Job Vacancies at United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Background
Given the current crisis in Nigeria, OCHA has to scale up its support to the Humanitarian Coordinator in mobilization and coordination of an effective and principled humanitarian response. OCHA is particularly concerned about vulnerable communities and those at risk due to current conflict. Under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, OCHA maintains an office in Abuja and a field presence in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe states in North East; the primary objectives of OCHA Nigeria include the following:

• Advocate for access to basic services, especially water, sanitation, education and health for vulnerable communities, including collection, analysis and dissemination of information and negotiation of access.
• Coordinate the implementation of humanitarian response in Nigeria with UN agencies and programmes, national and international NGOs and local authorities/communities as appropriate with focus on strengthening the Cluster Approach.
• Enhance a protective environment that respects the human rights of all, including IDPs, returnees and minority clan.

Under the general guidance of the Head of Sub-Office in Yola, the HAO is expected to have comprehensive knowledge of North East of Nigeria, UNOCHA operations, humanitarian partners, operations of the government and NGOs. As such the HAO provides the elements of institutional memory and local networking essential to the credibility and authority of the statements and documents provided by OCHA and the Humanitarian Coordinator. They work with little supervision in the field, and are expected to prepare concise reports and analysis and are an integral part of the OCHA Team in Nigeria.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Information Collection in support of Humanitarian Analysis and Response,
• Information Sharing
• Development of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among stakeholders
• Monitoring and Reporting

Ensure accurate Information Collection in support of Humanitarian Analysis and Response, focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Review incoming field reports, prepare summaries of field activities and flag important issues to senior management;
• Actively participate in the Strategic Response Plan (SRP) process, and SRPMid-Year Review and End-year Review processes;
• Gather and verify information on issues affecting the humanitarian situation, emphasizing opportunities for response;
• Supports regional analysis and interface with the AIM working group to extract key action points that need follow up from assessments undertaken and the humanitarian Dashboard;

Ensure facilitation of information sharing among partners focusing on achievement of the following:

• Pro-actively share information with OCHA and relevant stakeholders on pertinent issues;
• Identify key pieces of information that will assist with organizational decision-making with a particular focus on improving humanitarian response;

Ensure the development of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among stakeholders focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Support existing coordination mechanisms and assist in the establishment of new field coordination wherever required;
• Establish relationships with key stakeholders, including non-traditional humanitarian actors, in areas of operation to ensure humanitarian information flow from OCHA to partners and vice versa and ensure their participation in operations;

Ensure proper monitoring and reporting focusing on achievement of the following:

• Support the collection of field information to monitor and improve ongoing response, coordination activities and information products;
• Prepare succinct reports on the key humanitarian issues in the districts and workings with state level partners provide analysis on response gaps and advocacy issues;

Impact of Results:

• The key results have an impact on the overall coordination of humanitarian and emergency assistance. The root causes of the humanitarian/emergency situations are appreciated, ensuring that strong and effective responses are mounted.
• This facilitates operational agencies in succeeding in their core objectives, building of strong partnerships with relevant parties and the achievement of OCHA’s objectives.

Competencies
Preparing Information for Advocacy:

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating OCHA’s priorities;

Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Maintaining a network of contacts;
• Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues;
• Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;

Resource Mobilization:

• Providing inputs to resource mobilization strategy;
• Collects, researches and analyzes information on resource mobilization and utilization, drafts reports and documents and maintains information/databases on potential and actual donors and donor funded projects;

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Basic research and analysis;
• Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches;

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

• Fundamental knowledge of own discipline;
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
• Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates in-depth understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;

Global Leadership and Advocacy for OCHA’s Goals:

• Preparing information for global advocacy;
• Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for OCHA’s goals for a variety of audiences;
• Maintains a functioning network of contacts in the media and civil society, to promote a better understanding of OCHA’s priorities and to support advocacy efforts;

Client Orientation:

• Establishing effective client relationships;
• Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion;
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external clients;

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing are the responsibility of each staff member;
• Informed and transparent decision making;

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• Master's Degree or equivalent in Political Science, Sociology, Law, International Relations or other related fields.

Experience:

• Up to 2 years of relevant professional experience, preferably in complex emergency and inter-agency contexts, dealing with relief and transitional issues;
• Familiarity with UN policies, rules and procedures, particularly in relation to humanitarian response and coordination, and knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines pertaining to humanitarian assistance, especially the humanitarian reform agenda;
• Ability to research, analyze, evaluate and synthesize information;
• Ability to express clearly and concisely, ideas and concepts in written and oral form;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and experience in handling of web based management systems;

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in both oral and written English;
• Knowledge of local language is an advantage;

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Background
In early March 2015, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) registered more than 1.2 million people displaced within the country due to conflict and inter-communal violence. In addition, over 200,000 people fled to Chad, Cameroon and Niger. The need to understand the full impact of displacement is critical as humanitarian actors scale up response in terms of protection, shelter, food as well as education and health services to the internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In order to do that accurate data is required but that remains a challenge in Nigeria. Efforts have been made by some partners in increasing their capacity in the field but the gap continues to be noticed in coverage areas. The capacity of partners - either engaged in development activities or in humanitarian assistance - needs to be enhanced to enable credible data collection that will help in understanding displacement dynamics and plan appropriate responses.

In scaling up its presence in Nigeria from an advisory role that of a country office, OCHA will provide the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC), Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator (DHC), Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the entire humanitarian community with required support to implement the Transformative Agenda and reinforce the existing coordination mechanisms in Nigeria to understand the displacement impact and to better respond rapidly to the needs of people dramatically affected.

In line with OCHA’s global mission, OCHA Nigeria continues to:

• Advocate for access to basic services, especially water, sanitation, education and health for vulnerable communities, including the collection, analysis and dissemination of information to humanitarian partners, and negotiation of access.
• Support Government efforts and humanitarian organizations in the relocation of the internally displaced and their return.
• Coordinate the implementation of humanitarian response in north-east Nigeria along with UN agencies and programmes, national and international NGOs and local authorities/communities as appropriate, with focus on strengthening the sectors.
• Enhance a protective environment that respects the human rights of all, including IDPs, returnees and minority clans.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the OCHA Head of Office, the Manager of the Information Management Unit and direct supervision of the Information Management Officer (IMO), the Information Management Data Assistant will be responsible for the following:

Summary of Key Functions:

• Work closely with Coordination Focal Point and OCHA Sub-Office to ensure that data of humanitarian interest are centralized in the format of inter-operability to support the elaboration of analysis documents at national and state levels. To do so, the IM/Data Assistant will:
  • In collaboration with the Information Management Focal Point in sector groups, in the sub office and humanitarian partners, offers, implements simple and effective data collection systems to ensure the update, the consolidation and analysis at the central level of:
    • Contact lists;
    • Who does what and where "3W";
    • Performance monitoring of the humanitarian response;
    • Monitoring the humanitarian situation;
    • Monitoring data on risk groups;
    • Profiles of the coverage areas state and Local Government Areas;
• Working closely with IM Assistant Officer to analyze and present the information in an appropriate format (e.g, summary reports, graphs, tables, maps, etc.):
• Manage key humanitarian data in the online databases www.ors.ocharowca.info and https://data.hdx.rwlabs.org;
• Manages structured archive of data, both digital and manual, collected from partners, documents and analysis products generated by the central office. And coordinate with IM/Web Assistant to ensure uploading of documents on Nigeria Humanitarian Response Website;
• Reinforce the capacity of staff in OCHA Sub Office and Coordination Focal Point by perform field information management missions linked to the OCHA Information Management Strategy;
• Perform any other duties related to the information management assigned supervisor or OCHA Head of Office;

Functions / Key Results Expected:

• The Key results will have an impact on the OCHA’s Field Information Management Strategy, the provision of support to Field Offices in the adoption and use of information management applications and procedures, such as the Who does What Where/Contact Directory and the field document management system, and on the development and improvement of information management tools and standard at the local and regional levels to ensure that information management in the field functions efficiently.

Functional Competencies
Communication:

• Speaks and writes clearly and effectively;
• Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately;
• Asks questions to clarify, and exhibits interest in having two-way communication;
• Tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience
• Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Creativity:

• Actively seeks to improve programmes or services;
• Offers new and different options to solve problems or meet client needs;
• Promotes and persuades others to consider new ideas;
• Takes calculated risks on new and unusual ideas;
• Thinks “outside the box”;
• Takes an interest in new ideas and new ways of doing things; is not bound by current thinking or traditional approaches.

Planning & Organizing:

• Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies.
• Identifies priority activities and assignments
• Adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work.
• Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning. Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary. Uses time efficiently.

Client Orientation:

• Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of view;
• Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect;
• Identifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solutions;
• Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems;
• Keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects;
• Meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

Technological Awareness:

• Keeps abreast of available technology
• Understands applicability and limitation of technology to the work of the office;
• Actively seeks to apply technology to appropriate tasks;
• Shows willingness to learn new technology.

Core Competencies

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Informed and transparent decision making;

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• Secondary education with relevant certifications in Arts, Statistics, Disaster Management, Emergency Management, Geographic Information Systems, Information Management, Information Systems, Professional Studies, Social Sciences or a related field

Experience:

• A minimum of six (6) years of relevant professional experience in the fields of activity concerned (collection and data processing, database management, data analysis, etc.)
• Thorough knowledge in the use of computers and software (MS Word, Excel, etc.), current use of spreadsheets and database, and experience in the use of applications or electronic management system.
• Knowledge in the field of database management and geographic information systems (such as Arc GIS) is an asset.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in oral and written English is essential;
• Knowledge of a second official UN language is desirable.

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Background

• Given the current crisis in North - Eastern Nigeria, OCHA has to scale up its support to the Humanitarian Coordinator in mobilizing and coordinating an effective and principled humanitarian response. OCHA is particularly concerned about vulnerable communities and those at risk due to current conflict.
• Under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, OCHA maintains an office in Abuja  with field presence in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe states; the primary objectives of OCHA Nigeria include the following:
• Advocate for access to basic services, especially water, sanitation, education and health for vulnerable communities, including collection, analysis and dissemination of information and negotiation of access.
• Coordinate the implementation of humanitarian response in Nigeria with UN agencies and programmes, national and international NGOs and local authorities/communities as appropriate with focus on strengthening the Cluster Approach.
• Enhance a protective environment that respects the human rights of all, including IDPs, returnees and minority clan(s).
• The humanitarian response to crisis in North - Eastern  Nigeria does not only involve traditional national and international humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), but also private individuals and companies who contribute to meeting the needs of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and their host communities. In this regard, OCHA and the humanitarian community in Nigeria acknowledge the need to forge deeper and more effective partnerships with businesses in the private sector in an effort to align our work and maximize the use of limited resources and to improve the overall quality of the humanitarian response.
• The AAP Officer is expected to be the key support person to both government partners and humanitarian actors in Borno in order to reach the affected communities. 
• They will set up systems to help identify ongoing needs of IDPs and then lead advocacy with partners to adapt the provision of services to be in line with the needs on the ground. 
• The AAP Officer should have comprehensive local knowledge of key partners in Borno such as; NOA, MOI, SEMA and DSS.
• The AAP Officer is also expected to have either experience or solid knowledge of humanitarian operations conducted by UN agencies and/ or NGOs and operations of the Government.
• The AAP Officer would need to work with little supervision in the field, but will have regular support and supervision from the Protection HAO in Abuja. 
• He/She should be a natural communicator that can build rapport with key humanitarian partners and support the development of an Information and Feedback Working Group or the equivalent in Borno.

Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of key functions:

• Information Collection in support of Humanitarian Analysis and Response,
• Information Sharing
• Development of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among stakeholders
• Monitoring and Reporting

Ensure accurate Information Collection in support of Humanitarian Analysis and response, focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Formulate and develop an AAP working group for engagement with INGO and government partners in Borno state,
• Gather and verify information from the communities on issues affecting them through the working groups and alternate avenues, emphasizing opportunities to tailor the response according to needs on the ground
• Develop a clear and concise method of providing this information on a regular basis to the AAP Coordinator and state sector leads,

Ensure facilitation of information sharing among partners focusing on achievement of the following:

• Pro-actively share information with Sector leads and the AAP Coordinator on pertinent issues and  affecting IDPs and ensure the key message are also delivered from the humanitarian community to the affected populations,
• Arrange sessions to provide briefings to sector leads on a needs basis on key issues arising from the consolidation of community feedback mechanisms,
• Identify key pieces of information that will assist with sector - level and response - level decision-making with a particular focus on improving humanitarian response to suit the key needs of affected communities,

Ensure the development of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among AAP stakeholders focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Establish and strengthen relationships to support INGOs and Government partners to build stronger community feedback mechanisms at the Borno state - level (i.e. toll-free hotline, information desks, text message alerts, radio station messaging, etc) to ensure that the AAP Coordinator at the national level, and the OCHA HoO at the state - level have information to feed back to the sector leads, inter-sector coordination mechanisms and the HCT as required.
• Establish a core group of AAP partners through a regular working group and provide guidance and secretariat support for the group,
• Ensure there are mechanisms to provide timely and relevant feedback from IDP communities in camps, host communities and villages, and in turn to provide feedback back to the communities from the humanitarian stakeholders (this can be explored for context within the AAP Working Group)

Ensure proper monitoring and reporting focusing on achievement of the following:

• Provide and prepare weekly/monthly reports as appropriate for internal and external purposes, ensuring the AAP Coordinator in Abuja is provided with timely updates to advocate for issues relevant to Borno at the national level.
• Provide inputs to national reporting as required and advised by the AAP Coordinator 

Impact of Results
The key results have an impact on the overall coordination of humanitarian and emergency assistance and facilitate operational agencies/organizations in succeeding in their core objectives, building of strong partnerships with relevant parties and the achievement of OCHA’s objectives. Specifically, the impact of this position is:

• Improved basis for affected communities on the ground to make informed decisions because of the increase of information from government partners and humanitarian partners,  
• Humanitarian response is becoming more coordinated and organized based on clear identified needs and priorities as identified by affected populations,
• Greater incorporation of IDP views and voices in humanitarian decision-making,

Competencies
Preparing information for advocacy:

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating OCHA’s priorities

Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Maintaining a network of contacts
• Maintains an established network of contacts for accountability to affected populations related initiatives and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues
• Analyzes and selects key AAP initiatives for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders

Resource Mobilizatio:

• Providing inputs to AAP principles
• Collects, researches and analyzes information from affected populations, drafts reports and documents and maintains information around the key needs of IDPs in Borno for the reponse.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Basic research and analysis
• Generates new ideas and approaches for integrating AAP into Borno response, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things
• Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches to systematically 

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

• Fundamental knowledge of own discipline
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of community engagement, and/or key stakeholder knowledge relating to the position
• Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
• Demonstrates in-depth understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and community engagement principles and utilizes these regularly in work assignments

Global Leadership and Advocacy for OCHA’s Goals:

• Preparing information for global advocacy
• Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for OCHA’s goals for a variety of audiences
• Maintains a functioning network of contacts in the media and civil society, to promote a better understanding of OCHA’s priorities and to support advocacy efforts

Client Orientation:

• Establishing effective client relationships
• Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external clients

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity 
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Self-development, initiative-taking
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
• Creating synergies through self-control
• Managing conflict
• Preferably fluent in at least one local language in Borno state (e.g. Hausa)
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing are the responsibility of each staff member.
• Informed and transparent decision making

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• Master’s Degree in Development, Community Engagement, Protection, International Relations or other related fields 

Experience:

• Up to 2 years of relevant professional experience, preferably gained from working in the UN/ parallel international organizations development/humanitarian/government partners (e.g. NEMA/SEMA/NOA).
• Familiarity with standard practices of international organizations / NGOs and procedures, particularly in relation to humanitarian response and coordination, and knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines pertaining to humanitarian assistance, especially the humanitarian reform agenda.
• Ability to research, analyze, evaluate and synthesize information.
• Ability to express clearly and concisely, ideas and concepts in written and oral form.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and experience in handling of web based management systems.

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in both oral and written English
• Knowledge of local language is an advantage

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Background

• Under the guidance and supervision of the Administrative & Finance Analyst in Abuja and direct supervisor, the Head of Sub-Office in Maiduguri, the Driver provides reliable and safe driving services ensuring high accuracy of work.
• The Driver demonstrates a client-oriented approach, high sense of responsibility, courtesy, tact and the ability to work with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• The Driver provides driving services to the operations and programme staff in the Country Office (CO), Consultants and Experts and UN staff on mission.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Summary of Key Functions:
  • Provision of reliable and secure driving services
  • Proper use of vehicle
  • Day-to-day maintenance of the assigned vehicle
• Availability of documents/ supplies
• Ensures provision of reliable and secure driving services by a) driving office vehicles for the transport of authorized personnel and delivery and collection of mail, documents and other items and b) meeting official personnel and visitors at the airport, visa and customs formalities arrangement when required.
• Ensures cost-savings through proper use of vehicle through accurate maintenance of daily vehicle logs, provision of inputs to preparation of the vehicle maintenance plans and reports.
• Ensures proper day-to-day maintenance of the assigned vehicle through timely minor repairs, arrangements for major repairs, timely changes of oil, check of tires, brakes, car washing, etc.
• Ensures availability of all the required documents/supplies including vehicle insurance, vehicle logs, office directory, and map of the city/country, first aid kit, and necessary spare parts.
• Ensures that all immediate actions required by rules and regulations are taken in case of involvement in accidents.

Impact of Results:

• The key results have an impact on the accurate, safe and timely execution of the CO services.

Competencies
Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to OCHA’s mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge Management and Learning
• Shares knowledge and experience
• Provides helpful feedback and advice to others in the office

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Demonstrates excellent knowledge of driving rules and regulations and skills in minor vehicle repair
• Demonstrates excellent knowledge of protocol
• Demonstrates excellent knowledge of security issues

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of views

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• Secondary Education. Valid Driver’s license. 

Experience:

• 2 years’ work experience as a driver; safe driving record; knowledge of driving rules and regulations and skills in minor vehicle repair.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English, knowledge of
• Local language of the duty station.