Associate Development Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. We work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home. Since 1950, we have faced multiple crises on multiple continents, and provided vital assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people, many of whom have nobody left to turn to. We help to save lives and build better futures for millions forced from home.

Context

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is an international organization with the mandate to assist persons in need of international protection; asylum seekers; refugees; statelessness; and internally displaced persons. The UNHCR operation in Mozambique has its main office in Maputo, field offices in Nampula and sub-office in Pemba. The working language in the UNHCR offices in Mozambique is English. UNHCR’s mandated responsibility for finding solutions to refugee, IDP, and returnee situations has long required stronger cooperation with development partners and the inclusion of persons of concern within development planning and programming instruments, including national development programmes. Due to a variety of factors, the proportion of refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement situations remains high. Moreover, the diminishing number of forcibly displaced people who have access to so-called durable solutions constitutes a worrying trend that has persisted in recent years. The increasing scale of irregular migration, large scale refugee movements, internal displacement and the costs of responding to humanitarian situations have placed forced displacement high on the global agenda. Given the complexity and protractedness of many of today’s forced displacement situations, often occurring in fragile contexts, awareness is growing that the humanitarian model of care and maintenance is unsustainable in the longer term and that forced displacement requires a development response to complement humanitarian assistance, address poverty and other development challenges in a sustainable and inclusive manner. . Within the context outlined above, the role of the Associate Development Officer is to support UNHCR's engagement and cooperation with development agencies’ medium-term programmes assisting local communities and UNHCR’s population of concern and the ability to leverage development partnerships to influence policy dialogue to enact institutional reforms toward improved protection environments, socio-economic inclusion, and self-reliance; taking into account and reducing the vulnerabilities of forcibly displaced persons. As such, the incumbent needs to have practical experience working with and an understanding of the interplay of different aspects of economic growth, governance, fragility and conflict, the main factors that influence the environment for inclusion and resilience for UNHCR’s population of concern in Cabo Delgado. Depending on the operating environments in the area of responsibility (AoR), the incumbent might need to have specific expertise in areas such as social protection, governance in fragile contexts, local governance and community development. It is anticipated that development responses to forced displacement will grow in significance in future years due to the greater importance attached to fragility and addressing protracted displacement situations. multi-partner transition strategies for protracted forced displacement situations.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Head of Field Office or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer Associate Development Officer will: - Support the Development Officer in Maputo in developing a strategic approach towards Development Partnerships in Mozambique, with a focus on the AoR, through identifying, mapping, and providing an overview of relevant development actors and their funding, programmatic, strategic, and policy priorities, and potential leverage as it relates to UNHCR’s PoCs and programme; - Support the Development Officer in Maputo with knowledge and experience sharing between UNHCR and development actors and within UNHCR, by documenting and disseminating good practices. - In close coordination with the Development Officer in Maputo and relevant Sub-Office staff, contribute to the development of concept notes and project proposals, taking into consideration existing development strategies and plans. - In close collaboration with the Development Officer in Maputo, support the development and maintenance of a database of all development actors` projects and initiatives targeting IDPs and returnees in Cabo Delgado and Mozambique at large. - Support the development of information and data for development actors to inform their planning, programming and advocacy around resilience and inclusion of persons of concern to UNHCR. - Lead the Sub-Office’s engagement with development partners in Cabo Delgado, including UN development agencies (UNDP, UNOPS, FAO, UN-Habitat, etc), with a view to mainstreaming protection concerns and ensuring the inclusion of IDP, returnee and host communities into specific development programmes and initiatives implemented by development actors in Cabo Delgado. - Support fundraising activities vís-a-vís Multilateral Development Banks, private sector, and government donors. - Develop and deliver training and capacity building initiatives on development engagement, with a view to progressively enhancing the capacity of key staff in the Sub-Office to leverage development partnerships to advance UNHCR`s protection and solutions mandate. - Support training activities aimed at the capacity building of partner agency staff to achieve greater coordination, effectiveness, and synergies between humanitarian and development interventions. - Support the Sub Office in planning for resilience and inclusion into development and government plans with a clear shared vision of longer-term protection and solution outcomes for people of concern that considers host communities and leverages the roles, resources, and capacities of development partners, including International Financial Institutions, Multilateral Development Banks, and Bilateral Development donors. - Provide technical support for relationship building with development co-operation agencies and state-building agendas through the different stages of policy and programme identification, preparation, implementation, and review in Cabo Delgado. - Support to develop and foster partnerships and networks with development actors to influence the policy dialogue with governments on institutional arrangements related to sectors, locations, and programme content of consequence to UNHCR and persons of concern. - Support the development of information and data for development actors to inform their planning, programming, and advocacy around resilience for and including UNHCR’s persons of concern. - Support the engagement with governments, development partners (both multilateral and bilateral), and the private sector and civil society (as appropriate) to identify opportunities for UNHCR to contribute to the design and implementation of targeting and monitoring systems to address the needs of PoCs and track progress towards agreed outcomes. - Support the Development Officer in Maputo in knowledge and experience sharing between UNHCR and development actors and within UNHCR by documenting and disseminating good practices. - Assist UNHCR’s management in Pemba and Maputo in commissioning and/or conducting practical research and analysis to interpret long-term political, economic, and social trends that will enhance opportunities for solutions, resilience, and inclusion for populations of concern to UNHCR and more sustainable approaches to refugee protection. 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.