Regional Liaison Assistant

3 positions required: 1 for Gorkha, 1 for Nuwakot and 1 for Sindhupalchowk district.

The Inter-Agency Common Feedback Project, referred to as the Common Feedback Project (CFP), is an innovative community engagement project, initiated during the response to the Nepal Earthquake 2015. The CFP collects and aggregates feedback from earthquake affected communities through a variety of sources, and advocates to have the voice of affected people heard in response decision making. The project’s model has been incorporated into Emergency Response Preparedness planning endorsed by the national government and UN system.

An independent evaluation of the Common Feedback Project, conducted in February 2016 found that the project had been successful in achieving its objectives, and recommended the project be continued throughout the earthquake reconstruction and recovery phase. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation were endorsed by the Project Executive Board. Additional project stakeholders, including I/NGO partners, have expressed their desire for the common service project to continue as well. Donors have come on board to support the continuation of the CFP, and have committed funding for a two-year extension.

The importance of accurate community feedback, and effective outreach to affected communities to close the feedback loop is well recognized by the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), humanitarian partner’s and the government’s National Reconstruction Authority (NRA). Engagement with the NRA on fitting the community feedback components into their draft Communications Action Plan is ongoing.

The Common Feedback Project will continue to be hosted in the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office and provide a comprehensive set of common tools and protocols that are rolled out and contextualized in each of the 14 priority affected districts, taking into account the language, gender and diversity of the communities. The common service provides support services to the entire UN Country Team and HCT, including all clusters and organizations, government, development partners, as well as civil society and other actors.

This position will establish linkage between the Common Feedback Project and government, non-governmental organization at regional, district and local level. The Regional Liaison Assistant (RLA) will communicate and disseminate collected feedback from community at regular basis. Overall, this position will ensure the presence of CFP in terms of representation, coordination, collaboration, advocacy, communication and knowledge sharing at different levels.
 
Reporting to the CFP Research and Advocacy Specialist, support the effective liaison between the CFP project team in Kathmandu and field based stakeholders, including partner organisations, local government bodies, coordination fora, civil society, local media and communities. The Regional Liaison Assistant (RLA) will be mobile, and responsible for covering these functions in 2-3 districts, with a base in one district office and frequent travel to others

FUNCTIONS/KEY RESULTS EXPECTED:

Support to Establish effective coordination and collaboration among government, non-governmental organizations and local stakeholders focusing on achievement of the following:

• Act as district level focal point for the Common Feedback Project and Community Engagement issues;
• Support in the collection of feedback from affected communities collected by local partners and ensure the proper flow of information to and from district, HQ and communities;
• Support in organizing coordination meetings, sometimes with partner organisations, to disseminate reports and other information products and track follow up/response from partners to community feedback;
• Coordinate local message production (including in local languages) for closing the feedback loop project components;
• Support to Oversee and monitor the field work of project implementing partners working in data collection both qualitative and quantitative and closing the feedback loop to ensure quality service delivery;
• Conduct focus group discussion and key informant interviews as needed;
• Be prepared to support additional districts in the event of a sudden onset emergency requiring surge capacity.

Support to Ensure representation and effective communication for advocacy on achieving the following results:

• Supporting the CFP Research and Advocacy Specialist, strengthen collaboration between different agencies and members of the humanitarian architecture in the district, including but not limited to government, relevant cluster leads, UN and I/NGO partners, media and local civil society;
• Supporting the CFP Research and Advocacy Specialist in the district, advocate for the importance of establishing 2-way communication mechanisms with affected populations and follow up mechanisms;
• Support to Advocate with focal points in obtaining localized common messages and coordinating dissemination of messages with media partners to reach affected communities;
• Support to Advocate with local media to include coverage of important issues identified through community feedback in programmes to help close the feedback loop;
• Support to Implement district level advocacy strategies in engaging with donors, humanitarian partners, government, private sector and civil society on community feedback throughout the reconstruction phase;
• Prepare district level reports on community feedback;
• Disseminate CFP advocacy materials, including monthly district and national reports;
• Work with different agencies in tracking effectiveness of communicating with affected communities’ activities;
• Support to Identify and build partnerships with local stakeholders for the purposes of strengthening the business case for coordinated community feedback mechanisms.

Establishes and maintains knowledge sharing mechanism for documentation and dissemination focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Supporting the CFP Research and Advocacy Specialist, ensure that feedback gained from community engagement (CE) activities in the districts is made available to humanitarian organizations (i.e. brief presentations at cluster meetings, inter-cluster coordination, social media), and government officials, as required;
• Supporting the CFP Research and Advocacy Specialist, track and record decisions and actions taken by organizations as a result of feedback obtained from project;
• Maintain and update a database with all the relevant contacts (i.e. CE focal points) from the different organizations and government departments involved in humanitarian response in the district;
• Organize, participate in and/or assist in organizing district level meetings, conferences, consultations with other agencies and partners on reconstruction and recovery related matters.
• Compile regular situation reports on the outputs and activities of the CFP coordination and liaison effort at the district level for internal use;
• Contribute to the preparation of reports, documents and communications, and provide up-to-date analysis on trends and developments in the humanitarian and community engagement situation at the field level on an as needed basis;
• Be prepared to support the rapid turnaround of data and reports in the event of a sudden onset emergency requiring surge capacity;
• Quickly provide situation update of the district if any other disaster occurred and further involve for coordination to grasp situation of survivors.
• Any other duties as required.

Ensure Gender and Social Inclusion issues in documentation, communication and dissemination focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Apply a gender and social inclusion (GESI) lens is used in reports and communication materials

IMPACT RESULTS:

The key results have an impact on the Common Feedback Project’s ability to effectively engage and advocate at the local level for the voice of earthquake affected people. The local level engagement undertaken by the Regional Liaison Assistant will mean that the CFP is able to collect and monitor better quality data from the field, is able to better engage and advocate with local level partners, including government, I/NGOs, media, CSOs, etc. through its ability to locally contextualize information collected from communities, and better able to close the feedback loop with affected communities. This will ensure the true localization and contextualization of the goals and outputs of the Common Feedback Project

Core Competencies:

Innovation:

• Interprets policies and guidance within context and applies with judgment;
• Anticipates obstacles and applies practical solutions;
• Continually seeks improvement and agility in service delivery;  
• Collaborates to improve methods and delivery.

Leadership:

• Recommends options for addressing work challenges;
• Assumes responsibility for decisions and outcome of one’s work;
• Engages with other to address job opportunities and challenges.

People Management

• Recognizes potential road blocks to completing tasks and seeks guidance from supervisors to address issues;
• Based on formal and informal feedback received, takes action to address areas for growth and improvement.

Communication:

• Proactively expresses insights and/or questions in order to contribute to clarity, accuracy, and focus in one’s work;
• Speaks on behalf of team with professionalism and integrity consistent with UN values.

Delivery:

• Demonstrates commitment to clients and quality;
• Works to agreed goals dealing with challenges constructively;
• Responsible for project implementation and/or team deliverables;
• Ability to exercise sound judgement in delivering services and supervising teams.

Functional Competencies:

• Experience working independently to manage relationships with multiple stakeholders and deliver high quality results in field duty stations including local authorities and other organizations to effectively engage them in CFP;
• Good knowledge of the program of assignment, including cultural and political dimensions;
• Ability to relate humanitarian issues and perspectives, including gender, social-economic issues;
• Ability to work calmly and maintain good humour under pressure, in highly stressful environments; 
• Very good knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines and sound knowledge of the institutions of the UN system;
• Focuses on impact and results, and responds positively to constructive feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
• Strong presentation and public speaking skills;
• Ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships with local authorities and other organizations to effectively engage them in CFP;
• Demonstrated ability to advocate effectively with humanitarian/development partners, government and media at the local level;
• Ability to identify relevant information for advocacy for a variety of audiences.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Education:

• Completion of Bachelor’s Degree (Master’s preferred) in social science, public administration, law, development studies, international affairs or other relevant discipline.

Experience:

• A minimum of three years’ professional experience in coordination, development, humanitarian affairs, or related areas;
• Proven ability to establish and maintain effective professional relationships with a wide variety of national NGOs and related networks, government, UN and international NGO stakeholders;
• Experience in conducting trainings, workshops and large coordination meetings;
• Experience interacting with disaster affected communities and conducting community meetings, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages;
• Experience in the field of community engagement;
• Ability to write and communicate orally in a clear and concise manner.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English and Nepali.

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters.

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity.

UNDP is committed to achieve work force diversity (in terms of nationality, minority groups, caste/ ethnic groups, persons with disability etc.) and has a policy to have gender balance among staff at all levels.  Qualified female candidates and candidates particularly from disadvantaged and socially excluded groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

All applications will be treated with highest confidentiality.
 

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