective outcomes and evidence-based programming on solutions to ensure coherence and avoid duplication of efforts.
• Support resource mobilization activities for durable solutions activities and programmes under the directive of the UNCT and/or the RC.

Facilitate and promote national / local capacities on solutions strategies and prevention of internal displacement  and facilitate knowledge sharing 

• Initiate or support efforts to strengthen national capacities and infrastructure for solutions e.g., strengthening Solutions Working Groups, and participation of IDPs, especially displaced women, youths. Support the implementation of the required capacity building activities to partners, and existing coordination mechanisms to enhance collaborative processes on Solutions. 
• Support the capacity of stakeholders at federal, sub-federal and locality levels to operationalise durable solutions frameworks.
• Provide support to all stakeholders, to the extent possible, on the development of a national strategy/action plan on durable solutions and associated policies, including identifying priorities and potential opportunities to address durable solutions to internal displacement. 
• Enhance national/local ownership on data collection, IDP and host community profiling, socio-economic/ political economy analysis, measuring progress towards solutions and application to national/local solutions programming. Particular attention to be made in collecting disaggregated data and analysing differentiated consequences by age, gender, and diversity. 
• Coordinate with authorities and partners to consistently monitor and assess solutions programmes for rapid adjustment and course correction as needed.
• Support advocacy and knowledge sharing activities with national/subnational/local authorities and other relevant stakeholders.

Establish positive working relations and manage information flows between and among key stakeholders including government counterparts, UN focal points/Agencies, INGOs, private sector, civil society, and the donor community.

• Establish and maintain a network of key stakeholders, including with national and sub-national counterparts, NGOs, donor community, diaspora, private sector and academia.
• Contribute to relevant policy dialogue and policy development processes.
• Support exchanges and inputs of High-Level Advisors, facilitating their in-country missions when required and maintain momentum around issues of displacement and durable solutions.
• Actively participate in global practice networks on durable solutions and other knowledge networking forums and share relevant information with UN agencies

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 will supervise the Durable Solutions Unit composed of a Knowledge Management Specialist and Durable Solutions Associate.

Competencies

• Core Competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

• Cross-Functional & Technical competencies: 

Business Direction & Strategy-System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system

Business Direction & Strategy-Negotiation and Influence : Reach a common understanding/agreement, persuade others, resolve points of difference through a dialogue, negotiate mutually acceptable solutions and create ‘win-win’ situations. 

Business Management-Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment

Business Management-Partnerships management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies

Business development-Integration within the UN: Ability to identity, and integrate capacity and assets of the UN system, and engage in joint work. Knowledge of the UN System and ability to apply this knowledge to strategic and/or practical situations 

2030 Agenda: Prosperity-Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility: Development Solutions to Internal Displacement 

2030 Agenda: Prosperity-Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility: Exits and Reintegration 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in International Development, International Affairs, Migration and Displacement Studies, or other relevant field is required. OR
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years (with Master’s Degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor’s Degree) of durable solution related experience at the national or international in either public sector (national or multilateral, including UN), private (academia, non-governmental sector, corporate), with increasing level of responsibility is required. 
• At least 4 years of experience in crisis and fragile settings with strong relevant experience in forced displacement and development/durable solutions is highly desirable. 
• Demonstrated managerial and leadership experience is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in programming and  partnership development is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in excellent coordination, negotiation and communication skills, as well as ability to mobilize support from a wide range of partners (public, private, civil society and academia) is an asset.   
• Experience in building and maintaining relationships with government institutions and other partners, civil society, private sector, and UN agencies in sensitive political environments is highly desired.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise related to Coordination of Humanitarian actions and engagement with actors in post conflict/ protracted crisis settings is desirable.
• Experience in resource mobilization, donor coordination, accountability and multi-donor trust funds is an asset.

Language: 

• Proficiency in oral and written English is required.
• Knowledge of another UN language would be an asset

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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