Senior Technical Expert – Development and Forced Displacement

The EU Action ‘Lives in Dignity – EU Global Facility for Refugees’ is a strategic, flexible operational structure to improve responses to forced displacement and ensure early development oriented engagement in key displacement situations. The Action builds on the EU’s successful championing of a new approach to forced displacement through their engagement in the Middle East (Syrian crisis), the Horn of Africa and South Asia.

The overall objective of the action is that refugees and other displaced persons become productive members of their host communities and participate in furthering their common resilience, socio-economic growth and development 

The Facility consists of three operational components:

(1) Support to enhanced quality and use of data and evidence, notably with regard to socio-economic development impacts of forced displacement, improved national statistics relevant to forced displacement and asylum and better measurements of the quality of responses;

(2) Support to governments and key stakeholders through technical assistance, capacity-building and coordination at regional and country level;

(3) Seed funding to promote development-oriented policy approaches to new, recurrent and protracted refugee crises.

UNOPS will work with the EU and the other stakeholders to the action on delivering operational component number 3 of the action: Seed funding to promote development-oriented policy approaches to new, recurrent and protracted refugee crises. This will be done through a tailor made Fund and Grant Management facility. 

The purpose of the Fund and Grant management Facility is to efficiently and effectively channel funding to promote development oriented policy approaches to new, recurrent and protracted refugee crisis, focusing on early operational engagements with a development focus. 

The grants will be of varying sizes depending on the specific issues they are responding to. UNOPS will be responsible for administering the grant and advising the EU on best practices and operational modalities for grant management. UNOPS will also be responsible for monitoring and reporting the grantees performances and deliverables.

The Senior Technical Expert will be part of a dedicated UNOPS Fund and Grant Management team (consisting of 5 personnel) who oversees the entire grant process. The team will be managed by a Senior Project Manager, with oversight from the Head of the UN Portfolio in Geneva and the wider UNOPS Geneva Senior Management. The team will be assisted by the wider UNOPS Geneva Support Services Team (with experts in HR, Finance/Fund Management, Procurement, Administration, Logistics etc). 


The Senior Technical Expert will act as the substantive lead and subject matter expert for the project and will act as main subject matter expert for the Fund and Grant Management facility.

• A Master’s degree in a relevant area of International Law, International Relations or Political Science, or related area and 7 years relevant work experience. A first level university degree in this area can be accepted in lieu of a Master’s degree, with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience.

• A minimum of 7 years experience working on matters related to forced displacement required. 
• A minimum of 3 years experience working on development projects, preferably in a field setting. 
• Demonstrated solid understanding of forced displacement dynamics, recovery efforts, and their relevance to sustainable development;
• Strong analytical, policy and programme development skills;
• Proven strategic development and prioritisation skills on both forced displacement and development;
• Knowledge of the UN system, Global Compact on Migration, Global Compact on Refugees, forced displacement inter-agency coordination mechanisms (e.g. UN Network on Migration), GP20 on Internal Displacement, World Bank, IMF and bilateral partners;
• Strong written and oral communications skills;
• Strong advocacy skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage competing priorities;
• Ability to work effectively with stakeholders in various organizations, regions and offices;
• Ability to coordinate across multiple units and teams to achieve a common objective;
• Ability to manage multiple tasks under pressure.
• Strong interpersonal and consultative skills 
• Strong networking skills required to support fund and grant management facility positioning and relationship building with development partners.

• Fluency in written and oral English is required. 
• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.