Disability Inclusion and Programme Officer

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency whose mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

In 2019, the UN Secretary-General launched the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS) to strengthen the system-wide inclusion of persons with disabilities. The UNDIS plays a crucial role in supporting Member States to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, its central promise to leave no one behind, and implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The United Nations is driving disability inclusion through a Strategic Global Partnership to include persons with disability in the workforce.

The Partnership's mission is to create a Public-Private Collaboration to train, hire, and advance persons with disabilities in the workforce across 131 countries where the UN has operations. The goals of the Partnership will be achieved by leveraging the capacity and infrastructure of the UN and creating supportive networks and platforms to generate systemic change both within the UN and more broadly with private and public sector partners. The Business Operations Strategy, a common framework that brings together all UN agencies to collaborate across operations will enable and facilitate the scaling and impact of this Partnership.


Key Objectives
• Create a collaborative partnership to include persons with disabilities in the workforce within the UN in Namibia and broadly to realise their rights in line with the goals in the 2030 Agenda and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 131 countries where the UN has operations.

• Leverage the UN’s operations, institutional frameworks, infrastructure, and network to include persons with disabilities in the workforce in Namibia. The United Nations Country Team in Namibia, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, has been selected to participate in this initiative. Within this context, this UNV assignment will further strengthen the coordination efforts of the Resident Coordinator’s Office in developing, implementing and providing oversight over the UN’s Emergency response programmes (such as; with COVID 19).

The appointed UNV will work with other staff members within the UNFPA Country Office under the operational guidance of the Programme Specialist: HIV Prevention and Family Planning and overall leadership of the UNFPA Country Representative to deliver on the UN Country Team’s efforts towards disability inclusion.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the UNFPA Country Representative or their designated mandated representative(s), and direct guidance of the Programme Specialist HIV Prevention and Family Planning, working in close collaboration, where appropriate, with relevant colleagues in the country office, and working in partnership with Joint UN Team on AIDS (JUTA), government, CSOs and selected partners the Disability Inclusion Officer will work within the UNFPA Country Office team to:
• Support the UNFPA technical staff and partners in the implementation of HIV Prevention and Family Planning programmes.
• Assist in daily operations and support the planning, implementation, monitoring and communication of project activities under HIV Prevention and Family Planning.
• Provide administrative support to the UNFPA HIV Prevention Programme by assisting in the planning of meetings, workshops, conferences, where applicable.
• Support the implementation of the project activities under the Condomise campaign
• Support in compiling documentation of best practices, lessons learned within the programme.
• Assist in communication of the programme through generating fact sheets and project information.
• Represent UNFPA in various meetings as may be requested.
• Assist with the UNFPA areas of responsibility with in the Joint UN Team on AIDS.
• Assist efforts of the UNFPA team to foster collaboration and inclusive partnerships with key stakeholders such as Ministry of Health and Social Services, other Government Ministries, sub-national government institutions, civil society organizations, communities, development partners, the private sector and others to advance the rights and ensure equitable access to prevention, treatment and other essential services, as determined by the country context and up-to-date evidence.
• Support the UNFPA communication officer in the drafting and writing of human-interest stories and submit for publication on the UNFPA and the UN Namibia website and facilitate the placement of press releases and op-eds in local media.
• Assist to manage the social media platforms for advocacy, publicity and to create awareness.
• Contribute to capacity building of the UN staff on disability mainstreaming and involving persons with disability in programming
• Facilitate awareness and training on how persons with disabilities could access ICT, procurement, employment opportunities within the UN system
• Work with the relevant Results Groups to support the mainstreaming of UN programming principles into the Joint Work Plans., e.g. communication and disability working groups
• Support conducting of assessments and research around HIV Prevention and Family Planning through the analysis of existing data to generate strategic information to identify programmatic gaps. Facilitate sharing and utilization of relevant strategic information and work with key partners to propose/suggest new areas of research in order to further develop knowledge for planning and programming related to vulnerable groups.