Programme Officer (Humanitarian)

UNOPS Bangladesh

UNOPS has been present in Bangladesh since 2003, initially providing operational support programme focusing on police reforms and disaster management. The presence has significantly grown since then with UNOPS being appointed as Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Bangladesh.

In 2014, UNOPS established formal representation in Bangladesh as a response to a request from the Executive Board of UNOPS to provide more substantial support to the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) across various areas, including organisational capacity development and integrating resilient infrastructure approaches. The office provided capacity development support to several GOB infrastructure-related agencies and key national NGOs focusing on improving operational capacities within the sectors of procurement, human resources management, finance and internal control, and project management.

Moving forward, UNOPS, in line with its global priorities is expanding its portfolio within Bangladesh to provide more significant support in the sectors of resilient infrastructure, fund management and operational efficiency with an emphasis on building national capacities, improving resilience of communities and supporting in the implementation of SDGs.

Building on its global expertise in Fund Management, UNOPS is working with development partners in the country in setting up a development fund that will support humanitarian, disaster management and early recovery sectors.

General Background on the Assignment

Strengthening Humanitarian Preparedness and Response Programme (SHPR)

DFID–Bangladesh (DfID-B) Strengthening Humanitarian Preparedness and Response (SHPR) programme aims to provide more effective, timely and predictable humanitarian support to refugees in Bangladesh and to vulnerable communities following disasters. It also aims to strengthen the ability of the Government of Bangladesh to effectively meet the needs of these groups, and to reduce the scale of impact of disasters when they occur.

The principal objectives of the SHPR are articulated around three Pillars:

Pillar 1: Augment disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction including for large‐scale catastrophic emergencies and recurrent, predictable events;

Pillar 2: Respond to the impact of disaster events through the provision of predictable, timely and high quality humanitarian support;

Pillar 3: Deliver urgent humanitarian support to Rohingya refugees and needy host communities as well as creating an enabling environment for Rohingya related relief agencies through support to coordination fora.

The SHPR will be initially established as a facility to support DFID funding only. Depending on its successful implementation, and possible appetite from other donors to coordinate their humanitarian funding through a joint platform, the Programme may be upgraded to a multi donor programme at a later stage.

DFID has requested UNOPS to provide fund management services for SHPR. As the Fund Manager, UNOPS will be responsible for multiple functions vis-à-vis the SHPR Programme including, design of an early recovery/emergency response facility, fiduciary management, legal and technical oversight, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, quality assurance and communication. UNOPS will also be required to support DFID in its humanitarian agenda from the onset of this project.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

UNOPS seeks an experienced humanitarian professional to support, inform and help shape SHPR’s humanitarian actions. The position requires a deep knowledge of the country’s humanitarian and DRR agenda, it’s humanitarian architecture and the key actors in the sector.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Team Leader (TL), the Programme Officer (Humanitarian) will perform the following functions:

Supporting Emergency Calls for Proposals (CfPs)

• Draft the CfPs including all key reference documents and support other agreed project solicitation modalities for emergency response under the SHPR-Emergency Response and Recovery Fund (ERRF) and the Pillar 3 funding for Rohingya Response as agreed with DFID and/or other fund contributors
• Ensure the issuance of the CfPs to all relevant stakeholders and communication channels. Liaisewith UNOPS website management for posting CfPs in the UNOPS opportunity page
• Duly receive all proposals and endorse the same to the evaluation committee
• Receive all inquiries regarding CfPs and prepares and sends out the formal response accordingly
• Set up, maintain and update the ERRF communication list/channels
• Provide staff support for information/documentary/presentation requirements of the ERRF Evaluations Committee (EC)

Technical Support

• Provide in-house humanitarian technical advice and guidance to the SHPR team
• Ensure that the roster of technical advisors for emergency response CfPs is active and updated
• Facilitate review and improvement of project proposal evaluation tools eg. criteria weighting and scoresheet
• In anticipation of emergency CfPs and to ensure well informed EC, convene briefing sessions with technical advisors and EC members on relevant information such as: the SHPR ERRF TOR, the scoring tools used, broad information on the Bangladesh humanitarian architecture, cluster standards, other relevant contextual information that can strengthen the evaluation process
• Facilitate and document debriefing sessions with each EC to gather insight and learning and ensure this is communicated

Learning

• Support the analysis of IP reports to distil humanitarian learning and best practice
• Support the development of the design and facilitation of humanitarian preparedness and response learning activities with IPs and relevant stakeholders.
• Support the conceptualisation of learning and knowledge management products
• Support the development of case studies and other communications materials that can be promoted in various communications channels and as required by DFID and other fund contributors

Accessing Humanitarian Information

• Ensure that SHPR has access to relevant information necessary for its preparedness and response activities
• Support the monitoring of SHPR partners undertaking preparedness and response projects
• Keep abreast with analysis of humanitarian needs and gaps in the country

Perform other duties as may be assigned by the Team Leader to support the implementation and oversight of the project.

Education

• Master’s Degree in social science, public administration, law, development studies, international affairs, humanitarian law or other relevant disciplines with professional experience in humanitarian affairs, emergency relief management, development affairs, or related areas,
• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in one of the academic disciplines above in combination with at least 2 years additional qualifying professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.                                         

Work Experience

• At least 2 – 4  years of humanitarian or emergency response experience (preferably a combination of field and coordination experience)
• Excellent knowledge of humanitarian issues, humanitarian principles and standards, major actors and humanitarian coordination mechanisms both at country and global levels
• Good knowledge of humanitarian funding mechanisms
• Good networking skills in the humanitarian/development sector
• Ability to communicate clearly and respectfully and with good writing skills
• Ability to organize work in a fast paced humanitarian context and accomplish tasks within tight timelines
• Prior related experience in the UN system and/or in a humanitarian INGO is an asset
• Prior experience in facilitating, documenting and disseminating humanitarian programme learning is an asset
• Experience in the usage of computers and in office software packages (MS Office 2010 and/or newer versions) is required.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency (both oral and written) in English & Bengali is essential

Functional Competencies

• Demonstrated knowledge of office applications including presentation software
• Ability to travel to project sites

Skills

• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results in a highly dynamic environment.

• 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.
• 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.  
• The post is open to Bangladeshi nationals only.

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 supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.