Humanitarian Specialist

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Mozambique is prone to climate disasters due to its geographical location in the intertropical convergence zone and downstream of river basins with neighboring countries in the Southern African Region, its long coastline, and the existence of extensive areas with an altitude below sea level (INGC, 2019). From 2017 up today, Mozambique went through an unprecedented climate disturbance including cyclones namely Idai, Kenneth, Eloise, Freddy and floodings, conflicts in the Northern Mozambique and COVID-19. As of April 2023, the conflict has displaced over one million people, both IDPs and returnees. Many of these people live in overcrowded camps across the affected provinces, with little access to food, safe drinking water, healthcare, or education. 65% of the IDPs live in host communities and 35% in 99 displacement sites (IOM 23/05/2023). Overall, at least two million people

in northern Mozambique need lifesaving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection in Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa as a result of the continued impact of armed conflict, violence and insecurity in the region. The need for urgent humanitarian assistance is immense, especially for women and children, in Displacement Villages and Host Communities, whom the crises affect disproportionately because of pre-existing gender inequality and social norms that impact their lives, their needs, their interests and their access to services offered.

Building on its tripartite mandate, the membership to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the implementation of the Strategic Note (2023-2026), UN Women Country Office intends to strengthen its engagement to integrate gender in the humanitarian action, strengthen humanitarian coordination and respond to the immediate and long-term needs of women and girls' victims of multiple and recurrent crisis. The incumbent will also support in strengthening disaster risk reduction and resilience building interventions in the framework of UN Women's Signature Interventions on Women's Resilience to Disasters (WRD).

It is in this regards that UN Women Mozambique is seeking to recruit an expert under Temporary Appointment modality - Gender and Humanitarian Advisor to coordinate UN Women Humanitarian Action in close collaboration with the Country Programme Team based in Maputo and in the field, specifically in the Northern and Central Provinces. Reporting to the country representative, the Humanitarian Specialist will oversee the development of Humanitarian programmes, provide capacity building to Country Offices (CO), establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage the development of programmes on Humanitarian to the Mozambique Country Office teams:

• Manage the development of country office programme documents on humanitarian action;
• Provide technical inputs to programme proposals from country office;
• Provide advice on contextualizing/ localizing programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products;
• Coordinates proper monitoring and reporting for humanitarian action in collaboration with programme teams.

Provide capacity building support to the Country Office teams and partners:

• Provide technical and policy support to the country office teams in developing and strengthening projects/ programmes;
• Implement and monitor capacity building initiatives;
• Provide technical support to partners on implementation of humanitarian action.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors, and development partners:

• Build and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of humanitarian action;
• Build and maintain close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards humanitarian action, as delegated;
• Contribute inputs to updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, CO and HQ;
• Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women HQ.

Manage the resource mobilization strategy for humanitarian action in the Country Office:

• Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on humanitarian action in the country Office;
• Provide technical support to field-based presences in the country office in mobilizing resources for the implementation of humanitarian action;
• Research and analyze information on donors.

Manage the design of humanitarian action in the Country office and the development of relevant knowledge products:

• Provide inputs to policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on humanitarian action;
• Research and develop analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on humanitarian action;  
• Identify promising practices, technical expertise in humanitarian action.

Manage the advocacy of humanitarian action through inter-agency coordination;

• Work closely with and provide advice to country office/regional/ national bodies and interagency groups that influence national policies related to humanitarian action;
• Participate and contribute inputs to the country & regional Humanitarian Protection Cluster, and HCT etc;
• Coordinate specific efforts in mainstreaming gender and protection in disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts of other clusters and relevant working groups;
• Advocate for the engagement and participation of local organizations and civil society networks in humanitarian coordination mechanisms.

Manage advocacy and communication efforts of humanitarian action;

• During emergency response, develop and implement communication and advocacy messages and contribute inputs to strategies on key gender and protection concerns;
• Develop information, education, and communication (IEC) materials, press releases, situation reports, alerts and contribute gender and protection-related inputs to documents prepared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);

Manage knowledge building and sharing for humanitarian action:

• Identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in collaboration with country offices:
• Censorship technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among country offices, regional offices and HQ

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women's Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection, and humanitarian action, including humanitarian coordination;
• Strong knowledge of the region;
• Strong networking skills;
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats to fundraising;
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
• Strong knowledge of Programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master's degree or equivalent in human rights, gender, international relations, international development, international law or other social science fields is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP, PRINCE2®, or MSP®®) would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in designing and managing humanitarian programmes, with a particular focus on gender and protection in emergencies;
• Technical experience in inter-agency coordination, preferably protection cluster coordination, and/or ProCap/GenCap in a natural disaster settiNg;
• Experience in policy analysis and strategic planning;
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors, and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
• Experience working with the UN is an asset;
• Experience working in the region is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English; Portuguese is an asset;
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

Please note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are required to include in the P-11 form links for their previously published reports and articles completed within the last two years. Applications without the completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Notes:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women's policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.