UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering an Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA) within the UNHCR Burkina Faso in our Representation in Ouagadougou.
The Associate Protection Officer, the Associate Protection Monitoring Officer will be responsible for ensuring the coordination of timely and quality data collection, verification, analysis and reporting by UNHCR Protection Monitoring partners and will ensure both the transversality and centrality of protection. The incumbent will also contribute to the implementation of the Project 21 (P21) in Burkina Faso, which aims at strengthening data collection, analysis and reporting in the Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tchad).
UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 130 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.
Title: Associate Protection Monitoring Officer
Duty Station: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Duration: 3 months (renewal)
Contract Type: UNOPS International ICA1– (equivalent to P2)
Closing date: 12 September 2022
Start date: 01 October 2022
Organisational context
As of 30 April 2022, Burkina Faso hosts 1,926,906 persons of concern to UNHCR, including 1,902,150 internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as 24,756 refugees and asylum-seekers. Most of refugees are hosted in the town of Dori, the capital of the Sahel region, while IDPs are scattered across all of the 13 regions, with over 70% of them settled in the Sahel and Centre-North regions. The vast majority of this population is composed of women and children, who are in dire need of Protection and assistance. The number of those fleeing for safety has doubled in 2020 alone making Burkina Faso one of the fastest growing humanitarian and Protection crisis globally. To ensure that Protection risks/incidents and human rights violations are identified to allow timely and effective Protection responses, UNHCR has set up a Protection Monitoring mechanism implemented by its partners INTERSOS, the Burkinabè Movement for Peoples’ and Human Rights (MBDHP) and the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH). These implementing partners are mainly tasked with data collection, verification, analysis and reporting on Protection incidents and population displacements in areas affected by insecurity; so as to inform planification, programming, advocacy and operational interventions by humanitarian actors. Based on its mandate and engagement in IDP situations, UNHCR bears the responsibility to ensure that Protection Monitoring activities are well planned, implemented and coordinated in an efficient manner, hence the need to invest in competent human resources.
It is against this background that the UNHCR Representation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, would like to request the deployment of an Associate Protection Monitoring Officer on UNOPS contract, to strengthen the capacity of the Protection team to deliver and support the Representative in ensuring the fulfilment of UNHCR’s mandate as well as its engagement in IDP situations.
The position
UNHCR Burkina Faso is present in seven (07) offices, including the Branch Office in Ouagadougou, a Sub-Office in Kaya, Field Offices in Dori, Bobo Dioulasso, Ouahigouya, Fada-Ngourma and a Field Unit in Djibo.
Under the overall guidance of the Assistant Representative (Protection), and direct supervision of the Associate Protection Officer, the Associate Protection Monitoring Officer will be responsible for ensuring the coordination of timely and quality data collection, verification, analysis and reporting by UNHCR Protection Monitoring partners and will ensure both the transversality and centrality of protection. The incumbent will also contribute to the implementation of the Project 21 (P21) in Burkina Faso, which aims at strengthening data collection, analysis and reporting in the Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tchad). The incumbent will be based in Ouagadougou and will support all operations in the country.
S/he will build and maintain effective collaboration with other relevant teams within the operation including Programme, External Relations, GBV and Cash, IM, communities of concern, authorities, Protection and assistance partners who can contribute to enhancing Protection and achieving solutions.
Duties and responsibilities
Under the direct supervision of the Associate Protection Officer, the UNOPS ICA holder will undertake the following tasks:
- Provide technical guidance and support to UNHCR and partners on all Protection Monitoring related issues;
- Working closely with the Protection staff in Ouagadougou and in the field, the Protection partner staffs as well as the Protection Cluster to ensure that timely and quality data is collected and compiled;
- Ensure Protection trends and risks are identified in a timely manner and reported to the Protection Section and the Protection Cluster;
- Prepare internal and external analyses and high-quality ad-hoc and regular reports in a timely manner;
- Contribute to the regular development of Protection Monitoring products, including monthly/quarterly/semestrial/annual highlights/ad hoc reports as requested;
- Review all reports and Information Management (IM) products relating the Protection Monitoring activities to ensure the accuracy of data and high-quality Protection analysis is produced in a timely manner;
- Liaise closely with the Information management Unit to ensure that IM tools, procedures and products support the smooth operationalization of the Protection Monitoring activities;
- Ensure evidence is made available, analyzed and supports the response in the field by UNHCR and partners, incl. programming for Protection as well as advocacy for Protection;
- Follow up on Protection risks and incidents to support the field operations and partners are adequately addressed through direct intervention, referral or advocacy;
- Timely raise for and contribute to the update on the Protection Monitoring tools used to carry out Protection Monitoring activities, incl. Project 21 tools and methodology;
- Stay abreast of all Protection related developments to prepare appropriate briefings and reports;
- Coordinate capacity-building initiatives for communities and individuals to assert their rights;
- Advise and capacitate national authorities, relevant institutions and civil society to strengthen Protection Monitoring procedures and mechanisms;
- Perform other related duties as required.
Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required
The ideal candidate will
- Possess a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field
- Have excellent communication skills with strong interpersonal and negotiation skills.
- Be fluent in French and English, with advanced writing and editing skills. Additional languages are desirable, but not essential.
- Capable of building and maintaining simple databases and filing systems for project management.
- Have good experience using the Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
- Demonstrate a genuine desire to learn and develop.
- Be highly organized and have good attention to detail.
- Be able to multi-task and to prioritize workload.
- Be a flexible, team-player.
Location
The successful candidate will be based with the team in Ouagadougou and will support all operations in the country.
Conditions
The Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA) is for three (3) months and the start date is the 1st October 2022. It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8.00am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday and 8.00am to 2.00pm on Friday (40 hours per week)
Burkina Faso has very basic infrastructures, including in the health sector. In Ouagadougou, there are more than 20 health clinics, but only nine (09) are recommended by the UN System. Epidemics and other disease outbreaks are common in the operational area.
Ouagadougou is a family duty station and education is generally carried out in French. However, there is also a US English school. Banking services are available including more than five (05) international banks amongst which two (02) are recommended by the UN System (United Bank of Africa and Ecobank).
How to apply
Interested applicants should submit their application to the following email address: bkfouhr@unhcr.org
Closing date of applications: September 12th, 2022
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Please note that UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing, training or any other fees).