Assistant Development Officer at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Standard Job Description 

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

• UNHCR's mandated responsibility for finding solutions to refugee situations has long required stronger cooperation with development partners and the inclusion of persons of concern within development planning and programming instruments, including national development programmes. Due to a variety of factors, the proportion of refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement situations remains high. Moreover, the diminishing number of forcibly displaced people who have access to so-called durable solutions constitutes a worrying trend that has persisted in recent years. The increasing scale of irregular migration, large scale refugee movements, internal displacement and the costs of responding to humanitarian situations have placed forced displacement high on the global agenda. Given the complexity and protractedness of many of today¿s forced displacement situations, often occurring in fragile contexts, awareness is growing that the humanitarian model of care and maintenance is unsustainable in the longer term and that forced displacement requires a development response to complement humanitarian assistance, address poverty and other development challenges in a sustainable and inclusive manner. The SDGs provide a yardstick for inclusive development based on the principles of Leaving No One Behind and Reaching the Furthest Behind First. It is also acknowledged that extreme poverty and human suffering associated with refugees and other forcibly displaced people need to be systematically taken into account existing when addressing development challenges and development prospects of host communities, countries, and regions. 
• The Global Compact for Refugees frames this new approach towards a more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing, recognizing that more sustainable approaches to refugee situations cannot be achieved without the systematic engagement of a broader set of stakeholders, including development partners. 
• Among the most significant humanitarian-development cooperation partnerships strengthened in recent years has been between the World Bank and UNHCR on forced displacement. In the eighteenth replenishment (2017-2020) of the World Bank¿s International Development Association (IDA), which provides financing for low-income countries, an amount of US$ 2.2 billion has been included for those states receiving large numbers of refugees (Sub-Window for Refugees and Host-Communities).
• The IDA 18 allocation follows the operationalization of a Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) for Middle-Income Countries (MICs) affected by large numbers of refugees. In addition, UNHCR has enhanced cooperation with the private sector wing of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and bilateral development donor. Within the context outlined above, the role of the Assistant Development Officer is to support UNHCR's engagement and cooperation with development agencies¿ medium-term programmes assisting local communities and UNHCR¿s population of concern and the ability to leverage development partnerships to influence policy dialogue to enact institutional reforms toward improved protection environments, socio-economic inclusion, and self-reliance; taking into account and reducing the vulnerabilities of forcibly displaced persons. As such, the incumbent needs to have practical experience working with and an understanding of the interplay of different aspects of economic growth, governance, fragility and conflict, the main factors that influence the environment for inclusion and resilience for UNHCR¿s population of concern. Depending on the operating environments in the area of responsibility (AoR), the incumbent might need to have specific expertise in areas such as social protection, governance in fragile contexts, local governance and community development. It is anticipated that development responses to forced displacement will grow in significance in future years due to the greater importance attached to fragility and addressing protracted displacement situations. The incumbent will assist in identifying potential opportunities and ensure complementarity between UNHCR's protection work and the economic and social development objectives pursued by development partners and their government counterparts. It will, therefore, be important that the Assistant Development Officer supports relevant UNHCR staff within the AoR to contribute to the Operation¿s efforts to (i) align policy, operational and programme priorities between humanitarian and development agencies, (ii) establish and maintain reporting and knowledge, and information exchanges on key developments among all interested stakeholders, (iii) assist relevant UNHCR staff to engage in development planning, programming and coordination processes with Government entities and development partners; and (iv) assist relevant UNHCR staff in developing, contributing to and coordinating multi-year and multi-partner transition strategies for protracted forced displacement situations.  
• In Country or Regional Operations, the Assistant Development Officer is normally supervised by and receives guidance from more senior development officers or alternatively from Senior Policy, Protection, Programme or External Relations staff depending on the structure of the Office. The incumbent may supervise some support staff and may receive indirect guidance from other sections and units. External contacts are predominantly with persons on subject matters of importance to development (e.g. counterparts in other organizations or at working level in national Governments).

Duties

• Assist in commissioning and/or conducting practical research and analysis to interpret long-term political, economic and social trends that will enhance opportunities for solutions, resilience and inclusion for populations of concern to UNHCR as well as more sustainable approaches to refugee protection. Help ensure evidence generated from analytical and advisory services needs to be translated better into context-specific policy dialogue, project design, and programming. 
• Assist in planning for resilience and inclusion with a clear shared vision of longer-term protection and solution outcomes for people of concern that takes account of host communities and leverages the roles, resources and capacities of development partners, including Multilateral Development Banks, and Bilateral Development agencies and donors.
• Support the facilitation of the development of comprehensive multi-year transition plans/strategies (incl. Multi-Year Multi-Partner Strategies) for Persons of Concern to UNHCR and/or facilitate the inclusion of populations of concern into national and local development planning and programming instruments.
• Support the identification, strategic articulation and capitalization of development and resilience opportunities, including through Government pledges and or pledges made by bilateral or multilateral development and/or peacebuilding partners.
• Assist in facilitating relationship building with development co-operation agencies and peace and state-building agendas through the different stages of policy and programme identification, preparation, implementation and review.
• Support the development of partnerships and networks with development actors to influence the policy dialogue with governments on institutional arrangements related to sectors, locations and programme content of consequence to UNHCR and persons of concern. This would, in particular, focus on supporting the coordination of the in-country relationship with the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, especially where there is potential for specific funding directed towards UNHCR¿s persons of concern (e.g. WB IDA sub-window for refugees and host communities or the WB Global Concessional Financing Facility).
• Support the cooperation with development partners to assist them in incorporating the concerns of refugees, returnees and others of concern to UNHCR into the design and implementation arrangements of projects and interventions in a manner that impacts positively on protection circumstances.
• Support the operation to ensure that development actors are provided relevant data to inform their planning, programming and advocacy around resilience for and inclusion of UNHCR persons of concern.
• Support the facilitation, coordination, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and experience between UNHCR and development actors and across UNHCR operations globally by documenting and disseminating good practices and active participation in the Division of Resilience and Solutions¿ Development Partnerships Community of Practice.
• Support training activities aimed at the capacity building of UNHCR and partner agency staff to achieve greater coordination, effectiveness and synergies between humanitarian and development interventions. 

Minimum Qualifications

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 

• Development Economics;  Development Studies;  Socio-economic Development;
• International Relations;                 Political Science;           Law; or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses 

• Not specified.

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

• One (1) year of direct work experience in a large international development institution in a relevant position, including experience in field operations. Preferably with knowledge of, or experience in, local or area based economic development, direct engagement in a technical sector such as education, WASH, social protection, health, energy.
• Practical experience working with and an understanding of the different aspects of economic growth, governance, fragility and conflict.
• Expertise related to the governance of specific multilateral development banks or bilateral development actors most relevant to the AoR.

Desirable

• Experience with forced displacement.  Experience in primary data collection, quantitative research methods and results-based management.

Functional Skills 

• *CO-Strategic Communication
• *CO-Drafting and Documentation
• *SO-Networking
• *MG-Partnership Development
• *SO-Critical Thinking and problem solving
• *UN-Policy Advocacy in UNHCR
• *IM-Knowledge Management
• CL-Strategy Development and Monitoring
• PG-Results-Based Management
• PR-Refugee Protection Principles and Framework

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)