Background

Early Recovery is a key component of humanitarian crisis response. Early Recovery addresses recovery needs during the humanitarian phase, using humanitarian mechanisms in accordance with development principles. It is an integrated, inclusive, and coordinated approach to gradually turn the dividends of humanitarian action into sustainable crisis recovery, resilience building and development opportunities. Emergency relief addresses peoples’ survival and basic well-being. Early Recovery restores people’s capacities and supports communities’ first steps to recover from the crisis. The Global Cluster on Early Recovery (GCER) advocates for humanitarian actors to integrate approaches into their humanitarian work, where possible, that will mitigate the impact of a future crisis on a community. Lastly, the Early Recovery approach presents important opportunities to promote gender equality. Failure to include gender perspectives in early decision-making processes can have long-lasting impacts on women, men, boys, and girls particularly in the context of governance structures, policies and practices, which can reinforce existing socio-economic disparities between men and women.

Where the humanitarian coordination architecture in a crisis response does not cover all the identified needs of the population, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) may recommend the establishment of another cluster to coordinate the response in this thematic area.  This is often an area linked to Early Recovery issues, such as establishing a rubble removal cluster (Currently no agency is globally tasked with this), or a livelihoods cluster (if this is not integrated into another cluster effectively), or a governance cluster which may look at revitalizing the local authorities and empowering them to provide services and ensure they are relevant and active. 

Lastly, the Early Recovery approach presents important opportunities to promote gender equality. These opportunities are often lost because gender issues tend to be given low priority during an emergency and often times not prioritized when recovery begins. Failure to include gender perspectives in early decision-making processes can have long-lasting impacts on women, men, boys, and girls— particularly in the context of governance structures, policies and practices, which can reinforce existing socio-economic disparities between men and women. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Assist and advise the HC/RC in their lead role in strategic planning and coordinating the inter-agency early recovery work across all clusters

• Advocate for the inclusion of early recovery and resilience building issues at the onset of humanitarian response and in humanitarian strategies and plans.

Advise on the establishment and maintenance of appropriate coordination mechanisms for early recovery

• Ensure appropriate coordination with all humanitarian and development partners and establishing effective links between clusters / sectoral groups promoting Early Recovery planning.

Support HC/RC’s coordination with national/local authorities, State institutions, local civil society and other relevant actors

• Work closely with national counterparts, donors and other stakeholders to ensure that humanitarian activities support and/or link into recovery and sustainable development strategies while ensuring that local capacity is utilized effectively and provides the platform for sustainable humanitarian results;

Information Management

• Engage in the inter-agency information management coordination process led by OCHA and supported by sector-specific information management focal points, to ensure visibility of early recovery as a mechanism across sectors, but within the humanitarian response, in information products;

People Centered Approach

• Raise awareness and promote the integration of agreed priority cross-cutting issues (People Centered Approach) in sectoral needs assessment and contribute to the development of appropriate strategies to address these issues.

Needs assessment and analysis

• Ensure effective and coherent sectoral needs assessment and analysis (MIRA/PDNA), involving all relevant partners, stakeholders.

Donors

• Advocate with donors on the importance of early recovery to maximize the potential for mobilizing resources to support integrated projects that respond to immediate needs and illustrate how the project contributes to longer term recovery and community resilience.

Assist the HC/RC with linking humanitarian processes to the longer term recovery agenda

• Identification of strategic entry points for building sustainable institutions and systems and advising on transitioning coordination mechanisms to a nationally led system;
• Provide guidance and support to the RC on issues related to the transition process from the outbreak to longer-term support structures and actors;
• Provide input and guidance to the design of HCT/UN strategic plans as appropriate.

Application of standards

• Ensure that cluster participants are aware of relevant guidelines and standards and apply those in their response also in line with government commitments to Human Rights and IHL obligations.

Monitoring and reporting

• With the support of the inter-sector coordination mechanism, work across sectors to establish monitoring mechanisms that illustrate how well early recovery is integrated into the implementation of the response, and account for how effective the sector working groups’ are in sustaining the gains of the emergency interventions.

Advocacy and resource mobilization

• Identify core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives and resource mobilization.

Training and capacity building

• Promote Early Recovery efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national authorities and civil society, including staff and cluster partners.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the UN.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Specific Knowledge Competencies:

Humanitarian Response

• Good knowledge of humanitarian response systems, coordination mechanisms, and humanitarian policy. This includes coordinated needs assessments (MIRA, PDNA), and the Humanitarian Programme Cycle.

Recovery Programming

Strong knowledge of one or several of the early recovery programmatic areas e.g. livelihoods, cash programming, rubble removal, governance, community restoration.

Transition Planning

• Comprehensive understanding of the challenges and experience of countries transitioning from humanitarian assistance to recovery and development.

People Centred Approach

• Understands that a people-centered approach to humanitarian action brings together the universal determinants of age, gender, and other specific diversity characteristics for analysis that informs an effective response which includes; disability, HIV AIDS, mental health, socio-economic status, religion, nationality, the environment and ethnic origin.

Functional Competencies:

Professionalism

• Advanced knowledge of the use of information management in humanitarian response and recovery environments;
• Highly developed conceptual, analytical and innovative ability to identify and  articulate the information management requirements of complex situations requiring a coordinated response between disparate actors;
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills and ability to use sound judgment to ensure the effective and timely completion of complex tasks;
• Ability to work under extreme pressure, on occasion in a highly stressful environment (e.g. civil strife, natural disasters).

Communication

• Excellent communication and training (spoken and written) skills including the ability to convey complex information management concepts and recommendations to staff at all levels, both orally and in writing, in a clear, concise style that can be readily understood by non-information management practitioners.

Teamwork

• Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organisational goals;
• Places team agenda before personal agenda;
• Supports and acts in accordance with final group decision.

Planning and Organisation

• Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies;
• Identifies priority activities and assignments;
• Adjusts priorities as required;
• Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning;
• Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; uses time efficiently.

Accountability

• Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honours commitments;
• Operates in compliance with organisational regulations and rules;
• Supports subordinates and peers, provides oversight and takes responsibility for delegated assignments;
• Takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.

Client Orientation

• Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of view;
• Designs solutions and basis recommendations on the principles of usability;
• Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect;
• Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems;
• Keeps clients’ informed of progress or setbacks in projects; meets timeline for delivery of products or services to clients.

Judgment/Decision-making

• Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, gathers relevant information before making a decision;
• Considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them;
• Proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information;
• Checks assumptions against facts;
• Determines that the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision.  

Summary of Critical Competencies for Immediate Response Situations:

• Possess a comprehensive set of competencies to immediately take on the challenging role of leading the information needs of early recovery efforts in the designated area of responsibility – strategic, integrity, results oriented, teamwork, good inter-personal skills, well developed communication skills, sound judgment, analytical skills, flexibility, proactive engagement, innovation, risk management, gender and culturally sensitive, ability to work under pressure and demonstrates high tolerance for change, complexity and unpredictability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Masters Degree or equivalent) in Social Sciences (International Development, International Relations etc.), Social Science, A related field; or
• A combination of relevant academic background (at least a first level university degree id est Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) and extensive relevant professional experience in a related area may be accepted in lieu of advanced university degree

Experience:

• Minimum of eight years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian coordination or a related field; experience both at the national level and international level in large organizations with dispersed operations and/or in the public and private sector preferred (seven years’ experience if candidate holds Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent).
• Experience working within the UN system, preferably in an operational UN Agency or with OCHA.
• Experience in humanitarian response and recovery operations (complex emergencies and/or natural disasters) is desirable;
• Qualifications and / or industry certification and /or demonstrable experience in the following applications: Microsoft Office (advanced user certification of MS Access, MS Excel and MS Word desirable) and Lotus Notes are desirable.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is essential;
• Fluency in one or more official UN languages or the working language of the duty station is desirable.