Access Coordinator

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
peace and 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 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on
behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of
nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labour force — a
strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We
continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that
encourage the recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

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

Access Coordination Unit (ACU)

The ACU is an inter-agency project supervised by the UN DSC/HC/RC, working with UNSCO and UNOCHA, and administered by UNOPS. ACU provides services to UN, NGOs, and Diplomatic delegations with the objective to: “Ameliorate the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance and advance the protection of civilians, by developing a centralized, pro-active, and sustainable access strategy for the movement of humanitarian and development personnel and goods, while providing hands-on advice and support to access challenges in the field.” ACU’s key functions are:

• To provide guidance, advice and technical support to UN and NGO partners for the movement of staff and goods in accordance with humanitarian principles, international law, and security advice to ultimately better direct assistance to the civilian population. 

• To address policies and practices that restrict humanitarian space through a common approach to humanitarian access and coordinated negotiation efforts. 

• To provide information, analysis, and messaging on restrictions to humanitarian space and to support advocacy efforts undertaken by the humanitarian community and other stakeholders with regard to the access of the civilian population to basic service provision.

Support to Movement of Humanitarian Personnel:

ACU supports the movement of humanitarian personnel by facilitating (re-)entry into the country, supporting applications for crossing in and out of Gaza (both on the Israeli and the Palestinian side) and into East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and intervening when issues arise at checkpoints, crossings (including in the West Bank) or international borders. In the execution of these tasks, ACU interacts systematically with Israeli and Palestinian (both PA and de-facto) authorities at the operational level (eg. engagement with the Israeli authorities on access in Area C, the seam zone and H2). As required ACU also interacts with the Jordanian and Egyptian authorities, both in real-time during access incidents and in broader policy discussions. ACU regularly engages with the respective authorities (in coordination with OCHA and RCO) to discuss access procedures, practices and policies that affect partners.

Management of Emergency Coordination Portal:

ACU manages the Emergency Coordination Portal intended to facilitate movements within Gaza in case of escalations and during other significant movement restrictions such as COVID-19 lockdowns. ACU also administers the notification system for humanitarian locations in Gaza for humanitarian partners and ensures the necessary coordination with CLA.

Support to Policy Development:

ACU will contribute to strategic level engagement as needed and requested by the RC/HC (such as the denial of Gaza exit permits and banning of hundreds of UN and NGO national staff from exiting Gaza). Engagement with the Israeli authorities to challenge limitations of access in specific areas or procedures that violate UN privileges and immunities are initially dealt with by the ACU and elevated to a more strategic level through the Head of OCHA and RCO as needed.

Under the overall guidance of DSC/RC/HC and direct supervision by the Head of RCO (primary) and Deputy Head of OCHA (secondary),  the Access Coordinator (AC) will be responsible for the operational aspects of the ACU.

The AC is to maintain the ACU capacity by maintaining coordination mechanisms with all the relevant interlocutors to efficiently carry out access and monitoring support activities.

The core AC tasks include supervision of the operations related to the ACU: 

• Supervise and manage the staff of the ACU and their tasks in order to effectively meet the goals of the ACU;

• Operate a 24/7 access hotline to conduct real-time interventions with relevant authorities to resolve access incidents.

• Administer and maintain the Emergency Coordination Portal.

• Maintain and share with relevant authorities the online humanitarian locations notification system.

• Provide information (advisories) and support on the movement of personnel (website, emails, and ACU Live mobile app).

• Advise humanitarian and development partners on procedures for obtaining visas and permits.

• Provide direct support to the UN, international and Palestinian NGOs, as well as diplomatic missions, to obtain visas, permits, and special coordination.

• Lead and coordinate negotiations with the relevant authorities to improve access for humanitarian and development partners, including in response to new or ongoing measures that restrict access.

• Facilitate evacuation of dual nationals from Gaza during escalations.

• Advise the UN Country Team (UNCT) and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) on common positions with regard to access procedures and policies (UNCT, SMT, HCT, OMT, AIDA, Security Cell, and donor meetings) 

• Work with OCHA and Senior CMCORD Advisor to analyze the impact of access constraints and advise the RC/HC on appropriate bilateral advocacy.

• Advise the RC/HC, through OCHA, on the movement of national staff between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

• Provide access information and analysis for reporting, internal working documents, policy papers, advocacy documents, and talking points.

• Provides regular updates on access trends and developments, with suggested action that may be taken by HC/RC, HCT, etc. 

• 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.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• 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
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• 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.