I. Position Information
Job Code Title: Durable Solutions Coordinator
Department: UN Resident Coordinator’s Office
Approved Grade: P4 International [6 months]
A DRC roster deployment to IOM for further secondment to the UN Resident’s Office
II. Background **
The Durable Solutions Initiative (DSI) was launched in December 2019 by the Government of Ethiopia, the United Nations, international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donors for communities affected by recent internal displacements in the country. Modeled after good practices in other countries, the DSI in Ethiopia seeks to provide a principled operational framework to guide the work of all partners on durable solutions in the country. Its ultimate objective is to enable conditions conducive for all internally displaced persons to rebuild their lives in sustainable ways.
The DSI supports durable solutions through interventions at five different levels: (1) mainstreaming solutions in national development policy, (2) legislative reform through the Kampala Convention ratification and development of a national IDP law, (3) institutional strengthening, (4) mainstreaming solutions in spatial planning and city plans, and (5) implementing area-based, comprehensive, government-led and community driven programmes in areas of voluntary return, relocation or local integration as well as supporting internally displaced households to find individual solutions.
A Durable Solutions Secretariat located in the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO), comprised of the Durable Solutions Coordinator, a Programme Officer (P3) and National Officer (NOC), will support partners to implement the DSI in 2020. The DSI benefits from the support of Professor Walter Kaelin, Special Advisor to the RC/HC on Internal Displacement.
The position is intended to provide cover for the maternity leave of the Durable Solutions Coordinator for March to August 2020. A Durable Solutions Coordinator will be recruited through the DRC roster to IOM to be seconded to RCO to provide coverage during this period.
III. Summary of Key Function
The Durable Solution Coordinator supports the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC), the UN Country Team (UNCT) and the Ethiopian Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT) in their collective programmatic and operational efforts towards providing durable solutions for displacement affected communities (IDPs, returnees and their hosts, and relocated persons), in line with the Durable Solutions Initiative.
She/he will ensure that the process of developing policies, guidelines and supportive joint programmes on durable solutions are collaborative, participatory, multi-sectoral, protection-oriented and principled and that they are collectively adopted by all relevant stakeholders.
The Durable Solutions Coordinator will be the Co-chair of the Federal-level Durable Solutions Working Group (DSWG) and the Chair of the UN team on Durable Solutions (which is a subset of the Federal DSWG). She/he is responsible for managing these meetings, which serve as coordination fora for the Durable Solutions Initiative.
The Durable Solutions Coordinator will provide technical guidance and advice to the relevant coordination mechanisms such as the EHCT, Development Assistance Group (DAG), the Humanitarian Resilience Donor Group, the Inter Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG), IDP Advisory Group, regional forums and programmes relevant to solutions work. The Durable Solutions Manager will likewise be responsible for outreach, coordination, involvement and dialogue with the Humanitarian International NGO group (HINGOs).
The Durable Solutions Coordinator reports to the RC/HC. Consultations and information sharing will be facilitated with other partners, including the Country Director for DRC, IOM and the Danish Embassy.
IV. Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall guidance of the UN RC/HC, the Durable Solutions Coordinator supports both the UNCT and the EHCT, at programmatic level, in strengthening and linking the humanitarian-development-peace efforts to better support displaced communities in Ethiopia achieve solutions; and at policy level, coordinate the support of international community to the GoE towards the implementation of the Durable Solutions Initiative.
The Durable Solutions Coordinator will:
1) Support the RC/HC, the UNCT and the EHCT in their collective policy mainstreaming, legislative reform and planning efforts towards implementing the Durable Solutions Initiative
- Support the GoE and UN partners to mainstream solutions in the DAG multi-sectoral work streams and long-term developmental responses required to resolving internal displacements.
- Support the GoE and UN partners in the ongoing legislative reform process which aims to have the GoE ratify the Kampala Convention and enact a new IDP policy or law.
- Mainstream the DSI approach in strategic documents produced by the humanitarian and development actors (e.g. EHCT Protection Strategy), and work with partners to identify synergies with the peacebuilding and resilience agendas.
- In coordination with the protection cluster and other protection actors, help mainstream protection in all DSI related activities, to ensure a conflict sensitive Do No Harm approach.
- Update the Ethiopia Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT), the UN Country Team and the Development Assistance Group (DAG) as needed on the DSI.
2) Accelerate the design of joint UN-NGO programming on durable solutions, in line with the DSI toolbox, to respond to the Government’s call for increased action by the international community
- Support the operational roll-out of the DSI in Somali region of Ethiopia, where a “proof of concept” is being tested.
- Lead inter-agency efforts towards partnership and resource mobilization to expand the support towards durable solutions programming, for IDPs, host communities, returnees and relocated persons.
- Carry out technical missions as needed to the different displacement-affected areas of the country.
- Organize at the request of the RC/HC high-levels missions on durable solutions, including those by the Special Advisory on Displacement to the RC/HC (Professor Walter Kaelin).
- Support the efforts of different actors, including the protection cluster and the Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat (ReDSS) to develop and test training materials on durable solutions to build the capacities of the government and other actors.
- Participate in assessments and research related to internal displacement in the country.
3) Facilitate information sharing, decision-making, follow up and cooperation between key stakeholders of the Durable Solutions Initiative, including Government counterparts, UN agencies, I/NGOs, civil society/academia and the donor community
- Maintain regular contact with relevant government counterparts at both the federal and regional level; and facilitate contact between the durable solutions working groups and key interlocuters in government at federal and regional levels.
- Participate in the ICCG meetings (bi-monthly basis) and the EHCT Protection Strategy Monitoring Group.
- Provide information to the Geneva-based GP20 platform, including for its 2020 global compendium of good practices on internal displacement.
- Work with the GoE, RC/HC and other partners to provide information to the High Level Panel on Internal Displacement.
- Support the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) in the design of a multi-year research project to track the design and implementation of the DSI in Ethiopia.
- Provide talking points and other briefs on the Durable Solutions Initiative to the RC/HC as needed.
- Engage in dialogue with the HINGO; take inputs, comments and feedback from the HINGOs to present during the DSWG.
- Co-chair and manage the federal level DSWG and chair the UN team on Durable Solutions.
4) Manage the staff working in the Durable Solutions Secretariat of the RCO
- Initiate timely recruitment processes, in collaboration with recruiting agencies (e.g. IOM for secondments).
- Develop with staff performance management objectives and provide on the job coaching to the staff working in the Durable Solutions Secretariat to deliver on their respective objectives.
- Ensure the staff working in the Durable Solutions Secretariat seize opportunities that may arise, including training and field missions.
- Provide support to other technical specialists, including the Durable Solutions Specialist based in the Disaster Risk Management Bureau of Jigjiga (Somali region), the NGO/ReDSS Specialist on durable solutions, once they are recruited.
V. Impact of Results
The results of the work of the Durable Solutions Coordinator have a direct impact on the role of the UNCT/EHCT in building a strong and coherent partnership with the Government of Ethiopia and other key partners to help IDPs find their own durable solutions.
VI. CompetenciesCorporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards
- Identification of specific areas for a consolidated and coherent approach of donors, partnership building strategy, adequate follow up and reporting to donors and partners.
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN.
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism.**
Functional Competencies:Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda:**
- Prepares analysis and contributes to the creation of effective advocacy messages and strategies.
- Contributes to analysis of scenarios, and to the formulation of institutional responses.
- Strong strategic vision and technical and analytical capabilities.
- Ability to advocate and provide policy advice.
- Uses opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work.
Results Based Programme Design and Management:
- Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback.
- Encourages risk-taking in the pursuit of creativity and innovation.
- Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration.
- Analyses country situation to identify opportunities for programme/project development.
- Participates in the formulation of project proposals and ensures substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches and drafts proposals accordingly.
Innovation, Knowledge Management and Learning:
- Contributes actively towards continuing personal learning and development.
- Ability to provide top quality policy advice services on related issues.
- In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary protection and development issues.
- Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals.
- Generates for regional and innovative ideas and effective solutions to problems.
- Looks at experience critically, drawing lessons, and building them into the design of new approaches.
- Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations.
- Documents successes and uses them to project a positive image.
- Creates an environment that fosters solutions, coordination, collaboration and innovative thinking.
Development and Operational Effectiveness:
- Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation.
- Ability to negotiate with donors and internal units; ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fund-raising.
- Excellent drafting and presentation skills; including advocacy campaigns for communicating with varied stakeholders.
- Ability to plan and organize work programme.
- Ability to work with minimum supervision.
- Ability to apply resource mobilization and partnerships building theory to the specific country context.
Building Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization:
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills with counterparts at all levels.
- Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to the UNCT/HCT mandate and strategic agenda.
- Experience in resource mobilization for UN operational activities.
- Analyzes information on potential partners and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach.
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
- Builds and maintains strong relationships with clients and external actors.
- Sensitizes UN Partners, donors, NGOs and other international organizations to the UN/UNCT’s strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts.
- Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments.
- Effectively attentive to programmatic synergies in inter-agency meetings.
VII. Recruitment Qualifications
Education:
Master’s Degree or equivalent in International Relations, Political Science, Law, Development, Migration Studies, Social Policy, Business Administration, Economics, Social Sciences or related field.
Experience:
- Excellent understanding of protection issues in emergency situations and detailed knowledge of humanitarian principles, guidelines and laws.
- Excellent leadership, coordination, capacity building, planning and analytical skills.
- Minimum of 5 years proven experience working on protection related issues in humanitarian environments, including provision of technical advice to field teams.
- Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience at the national or international level involving policy development, multi-stakeholder programmes/projects, partnership development and resource mobilization at mid-professional level.
- Solid experience in humanitarian and development operations and knowledge of the UN/NGO System coordination.
Rich knowledge and experience in disaster management, internal displacement, protection challenges and conflict analysis.
Experience in political, socio-economic analysis and research, and familiarity with conflict sensitivity approach, risk informed programming and Human Rights Up Front.
Proven experience on strategy development and advocacy on durable solutions for IDPs as well as in-depth knowledge of main protection and humanitarian standards.
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.**
Language Requirements:
Excellent command of English, both spoken and written.
Amharic language skills would be plus.
How to apply:
Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to sent updated CV via amsal.assefa@drc.ngo no letter than March 20, 2020.