The UNOPS Middle East Region (MR) provides strategic leadership, performance oversight, and support to UNOPS operations across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the State of Palestine. MR is responsible for positioning UNOPS as a key development partner in the region through high-level engagement with regional bodies, UN coordination mechanisms, development banks, donors, and intergovernmental organisations. By fostering strategic partnerships and promoting operational excellence, the region supports country teams in delivering sustainable solutions to complex development, peace, and humanitarian challenges

UNOPS supports both humanitarian response and early recovery in Gaza. Currently, UNOPS support in Gaza focuses on key humanitarian enablers, including on access, via the Security Council-mandated UN 2720 Mechanism and the Access Support Unit (ASU), humanitarian fuel and energy, and mine action. Operations are envisaged to continue in the coming period with a focus in line with the UNOPS mandate: (i) infrastructure construction and rehabilitation, (ii) procurement and (iii) project management.

The Israeli – Palestinian conflict remains a protracted and complex conflict. While political efforts are pursued at various levels to bring the wider conflict to an end, it is essential that progress be made on the ground in a manner that will create a more conducive environment for final status negotiations.

The mandate of the Office of the Quartet is to increase Palestinian institutional and economic development and empowerment, as a support towards achieving a two-state solution. In the event of a resumption of final status negotiations, the OQ would support Quartet members in their efforts to realize a successful outcome. 

The OQ works to deliver its mandate by supporting sustainable policy change through working with the international community, the Palestinian Authority and the Government of Israel. This allows the OQ to facilitate engagement between the parties, encouraging agreement and progress at the political level, while also drawing on its sectoral expertise to support the technical-level work. A key focus of working with the international community is to strengthen the engagement with the parties. This is achieved through facilitating and supporting international community discussions at various levels towards tangible action and ownership as well as providing technical expertise for a collective international community wide approach.

The OQ is a fast paced and dynamic office operating in the areas of infrastructure, governance and economic development. The following strategic principles guide the OQ’s work to support the parties while also ensuring alignment with the strategic objectives of the Quartet members and donors to the OQ.

• Bridging between the parties and providing creative solutions that enable progress on the ground;

• Playing a catalytic role in working towards sectoral solutions in partnership with other actors, while taking on direct responsibility for specific elements of those solutions when the Office is well positioned and requested to do so;

• Focusing on policies and projects that have a multiplier effect – that is, an outcome that extends beyond the direct output of the policy or project;

• Focusing on the implementation of agreements reached and announcements made by the parties to ensure that they are translated as quickly as possible into results that have a positive impact on people’s lives;

• Maintaining the vertical depth of our work from the granular, technical level to the strategic and political level while engaging the broad array of actors required to make progress, including the parties, members of the international community and others;

• Ensuring complementarity of the OQ’s work with that of other key actors, including those which also play a convening role;

• Continuing support to Quartet members.

The Governance Advisor (GA) is part of the Governance Team, reporting to the Director of Governance and will work within the workstreams - justice, security, and fiscal issues.

The GA will be working closely with the members of the Governance Team, and members of the other OQ teams. S/he will be engaging with the stakeholders as described in the ToR, under the guidance of the line manager. The GA is responsible for delivering the ToR and additional tasks assigned by the line manager.

As part of the Governance Team, GA is key and an integral part of implementing the Sector Strategy and Workplan, contributing towards the delivery of overall OQ Strategy.

The GA will contribute towards the strategy and work of Governance Team and OQ within the scope below.

• Sectoral policy and strategic focus 

• Produce strategic, technical and communication content

• Stakeholder engagement

• Workstream management 

• Cross program collaboration and capacity building 

The work of GA is highly confidential in nature, hence must maintain the highest standards of confidentiality.

The GA is responsible for the deliverables below, following the objective of the assignment and the scope of work. 

Sectoral Policy and Strategic Focus

• Keep abreast of relevant local and regional developments as well as related developments in other sectors, to provide comprehensive insights and recommendations.

• Undertake original research, advance analysis (technical, political, governance) 

• Provide strategic insights and recommendations based on comprehensive data analysis 

• Advice in developing Governance sector strategy and policy 

  • Development of TORs, managing consultancy and first level quality control 

  • Identifying challenges & risks, and mitigation measures 

• Ensure Governance team program and outputs are of the highest quality

• Advise the director in refining team’s value proposition & positioning

Produce strategic, technical and communication content

• Produce & coordinate team inputs towards sector strategy and team plans

• Produce & coordinate team inputs towards high level reports, briefings papers, proposals etc.

• Produce high quality reports, briefing papers, proposals etc. for the review of the director 

• Advice to produce document structure, content, graphics & illustrations maps, presentations, data visualizations to produce compelling set of communication materials. 

• Review, comment and edit materials produced by the team for quality and consistency 

• Support the director with drafting letters, memos, emails, talking points etc. 

 Stakeholder engagement 

• Identify, map and maintain an overview of external stakeholders, their mandates & capacities

• Track institutional and policy developments across Palestinian stakeholders 

• Advice in developing sector stakeholder engagement strategy

• Maintain management level partnership with the Government of Israel, the international community, particularly with the Palestinian Authorities.

• Coordinate with management level stakeholders for Governance programming and planning 

• Maintain access to right external resources and mechanisms for delivery of Governance program

• Maintain channels of external information input for Governance products and content 

• Obtain external support to conduct the work of Governance team and consultants

• Provide regular updates and presentations to stakeholders at relevant forums

• Facilitate meetings and missions of OQ and OQ partner delegations to stakeholders

Workstream management 

• Advice on research and assessments to identify workstream opportunities

• Work with internal and external stakeholders to prioritize and develop workstreams 

• Propose activities, outputs, budgets, work plans etc. to implement workstreams 

• Identify and mitigate risks associated with workstreams 

• Develop procurement documents & coordinate procurement as per the plans 

• Engage and obtain buy-in of the stakeholders to enable workstream delivery

• Coordinate resources and collaborate with all parties to ensure workstream delivery

• Produce and present workstream status updates 

• Avise on monitoring & evaluation and handover & closure

Cross program collaboration and capacity development

• Collaborate for integrated planning, action, and strategy development across different teams

• Work closely with other teams within the OQ to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach to addressing multi-sector issues.

• Effective utilization of OQs office-wide resources to build and leverage on common knowledge

• Work with the director to identify technical skills requirements of the team

• Develop and deliver skills development plan through technical guidance, program support & mentoring 

• Develop and maintain knowledge database for the Governance program   

• Work closely with counterparts in other OQ teams to establish and build on common knowledge

Required

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) preferably in law, governance, security law, international relations, development management or other development area with 7 years of relevant experience OR

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any of the above or related fields with 5 years of relevant experience is required

Required

• 7 years of relevant work experience with bachelor’s degree, or a minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience with master’s degree is required.

• Strong knowledge in Governance, Rule of Law, Justice etc. required.

• Excellent communication skills, including a demonstrated ability to both write and present high-quality written documents/presentations in English is required.

Desired:

• Experience in the public sector or non-profit environment is desirable. 

• Experience and understanding of the local political & economic context is desirable.

• Experience in external stakeholder engagement is desirable. 

• Experience in research, analytics and publications is an asset.

• Experience in spatial mapping using relevant tools is an asset.

• Experience in working in challenging environments is preferred.

• Experience in development or humanitarian contexts is desired.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes. 
• Please note that UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
• Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement. Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 
• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments. 
• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 
• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities. 
• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here. 
• For more details about the contract types, please click here.
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda. 
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.