Result of Service
The Urban Planner for the Sahel will work closely with the Senior Regional Specialist on the Sahel and the Technical Leading Team to collect and compile regional data and draft content for a Regional Assessment on the System of Cities of the Sahel. Work Location
Home-based
Duties and Responsibilities
The current portfolio of UN-Habitat is expanding in the West Africa and more specifically in the Sahel. For almost a decade, the Sahel region has been suffering from different conflicts which originated from indigenous populations claiming independence (Mali, spread into Burkina Faso and Niger) or caused by Boko Haram (North-East Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Western Chad). This crisis is complex: Islamic groups carry out terror attacks in the region that exacerbate existing tensions between ethnic groups competing over access to natural resources – themselves scarcening due to the impacts of climate change – or over precious metals and minerals. As a result, approximately 14 million internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees or returnees have been displaced, with no possibility to return, through the rather porous boundaries of the Sahel. These massive movements of population have profound impacts on land tenure, property and on recipient urban settlements which have sometimes doubled or tripled in size in a few months. Local authorities are ill-prepared for such a rapid increase in population, with great challenges emerging in terms of basic services delivery, housing, fragile livelihoods among others, increasing not only the vulnerability of the population, but also conflict between host and displaced populations and violence within households.
As most displaced seek refuge in urban areas, UN-Habitat’s vast experience in designing strategies and carrying out concrete actions in urban areas of conflicts/post-conflict countries is very relevant. UN-Habitat aims at strengthening the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus in the region and to mobilize its spatial planning tools and multi-scaled territorial approach to understand the system of cities of the Sahel in order to help make the fast-growing Sahelian urbanization a more sustainable, inclusive, safe and resilient one.
Support is needed within UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) for undertaking the implementation of its activities in the Central Sahel (Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal) including the development of a Regional Assessment on the System of Cities of the Sahel.
The Urban Planner for the Sahel will work closely with the Senior Regional Specialist on the Sahel and the Technical Leading Team to collect and compile regional data and draft content for a Regional Assessment on the System of Cities of the Sahel.
Under the overall supervision of the Senior Human Settlements Officer (SHSO) in the Regional Office for Africa and Task Manager for West Africa, and in close collaboration with the Technical leading Team (TLT) of the project, the Urban Planner for Sahel will be responsible for providing substantive and administrative contributions to regional work on the Central Sahel. Within the Regional Office for Africa, the consultant will perform the following duties;
- Provide inputs to the development and drafting of the annotated outline and detailed terms of reference of the Regional Assessment on the Systems of Cities of the Sahel.
- Provide original written content where needed and assist the Senior Sahel Regional Specialist to undertake ongoing evidence-gathering to fill critical information and research gaps and support the preparation the interim drafts of the Regional Assessment with a focus on the regional level.
- Coordinate the internal consultations and approvals, and external and peer review processes and validation of the Regional Assessment. Qualifications/special skills
Skills:
• Capacity to analyze and synthesize information.
• Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals.
• Excellent research and writing skills.
• Fluency in oral and written French and English is required.
Academic Qualifications:
• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Urban Planning, Geography, Development Studies, International Relations and/ or other relevant discipline with a focus on human settlements is required.
Experience:
• Minimum of 2 years of working experience in the field of urban planning at the international level is required.
• The candidate must have a demonstrable understanding of urban development processes, urban planning, urban social issues, urban policy analysis and/ or the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus.
• Good understanding and knowledge of urbanization issues in the Sahel region is required.
• Experience in coordinating and working with high-level government officials and/ or UN bodies is highly desirable.
• Experience delivering training and capacity development activities is highly desirable.
• Experience within multi-cultural international institutions would be considered an asset.
Language:
• Fluency in oral and written French and English is required.
No Fee
THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.
This vacancy is archived.