Disability Inclusion and Programme Officer

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

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 Covid-19 response programme.

The appointed UNV will work with other staff members within the UNAIDS Country Office under the operational guidance of the Adviser: Equality and Rights for All and overall leadership of the UNAIDS Country Director/ Head of Office to deliver on the UN Country Team’s efforts towards disability inclusion.

• Assist the UNAIDS Country Office (UCO) team in coordinating and documenting proceedings of the Joint UN Team on AIDS.
• Support the UCO in supporting the coordination of civil society organizations in Namibia
• Assist efforts of the UCO team to foster collaboration and inclusive partnerships with key stakeholders such as Ministry of Health, Social Services, Government Ministries, sub-national government institutions, communities, development partners and the private sector.
• Support the UCD and UCO team in the development of a good knowledge base on gender, legal and human rights issues as part of the implementation of the Legal Environment Assessment, HIV Stigma Index and Gender Assessment of the HIV and TB responses.
• Support UCO communications through drafting and writing stories and submit for publication on the UN Namibia website and facilitate the placement of press releases and op-eds in local media.
• 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
• Support preparation of JUTA reporting, including monthly progress reports to UNCT.
• Support analysis of existing data to generate strategic information to identify programmatic gaps.
• 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.