Community-Based Protection Community of Practice Assistant

Contract

This is a UNV Refugee contract. More about UNV Refugee contracts.

UNHCR’s Community-based protection (CBP) approach empowers communities to obtain their rights safely and with dignity. By applying age, gender and diversity-inclusive and community-based approaches, people affected by forced displacement and statelessness can work together to better identify a community's most serious protection risks and explore causes and effects. It also enables the participation of communities in deciding on the best ways of responding to and preventing protection risks, thus increasing the impact and results of humanitarian interventions.

For several decades, UNHCR has developed guidance and tools to support this work both globally and at the field level and has built an experience in working with communities placing it among the leading organizations on implementing community-based and age, gender and diversity approaches. Community-based approaches are increasingly applied across the humanitarian world and have expanded through innovative approaches and use of technology. The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly critical in showcasing how community engagement can adapt to new realities.

For UNHCR to be able to effectively implement CBP, UNHCR staff and partners need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills that facilitate their interaction with communities and supports the integration of their voices into humanitarian programming. This learning can be facilitate through the exchange of experiences, lessons learned and best practices among practitioners across operations and regions.

The global Community-Based Protection online community of practice facilitates such peer learning and exchange. It brings together resources from UNHCR and other community-based protection actors, including tools, guidelines, videos, training materials, and examples of successful field practices. In addition, the community is an interactive space where practitioners are directly involved in the exchange of ideas, examples, news, and updates.

To ensure the community of practice remains relevant and interesting, the CBP Unit in the Division of International protection will carry out a revamping/update of the CBP community of practice to enhance its accessibility, use and interaction. This will require among others a restructuring of the repository of resources, developing and implementing an engagement strategy to increase the online activity with practitioners, and enhancing other features such as practitioner’s blog, news letters and event calenders.

Assignment Place Remark:

Important, please read Important, please, read before applying.

• This assignment is open only for the application of refugees; who are recognized as Refugees by the competent authorities responsible for granting of Refugee status in the Country of residence/refuge, or person has been recognized as a Refugee in accordance with UNHCR mandate and has right to reside legally in the country of refuge.

• Official document as a proof of refugee status is mandatory to submit. The applicant with abovementioned refugee status should submit the official document as a proof of refugee status before and/or during the interview. The applications without the respective document will not be considered for this assignment.

• Duty Station and Entitlements: The selected candidate’s contracting duty station & entitlements will be where the candidate is recognized with a refugee status in the country of current residency. There will be no relocation to Geneva.

• This RUNV assignment is subject to proof of vaccination against Covid-19 with WHO approved vaccine unless the UNHCR Medical Service approves an exemption from this requirement on medical grounds.

Under the direct supervision of Associate Protection Officer (community-based protection) the Refugee UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Review the current structure of the CBP community of practice, consult with relevant entities in UNHCR and develop a plan for revamping/modification of the site. • Develop and/or update a communication and engagement plan for the CoP to in-crease its interactivity and facilitate the exchange amongst practitioners on CBP.
• Collect CBP resources and good practices developed by country operations and regularly update the community of practice library of resources. • Maintaining a mapping of recent developments and new resources in the fields of community engagement, age, gender and diversity, accountability to affected people and relevant areas of work, with the purpose of identifying relevant content for the community of practice, including local and localized resources developed by regional bureaus and country operations.
• Post updates, create content, organise the site and drive engagement. • Be the focal point for the community of practice when technical or other issues are reported. • Moderate day-to-day activity on the online community site, managing posts, answering questions in coordination with technical focal points, and solving technical problems. • Develop and organise training and tutorial resources on the use of the community of practice. • Monitor the use and accessibility, for forcibly displaced and stateless partners as well as persons with disabilities, of the community of practice and produce periodic reports. Provide regular updates to the CBP unit on trends and new questions raised by field colleagues through the community of practice to inform CBP tools. • Any other related tasks as required.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and taking an active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/Expected Outputs:

As an active UNHCR DIP-CBP team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNHCR and forcibly displaced and stateless persons in the accomplishment of their functions, including: • A revamped CBP Community of Practice accompanied by a strategy for communication and engagement. • Daily management of the CBP Community of Practice, including membership, engagement, posts, updates, and other requests as needed. • Developed guidance and training materials on the use of the community of practice, for both internal and external colleagues • CBP Quarterly Updates, produced and published on the community of practice • Periodic reports on the use and accessibility of the community of practice • Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated, and documented in all activities throughout the assignment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in, and capacities developed

• Integrity and professionalism • Accountability • Commitment to continuous learning • Planning and organizing effective organizational and problem-solving skills • Ability to manage a large volume of work • Teamwork and respect for diversity • Communication • Flexibility, adaptability • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement

the areas of community-based protection, community services, social work, and human rights.

Required Qualifications and Skills: • Ability to develop guidance that is clear and practical; • Attention to detail; • Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of actors; • Familiarity with online tools and approaches of communications ; • Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (SharePoint, Excel, Word, etc.) and email/internet; and office technology equipment; • Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; and ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel; • Self-motivated, ability to work independently with minimum supervision; and ability to work with tight deadlines; and • Fluency in spoken and written English is required. Working knowledge of a second UN Language (French, Spanish or Arabic) is an advantage. • Lived experience of forced displacement is required for this position.

Desirable Qualifications and Skills:

• University degree in a relevant area, (e.g., social work, law, anthropology, development studies or another relevant field) is an added value; • Experience developing guidance and/or training materials and resources • Familiarity with database or website development and management (experience with Microsoft SharePoint is an asset); • University degree in International Development, Cultural Studies, Human Rights, International Social Work, Social Science, Political Science, Anthropology, International Law, or other related disciplines is an asset.

Computer skills: Microsoft Office Package (excellent knowledge of Word, good knowledge of SharePoint, Excel and PowerPoint), Solid overall computer literacy, office technology equipment, and Internet browsing.

Important, please read Important, please, read before applying.

• This assignment is open only for the application of refugees; who are recognized as Refugees by the competent authorities responsible for granting of Refugee status in the Country of residence/refuge, or person has been recognized as a Refugee in accordance with UNHCR mandate and has right to reside legally in the country of refuge.

• Official document as a proof of refugee status is mandatory to submit. The applicant with abovementioned refugee status should submit the official document as a proof of refugee status before and/or during the interview. The applications without the respective document will not be considered for this assignment.

• Duty Station and Entitlements: The selected candidate’s contracting duty station & entitlements will be where the candidate is recognized with a refugee status in the country of current residency. There will be no relocation to Geneva.

• This RUNV assignment is subject to proof of vaccination against Covid-19 with WHO approved vaccine unless the UNHCR Medical Service approves an exemption from this requirement on medical grounds.

As this is a Refugee UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.

UN Volunteer entitlements and allowances: The purpose of the allowances and entitlements paid to UN Volunteers is to enable UN Volunteers to sustain a secure standard of living at the duty stations in line with United Nations standards without incurring personal costs. The allowances are in no way to be understood as compensation, reward, or salary in exchange for the UN Volunteer’s service. Contingent on specific eligibility criteria, location of the volunteer assignment and contractual type and category, the payment of allowances will begin from the date of Commencement of Service For more information on entitlements please read the Condition of Service (https://explore.unv.org/cos). For information specific to your assignment kindly check the entitlement calculator : https://app.unv.org/calculator

Monthly Living Allowance (Per month) - depends on the duty station Entry lump sum (one time payment) USD 400 Travel Ticket when moving to duty station USD 200 Exit allowance (for each month served, paid on completion of contract) - depends on the duty station Medical and life insurance Cigna Private Insurance

Leave entitlements: Annual leave: 2.5 days accrued per calendar month Certified sick leave: 30 days Uncertified sick leave: 7 days Learning leave: 10 working days per consecutive 12 months Maternity Leave: 16 weeks Paternity Leave: 10 days

The RUNV will be selected from any location in the world, except from Headquarter (H) duty stations and locations where there are no United Nations developmental or humanitarian activities or locations which are in countries which are members of the European Union. (H duty stations include the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzer-land, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America)

In an effort to ensure consistency and fair treatment of UN Volunteers in the country in terms of benefits, selected candidate will be required to self-declare the humanitarian assistance she/he is in receipt of, which, upon recruitment will then be assessed, and adjusted as needed.