UNHCR’s main objectives in Poland are to monitor access to territory and reception conditions as well as advocate for an efficient and protection-sensitive asylum system and related policies. UNHCR also aims to improve durable solutions such as local integration opportunities and increase public awareness of refugees and asylum issues. UNHCR works closely with both governmental and non-governmental organisations in Poland to achieve these objectives.

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).
This UNV assignment is part of UNHCR Poland project. Poland’s eastern borders with Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine serve as the European Union’s external boundaries. The country currently hosts over 1 million refugees from Ukraine, in addition to a smaller number of asylum-seekers and refugees from different countries.

UNHCR opened its office in Poland in 1992, working with national authorities on refugee-related matters. With the Ukraine emergency, UNHCR has substantially scaled up its presence and operations. It currently has a Country Office and Frontex Liaison Office in Warsaw, three Field Offices in Warsaw, Lublin and Rzeszow, and a Sub-Office in Krakow, with a workforce of nearly 120 national and international staff.

The overarching principles guiding UNHCR’s strategy in Poland include: i) localization and centrality of protection, ii) strengthening national systems, avoiding duplication and rationalizing the Refugee Coordination Model (RCM) so that it serves the purpose efficiently and iii) capitalizing on the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) paradigms to advance the rights of refugees and stateless persons in Poland.

As the UN-mandated agency to provide international protection to refugees, UNHCR leads the refugee coordination structure in support of the Government-led response, with the aim to complement, support and strengthen the national response to the refugee crisis, along with ensuring no duplication of interventions and complementarity of action (UNHCR Polska- https://www.unhcr.org/pl/).

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Inter-Agency Coordination Associate or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the Inter-Agency Coordination Assistant will:

• Provide secretarial support to the Inter-Agency unit and sector working groups, including drafting and reviewing meeting minutes, keeping the recipients' list updated, drafting support materials for meetings, organize and provide logistic support including transportation and translation support, disseminate relevant information to an external audience, etc.
• Liaise with partners as requested.
• Liaise with the information management colleagues for sector updates, checking consistency, providing documents to be posted etc.
• Support the sector coordinators in the review and extraction of the reporting of sector partners on activity info.
• Support other Inter-Agency functions, including: collecting and disseminating weekly schedules and work plans, organize and maintain IA calendar and other coordination tools, support outreach to partners on issues such as financial tracking, follow up with field offices on weekly distribution schedules and attend IA meetings and/or specific working groups where relevant (including minute taking), etc.
• Map funding opportunities for NGOs, and share updated and timely information with partners.
• Draft reports for clearance by the supervisor.
• Organize and support coordination meetings.
• Gather information from UNHCR, partners and media
• Support in gathering and drafting content for social media.
• Perform other related tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/expected outputs:

• As an active UNHCR team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNHCR and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:
Partners of the Poland Refugee Coordination Model are well coordinated;
Information flow and sharing within UNHCR Poland on Interagency issues are well maintained;
• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment
• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed