Livelihoods Officer at UN High Commissioner for Refugees 174 views0 applications

Vacancy Notice : UNHCR/UGANDA/IICA/012017

Location : Kampala, UNHCR Office Duration : ASAP until 31/12/2017 Contract and Grade level : IICA-2/ LICA 10

General background :

Over the last 50 years, Uganda has made significant development progress, moving from recovery to growth. In order to consolidate and accelerate this growth, the Government of Uganda (GoU) has developed a long-term Vision, reflecting the country’s aspiration of transforming from a predominantly peasant and low-income country to a competitive upper middle income country by 2040, and has given body to this aspiration in its new 2015/16-2019/20 National Development Plan (NDPII). The GoU and the UNCT have also agreed to adopt the Delivering as One (DaO) modality in Uganda to better adapt UN’s support to the rapidly changing national development context. To this end, the UN’s Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2016-2020 focuses on upstream work and is more strategic, forward looking and fully aligned to the NDPII. Through the process of formulating the NDPII, the Office of the Prime Minister Refugee Department (OPM) successfully anchored refugee issues in the national development plan, while at the same time UNHCR worked closely with the UN Country Team to ensure that refugees and host communities are anchored in the UNDAF. The Refugee & Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) is the strategy developed by the UNCT to provide concrete form to UN cooperation for refugee and host community resilience and self-reliance from 2016-2020, and is expected to become a Joint Program of the UN in Uganda. At the same time, the Uganda operation is challenged by the diversity of the refugee population. Programming needs to continue to cater for emergency response on two borders, care and maintenance of the recently-arrived refugees, and identification of durable and creative solutions for protracted refugees.

Since refugees are allowed freedom of movement, right to work, and access to services in Uganda at the same level as nationals, it is critical for refugee protection and for Ugandan development that refugees be, and be seen as positive agents for development. To achieve this, UNHCR will support the overall development goals of the Districts hosting refugees, continue its local policy of supporting host communities at a ratio of 70:30 refugees:nationals, and thereby foster peaceful co-existence between refugees and nationals as they all seek sustainable futures.

According to Uganda’s Approach to Refugee Management report, the 2006 Refugees Act and the 2010 Refugees Regulations embody key refugee protection principles and freedoms, including: (1) the right to own and dispose of movable property and to lease or sublease immoveable property; (2) the right to engage in agriculture, industry, and business; practice ones profession; and access formal and informal employment opportunities; (3) the right to economic, social, and cultural benefits, including access to elementary education, protection of intellectual property rights; (4) entitlement to receive fair and just treatment, without discrimination – among others.

UNHCR Uganda operation livelihoods sector strategy towards self-reliance and resilience has been developed as a result of the need to respond to the protracted nature of refugee situations in the country. In order to provide technical guidance and co-ordinate the roll-out of this strategy in 2017 in Uganda, UNHCR is seeking to recruit a qualified international contractor, to be based in Kampala with a roving function (30%-40% of the time to be spent in the field).

Project & Scope of Assignement

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Snr Technical Coordinator, with the technical support of the Livelihoods Unit at HQ and the Regional Office in Nairobi and in collaboration with concerned staff in Uganda, the Livelihoods Officer will undertake the following tasks:

1. Assume the role of UNHCR Uganda livelihoods focal point
2. Manage the inter-agency co-ordination and consultation mechanisms at country and sub-office levels, including UNHCR staff, government, partner NGOs and the private sector related to and involved in livelihoods in a humanitarian context.
3. Review and finalize the existing TORs formulated for the Refugee and Host Communities Livelihood Technical Working Group (LTWG), and chair the Livelihoods Sector Working Group meetings at national level.
4. Lead and facilitate the development processes and relevant workshops towards elaborating UNHCR Uganda’s livelihoods strategy. This will include development of priority actions, milestones, targets, indicators, operational workplans and budgets, logical frameworks, anticipated budgets, highlighting linkages with other UNHCR mandate areas (Protection, CBI, E&E etc.) as well as identifying roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders
5. Provide strategic leadership and technical guidance towards the implementation of UNHCR Uganda’s livelihoods strategy, to include identification of market based opportunities for self and wage employment, vocational and skills training, enterprenuership, financial services (grants, VSLAs, microfinance, loans etc.) private sector driven value chains in camps and settlements as well as undertaking cost to benefit analysis of the different technologies
6. Roll out the livelihoods sector beneficiary targeting and selection guideline and standard operation procedures across all the settlements together with IPs and OPs as well as advise UNHCR and partners on appropriate livelihood targeting strategies, bearing in mind the GoU/WFP/Uganda operation shared policy position on time-targeting, resource and other constraints
7. Coordinate the implementation of surveys and analysis (such as socio-economic assessments, labour market surveys, market analysis) that would inform planning and decision making for UNHCR Uganda
8. Coordinate the piloting of UNHCR’s livelihoods graduation approach in Uganda in close collaboration with the livelihoods unit at UNHCR HQ and Trickle Up
9. Coordinate the development and implementation of an in-country monitoring and evaluation system for livelihoods, with the assistance of the Uganda Country Office and Livelihoods Unit at UNHCR HQ
10. Assess capacity building needs and provide training to UNHCR staff, government counterparts and partners, with assistance from the Livelihoods Unit
11. Explore strategic partnerships that would assist UNHCR in mobilizing resources and effectively advocating for an enabling environment for implementation of livelihoods initiatives. This would include initiatives with the OPM, WFP, JICA, IKEA, WB
12. Take lead in knowldege development and management to ensure that there is effective sharing of information amongst stakeholders in the livelihoods and Humanitarian sector as well as establishing clear linkages with existing initiatitives such as ReHoPE
13. Be responsible for submission of regular reporting to the Country Office and Livelihoods Unit in UNHCR HQ

Monitoring & Progress

Socio-economic assessments of settlements in Uganda completed

• Market analysis of settlements in Uganda completed
• UNHCR Uganda livelihoods strategy finalised and implemented
• Livelihoods components of ReHoPE implemented
• OPM-WFP-UNHCR Joint Project for Self-Reliance implemented
• Partnerships with WFP, WB, JICA, IKEA, USAID operationalised
• Graduation pilot is implemented with Trickle Up
• Harmonised livelihoods M&E framework is established to inform decision-making
• Knowledge and information on livelihoods mainstreamed throughout UNHCR programmes, and UNHCR and IP staff are aware of current policies, theories and best practices
• Accurate reports and statistics timely submitted

Qualifications & Experience

Education

Master degree in Economics, socio-economic development, development planning, rural development, or other related fields

Work experience

Minimum of 8 years (with at least 4 years at international level) of previous job experience relevant to the function, both in humanitarian and development contexts. Strategic planning as well as field experience in similar settings is essential

• Knowledge and experience with agricultural production and marketing, and non-farm income generating activities • Proven experience in planning, implementing, and monitoring livelihoods programmes in an international context and managing multiple projects • Proven experience in planning for results and measuring results in livelihoods programmes, preferably with experience in designing livelihoods survey instruments • Knowledge of latest developments in the livelihoods sector, and in-depth knowledge of at least 2 technical sub-sectors in livelihoods in addition to agriculture and rural development (e.g. microfinance, vocational training and technical education, entrepreneurship building, cash assistance, community development, employm ent services, etc)

Key Competencies

Demonstrated experience in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of livelihoods and development projects

• Demonstrated experience in coordinating and undertaking assessments, surveys and facilitating strategic planning processes
• Experience in managing, supervising and providing technical leadership to field based project staff is highly desired
• Experience working with the private sector and enterprenueship is an added advantage
• Excellent communication (both written and spoken) skills and networking abilities in communicating relevant information to a variety of audiences for advocating UNHCR’s mandate
• Ability to work independently, with minimal supervision while delivering high quality results for UNHCR Uganda
• Fluent in written and spoken English; knowledge of local languages will be an added advantage
• Previous work experience in East Africa or Uganda highly desired