Communication and Reporting Officer

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

UNOPS Hub in Amman

The UNOPS Hub in Amman implements projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, in partnership with bilateral donors, national governments, and other UN agencies.  With an established presence across the region, the office runs operations including large-scale procurement, project development, and technical management, and provides financial, human resources, and infrastructure-related services. The functional objective of UNOPS Hub in Amman is to deliver its projects in an efficient and effective manner and in line with the principles, rules and regulations of UNOPS, in order to support the response to the current needs and national priorities in the region.

The Iraq IIC was launched in 2015 following an inter-agency assessment into the information and communication needs of displaced populations in Iraq. Responding to one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world, the Humanitarian Country Team agreed to the establishment of an inter-agency accountability mechanism that allows affected populations to directly influence the evolution of humanitarian response in Iraq.

The Iraq IIC is implemented by UNOPS and is funded by a range of partners. Since its launch, the Iraq IIC has handled more than 170,000 calls, giving information to more than 1 milliion individuals. The Iraq IIC’s primary objective is to promote two-way communication between affected populations to:

• Empower communities through the provision of accessible and timely information on how to access humanitarian services and resources required to improve their situation;
• Help ensure efficient and effective coordination of humanitarian actors operating in Iraq by collecting and circulating information about the urgent needs and priorities of affected populations, as well as the information gaps between them and delivering actors;

1. Support an environment of transparency and accountability by establishing an easy-to-access and safe mechanism through which critical feedback and complaints can be submitted and referred to humanitarian actors to influence humanitarian programming and shape advocacy.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

UNOPS is seeking Communication and Reporting Officer  to support and enhance reporting, communication, and information management structures. The post aims to further strengthen and streamline Iraq IIC’s data collection, data sharing and reporting processes as part of its overall objective to strengthen accountability to affected populations in Iraq. The incumbent reports to the Project Manager, and will work closely with the Information Management Officer, in order to contribute to the overall project objectives.

With the aim of strengthening the quality of communications and reporting services provided by the project as well as the internal capacity of the Iraq IIC, the Communication and Reporting Officer  will perform the following duties with transparency and integrity, and in adherence to the humanitarian standards for information management as provided by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Sphere Handbook, the Communications and Reporting Officer will conduct the following tasks:

Reporting (internal and external)

·         Support in the continuous development of the Iraq IIC reporting templates, in particular with the drafting of internal and external reports withing given deadlines;

·         Assist in the documentation of key findings in regular analysis of the Iraq IIC’s impact on the response, including operational developments, achievements, constraints, concerns, and request for support, and in the communication of these findings to partners, donors and other stakeholders;

·         Gather and report on feedback from partners in a systematic way to facilitate analysis, reporting of impact, procedures on referrals, and support the overall accountability of humanitarian actors to the affected population;

·         Contribute to preparation of briefs, talking points, key messaging for discussions with partners in key coordination meetings to discuss data, trends analysis and any identified gaps and/or needs observed.

Communication (internal and external)

·         Assist the IIC Information Management Officer, Supervisor and Operators in the implementation of internal and external information structures, policies and standard operating procedures to facilitate, support, and promote data and information sharing within the call centre and the wider humanitarian community;

·         Establish and maintain an effective communication strategy for the Iraq IIC, incorporating methods for the comprehensive distribution of visibility materials and outreach efforts as undertaken by the Community Engagement team, as well as ensure digestion of public information products and facilitated presence at key coordination forums;

·         Represent the Iraq IIC at different meetings upon request, including but not limited to cluster-level meetings. In addition to design and deliver cluster-specific, and other tailored presentations as required with the support of the Information Management Officer;

·         Draft and edit promotional and/or communication materials and strategy to raise the profile of the call centre among affected populations and humanitarian actors (nationally and globally);

·         Serve as the Iraq IIC focal point in the Strategic Communications Group and actively promote the project within the inter-agency fora;

·         Maintain close interaction with Project team to share information and knowledge as related to project activities and communications;

Other duties as required:

·         In collaboration with the Project Manager and Information Management team, update the standard operator procedures, internal guidelines, external communications and reporting as required,

·         Communicate with partners to provide guidance on Iraq IIC procedures, and to update the IIC’s tools, including but not limited to: the service directory for humanitarian services, standard messaging on key issues, and referral agreements for the channeling of feedback and complaints,

·         Perform any other duties as requested by the Project Manager.

Impact of results

The outcomes of the role impacts UNOPS Iraq IIC project. The work of the Communication and Reporting Officer contributes to achievement of UNOPS mission and vision:

• To expand the capacity of the United Nations system and its partners to implement peace building, humanitarian and development operations that matter for people in need.
• To satisfy UNOPS partners with management services that meet world-class standards of quality, speed and cost-effectiveness. 

In particular, the results of the Communication and Reporting Officer  contribute to the following strategic goals:

• Enhanced accountability and transparency, through the delivery of services that meet or exceed expectations
• Enhanced UNOPS operational capacity through improved process efficiency and effectiveness of UNOPS practices

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

·         CV indicating necessary qualifications and all relevant experience

·         Cover letter demonstrating relevant experience

·         Two (2) examples of previous work relating to IM/data collection, analysis and/or visualisation

·         Masters degree in information management, information technology, engineering or a related field from an accredited academic institution with two years of relevant professional experience. Or University bachelor degree in the above fields with four years of relevant professional experience.

·         Minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible experience in research and analysis, reporting, external relations, communications, advocacy, and/or outreach including experience at the international level, and/or related field. 

Required:

·         Strong background in data collection, analysis and presentation

·         Experience in producing high-quality reports

·         At ease making public presentations and liaising with external stakeholders

·         Strong experience in usage of Microsoft Office software package (MS Word, Excel especially)

·         Knowledge of Accountability to Affected Populations, and Communicating with Communities

·         Fluency in English is required

·         Knowledge of Arabic and\or Kurdish will be an added advantage.

Desired:

·         Knowledge of new data analysis and visualization solutions such as PowerBI and Tableau

·         Knowledge of GIS software, both open source and private

·         Familiarity with professional-grade design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suites)

·         Web development experience

·         Experience working in the humanitarian field, preferably including the Middle East

·         Knowledge of current political, economic, and social fabric of Iraq

·         Working knowledge of communicating with disaster affected populations and protection response infrastructure

1. Contract type: International ICA
2. Contract level: IICA 1
3. Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.