Site and Settlement CCCM Associate

Details

Mission and objectives

The primary purpose of UNCR is to safeguard the rights and well-being of people who have been forced to flee. Together with partners and communities, UNHCR works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. UNHCR also strives to secure lasting solutions. For over half a century, UNHCR has helped millions of people to restart their lives. They include refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers. Our protection, shelter, health and education has been crucial, healing broken pasts and building brighter futures .

Context

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has an international mandate to protect refugees, persons who have fled their country of origin due to well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or belonging to a particular social group. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950, by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people. The UNHCR Multi-Country Office (MCO) in Panama provides support to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced people in Aruba, Belize, Cuba, Curacao, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago. MCO Panama works in close collaboration with Governments, UN agencies, international and national NGOs, civil society as well as host communities, in other to help forcibly displaced people find safety and rebuild their lives. The MCO Panama office covers several humanitarian situations, including but not limited to: the regional Venezuelan refugees and migrants situation in Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curaçao, Guyana; the Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers situation in Panama, the Colombian refugees and asylum seekers situation in Panama, and the refugees and asylum seekers situation in Belize, Cuba, Suriname and Nicaragua. Darien is Panama’s largest and poorest province. Bordering Colombia, the province hosts a 60-mile-deep jungle, the only breaking point of the Pan-American highway, linking the continent from south to north. Despite being one of the most dangerous jungles in the world, Darien is a transit location for thousands of refugees and migrants, most of them coming from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and African and South Asian nations. According to official statistics of the National Migration Service (SNM), from 2010 to 2020, some 120,000 people crossed through this area. Panama has been facing an unprecedented mixed movement crisis in the last years, with over 520,000 people making this perilous journey through the jungle and entering the country irregularly in 2023 alone. Considering the magnitude of the current crisis, UNHCR increased its presence with a Field Unit and will seek to increase the support to the emergency response to the Government within the Temporary Reception Centers. The Site and Settlement CCCM (Camp Coordination and Camp Management) Associate assumes different roles, contacts, and liaisons, including: liaison with the local government stakeholders, such as Migration in charge of the temporary reception centers in close coordination with the support of the National Borders Service (Servicio Nacional de Fronteras), And supporting UNHCR in the management, coordination of assistance and services, participation at the reception centers, and coordinate actions with other organizations, partner agency, and community representation groups.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Head of Field Office or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Site and Settlement CCCM Associate will: Site/Camp Level direct implementation • Support the establishment and maintenance of effective coordination mechanisms and tools, including information management and site/camp monitoring with stakeholders, including government counterparts, ensuring timely and effective provision of services. • Support Site Management colleagues and local authorities in conducting regular site level coordination meetings - if working with a Site/Camp Management Implementing Partner ensure that partners conduct Site/Camp level coordination meetings - in line with the Principles of Partnership, making sure that participation is inclusive, consultative, and results-oriented. • Establish strong working relationships with all site level internal and external stakeholders, including the displaced population and host communities, to facilitate effective collaboration and communication. • Continuously monitor at site level the services to aid the team in ensuring that gaps are filled through site level coordination of response and service delivery. • Continuously update site level Emergency Response Plans as needed. • Contribute to regular and ad-hoc reports with concerned parties on a timely manner. • Support the setup and continuation of site level participatory governance. • Work with the supervisor and UNHCR information management focal points to help develop and update products such as site/camp profiles, site/camp directories, volunteer units mapping, infrastructure mapping, etc. • Work with UNHCR Program Unit to follow up on PPAs and to provide inputs for reporting against indicators. Indirect sectoral coordination and liaison across camps/sites or displacement areas • Support the capacity building of relevant authorities and partner agencies in site management. • Establish and/or maintain cohesion and uniformity in the setting up of communication channels, feedback mechanisms. • In collaboration with partners, implement the delivery of initiatives and specific strategies to improve inter and intra-camp coordination, as well as reduce identified risks. • Assess inter-camp level needs and identify problems/gaps and report to the supervisor to support timely practical actions to respond to particular problems. • Ensure that stakeholders are aware of relevant policy guidelines and technical standards and that responses are in line with them and those of the relevant government, human rights and legal obligations. • Ensure to the extent possible that sector partners use common standards and tools for information collection and data management, including in needs assessments and monitoring. • Ensure appropriate coordination with national/local authorities, including liaising with relevant government counterparts and ideally, working with them to support or complement existing coordination mechanisms. • Provide input to monitoring mechanisms in place to review impact and progress against implementation plans; • In coordination with Government counter-parts, support the establishment and strengthening of an effective and transparent coordination system at site/camp-levels, including coordination of service provision and other defined site/camp activities. • Support the National/Local Authorities with the ongoing process of clarifying roles and responsibilities among site/camp stakeholders. • Support the CCCM sector’s input to meetings with sectoral and external partners, authorities and other relevant interlocutors. • Provide inputs to advocacy material for resources and funds. • Contribute to key messages to the broader multi-sectoral advocacy initiatives. Technical CCCM (Camp Coordination and Camp Management) Support • Work with key technical and programme staff, respecting their respective mandates and programme priorities. • Work with other key partners, including relevant national and local authorities, academic and other governmental institutions. • Build cooperative relationships with relevant sectors - particularly Health, WASH, Protection and Shelter. • Provide appropriate relevant Technical Standards including among others Sphere, and good practice to the CCCM response if needed. • Support the integration of cross-cutting issues in the work of the CCCM sector including age, gender, environment, diversity. 
 • Support efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national authorities and civil society. • Assist in organization and delivering of training activities for stakeholders, including UNHCR staff, local partners and relevant authorities. If need be, ensure that the logistical requirements of the capacity development initiatives are in place in terms of organizing venues, developing the lists of participants and that the other relevant logistical and administrative requirements are met. • Perform other related duties as required. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities. • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/expected outputs: • As an active team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNHCR and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: o Maintaining a clear overview of UNHCR interventions. o Maintain an overview of UNHCR's activities in ETRMs. o Monitoring and protection. o Explore the possibility of better coordination for ETRMs at the GMH level and with authorities. o Identification of new needs and potential projects in ETRMs and transit communities. o Improving the flow of information in ETRMs and transit communities. o Update/maintain up-to-date the contingency plan for ETRMs and transit communities. o Capacitating authorities and humanitarian actors in site and CCCM components. • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed