Associate External Relations and Reporting Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN 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 (www.unhcr.org).

Context

UNHCR has a presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) since 1992. Since then, the office has worked with refugees, asylum seekers, persons at risk of statelessness, internally displaced persons and returnees in line with UNHCR's global mandate and its specific role in Bosnia and Herzegovina in relation to Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Currently, the mixed migration through the western Balkan region and towards the EU is creating pressure on the asylum system and for those seeking international protection in BiH. There are three key priority areas in BiH currently: 1) promoting, facilitating and strengthening the access to asylum & asylum procedures for those in need of international protection, including in areas such as coordination, operational protection (identification and referrals of particularly vulnerable individuals, such as unaccompanied children, families with small children, victims of SGVB); 2) integration of individuals under international protection: and 3) responding and preventing Statelessness with the aim of eradicating statelessness by 2024, which is UNHCR global goal. UNHCR BiH has been working on all these issues with its implementing partners, including local authorities at all levels and local NGOs, in order to build their capacity and to strengthen the response mechanisms. This is complemented by direct interventions and by joint projects with UNHCR’s partners (legal aid, livelihoods, basic household support, etc.) which assist persons of concern to achieve a durable solution. At the moment, UNHCR Representation in BiH has three offices: Country Office in Sarajevo and two Field Units in Bihac and in Tuzla. The incumbent of this position will work in UNHCR Country Office in Sarajevo, Communications Section, with frequent travels to field offices, and will be the office’s focal point for report collating and writing, including providing support to the Operations Section for finalisation of project reports. The incumbent will also actively support external relations and fundraising activities UNHCR began working in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Today, the mission works with five distinct groups across the country (refugees and asylum seekers, persons at risk of state-lessness, and internally displaced persons and returnees), each of which has specific protection needs and require targeted assistance to reach a durable solution. A considerable number of these persons continue to live in undignified conditions and require support to achieve a durable solution. UNHCR works closely with the authorities at all levels in order to build their capacity and to strengthen the response mechanism. This is complemented by direct interventions and by joint projects with UNHCR’s partners (legal aid, livelihoods, basic household support, etc.) which assist persons of concern to achieve a durable solution.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of Associate Communications Officer, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Keep abreast all developments in operations to prepare appropriate briefings and reports. • Prepare periodic reports, i.e. donor updates, internal sitreps, briefing notes for senior managers, and activity-specific reports as required. • Prepare funding submissions for donors, and draft any required after-action reports. • Develop and maintain working relationships with the government, NGOs, and UN agencies to ensure cooperation in inter-related activities. • Support the UNHCR-led Cluster activities by preparing and distributing minutes, assisting in the organization of meetings; occasionally chairing meetings, and serving as the general secretariat for the relevant Cluster. • Support the supervisor in preparation for meetings and missions drafting of talking points. • Organize and accompany missions for VIP visitors, delegates to visit refugee sites or the activities of UNHCR implementing partners. • If there is no Public Information (PI) focal point in country, serve as PI focal point, contributing to and coordinating press events, interviews, PI missions and other activities related to information dissemination to the general public to promote UNHCR activities In addition, the incumbent is expected to undertake the following tasks, more specific to the UNHCR’s operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina: • Become conversant with UNHCR’s mandate and principles, the terminology and rules of Results Based Management as applied in UNHCR, on-going projects and the operational context of the UNHCR BiH as well as the political and socio-economic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina; if needed, organize (or participate in) relevant presentations, training sessions and briefings to internal and external audiences pertaining to these topics; • Assist the Office in collecting, consolidating and analyzing available data and preparing narrative inputs for planning documents (e.g. Country Operations Plan), briefings, regular and ad-hoc reports to UNHCR HQ and donors, situation reports, strategies, activity-specific reports, publications, statements etc. – in line with UNHCR’s standards; • Follow up on reporting requirements (formats, deadlines, etc) and procedures, establish the reporting calendar and initiate/prepare the reports in cooperation with other colleagues and the UNHCR’s partners; • Assist selected UNHCR’s partners and civil society organizations, receptive to the problems of UNHCR’s persons of concern, to develop their reports; • Create and maintain spreadsheets required for efficient reporting; • Have a good insight in all available and relevant sources of information in the office (databases used in the operation, statistical reports, case lists, registration / voluntary repatriation / resettlement reports, partner reports etc.), in order to use accurate and up-to-date data in reports and other documents; • Cooperate with other colleagues from the Section in collecting and presenting the planned and achieved impacts and outputs using the pre-set indicators as well as meaningful indicators developed internally; • Maintain good working relationships with various counterparts (UNHCR staff; governmental, UN, international and national partners, civil society etc.); represent UNHCR in selected UN Country Team Results Groups and other bodies and actively contribute to their work • Regularly, undertake field visits to selected municipalities and collective accommodation sites (for example for monitoring the progress of on-going projects and evaluating the impact of closed ones); • Ensure that reports and other narrative inputs/documents prepared by the Representation Office are produced in a timely fashion and in line with the required standard; they reflect the actual developments in the country and the region, and contain the proposals on actions to be undertaken in order to assist the persons of concern and provide them with solutions; • Ensure that the analysis of impact of political developments in the country and in the region on populations of concern is routinely performed so that it can inform project/activity design and the implementation of projects; • Produce informative and useful reports after undertaking field visits, monitoring/evaluating partner projects and attending events; the reports should also contain necessary proposals for improvement and lessons learned; • Establishes and maintains efficient cooperation and relationships with the colleagues from the Communications Section as well as with the other UNHCR BiH colleagues, partners and other stakeholders; • Perform other duties as required, upon request of the supervisor. 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.