Back UNHABITAT - Project Coordinator SC9

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The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.

In October 2016, at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – Habitat III – member states signed the New Urban Agenda. This is an action-oriented document which sets global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities. Through drawing together cooperation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors, including at all levels of government as well as the private sector, UN-Habitat is applying its technical expertise, normative work and capacity development to implement the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 – to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1978 to address the issues of urban growth, UN-Habitat is a knowledge institution on urban development processes and understands the aspirations of cities and their residents. For forty years, UN-Habitat has been working in human settlements throughout the world, focusing on building a brighter future for villages, towns, and cities of all sizes. Because of these four decades of extensive experience, from the highest levels of policy to a range of specific technical issues, UN-Habitat has gained unique and universally acknowledged expertise in all things urban. This has placed UN-Habitat in the best position to develop achievable solutions to the current challenges faced by our cities. UN-Habitat is capitalizing on its experience and position to work with partners to formulate urban visions of tomorrow. It strives to ensure that cities become affordable living spaces of inclusive economic growth and social development for all citizens.

Since 2015, UN-Habitat Syria Programme has worked closely with Syrian cities and communities to develop an urban resilience and recovery approach. UN Habitat supports local authorities and communities (1) to collect better urban data to reach a common understanding on urban recovery needs; (2) to jointly identify neighborhood and municipal area response priorities – from humanitarian, to resilience, to recovery; and (3) to design and implement housing, infrastructure and basic services, urban environment, and urban cultural heritage projects that directly respond to these local priorities.

UN-Habitat Syria currently has offices in Damascus, Homs and Aleppo and plans to open an office in Deir Azzor. The UN-Habitat Syria programme operationalizes projects across Syria.

The Project Coordinator will manage the Joint Programme on Housing, Land and Property (JP) for which UN-Habitat Syria Programme, is the lead agency. The Project Coordinator will work under the overall supervision of the UN-Habitat Chief Technical Adviser, Head of Syria Programme and the Programme Management Officer, Deputy Head of Syria Programme. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for carrying out the following functions and tasks:

Function 1: JP Project Management:

• Support the timely delivery and coordination of the remaining JP activities under the first phase of the project’s life cycle, working closely with project partners, UN-Habitat management and involved JP HLP teams to ensure well-coordinated close-out of the activities under Phase I.
• Coordinate preparation and management of the second phase of JP activities. Develop work plans with clear milestones and monitoring indicators for timely delivery of outputs, working closely with all project partners and in coordination with UN-Habitat senior management and relevant JP teams.
• Provide general coordination and oversight for the UN-Habitat JP team activities including consultants and partner agencies for implementation of phase II activities. Coordination activities to include:
• Maintain oversight on activity/deliverable timelines, status of activities/deliverables and required actions.
• Maintain oversight on timelines for all JP related contracts and partnership agreements.
• Lead on preparations and management of JP related events, steering committee meetings, working group meetings, donor meetings, donor reporting etc.
• Act as the primary interface between UN-Habitat and JP partners for purposes of timely delivery of outputs and activities.
• Oversee consultative processes to include coordination of peer-review processes for written outputs.
• Support monitoring and reporting obligations as per the agreed results framework and donor agreement compliance arrangements.  
• Lead on the preparation of annual/mid-term/final reports of the project
• Support new recruitment and partnership processes as may be required, including the drafting of TORs and support to recruitment processes as may be necessary
• Participate in field missions as may be necessary
• Facilitate audits and final evaluations as may be necessary.

Function 2: Wider Programme Development:

• Maintain linkages with wider work of UN-Habitat’s Syria Programme activities where relevant and under the guidance of UN-Habitat senior management.
• Support the representation of JP findings/achievements in wider UN-Habitat fora and events as may be necessary.
• Participation in UN-Habitat Syria Programme strategic discussions, planning, communications and learning as may be relevant.
• Propose measures to enhance the quality of impact of JP activities where opportunities exist.
•  Assist in the preparation of project concept notes / proposals for wider UN-Habitat activities under the guidance of UN-Habitat senior management a may be necessary.
• Support the identification of local experts and expansion of UN-Habitat’s strategic partnerships with other organizations, including civil society organizations, think tanks, research institutes, etc.

Function 3: Technical Support and Backstopping:

• Contribute to the identification and development of key lessons learned documents related to the JP activities and UN-Habitat approach to supporting as may be required.
• Support activities to communicate and disseminate JP materials and findings as guided by the Dissemination Strategy and UN-Habitat senior management.
• Undertake any other tasks as may be required to contribute to the successful implementation of UN-Habitat Syria programme.

Core:

Innovation:

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work.

Leadership:

• Ability to persuade others to follow.

People Management:

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.

Communication:

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.

Delivery:

• Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement.

Technical/Functional:

• Management and Coordination.
• Rehabilitation and Reintegration.
• Project Management.
• Urban Governance, Planning, and Development.

Education:

• Master’s degree in urban planning, architecture, engineering, business administration or social sciences relevant to the respective project.
• A first-level university degree with additional 2 years of qualifying experience may be accepted.

Experience:

• 2 years of relevant experience with a master’s degree or 4 years with a bachelor’s degree in aforementioned academic fields demonstrating strong skills of project management and coordination.
• Previous experience in managing and supervising urban-relevant projects is recommended.
• Certificate in project management is desired.
• Proven qualification in MS projects is desired.
• Knowledge of various mapping and data analysis methodologies and tools is desired.

Language Requirements:

• Strong proficiency in written and spoken English and Arabic. Working knowledge of other UN language is desirable.

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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Contract Duration: 3 months with the possibility of extension related to fund availability