Background

The conflict in Syria enters its fifth year in March 2015, and with no end in sight. The conflict has caused the largest population displacement, after the Second World War, at a historical moment when national response capacities and the traditional humanitarian response infrastructure are at a breaking point. The conflict is not only aggravating an unprecedented humanitarian situation in Syria and neighboring countries, but also compromising development prospects of the present and future generations in all impacted countries. Stability and social cohesion are at serious risk. There is a general recognition within the region and the international community that the crisis is not just challenging standard conflict resolution processes, but also the fundamentals of how we have collectively responded to crises. The impact extends well-beyond the sub-region, considered by some, a global security threat.

The unprecedented spillover of the conflict required extraordinary measures, reinforcing UNDP’s regional presence to define and coordinate the emerging UN regional response. The Syria crisis represents a unique and historic opportunity to make intensive use of the UN system’s comparative advantages in dealing with development challenges in crisis situation. UNHCR and UNDP have taken a leading role in co-chairing the 3RP in an unprecedented UN-integrated response for countries affected by the crisis. Responding to these challenges requires a strategic shift towards an innovative approach that harmonizes humanitarian and development interventions for a sustainable, nationally led and resilience-based response to the Syria crisis.

The launch of the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) for 2015-2016 is a major milestone for the UN system. It represents a collective effort from the international community, NGOs and UN agencies. UNHCR and UNDP have taken a leading role in co-chairing this initiative in an unprecedented UN integrated response for countries affected by the Syrian crisis. The 3RP, which will be presented to the international community at a Ministerial meeting on 31 March 2015, is a UN First.

Turkey hosts the most refugees in the sub-region. Turkey exceeded the UNHCR 2014 planning figure for refugee arrivals by 50%, hosting of 1.6 million refugees by the end of 2014. Only 29% ($146M) of $497M appealed for in 2014 was received against the RRP6. The 3RP is appealing for $624M: $460M for refugees and $160M for resilience.

The coordination arrangements need to be strengthened, commensurate with the challenge of the refugee influx and impact on host communities. At present, a Syria Response Group, provides strategic leadership to the all aspects of the Syrian response. It is supported in Ankara by a Syria Task Force, convening technical focal points from different agencies for information sharing. At the field level (Gaziantep) and in Ankara, six Sector Working Groups convene to exchange information at the operational level. There are monthly, or fortnightly meetings of Inter-Agency Coordinators, at the field level. The record of this meeting is shared with the Syria Task Force. Two inter-sector coordinators exist for the resilience and refugee components- UNDP and UNHCR.

The national coordination mechanisms have also evolved and capacities boosted, with the adoption of the Temporary Protection (TP) regulation and establishment of a specialized institution, the General Directorate for Migration Management (DGMM). There is routine interaction with the DGMM, MFA, AFAD and line ministries, which was accelerated at the end of 2014 with a series of breakthrough meetings, convening all stakeholders in the finalization of the 3RP.

This terms of reference is for a senior advisor to strengthen existing coordination mechanism. To address this priority, UNDP should have the capacities to coordinate at country level a wide and diverse network of 3RP partners, develop and manage resilience-based monitoring and reporting dashboards -including resilience financial tracking- conduct advocacy and outreach campaign for resilience investment and represent UNDP as regular coordination and decision-making mechanism.  To achieve this requires ensuring an integrated response at all levels of planning, monitoring, outreach, advocacy and coordination. Specific functions as listed below.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

Operationalizing the 3RP:

  • Ensure the resilience perspective is integrated in the 3RP planning, implementation and monitoring for all sectors, i.e. operationalize all aspects of the 3RP;
  • Monitor all commitments made in the 3RP;
  • Provide policy support and coordination of fund raising and communication strategies;
  • Engage NGOs and donors on aspects such as cost-effective methods to deliver aid and targeting/prioritization; etc.
  • Organize field visits of the RC/HC, UNDP CD, UNHCR representative and the Government representatives;
  • Participate in field visits to assess refugee and resilience activities; technical field visits of the integrated 3RP team to explain the practical implications of the move from a refugee plan to an integrated refugee/resilience plan.

?Maintaining and Strengthening relationships with the different levels of government:

  • Develop relationships at the local and national levels;
  • Invest in relationships at different levels of the Government;
  • Lead scenario planning;
  • Remain informed of political developments around the refugee dimension with its linkages to the resilience aspect.

Inter-agency Coordination:

  • Co-chair UNDP and UNHCR inter-sector coordinators meetings which includes all the sector leads, heads NGOs;
  • Senior UN representatives and governmental officers;
  • Ensure the co-lead role of UNDP on resilience in relation to inter-agency coordination is effectively exercised.

Inter-sector Coordination:

  • Co-chair UNDP/UNHCR inter-sector coordination meetings, which includes all the sector leads and selected senior UN officers;
  • Ensure improvement of inter-sector coordination and addressing bottlenecks in sector coordination through the means of Syria Task force (operational level coordination in Ankara) and Syria Response Group (strategic direction and coordination in Ankara);
  • Ensure the co-lead role of UNDP on resilience in relation to inter-sector coordination is effectively exercised.

Sector Coordination:

  • Lead the Livelihoods sector and support interventions/play sector lead role (resilience) in Basic Needs/Essential Services sector as well as in other sectors as needed;
  • Demonstrate a leadership role in all aspects of the sector coordination;
  • Develop SOPs, guidelines, evaluation tools etc, in line with UNDP’s own programmes in these sectors which is carried out through Sector working groups and falls within the responsibility of the Resilience Adviser.

Information Management:

  • Collect and manage data which is the key aspect of the 3RP;
  • Take a leadership role in this area especially to demonstrate the importance of the stabilization/resilience work and the progress made against the indicators that impact host communities and public institutions;
  • Demonstrate leadership in the development of the specific tools that track the resilience dimension of all sector responses; including formulating and identifying vulnerabilities.

Communication:

  • Ensure the resilience dimension is well reflected in the various communication products through close cooperation with the UNDP communication officer and other UN agencies;
  • Lead the outreach and communication plan with the media

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Promotes UN’s Values and ethical standards; tolerance, integrity, respect, results orientation, impartiality;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; human rights, peace, understanding between people and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, results orientation, UNDP core ethics, impartiality;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

  • Promotes knowledge management in UN and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
  • Excellent communication skills (written and oral);
  • In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;
  • Ability to provide top quality policy advice on sub national governance issues;
  • Established track record of delivering strong analytical products with policy relevance.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

  • Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects, mobilize resources;
  • Ability to formulate and manage budgets, manage contributions and investments, manage transactions, conduct financial analysis, reporting and cost-recovery;
  • Good knowledge of the Results Management Guide and Toolkit;
  • Good ICT skills, knowledge of Atlas;
  • Ability to implement new systems and affect staff behavioral/ attitudinal change;
  • Ability to function at both policy advisory and project implementation levels.

Management and Leadership:

  • Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Demonstrates strong administrative skills and result oriented approach to work;
  • Provides inspiration and leadership to project staff as well as the partners;
  • Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback;
  • Ability to work in interdisciplinary mixed ability teams;
  • Leads team effectively and shows conflict resolution skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s Degree or equivalent in Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences or related field.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years field experience, a significant part of which would be from countries in special development situations;
  • Extensive experience at the national or international level in providing policy advisory services on Aid Coordination;
  • Hands-on experience in design, monitoring and overseeing implementation of support to building national capacity for Aid Coordination and establishing inter-relationships among international organizations and national governments;
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web based management systems (Atlas);
  • Knowledge and experience from disaster response operations, including missions in support of recovery planning and/or Aid Coordination in at least two different UN regions is desirable.

Language:

  • Fluency in the English required;
  • Turkish is an asset.

Application procedure:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications through http://jobs.undp.org by 20 April 2015 with the following documents as a single document.