Associate Shelter Officer

Contract

This is a UNV International Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as International UN Volunteer. It is normally internationally recruited only. More about UNV International Specialist contracts.

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).

The UNHCR Representation in Venezuela has Country Office in Caracas, Field Unit in Caracas and four Field Offices of which three are located on the border with Colombia (Guasdualito, San Cristobal and Maracaibo) and one in Ciudad Guyana (Bolivar state), which covers the border with Brazil, Guyana and the Caribbean.

The deterioration of the situation has triggered an accelerated movement of people out of the country and to border regions and over 400,000 Venezuelans have sought asylum abroad. In addition, many Venezuelans have been undertaking pendular cross-border movements to access food staples, medicines, medical attention, education or work and livelihoods restricted by the quarantine due to COVID19. Many border cities in Táchira, Apure and Zulia have become the destination for large groups of people, mainly low-income families and unskilled workers, from the interior of the country. They cross the Colombian border on a daily basis to earn Pesos (Colombian currency) and many of them, including teenagers and children, are involved in smuggling activities. The continuous arrival of these displaced people has overstretched local basic services and collapsed accommodation facilities, causing a deterioration of security, health and hygiene conditions in border cities and villages. The humanitarian coordination architecture in Venezuela was established after an assessment of humanitarian needs undertaken in March 2019 estimated that 7 million Venezuelans need

Under the direct supervision of Head of Office, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Ensuring that UNHCR Field operations are supported in carrying out shelter needs assessments taking into account the current situation, projected population planning figures and the expected scale of returns;
Developing country level shelter strategies which are framed by UNHCR’s Global Strategy for Settlement and Shelter and take into consideration the local context, age and gender, culture, climate, environmental protection and the availability of local resources, including materials, capacities and existing infrastructure;
Providing clear guidance on standards for shelter and settlement, including minimum emergency standards to meet basic and essential needs;
Together with UNHCR's implementing partners, compiling, analysing and mapping available information on shelter options in country taking into account relevant policies adopted by the Government. When planning shelter works, ensuring that the technical component reflects UNHCR minimum standards for the provision of emergency and other types of shelter assistance and is within the budgetary requirements. Due consideration should be given to standards in other relevant sectors such as water and sanitation;
Ensuring the shelter strategy is periodically reviewed to reflect the evolving situation in country and progressively transitioning to more sustainable shelter solutions. This process should be done in close collaboration with the beneficiaries and the host Government while bearing in mind the shelter needs of people upon their eventual return to their country of origin;
Ensuring that specifications, bills of quantities and drawings are produced in a technically sound and standardised manner and establish monitoring and evaluation tools to ensure that works are implemented according to plans and completed within the designated timeframe;
Promoting the sustainability of technical interventions th

, Accountability, Adaptability and Flexibility, Client Orientation, Communication, Ethics and Values, Integrity, Planning and Organizing, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity, Working in Teams

Minimum 2 years of relevant professional experience with a Master’s degree or 4 years of relevant professional experience with a Bachelor’s degree.

Relevant professional experience includes management of humanitarian shelter or settlement programs / projects or a combination of experience in the humanitarian sector and construction-related activities outside of the humanitarian sector such as supervision of construction works.

Excellent interpersonal, teamwork and negotiation skills in a cross cultural environment and the ability to assist in communication of technical and non-technical details with Government technical staff as well as NGO staff and local authorities.

El boletín informativo será compartido al momento del reclutamiento.