Details
Mission and objectives
The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies; advocate for the rights of people in need; promote preparedness and prevention; and facilitate sustainable solutions. Given our mandate, OCHA relies heavy on information management to gain a clear picture of the crisis situation, aid decision makers, and help to avoid gaps and duplication. In that regard, we have found significant benefit in certain core products such as maps. Recently, we have begun to leverage the power of dynamic crisis mapping.
Context
On 7 October 2023, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza launched more than 3,500 missiles and rockets towards Israel and breached the perimeter fence of Gaza in multiple locations. Members of armed groups entered Israeli towns, communities, and military facilities near the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing members of Israeli forces and civilians. The Israeli military declared a “state of war alert” and began striking targets in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities confirmed that the 7 October attack is the deadliest in Israel in decades, about 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals, including women, children, and older people, were killed in Israel by members of Palestinian armed groups. Israeli forces responded with air strikes and on 9 October the Government of Israel ordered a “total siege” on Gaza, cutting off water and electricity connections. Between 8 October and 5 November, at least 9,488 Palestinians including 3,900 children and 2,430 women, were killed and 24,173 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. On 6 November, the United Nations and its partners issued a Flash Appeal that outlines what is needed to scale up humanitarian operations in support of 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip and 500,000 of the most vulnerable in the West Bank. An estimated $1.2 billion is required to deliver existing humanitarian services by the end of the year. The Financial Tracking Services (FTS) is tracking all humanitarian financing flows going to humanitarian emergencies, including pledges, commitments and paid contributions. For the humanitarian response to scale-up the life-assistance in OPT, the FTS team developed an Emergency Page to show contributions to the Flash Appeal. In addition to the monetized financial flows recorded by FTS, some in-kind contributions (not money but direct food, medicine, clothes, services e.g. hospital ship etc.) have been announced or provided to support the humanitarian response. The in-kind tracking OPT cell will help to record all public information available on in-kind support to help the humanitarian community obtain a comprehensive view of the assistance going to the hostilities in Gaza and Israel. This pilot will inform further work to improve in-kind tracking and help resource mobilization and advocacy. Through this assignment, online Volunteers will enhance their knowledge of the humanitarian situation in this particular escalation of hostilities and strengthen their analytical and reporting skills.
Task description
We are looking for [4] Online Volunteers to support the organization searching and consolidating information on the in-kind assistance going to the humanitarian response for the Hostilities in Gaza and Israel. The Online Volunteer/s will be responsible for: - Research qualitative data sources such as news articles and press releases containing information on in-kind contributions from donors, companies or individuals. These sources will include publicly available data and information on the internet. - Record the relevant information in a spreadsheet. - Consolidate data with the other Online Volunteers working on the project and conduct initial analysis based on the information available. - Working 2 hours daily (5 days a week, for 10 hours a week). - Attending 1-2 hours of weekly meetings in the CET time zone. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply ASAP, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.