Livelihood Assistant

Details

Mission and objectives

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations 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. UNHCR 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. UNHCR also has a mandate to help stateless people. As of 31 December 2021, UNHCR had recruited 18,879 people, of whom around nearly 91 per cent are based in the field. UNHCR works in 137 countries and territories, with personnel based in a mixture of regional and branch offices and sub and field offices. Our teams work hard to help the displaced, specializing in a wide range of disciplines, including legal protection, administration, community services, public affairs and health.

Context

As of 2023, UNHCR has three offices in Zambia: its Representation based in Lusaka and the two field offices in Solwezi and Mantapala in the Northern and the North-Western Provinces, respectively. The main responsibility for UNHCR, in line with the statutory responsibilities is to monitor the implementation of the 1951 Convention and promote mixed durable solutions for refugees and other Persons of Concern (PoCs). UNHCR discharges this role primarily by providing technical support and guidance to Government on policy formulation and refugee matters. As at 31 December, 2022, there are 81,098 refugees and asylum seekers in three refugee settlements (Mayukwayukwa, Meheba and Mantapala). Majority of PoCs in Zambia are from Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Somalia. Congolese make 52.064% of the total PoCs in Zambia. The vast majority of PoCs live in the three refugee settlements, namely Mayukwayukwa (21,632), Meheba (35,934) and the newly established settlement in Mantapala (7,320). 16,212 more are holding permission to be residing in urban centres such as Lusaka and Ndola, and an estimated 12,404 have self-settled in five provinces across Zambia, and not necessarily registered with the Government of Zambia as asylum seekers or refugees. The Livelihood Assistant will positively contribute to the designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting of livelihoods and economic inclusion projects in Meheba Settlement. The UN Volunteer will align implementation to the existing Livelihoods Multi-year strategy, Kalumbila District Development Plan and the Comprehensive Refugee Response (CRR) specific area action plans. The incumbent will build cordial and strategic working collaboration with livelihoods and economic inclusion actors i.e. Relevant Government District Ministries, NGOs, CBOs/ FBOs, Refugees, Host Community, Development Organisations and Private Sector institution in the area for effective implementation of livelihoods programme that contributes to a sustained social economic development of the Settlements and environs. The Livelihood Assistant will support strengthening of multi-sectoral engagement with other sectors within UNHCR and partner programmes in the settlement and facilitate effective co-ordination with other socio-economic projects implemented by other actors such as JICA, UNDP, ILO, FAO and UNICEF in the local integration area.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Field Office, Solwezi, and the Livelihoods Officer as technical/ functional supervisor, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Support and ensure a sustained and structured co-ordination mechanism (regular meetings, information sharing etc) of livelihoods projects in Meheba Settlement; • Contribute to timely, effective and efficient implementation of all livelihood’s interventions, by livelihoods partner, including; improved targeting and identification of beneficiaries, distribution of inputs and business capital/ grants, facilitation of capacity building sessions etc; • Actively monitor field implementation of livelihood interventions, track progress of agreed objectives and programmes implemented by livelihoods partners (NGO’s, Government Ministries and departments) and provide technical support/ review as maybe required. This will require regular and consistent field presence; • In close consultation and collaboration with livelihood partners and other sectoral working groups, contribute to the identification and development of context innovative and effective sustainable livelihoods interventions for the youth; • Identify, implement and promote community-based approaches to livelihoods e.g. refugee led livelihoods projects etc; • Actively follow-up and foster inclusion of populations of concern into district socio-economic development plans; • In the spirit of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), actively contribute to and strengthen engagement of wider partnerships with private sector entities in Western Province (i.e. financial institutions, farmer co-operatives, value chain-based companies, business development organizations) and development actors to support refugee livelihood programmes; • Contribute to the weekly, monthly, and as need maybe requested time to time, field livelihoods activity reports for review by supervisor; • Foster multi-sectoral linkage between livelihoods and other sectors (education, child protection, WASH) while ensuring mainstreaming of gender, age and diversity (AGD) in all livelihood initiatives; • In collaboration with the livelihoods partners and other sectors, strengthen feedback and complaints mechanism for livelihoods interventions; • Participate and contribute to the multifunctional team activities i.e. participatory assessments, meetings etc; • Perform any other duties as directed and guided by the designated supervisor, Livelihoods Officer and the Head of Field Office.