Job categoriesProject Management
Vacancy codeVA/2024/B5033/28422
LevelICS-10
Department/officeGPO, NYPO, PSC, Ethiopia Project Unit
Duty stationAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
Contract typeInternational ICA
Contract levelIICA-2
DurationFour months (with possibility of extension, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds, and satisfactory performance)
Application period10-Jul-2024 to 24-Jul-2024
Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement.
Please note that UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
Peace and Security Cluster
The UNOPS Peace and Security Cluster (PSC) is a principal service provider in the field of mine action with the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), UNDP, UNICEF, Governments of mine-affected countries and other mine action partners. It is led by the Director, who has overall authority and accountability for the performance of PSC on behalf of its clients. The Director is responsible for administering and providing oversight of the day-to-day management of the Project Field offices, both according to the client requirements and in line with UNOPS rules and regulations.
Background Information – Job-specific
Background Information UNMAS
Established in 1997 by the General Assembly, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) serves as the United Nations focal point for mine action and supports its vision of “a world free of the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance, where individuals and communities live in a safe environment conducive to development, and where mine survivors are fully integrated into their societies.”
UNMAS coordinates and collaborates with fourteen UN departments, agencies, programmes and funds to ensure an effective, proactive and coordinated response to the problems of landmines and explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions.
UNMAS establishes, manages, and provides strategic direction to mine-action coordination centres in countries and territories as part of peacekeeping operations and humanitarian emergencies or crises. In these situations, UNMAS may plan and carry out mine-action projects, support and coordinate the work of local and international mine-action service providers, and set priorities for mine clearance, mine-risk education and all other aspects of mine action.
Project information
Despite international support around the turn of the century the Ethiopian Mine Action Authority (EMAO) has no working database of contamination, only one mine action standard aligned to IMAS, field staff with very limited experience of humanitarian mine action, no field offices, no tasking prioritization framework, little understanding of how mine action practices have evolved over the last twenty years and no mechanism through which international operators can become accredited.
The problem is further compounded by a lack of clearance operators working to international standards in northern Ethiopia. Those who are operating are not keeping records that may be audited or being subjected to any form of recognized quality assurance. As such, there is little recognizable mine action capacity in Ethiopia today.
Deployed to support the humanitarian response in Northern Ethiopia, UNMAS has established itself as a trusted partner for the humanitarian community, supporting safe delivery of aid through the provision of explosive ordnance awareness and training, as well as explosive ordnance assessment and mapping. In the absence of accredited mine action organizations and considering the limited capacity of the Ethiopia Mine Action Office (EMAO), UNMAS is uniquely positioned to support the development of the mine action sector in Ethiopia through enhancing EMAO’s quality management, accreditation and data management capability – including to collect and analyze data through an age, gender and diversity lens – as well as its operational capacity for coordinating the mine action sector. For that, UNMAS uses its expertise to advise EMAO on mine action matters, including the drafting of national mine action standards.
To do so, UNMAS Ethiopia is recruiting a Capacity Building Specialist in Mine Action.
Purpose and scope of assignment
Reporting to the Head of the Project Unit (HPU), the Capacity Building Specialist responsible for supporting the Ethiopian Mine Action Office with regular strategic, policy and technical advice, advocacy, stakeholder coordination, and relationship building, with the overall aim of supporting the building the capacity and sustainability of the mine action sector in the country so it can operate self-sufficiently in the long term.
More specifically, the successful incumbent will support the mine action sector in Ethiopia in identifying capacity building priorities. S/he is expected to work closely with the various colleagues within the Project Management Unit (PMU) to support the delivery of the project and maintain regular engagement with relevant stakeholders, including the Ministry of Defense, Government entities at Federal and Regional levels, the wider UN system, (inter)national NGOs and service providers involved in mine action in the country.
S/he must be able to apply, with a great degree of autonomy, the below duties and responsibilities of the project success criteria:
1. Ensure coordination, coherence, and quality of the capacity development approach project-wide:
● Monitor the capacity of the Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO) and provide guidance on a capacity development implementation plan.
● Ensure the coordination between the different units of the project and advise the Head of Project Unit on changes or deviations from plans, including through the identification and management of risks and issues, ensuring maximum benefit to clients and stakeholders.
● Advise/assist the EMAO on conducting Accreditation for Mine Action operators in Ethiopia
● Develop a reporting framework to ensure EMAO receives sufficient information from mine action organizations to enable it to track and manage activities
● Guide and assist EMAO in the implementation of a plan to progressively and systematically develop its capacity to manage mine action, and organize review workshops and coordination meetings accordingly.
● Ensure that UNMAS Ethiopia is fully informed of the progress made on capacity development initiatives in the mine action sector in the country
● Ensure that information gathered from monitoring and evaluation is used to inform stakeholders of progress and to improve the project delivery.
● Provide advice to the UNMAS Chief Mine Action Programme (CMAP) and senior UNMAS personnel on all aspects related to humanitarian mine action in the country and any relevant policy and legislative updates ;
2. Manage institutional capacity development assistance and support for the Ethiopian authorities
● Support a sector-wide interaction with the national authorities at institutional and technical levels to operationalize a sustainable and context-relevant technical capacity to meet the needs of the mine action sector in Ethiopia..
●Develop a prioritization process for task selection
● Assist the EMAO through the drafting of ten national mine action standards in accordance with IMAS, including
- Non-Technical Survey
- Technical Survey
- Battle Area Clearance
- Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)
- Medical Support to Demining Operations
- Quality Management of Mine Action Activities
- Land Release
- Post Clearance Documentation
- Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE)
- Information Management for Mine Action
- Reporting and Investigation of demining incidents
● Provide guidance on key sector regulatory issues including Boards of Investigation, ensuring periodic reviews of National Standards, critical non-conformities, Land Release policy, and Information Management.
Education/Experience/Language requirements
Education
- Advanced university degree (master degree or equivalent) with five years of relevant experience OR
- First-level university degree (bachelor degree or equivalent) with seven years of relevant experience
Work Experience
- Relevant experience is defined as experience in project management or project development, supporting operations in military, humanitarian, conflict, post-conflict, or development contexts with public or private sector organizations
- Mine action operations experience in a humanitarian, conflict, or development context is required
- Experience working with local actors and building the capacity of local governmental institutions is required
- Experience in working in humanitarian mine action context in Ethiopia is desired
Language Skills
- Fluency in English is required (speaking, reading, and writing)
- Fluency in Amharic is desired (speaking, reading, and writing)
How to apply
https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=28422#6