Humanitarian Affairs Officer

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Objective / Mission Statement: OCHA's mission is to: Mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies.

Established in 1991, under General Assembly resolution 16/182, UNOCHA coordinates humanitarian action to ensure crisis-affected people receive the assistance and protection they need. It works to overcome obstacles that impeded humanitarian assistance from reaching people affected by crises, and it provides leadership in mobilizing assistance and resources on behalf of the humanitarian system.

This UNV assignment is in OCHA’s Regional Office for Southern, and Eastern Africa (ROSEA) based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Under the direct supervision of Head of Office OCHA Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa (OCHA-ROSEA), the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

1) Ensuring strategic direction of OCHA ROSEA Operations:

· Supports development of the ROSEA Work Plan and associated management targets, facilitates implementation of corporate operational strategies identified in the Work Plan, and monitors achievement of results.

· Ensures full compliance of operations with UN/UNOCHA rules, regulations, and policies.

· Undertakes constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment and provides timely advice to the HoO on readjustment of operations based on risk assessments.

· Supports knowledge building and sharing with regards to management and operations in the RO, organizes staff retreats and training, synthesizes lessons learned/best prac-tices, and provides contributions to UNOCHA communities of practice, where

appropriate.

2) Supporting internal OCHA ROSEA management:

· Prioritizes the HoO agenda and ensures timely and quality briefings/notes are provided, in particular:

· Coordinates the organization of the HoO missions

· Manage continuous demands for appointments with the HoO including long-term calendar commitments/workshops/high-level meetings

· Drafts official correspondence and develops proposals on strategic issues for HoO;

· Participates in the overall day-to-day management and coordination of the HoO Office activities, including setting up priorities, providing follow-up and feedback, background documents and publications, and supporting progress towards delivery of agreed results.

· Coordinates development of the office-wide annual work plan and updates to the same and inputs from the team on results-based management /indicators, activities, objectives, outcomes

· Performance of any other duties assigned by the HoO.

3) Maintaining relations with humanitarian partners:

· Prepares donor proposals and reports with inputs from across the office

· Coordinates annual OCHA partner survey

· Attends donor briefings on priorities and prepares updates and recommendations for activities to align with donor requirements

· Establishes relationships with potential partners and maintains a client relationship management system for appropriate operational partnership arrangements, including up-to-date contact lists.

· Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, and identification of opportunities for initiation of new projects.

· Maintain close contact with the humanitarian partners and bring to the attention of the Head of Office all matters requiring his/her attention. Formulate options as to how those matters might be best handled and follow up, as directed.

· Liaise with Heads of Units to ensure the smooth of timely flow of information within the office and follow up on action points.

4) General coordination:

· Supports the HoO with tracking and monitoring tasks that require immediate/urgent action daily;

· Coordinates the program and related logistical support during the visits of OCHA high-level missions, donor missions, training, events, workshops, etc.;

· Develops and coordinates inputs for speeches and talking points in coordination with the Comms unit

· Follows up on agendas for management team meetings and ensures agreed-upon actions are addressed;

· Supports the organization of the Regional Inter-Agency meetings such as the Regional-Inter Agency Standing Committee (monthly in Johannesburg) and the Regional Hu-manitarian Partnerships Team (RHPT) in Nairobi and shares the meeting documents.

5) Ensures facilitation of knowledge building and management focusing on the achievement of the following results:

· Identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned directly linked to programme country policy goals.

· Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

· Organization of training for the operations/ projects staff on program issues.

· Professional growth through active learning.