Humanitarian Affairs Officer / Head of Sub-Office, P3

The Humanitarian Affairs Officer / Head of Sub-Office is responsible for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on humanitarian developments and emergency situations in the assigned area. The role includes coordinating humanitarian assistance, supporting access negotiations, managing the sub-office, and liaising with government officials and humanitarian partners to ensure effective response to emergencies.

Responsibilities

• Monitors, analyzes and reports on humanitarian developments, disaster relief/management or emergency situations in assigned country/area.
• Organizes and prepares studies on humanitarian, emergency relief and related issues; organizes follow-up work, including interagency technical review meetings to support policy development work and decision-making on important issues.
• Support humanitarian access negotiations and civil-military coordination mechanisms with authorities, defacto authorities and armed groups in the assigned area.
• Participates in large, complex projects, to include disaster assessment or other missions; assists in the coordination of international humanitarian/emergency assistance for complex emergency/disaster situations and in ensuring the necessary support (e.g. staff, funding, specialized equipment, supplies, etc.); drafts situation reports to the international community, apprising of situation to date and specifying unmet requirements of stricken countries.
• Partners with other humanitarian agencies to plan and evaluate humanitarian and emergency assistance programmes and help ensure that latest findings, lessons learned, policy guidelines, etc. are incorporated into these activities, including gender-related considerations.
• Establishes and maintains contacts with government officials, other UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, and all stakeholders.
• Undertakes and provides support to technical assistance and other field missions, e.g. participates in field trips to undertake in-depth reviews of specific country coordination mechanisms.
• Prepares or contributes to the preparation of various written reports, documents and communications, e.g., drafts sections of studies, background papers, policy guidelines, parliamentary documents, briefings, case studies, presentations, correspondence, etc.
• Organizes and participates in work groups, meetings, conferences, consultations with other agencies and partners on humanitarian and emergency relief-related matters.
• Manages the relevant sub-office, supervises and provides guidance to the relevant sub-office staff.

Requirements

• An advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in political science, social science, international studies, public administration, economics, engineering, earth sciences or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with an additional two (2) years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian affairs, emergency preparedness, crisis/emergency relief management, rehabilitation, development, or other related area is required.
• A minimum of three (3) years of humanitarian experience in the field (actual setting where a mission and/or project is being implemented) in emergency situations (complex emergency, epidemic or natural disaster) is required.
• Experience in negotiating humanitarian access and leading civil-military coordination is required.
• Experience in managing teams is required.
• Experience in a humanitarian context within the UN common system or in a comparable international organization is desirable.
• Experience managing intersectoral response is desirable.
• Experience working in epidemic humanitarian response (Ebola, Mpox, Cholera etc.) is desirable.
• Experience the West and Central Africa region is desirable.
• English and French are required at UN Level III for reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Skills

• Humanitarian Affairs
• Emergency Preparedness
• Crisis Relief Management
• Rehabilitation
• Development
• Humanitarian Experience
• Humanitarian Access
• Civil-Military Coordination
• Team Management
• Intersectoral Response
• Epidemic Humanitarian Response
• Humanitarian Coordination
• Humanitarian Reporting
• Stakeholder Liaison
• Emergency Situation Analysis

Languages

English, French