Duty station: Mekelle, Ethiopia
Contract type: Local ICA Specialist
Closing Date: 11-Oct-2024
Job Description
Background Information – Job-specific
UNOPS Ethiopia Multi-Country Office (ETMCO) exciting career opportunity
UNOPS-ETMCO is recruiting for this position: Community Mobilization Senior Officer based in Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply.
The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations. With over 6,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it. By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.
Established in 2009, UNOPS Ethiopia Office has been providing services to various partners, including the government of Ethiopia, UN agencies such as WHO, UNHCR and WFP, and other international organizations. Since 2014, the UNOPS Ethiopia multi-country office manages and coordinates the UNOPS activities in Ethiopia, as well as Sudan and Djibouti. The UNOPS Ethiopia multi-country office team is composed of approximately 100 national and international women and men, and offers a broad range of services such as infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial and human resources management.
Project Background
Political conflict in Ethiopia continues to affect parts of Tigray, Afar, and Amhara (the Northern Ethiopian Crisis), Central and Western Oromia, as well as Benishangul-Gumuz with involvement of non-state armed groups and Federal authorities. Inter-communal violence has been witnessed in parts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNP), Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, and, recently, in Afar and Western Tigray. These localized conflicts have largely been over access to resources and related grievances, including questions on land and land use rights. To help address these issues, in Ethiopia, the World Bank funded programme, to be managed by UNOPS EMCO, aims as a response – recovery – resilience for conflict – affected communities in Ethiopia (3R-4-CACE). The Key objectives of the project is to (i) rebuild access to basic services and climate-resilient community infrastructure and (ii) improve access to multi-sectoral response services for GBV survivors; in targeted conflict-affected communities in Ethiopia.
Functional Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the Senior Portfolio Manager, the Community Mobilization Senior Officer will contribute to the interventions of Community-based rapid response and recovery activities to meet the basic needs of selected communities and recovery of local infrastructure and services of the damaged facilities in Tigray that resulted from the recent conflict. The facilities concern mainly the sectors of health, education and wash such as schools, health centers and water supply facilities. The incumbent will bring UNOPS expertise within the United Nations Regional Team and identify actual priorities concerning the renovation based on the discussions with the communities and the relevant stakeholders.
| The Community Mobilization Senior Officer will be responsible for the following but not limited to: |
- Participates in development partners’ discussions on the Tigray Region Recovery and promote solutions that can be provided by UNOPS:
- Participates in the Regional Team meetings, in relevant cluster/ technical meetings to identify priorities/ trends;
- Contributes to substantive discussions on early recovery;
- Presents UNOPS services/mandate to the relevant stakeholders and the local authorities and facilitate the endorsement of the programme;
- Facilitates discussions and meetings within the concerned communities in order to identify the priorities in terms of intervention;
- Supports with the implementation and the integration of the community-based renovation programme in multi-year to the satisfaction of all the partners;
- Support in the hiring process of junior engineers and interns at the ‘Kebelle” levels in order to constitute the intervention team;
- Leads a regional team of junior engineers and interns in order to assess the damaged facilities and in order to keep the communities and the authorities about the progress of the implementation;
- Supports the systematic application of participatory, community, rights based, and gender responsive approaches throughout the phases of the design and the operations related to the rehabilitation;
- Contributes to the appropriate adaptations of programmes as a result of the analysis of feedback received from persons of concern, as well as other political, social, economic and cultural developments that impact the rehabilitation programme;
- Supports the establishment and management of a feedback and response system and participate in the analysis of feedback gathered through formal and informal feedback and response systems;
- Supports capacity development through training and coaching of junior engineers and interns;
- Provides technical guidance and support to ensure data relevant to assess and monitor progress on the implementation of the programme;
- Provides the design team with the required information such as the site conditions, the availability of construction materials, the estimated unit costs, and any relevant information to the design;
- Liaises with the programme partners and the different stakeholders to ensure the programme results are achieved in a timely manner and resources are properly managed;
- Establishes systems for project planning, implementation, and monitoring, in collaboration with programme partners;
- Coordinates relationships with country level and regional partners to support the implementation of the rehabilitation works;
- Identifies potential problems/risks and provide solutions and risk mitigation strategies for the effective programme implementation in line with programme documents;
- Records and maintain documents on relevant programme activities, issues, and risks;
- Gathers and compile all information necessary for monitoring and reporting on programme from the planning to the evaluation stage;
- Coordinates systematic monitoring of activities and the expenditure of funds at all levels and take corrective actions where required.
Impact of Results
The effective and successful achievement of results by the Community Mobilization Senior Officer directly impacts the efficient performance of the program in order to specifically advise and report on the support and involvement of program partners and different stakeholders required to achieve the results of Rapid Response and Recovery for this project.
This contributes to the credibility of the organization as an effective service provider in project services and management.
Education/Experience/Language requirements
Education:
- A Masters Degree in Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering , Mechanical Engineering, Business Administration, Economics, Management, Political/Security/Development Studies or other relevant field is required.
- A Bachelors Degree in combination of two additional years of experience may be accepted in lieu of the Masters Degree requirement.
Experience:
- At least two (2) years of relevant experience in project coordination, business development, stakeholders management and communication is required for Masters degree holders. OR (four) 4 years relevant experience in project coordination, business development, stakeholders management and communication is required for Bachelor degree holders.
Language
- Fluency in written, spoken and reading English is required.
- Knowledge of another UN Official language is an asset.