Job: EXPRES (EXPERT ROSTER FOR RAPID RESPONSE) CONSULTANTS - CLUSTER COORDINATOR (EARLY RECOVERY-RELATED)

Location : Multiple

Application Deadline : 20-Sep-13

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : Arabic English French Russian Spanish Chinese Portuguese

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

01-Oct-2013

Duration of Initial Contract :Consultancies up to 1 year

Expected Duration of Assignment : Consultancies up to 1 year

Background

UNDP is the global lead agency for Early Recovery and hosts the Cluster Working Group on Early Recovery (CWGER) in its BCPR Geneva Liaison Office, Switzerland.

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 CWGER 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.

Early recovery projects are an important element of supporting communities' first steps to recovery and include a range of different actions, including, but not limited to livelihoods support, cash interventions, asset creation/provision, rehabilitation of basic social services, public service provision, support to local authorities etc. In some crisis response contexts these actions are covered by other clusters (Food Security often includes livelihoods and cash programming in its remit, which is a good example of other clusters integrating early recovery into their core response activities), but not always. 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 (nobody 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. There could be several thematic areas that the additional cluster would focus on but it is predicted that any additional clusters could focus on: rubble removal, governance, livelihoods, small-scale infrastructure, community restoration, capacity building, ect.

These areas are understood to be closely related to ‘early recovery', and therefore UNDP would be well-placed to provide the leadership in the event that a HCT decides there is a need for an additional cluster in a crisis-affected country. This does not replace the need for early recovery as an approach that all actors should embrace – capitalizing on humanitarian response to support resilience building, recovery and development objectives, or linking relief and development. It is simply a cluster which supports coordination of a distinct set of activities in a specific area that supports the coordination of the overall humanitarian response. The cluster would not be called an early recovery cluster, as early recovery is the process which applies to all clusters in humanitarian response. The cluster would be called according to the thematic area that it covers e.g. Rubble Removal Cluster.

The early recovery approach presents important opportunities to promote gender equality. However, these opportunities are often lost because gender issues tend to be given low priority during the emergency and are also often not prioritized when recovery begins. Failure to include gender perspectives early in 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.

This Terms of Reference (ToR) highlights the skills, experience, and background that is required to carry out the tasks of a Cluster Coordinator.

In addition, this ToR notes that the CWGER Secretariat and UNDP/BCPR have a role in ‘preparing the ground' for Cluster Coordinators (CCs) prior to deployment. This involves providing training support to CCs, and providing remote or in-country support (from CWGER Secretariat staff) when CCs are on deployment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Profile: Cluster Coordinator (Early Recovery)

• Humanitarian Response: knowledge of humanitarian response systems, coordination mechanisms, and humanitarian policy. This includes having some knowledge of coordinated needs assessments, the Consolidated Appeals Process (and/or other similar processes e.g. Flash), the Humanitarian Programme Cycle;
• Technical Expertise: strong knowledge of one or several of the early recovery programmatic areas e.g. livelihoods, cash programming, rubble removal, governance, community restoration;
• Transition Planning: understanding challenges and experience of countries transitioning from humanitarian assistance to recovery and development;
• Resource Mobilization: provide leadership and strategic direction in prioritizing projects and common funding criteria related to funding mechanisms (CAP, Flash, ERF, CERF), and ensure that cluster strategies are well reflected in appeal documents.

OVERALL ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY

• Establish and maintain an effective cluster coordination mechanism with strong membership and shared responsibilities. (a. Convene and facilitate meetings of the cluster; b) Identify other clusters relevant to cross-cluster partnerships, and engage in the OCHA-led inter-cluster platform; c) Develop agreements on an efficient division of labour and assign responsibilities to cluster members to illustrate shared responsibilities;
• Ensure the members of the cluster engage with national authorities and relevant government counterparts, where applicable, and support existing coordination mechanisms to the extent possible;
• Lead the cluster members in numerous inter-agency processes: contingency planning, coordinated assessments, strategy development, CAP or Flash Appeal contributions;
• Lead cluster members in capacity mapping and gap identification to maximize the potential that the cluster has good coverage, can fill identified gaps in the response, and build capacity where it is needed;
• Support cluster members to participate in coordinated needs assessments, develop a cluster specific needs assessments (if relevant), and organize joint field missions with cluster members for follow up and monitoring.
• Facilitate the development of the cluster response plan or an overall strategy for the cluster which links well to disaster risk reduction approaches, and recovery and development, referencing planning documents such as the UNDAF and/or national development strategies;
• Identify issues of mutual interest across different clusters and identify information that should be proactively shared with other clusters as well as information that should be acquired from other clusters to ensure a more effective overall response to a crisis;
• Keep the Cluster Chair (often UNDP Country Director) informed of any critical gaps in the cluster response that need to be raised to the attention of the Humanitarian Coordinator for action;
• Ensure cross-cutting issues are integrated into the work of the cluster response plan in general and the cluster members individually.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

• Engage in the inter-cluster information management coordination process led by OCHA and (often) supported by cluster-specific information management focal points, to ensure the cluster contributes to mapping exercises and other information processes;
• Develop information and communications products individually (and/or with Information Management Officers if deployed) to showcase cluster activities and as a learning and advocacy tool e.g. showcase best practice. Ensure that humanitarian actors are aware of the most up-to-date policy guidelines and technical standards.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND GENDER EQUALITY

• Engage with GenCap Advisors and agency Gender Advisors to ensure women/girls and men/boys will benefit equally from early recovery projects developed by the cluster members and that the projects will contribute to increasing gender equality;
• Advocate for projects submitted through the cluster to analyse and take into consideration the specific needs, priorities and capacities of both the female and male population of all ages in an early recovery approach;
• Advocate for all projects submitted through the cluster to Flash Appeals and Consolidated Appeals within an early recovery approach to be designed to strengthen gender equality programming and gender mainstreaming through the use of the Gender Marker, i.e. commit to achieving gender marker 2a or 2b.

Competencies

Ethics & Values:

• Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity;
• Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status.

Organizational Awareness:

• Understands the humanitarian and development architecture of the UN system falling under the IASC and UNDG.

Developing & Empowering People/Coaching and Mentoring:

• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Takes appropriate risk in developing new or adapting existing methods and approaches to more effectively perform tasks or to solve problems in new and unique ways.

Working in Teams:

• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Works collaboratively with colleagues in the UN system-wide humanitarian response to pursue common goals (including leveraging development actors through UNDP's lead role in the UNCT where necessary).

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in a team environment, communicating effectively;
• Delivers verbal/written information in a timely, clear, organized and easily understood manner.

Self-Management & Emotional Intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively.

Conflict Management/Negotiating & Resolving Disagreements:

• Maintains positive relations with other staff in all agencies;
• Remains calm, composed and patient, regardless of his/her own state of mind in the face of conflict.

Knowledge Sharing & Continuous Learning:

• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Demonstrates commitment to ongoing professional development and keeps abreast of new developments in his/her professional field.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision-making:

• Informed and transparent decision making;
• Accepts responsibility and accountability for the quality of the outcome of his/her decisions.

Functional competencies

• Excellent negotiation and advocacy skills including strong analysis skills and use of information to establish a strong advocacy platform to support cluster members and UNDP senior staff in their capacity as Cluster Lead Agency;
• Excellent communication skills (verbal, and written);
• Excellent knowledge of humanitarian and/or development issues;
• Good knowledge of and technologies used in humanitarian response and development work would be an advantage;
• Excellent oral and written skills to develop knowledge products and advocacy products.
• Interest in humanitarian issues and world affairs.

Required Skills and Experience

General Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

• Advanced university degree relevant to the early recovery thematic areas.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian affairs (coordination and/or programmes) and /or the development arena, including several years of relevant field experience, especially in crisis or post-crisis settings;
• Solid knowledge relevant to early recovery as a thematic area, and the inter-agency environment;
• Excellent coordination skills including experience organizing meetings; managing and depicting information for a purpose; establishing standards, guidance and good practice;
• UN experience is an asset;
• UNDP experience is an asset;
• Experience with training and facilitation is an asset;
• Understanding information management, advocacy, negotiation, and having the ‘soft-skills' that influence processes and decision-making would be highly desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in spoken and written English is a must, knowledge of another UN language a plus. Candidates with excellent French and Arabic or other language skills (fluent written and spoken) are encouraged to apply.

Application procedures:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

• A clear identification of the thematic area;
• If applicable, it is possible to select a secondary thematic area(s);
• A current completed P11 form in English (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc). P11 form should, among other things, include names and contacts of at least three references and clearly indicate names of former and current supervisors (if applicable); in case of freelance consultants – list of partner institutions and contact details of projects supervisors. A file (in .doc, .docx or .pdf format) containing the P11 form should be signed and scanned and uploaded into the system upon completion of the online application;
• An up-to-date CV;
• Links to/examples of work, analytical reports, publications, online presence (e.g. blogs) in the subject matter that resulted from the consultant's work (please provide links in the respective blank field below, or titles to your work in P11 form/CV);
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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