Position Information
Job Title: National Humanitarian Affairs Officer- Access
Grade Level: NOB
Bureau: UNOCHA
Duty Station: Beirut, Lebanon
Career Track: Professional/Expert
Career Stream: Humanitarian Access
Background and Organizational Context
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)‘s overall goal in Lebanon is to support the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) in his/her function to ensure a principled, efficient and accountable collective humanitarian response to all people in need in Lebanon, .
OCHA Lebanon’s focus is to:
- Enhance coordination mechanisms at the strategic and operational levels, in support of the HC and the HCT, to support planning, implementation and monitoring of a principled, efficient and accountable collective response to humanitarian needs in Lebanon.
- Support the coordination of emergency response to the compound crisis in Lebanon and facilitate an early transition out of emergency response into longer-term recovery and development activities.
- Strengthen situational awareness in a fluid context, and support a coherent collective analysis of humanitarian needs, gaps and response, with the view to facilitate the development of a coherent narrative shared across the aid community on humanitarian needs and response priorities.
- Mobilize flexible and predictable humanitarian funding for the collective response to humanitarian needs in Lebanon; and advocate for improved protection and operational space for all humanitarian actors involved in the collective response.
Position Purpose
Under the guidance of the OCHA Head of Office and direct supervision of the Head of Access/CMCoord Unit in Beirut, the National Humanitarian Affairs Officer advises on access issues faced by humanitarian organizations, analyzes trends, liaises with key stakeholders and advocates to improve operational space for humanitarian actors.
Key Duties and Accountabilities
- Advises the Head of Access/CMCoord Unit and the Head of Office (HoO) on operational approaches and strategies to address access recurrent issues, analyzes trends, liaises with key stakeholders, and advocates to improve operational space for humanitarian actors.
- Proposes ways to improve the operational space of humanitarian actors in Lebanon, including necessary support and maintenance of the humanitarian notification system, mission follow-up; and other access tools and outputs as necessary.
- Facilitates the revision and operationalization of the Lebanon HCT Access Strategy, particularly the Joint Operating Principles, under the guidance of the Head of Access/CMCoord Unit or HoO.
- Supports the Head of Access/CMCoord Unit in leading the Access Working Group with close coordination with co-chairs, facilitates the coordination and management of sub-national inputs into the Access Working Group and CMCoord Cell.
- Monitors and collects information from NGOs regarding operational, bureaucratic, and administrative incidents across Lebanon, and analyzes trends and prepare analytical papers on the evolution of humanitarian space in the country.
- Establishes and maintains linkages and working relationships with access focal points in humanitarian organizations and other relevant stakeholders, including the Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanese security institutions, NSAGs, UNDSS, UNSCOL, and UNIFIL.
- Monitors and analyzes events affecting the humanitarian operational space and political developments impacting the humanitarian context, including leading and facilitating field missions to ensure subnational engagement.
- Ensures regular monitoring and analysis for early warning of potential emergencies and provides support to strengthening collective preparedness
- Assists in updating country-specific CMCoord guidelines and related documents, including those on HNS and the Protection of Civilians (PoC).
- Supports advocacy initiatives, review and provide advice on policy issues related to safeguarding humanitarian principles and ensuring the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and contributes to OCHA products, such as the crisis monitoring dashboard, scenario analysis, SitReps, fact sheets, and other access-related materials
- Drafts reports and documents, including letters, speeches, background papers, briefings, and presentations, providing analysis on trends and developments in the humanitarian situation
- Performs other duties as requested by the Supervisor and/or Head of Office.
Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: Yes
Requirements
Education
- Master’s degree in political or social science, public administration, law, development studies, international affairs or other relevant disciplines
- Bachelor’s degree in the related fields with additional 2 years of relevant experience will be given due consideration in lieu of a Master’s degree.
Experience, Knowledge, and Skills
- Master’s degree with 2 years or Bachelor’s degree with 4 years of relevant experience in humanitarian, emergency preparedness, crisis/emergency relief management, development, or other related area.
- Previous experience working on humanitarian access and/or civil-military coordination in a civilian capacity is desired.
- Experience within NGOs, the UN common system or other comparable international organizations is desired Knowledge and experience in analysis and networking, particularly in southern Lebanon is desired
- Familiarity and good knowledge of humanitarian, social, political and economic context in the country.
- Experience in conducting, participating in and reporting on meetings.
- Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic is essential.
Expected Demonstration of Competencies
Core
- Achieve Results:
LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work - Think Innovatively:
LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking - Learn Continuously
LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning - Adapt with Agility
LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process - Act with Determination
LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously - Engage and Partner
LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships - Enable Diversity and Inclusion
LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies
- Business Direction & strategy: System Thinking
Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system - Business Development: Knowledge Generation
Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need - Business Development: Human-centered Design
Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process - Business Management: Project Management
Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals - Business Management: Partnerships Management
Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with agency strategy and policies - Business Management: Communication
Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels - Business Management: Customer Satisfaction/Client Management
Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
Keywords
- Access, Monitoring, Analysis, Advocacy, Humanitarian principles, Access Strategy, CMCoord
