Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer (Reporting Officer) - Gaziantep

Details

Mission and objectives

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, established in December 1991 by General Assembly resolution 46/182. This position is located in the Response Support Branch (RSB), Coordination Division, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva. OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response efforts. OCHA's mission is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies; advocate the rights of people in need; promote preparedness and prevention and facilitate sustainable solutions.

Context

In the early hours of 6 February 2023, multiple earthquakes, the strongest being of 7.7 magnitude struck southern Türkiye and northern Syria. The earthquakes have created a disaster of colossal proportions. Some 15 million people live in these affected 10 provinces, including over 1.7 million Syrian refugees and around 4.6 million children. Following the Flash Appeal, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Principals agreed to designate a humanitarian system-wide Scale-Up for the earthquake response in Türkiye and Syria. The Scale-Up helps organizations and partners to rapidly mobilize the necessary operational capacities and resources to respond to critical humanitarian needs on the ground. The resources will allow humanitarian organizations to swiftly ramp up their operations to support Government-led response efforts in the areas of food security, protection, education, water, and shelter, among others. In this context, the Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer will take a reporting role for the emergency coordination efforts. https://www.unocha.org/turkiyesyria-earthquakes

Task description

Within delegated authority, the Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer will be responsible for the following duties: • In consultation with a senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer, assists in field assessments and coordination. • Researches, analyzes and presents information gathered from diverse sources on assigned topics/issues. • Acts as a liaison for the field team for interpretation during assessments, meetings and field visits. • Contributes to the preparation of various written documents, e.g. drafts sections of studies, background papers, strategies, policy guidelines, minutes and notes etc. • Assists in the organization of meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops, etc. with other agencies and partners to facilitate exchanges of professional expertise and views on specific humanitarian-related subjects/issues. • Maintains awareness of current humanitarian affairs, humanitarian financing and related issues, to include relevant political, policy, gender considerations or other developments in specific subject area, country or region concerned. • Assists with advocacy products, writing, editing, researching, translating and interpreting. • Communicates effectively with various stakeholders including donors, cluster leads, and partners • Participates in technical assistance, disaster assessment or other missions. • Participates in project/programme formulation and mobilization of relevant resources. • Performs other duties as required.