Junior Urban Planner (2 Positions) -Re-advertised

Location: Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Grade: SB3

Closing Date: Dec 15, 2023, 06:59 AM

Job Description

UN-Habitat advocates for policies and practices that promote sustainable urbanization, including the integration of social, economic, and environmental dimensions. It also helps build the capacity of governments, local authorities, and communities to plan, manage, and govern urban areas effectively, including promoting participatory approaches and inclusive decision-making processes.

In Ethiopia, UN-Habitat works closely with the Ethiopian government and other stakeholders to support sustainable urban development in strategic and spatial development of regions and cities, including through resilience and climate change adaptation. In the context of displacement, UN-Habitat plays a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by displaced populations and supporting their sustainable reintegration into communities. It supports planning processes that consider the needs of displaced populations and promote inclusive urban development while advocating for the protection of land and property rights by supporting legal frameworks and policies that safeguard the rights of displaced individuals and communities. As well as providing technical assistance in resolving land and property disputes, it seeks to provide up to date, holistic documentation, and analysis of the impact of crisis in cities, synthesizing information and insight from existing sources and priority sectors, supplemented by direct field research.

The incumbent under this call is expected to join a team of professionals for a multi-agency joint  project to pursue a nexus-based multi-dimensional and integrated approach to enable internally displaced communities in Somali and Oromia regions of Ethiopia to move towards recovery and resilience by employing durable solutions actions that enhance communities’ coping mechanisms against future shocks to anthropogenic disasters and natural hazards by rolling out a multi-pillar intervention that aims to take into consideration the diverse aspects of solutions-based programming among UN Habitat, FAO and IOM. The general objective of the project is to employ durable solutions that enhance IDPs’ and host communities’ capacities to move towards recovery and resilience with a particular focus on the Fafan and Shebelle zones of the Somali Region, and the East and West Hararghe zones of the Oromia Region.

Along this, UN Habitat’s responsibility focuses on strengthening and building capacity of institutions through area level spatial planning to ensure sustainable re-integration of displacement affected communities for improved access to HLP through legal and policy tools and planning instruments to respond to longer-term impacts of displacement affected communities (DACs).

APPLICANTS SHOULD INDICATE PREFERRED REGION OF ASSIGNMENT (SOMALI OR OROMIA)

• The Senior Urban planner and project Lead will directly supervise the incumbent.
• The incumbent is expected to provide weekly update reports and monthly narrative reports in format shared by the project manager. The reports must be shared with the programme support staff as necessary.
• The incumbent will be part of a team of experts working on the project. He/she is expected to work individually and, in a group, collaboratively.
• The incumbent is expected to work together with different government officers, representatives of local administration, local academic institutions, civil society, representatives of host and displacement affected communities.
• The incumbent is expected to frequently travel to project sites outside Dire Dawa as needed.

Scope of the work

The incumbent will work under the direct supervision of the Senior Urban Planner and Project Lead who is under the project manager.

He/she will be responsible for the following duties: 

• Undertake Community Planning components, participate in site/neighborhood assessments, support participatory planning processes with the local government, host and displacement affected communities and different organizations to inform area-based multisectoral interventions.
• Coordinate with and provide technical assistance to the team to carry out preparation and reporting of trainings, events, exchanges for synchronized and coordinated outputs.
• Together with the senior urban planner and team leader, follow up daily work progress against the work plan of the project, assess results, identify problem areas, and take corrective steps to achieve program and project objectives.
• Support monitoring of project implementation and report against milestones to project team members.
• Undertake GIS mapping exercise of land use pattern, basic services, facilitate data collection for spatial planning and profiling of settlements.
• Facilitate participatory enumeration to contribute to reducing land related conflicts.
• Any other tasks requested by the Project and Programme Manager.

Duties and Expected deliverables

The incumbent will have to perform the following assignments independently and in collaboration with the project lead and other team members:

• Within their assigned regions or responsibility, the Junior Urban Planner will provide support in the daily management of all project activities ensuring that works are carried out in compliance to the agreed project deliverables and UN Habitat’s best practices for the full project life.
• The Junior Urban Planner will assist with technical support to the project team, local government and displacement affected communities in the areas of participatory planning exercise including settlement planning, mapping, spatial profiling with location of key functions for target project locations in Oromia and Somali regions.
• Provide details on affected and host communities such as land tenure and ownership, size and mix of communities, quality of housing etc.. to prioritize project activities at project locations to develop short- and long-term programmes for upgrading housing, improving security of tenure and proving support to the affected community in a way that considers the gender dimension and the peaceful co-existence of communities.
• The Junior Urban Planner will support in mapping stakeholders, assessment of displacement causes, analyze institutional capacity and gaps in responding to the needs of displacement affected and host communities to inform decision making.
• Follow up reports on community planning workshops with disaggregated data, results, and findings.
• Conduct meetings with local government and hosting community on various topics including tenure arrangements, land uses, settlement planning etc…
• Undertake settlement planning and spatial profiling exercise using UN habitat tools and GIS software
• Follow up periodic progress reports against milestones based on monitoring of project activities.
• Coordinate with consultants on research, data collection, participatory planning and capacity building trainings towards targeted results.

Planning & Organizing: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required; allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; uses time efficiently.

Client Orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of view; establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect; identifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solutions; monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems; keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects; meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

Managing Performance: Delegates the appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority; makes sure that roles, responsibilities and reporting lines are clear to each staff member; accurately judges the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish a task and matches task to skills; monitors progress against milestones and deadlines; regularly discusses performance and provides feedback and coaching to staff; encourages risk-taking and supports creativity and initiative; actively supports the development and career aspirations of staff; appraises performance fairly.

Judgement/Decision-making: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; gathers relevant information before making a decision; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; checks assumptions against facts; determines the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; makes tough decisions when necessary.

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