Asst Livelih & Econom Incl Off, NOA, FTA

CANDIDATES MUST COSTA RICAN CITIZENS, BE LEGALLY PRESENT IN COSTA RICA AT THE TIME OF APPLICATION, RECRUITMENT, AND HIRING.
As reflected in paragraph 26. d.  of the Administrative Instruction on Recruitment and Assignment of Locally Recruited Staff (RALS), NPO positions are advertised internally and externally within the country of the duty station.
As reflected in paragraph 33 of the Administrative Instruction on Recruitment and Assignment of Locally Recruited Staff (RALS), the minimum educational requirement for NPO positions is a completed university degree. NPO positions are evaluated and classified on the same basis as the Professional and higher categories.
As reflected in paragraphs 38 and 39 of the Administrative Instruction on Recruitment and Assignment of Locally Recruited Staff (RALS), eligible candidates are:
38. Current NPO staff members holding an indefinite or fixed-term appointment are eligible to apply to advertised positions in the NPO category at their personal grade and one grade below or above, as Group 1 candidates.
39. All other candidates are eligible to apply to positions in the NPO category as external candidates, including GS staff members holding a university degree and fulfilling eligibility requirements, regardless of grade or length of service, who may apply to any vacant NPO position in their country of assignment for which they qualify.
Other Requirement:
40. Staff members must serve for a minimum of one year following assignment before being considered eligible to apply for another internally or externally advertised position within the same category. The minimum one-year requirement is waived in respect of staff members whose position is being discontinued/reclassified or whose assignment/appointment through the joint staff/management review body is in a replacement capacity. Duties
- Explore partnerships to facilitate the economic inclusion of refugees, such as line ministries, private sector and development actors in accordance with UNHCR Global and Country level policies, priorities, and strategies, in particular the Global Compact on Refugees. This includes advocating with public and private sector services providers to include UNHCR PoC in supporting services (business development, micro-finance, training, saving accounts, poverty alleviation and social protection, etc.).
- Work with the multi-functional team, more specifically with the Protection Unit, support the assessment of the legal framework for the right to work and rights at work and recommend/implement advocacy initiatives and policy reform to improve UNHCR PoC¿s economic inclusion, rights and access to work.
- Build on UNHCR databases to support regular information sharing and coordination among different humanitarian, developmental and governmental stakeholders. This includes supporting the implementation of socioeconomic and wealth ranking surveys utilising community-based strategies to inform targeting, monitoring and facilitation of development programmes.
- Conduct necessary assessments in collaboration with relevant private and public stakeholders, including impact assessments on local economies and surveys that help to identify investment and funding opportunities that enhance the economic inclusion of UNHCR PoC.
- In case UNHCR is implementing specific livelihoods activities, work closely with and provide technical assistance on livelihoods interventions to help ensure they are market-based, and that the role of UNHCR has been strategically determined in consideration of its comparative advantage vis-à-vis other partners.
- Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education & Professional Work Experience:

Years of Experience / Degree Level:
For P1/NOA - 1 year relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or no experience with Graduate degree; or no experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education:
Business Management, Socio-Economics Development, Economics/International Economics Rural Development, Financial Management or other relevant field.


Certificates and/or Licenses:
Not specified


Relevant Job Experience:

Essential:
Experience in facilitating the economic inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, ideally in varied field contexts. Experience in working in partnership with private sector, NGOs, UN organisations, development actors, and government authorities in sub-sectors relevant to livelihood programming e.g. financial inclusion, employment, entrepreneurship, private sector development, local economic development, poverty reduction, agriculture, livestock, vocational and technical education and training, etc.

Desirable:
Knowledge about latest development in the livelihoods sector, including broader UN processes on the SDGs and the Global Compact on Refugees.

Functional Skills :
EX-Experience with Inter/Non-Governmental Organization (INGO/NGO)
LV-Livelihoods & sub-sectors (value-chain upgrading, microfinance, cash assistance, etc.)
EX-Field experience
MG-Project Management
MG-Strategic Planning
MS-Networking
MS-Drafting, Documentation, Data Presentation
(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements:

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
Spanish: C2
English: C1
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See below for this postion's Operational Context
======================================================================================================== Operational Context:
Costa Rica, historically a human rights champion, has a favourable framework for the protection and integration of asylum-seekers and refugees. The country has ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1978), the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (1978), 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1977); the 1961 Convention for the Reduction of Statelessness (1977); and it also developed national normative on refugees: Executive Decree No. 32.195-G in 2004. The determination of refugee status is carried out by the Costa Rican State through the Migration Authority with assistance from UNHCR.

In light of the recommendations included in the Annex I of the New York Declaration (2016), Costa Rica engaged in the development of its own Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework national chapter in 2017. This national chapter, locally known as MINARE, was the result of a broad-based consultation process with different stakeholders that identified the protection gaps for refugees and asylum seekers and outlined specific commitments to address those needs, strengthen the asylum system and facilitate the integration of refugees and asylum seekers. The same year and with the MINARE in place, Costa Rica signed the San Pedro Sula Declaration that set the grounds for the establishment of the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework (MIRPS), as regional coordination platform to develop regional cooperation and responsibility sharing mechanisms among its members.
By adopting the MINARE as a guiding strategy, the country has organized its response to refugee situations by implementing a whole-of-society, whole-of-government approach.

Recently, Costa Rica is facing challenges stemming from the significant increase in the number of asylum-seekers in the past 5 years, particularly from Venezuela and Nicaragua, and despite the Governments efforts, this recent influx has posed serious strains on the national systems of response including education, health, social protection, and legal assistance. This situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns over security. The Refugee Units capacity to receive and process cases was exceeded causing significant delays on delivering asylum-seeker documentation and work permits which affected the access of people of concern to rights and services and ultimately increased their vulnerability.

For 2021, new challenges in the political front are expected. In November 2021, Nicaragua¿s elections will take place, raising concerns of a possible increase in PoC attempting to enter Costa Rica. Shortly after, Costa Rica¿s own elections will take place in February 2022. There is a distinct possibility that refugees and migrants will be presented as political scapegoats. In consequence, a xenophobic rhetoric is expected to increase in 2021.

UNHCR in Costa Rica has maintained a continuous presence since 1978. In 2018, UNHCR opened a field office in Upala, in the north of the country. The team perform regular missions to regular and irregular border crossings and to border communities to ensure early identification of cases, timely referrals and to provide humanitarian assistance to those in greater need. UNHCR will continue to support the national authorities and key partners to respond to the situation of PoC, strengthen and guarantee protection and solutions. UNHCR will also continue to support the Government of Costa Rica to reach its pledges to eradicate statelessness, through staffing and technical aid to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the statelessness determination procedure; to Civil Registry for birth registration and naturalization solution; and to identify persons at risk of statelessness.

Nature of the position:

The Assistant Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer will support in operationalizing the strategic vision to align livelihoods and economic inclusion efforts with the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), which underscores the need to mobilize additional actors and to adopt a whole-of-society approach to strengthen refugee self-reliance and help ease pressure on host countries. Promoting economic inclusion of refugees is a key development area that will enable the achievement of these objectives and contribute to the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals.

Leveraging the growing global momentum, UNHCR is working to translate the objectives of the GCR into impactful results for persons of concern (PoC). Contributing to this global roll-out of the GCR, the Assistant Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer, with support from the Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion Unit in the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS), contributes to the following objectives:

1) improve the enabling environment for refugees to work through advocacy on the right to/at work, access to economic opportunities and service;
2) seek new and strengthen existing partnerships including with the private sector, development actors, government institutions and specialized agencies to advance economic inclusion of refugees; and
3) enhance ongoing livelihoods and economic inclusion programming through evidence-based and market-driven approaches to improve economic inclusion outcomes.

The Assistant Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer should be proactive, always looking for new opportunities and persuasive in mobilizing donors and new partners around new models of economic and social integration. Within UNHCR, the Assistant Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer will work under the supervision of the Senior Field Officer and closely with multi-functional teams on matters including but not limited to protection, education, cash, partnerships, research and analytics, SGBV, solutions, complementary pathways and more. S/he will support the office's involvement with livelihoods and economic inclusion, working with relevant external stakeholders from government line ministries, development actors, private sector, UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs, research institutions and universities.
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All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR¿s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity. HOW TO APPLY

External candidates:
- Candidates must submit their application through UNHCR's official application site: www.unhcr.org/careers.html
- click on Vacancies
- Look for Costa Rica
- To apply you must register in the upper right part of the page
Click on position you are interested  and follow the instructions

Internal candidates:
- Your application must be submitted by: MSRP - Self-Service - Recruiting - Careers - Costa Rica -NAME OF THE POSITION

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For any technical problems encountered during the online application, please contact the Global Service Desk (hqussd@unhcr.org) prior to the deadline to allow sufficient time to resolve the issues. For any questions regarding the selection process, please contact Human Resources (cossarrhh@unhcr.org).

CVs will NOT be accepted by email. ONLY THOSE APPLICATIONS SENT THROUGH THE SYSTEM WILL BE CONSIDERED.

We are committed to maintaining diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity and culture.  Persons belonging to minority groups, persons with special abilities, men and women, are encouraged to apply for vacancies. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

We do not confirm receipt of applications or report on the status of the process. Only qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview and possibly a written test.

Closing Date
Closing date for submissions or applications is October 2, 2021, (midnight Geneva time) 16:00 hours (Costa Rica time).
No late applications will be accepted.
UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing or any other fees).