Humanitarian Affairs Officer
JOB DETAIL
OCHA’s mission is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors to:
• alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies
• advocate for the rights of people in need
• promote preparedness and prevention
• facilitate sustainable solutions.
OCHA mobilizes and coordinates principled humanitarian response in partnership with national and international actors to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies. It advocates the rights of people in need, supports emergency preparedness and response, and facilitates sustainable solutions for vulnerable people adversely affected by conflict and natural disasters. OCHA supports the work of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), the Inter-Cluster Coordination Mechanism (ICCM), the host government authorities, and all humanitarian partners, including the UN, INGOs, and NGOs in El Salvador.
El Salvador has experienced increased vulnerability in recent years. According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), 1.1 million people need humanitarian assistance or protection services.
The National Humanitarian Affairs Officer (HAO – NOA) will be in San Salvador. He / She will be part of the OCHA Regional Office and help strengthen humanitarian coordination, disaster preparedness, and response at national and local levels. Activities include supporting and providing technical advice to the UN Resident Coordinator and humanitarian partners on humanitarian affairs and coordination, bolstering response readiness capacity, and coordinating emergency response, ensuring appropriate capacity to plan for and respond to humanitarian issues.
The National Humanitarian Affairs Officer (HAO – NOA) will be based in San Salvador. He / She will be part of the OCHA Regional Office and help strengthen humanitarian coordination, disaster preparedness, and response at national and local levels. Activities include supporting and providing technical advice to the UN Resident Coordinator and humanitarian partners on humanitarian affairs and coordination, bolstering response readiness capacity, and coordinating emergency response, ensuring appropriate capacity to plan for and respond to humanitarian issues.
Under the overall supervision of UNOCHA ROLAC – Central America Regional Adviser, working closely with the OCHA team at national and regional levels to facilitate effective Humanitarian Coordination,
- Coordination: Improved coordination between humanitarian and development actors, better supported emergency preparedness and increased accountability of the humanitarian system to respond to humanitarian needs through lighter, context-sensitive and flexible coordination mechanisms.
- Monitor and analyze the dynamic humanitarian situation and its operational challenges in El Salvador.
- Organize, participate, and/or assist in organizing workgroups, meetings, conferences, consultations, etc., with other agencies and partners on humanitarian and emergency relief-related matters. Support and facilitate OCHA-led humanitarian coordination meetings in El Salvador.
- Manage the predictability of coordination forums, including regular and consistent meeting schedules, effective meeting agendas, and thorough follow-up of the coordination meetings’ decisions and action points using the action point tracker.
- Establish partnerships with other humanitarian agencies to plan and monitor complex humanitarian and emergency assistance programs; help ensure the latest findings, lessons learned, etc., are incorporated into activities, including gender and accountability to affected people in the provinces under El Salvador’s areas of responsibility.
- Facilitate the analysis and planning processes to address the humanitarian needs in El Salvador and the implementation of the Humanitarian program cycle.
2. Information Management. Improve tools to better support comprehensive information and analysis and benchmarking on the humanitarian situation, needs and response, including joint analysis for better decision-making by global and national leadership. Contribute to the development of information products based on harmonized and analytical figures to facilitate decision-making.
- Assist in establishing and maintaining contacts with other humanitarian partners, relevant government counterparts at national and departmental levels.
- Produce information products on the humanitarian situation, needs, gaps, early warning, response, and gaps.
- Support the database of information on who is doing what where (345W) and the mapping of partners and agencies’ presence.
- Assist in establishing appropriate monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
- Support uploading, updating, and maintaining work files on shared drives.
- Prepare updates, humanitarian overviews, and context analyses in El Salvador.
- Support advocacy efforts concerning humanitarian issues based on analysis of the humanitarian situation.
- Keep abreast of the latest developments and help liaise with other humanitarian organizations, donors, and government counterparts.
- Provide information and advice on a range of humanitarian issues.
- Contribute to the preparation of various written reports, documents, and communications, e.g., Draft briefing notes, advocacy messages, talking points, presentations (including PowerPoint), etc. as required
Achieve Results: Level 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
Think Innovatively: Level 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements
Learn Continuously: Level 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
Adapt with Agility: Level 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible
Act with Determination: Level 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
Engage and Partner: Level 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: Level 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination
- Business Management – Accountability:
- Assumes all responsibilities and honours commitments.
- Delivers the results for which he/she is responsible within the prescribed time, cost and quality standards.
- Operates in compliance with the organization’s rules and regulations.
- Supports his/her colleagues, advises them and ensures that they take responsibility for the tasks assigned to them.
- Takes responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable
- Business Management – Planning and Organisation:
- Develops clear objectives consistent with office strategies.
- Identifies priority activities and tasks.
- Modifies priorities as necessary in agreement with the head of the sub-office.
- Provides sufficient time and resources to carry out tasks, taking account of risks and unforeseen circumstances in planning.
- Monitors the implementation of plans and actions where necessary and uses time efficiently.
- Business Management – Teamwork:
- Works with colleagues to achieve the Office’s objectives.
- Solicits the collaboration of colleagues and partners where necessary and values their ideas and skills.
- Puts the interests of the team before his/her own personal interests, supports and acts in accordance with the group’s decision, even when decisions do not fully reflect his/her own position.
- Shares the team’s successes and accepts responsibility for its failures.
- Business Management – Planning and Organisation:
- Develops clear objectives consistent with office strategies.
- Identifies priority activities and tasks.
- Modifies priorities as necessary in agreement with the head of the sub-office.
- Provides sufficient time and resources to carry out tasks, taking account of risks and unforeseen circumstances in planning.
- Monitors the implementation of plans and actions where necessary and uses time efficiently.
- Engagement & Effectiveness – Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement:
- Contribute to the discussion on Humanitarian-Development Peace (HDP) Nexus.
- Support and guide the Humanitarian capacity assessment.
- Guide and the humanitarian inter-agency coordination to effective and principled humanitarian action.
- Master’s or a bachelor’s degree in one of the following areas: Social Sciences, Political Science, Economics or Management, Humanitarian Law, and Development.
- Up to two (2) years of professional working experience (with a master’s degree) or two (2) years of professional working experience (with a bachelor’s degree) in the field of project management, planning, organization, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
Desirable skills and knowledge:
- Good knowledge of El Salvador’s institutional environment; experience within the United Nations system or an international NGO would be an asset,
- Familiarity with existing coordination structures among the different humanitarian actors including HCT and ICCG is highly desirable.
- Familiarity and good knowledge of the region’s social, political, humanitarian, security, and economic conditions are highly desirable.
- Good analytique skills.
- Good oral communication and writing skills.
- Good interpersonnel skills
- Ability to work in a multiracial and multicultural environment.
- Demonstrate ability to work effectively in a challenging environment.
Language requirements:
- Fluency in English and Spanish (both oral and written) is required.
- Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.
