Consultancy - Academic Researcher on the Humanitarian Principles

Overview

Conduct research on humanitarian principles for UNRWA.

You have:

• Doctoral-level degree from an accredited educational institution in law, human rights, sociology, development studies, international relations, or another relevant field.
• Extensive research experience in humanitarianism, human rights law, international law, UN and international agencies, conflict resolution, or another relevant field.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English.
• Arabic language skills desirable.
• Familiarity with the Agency’s five fields of operation and/or the Middle East.
• Experience with a UN Agency is desirable.

Result of Service Consultancy Questions include the following:

• Taking note of UNRWA peculiarities, what are the origins and the development of humanitarian principles and how current humanitarian organizations, especially those part of the UN system (such as OCHA, WFP, FAO, UNICEF, WHO, and others), interpret and approach those principles?
• What are the links, if any, between humanitarian principles and the values and principles of the UN Charter?
• How do and should UNRWA’s mandate and its normative frameworks interact with humanitarian principles?
• How do international norms and principles applicable to UNRWA operations, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, and the centrality of protection and protection principles, interact with humanitarian principles in theory and practice?
• What kind of policies on humanitarian principles UNRWA should adopt? Are existing policies in need for amendments?
• How decision-making processes and operational procedure should be changed to reflect the recent shift to humanitarian principles?
• How should decision-making be affected by the humanitarian principles, and how are the principles operationalized together?
• How humanitarian principles can be implemented and operationalized with regard to both humanitarian and human development operations that are part of UNRWA mandate?
• What should UNRWA assess in its installations as pertains to humanity, impartiality, and independence?
• What are the obligations based on humanitarian principles? What are the possible violations of those obligations that can be committed? When and how those violations can be committed by UNRWA personnel?
• How should humanitarian principles crosscut with work by the protection team on the protection audit and application of protection principles?
• How should each department take ownership of and be responsible for ensuring compliance? How should compliance-oriented measures be undertaken?
• How can all four principles be mainstreamed, and what activities should be left to be implemented (such as assessments of installations)?
• How (and should) UNRWA redraft its Neutrality Framework and any other relevant normative source in order to take into consideration the four humanitarian principles?

This notwithstanding, it is expected that the scope of work will be developed with Senior Humanitarian Principles Coordinator and other key interlocutors in the Agency in order to ascertain the key points of enquiry at the beginning of the consultancy.

It is hoped that the research will provide practical and implementable suggestions for the Agency to put into place following the conclusion of the report. Contingent on the operational context and environment, the consultant may be asked to present their findings and facilitate a discussion on the path forward with key interlocutors on the principles.

Timeline (approximate) and Expected Deliverables .

• December - January 2021 – Consult with humanitarian principles team and other relevant stakeholders, review of UNRWA regulatory framework in line with the principles, submission of a study on the development, application and interpretation of humanitarian principles within the UN system and other humanitarian organization and a proposal for a formulation of an UN-Charter-based approach to the humanitarian principles.

• End January 2022 – delivery of the first draft of the report on the interpretation and application of humanitarian principles at UNRWA and their incorporation in the work of the Agency. The report shall include structural and procedural recommendations and the first draft of the suggested new humanitarian principles framework.

• February 2022 – Stakeholder Consultation on the first draft and reception and incorporation of all the feedback on the first draft of the report.

• March 2022 – Discussion of the feedback with the humanitarian principles team and other relevant stakeholders.

• 31 March 2022 – Submission of the final report.

  Work Location Amman

  Expected duration 3 Months

  Duties and Responsibilities UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5.7 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions. UNRWA is the largest UN operation in the Middle East with more than 30,000 staff.

Background to the humanitarian principles Endorsed by UN General Assembly resolutions 46/182 and 58/114, the Humanitarian Principles guide the work of all actors working in the humanitarian sphere. As an Agency with a humanitarian mandate – namely, to assist and protect Palestine refugees – these principles have been enshrined in UNRWA Regulatory Framework.

The Humanitarian Principles are broadly understood as the following: - Humanity: Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life and health and ensure respect for human beings. - Neutrality: Humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious, or ideological nature. - Impartiality: Humanitarian action must be carried out on the basis of need alone, giving priority to the most urgent cases of distress, and making no distinctions on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class, or political opinions. - Independence: Humanitarian action must be autonomous from the political, economic, military or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented.

Background to neutrality at UNRWA Due to the polarized nature of URNWA’s operational context, special focus has historically been placed upon neutrality. This commitment to neutrality is evidenced within the Agency’s Neutrality Framework issued in 2017 which serves as a comprehensive reference of principles, obligations, and procedures for upholding neutrality. In addition, a large component of the Programme Budget is dedicated towards neutrality tasks: latest figures estimate that since 2016, over 20 million USD has been spent on neutrality. Even though UNRWA was confronted with the greatest financial challenge of its history in 2018, the amount of time which staff with neutrality responsibilities spent on monitoring and upholding the principle remained on average at a minimum of 21% from 2016 to 2020.

There are four substantive areas where ‘neutrality in practice’ transpires:

Educational Curriculum Review - UNRWA does not have its own curriculum for the schools it operates, but rather uses host country curricula and textbooks in line with best practice in refugee education. - UNRWA reviews all textbooks and materials on the Digital Learning Platform (launched during COVID-19 to continue educational provision) to ensure that they are compliant with and promote UN values. - Where material is potentially not compliant with UN values teachers are required to encourage students to deploy independent critical thinking by sharing relevant information on other perspectives and asking students to think critically about what they are reading; this is called the teacher centered approach (TCA). - The TCA seeks to promote the critical thinking skills of students. Through this approach, teachers engage students in considering different perspectives on issues identified as contentious or not in line with UN values and principles. Within this framework, the teacher explores why an issue has been identified, and highlights UN values and principles, as appropriate. For example, for an issue related to historical content, the teacher would give an example of works presented in a scientific and/or literary approach that may include sensitive facts or perspectives and ask students critical thinking questions on the text and to apply the knowledge they have learnt e.g., through their own writing. To support teachers in the implementation of this approach in the classrooms, UNRWA developed the ‘Teacher Centred Approach: A Guide for Educators’, which describes the approach and sub-domains that into which issues have been categorised ; the ‘Teacher Centred Approach: Teacher Reference Grid’, which lists all the textbooks by grade and subject and provides the page numbers where an issue has been identified; and the ‘Teacher Centred Approach: Teacher Training Manual’, which directly supports the training of educators on the Teacher Centred Approach.

Installations - UNRWA completes biannual inspections of UNRWA facilities (called ‘installations’) in our five areas of operation. - These inspections ensure that UNRWA buildings have the proper signage (UN flag, UN sign, no weapons sign) as well as checks for political messaging, other signs of political activity, or slogans, graffiti and/or other imagery on the inside or outside of UNRWA installations that does not comply with the principle of neutrality.

Staff conduct - Violations of neutrality, social media policies, standards of conduct, or UN values by staff can result in administrative action or disciplinary measures up to and including dismissal. - Staff are required to take mandatory e-learning concerning the humanitarian principles, including a Social Media & Neutrality e-learning operational since 2016, and an Ethics e-learning operational since 2013.

Vetting - UNRWA has established SOPs and an up-to-date due diligence policy, ensuring that all third-parties, donors, partners, and suppliers are vetted against the UN Consolidated Sanctions list bi-annually and on an ad-hoc basis where necessary.

Transition to the humanitarian principles In June 2020, the Commissioner General advised that the UNRWA approach to neutrality be understood in concert with the four humanitarian principles at large to bring the UNRWA approach into the fold of UN practice at large.

Some initial steps have been made in this regard, including the following: - An internal communications company is in the process of being tendered in order to generate a campaign on the humanitarian principles, to enhance staff buy-in and to create an institutional culture of humanitarianism. - The staff title of the Neutrality Coordinator was changed to Senior Humanitarian Principles Coordinator. - Funding has been secured to move from installation inspections against a neutrality-related checklist, to integrated assessments of UNRWA installations that will take into consideration cross-cutting themes such as child protection, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), gender, disability and inclusion. - Funding has also been secured for the Social Media & Neutrality course to transition to an e-learning on the humanitarian principles. - Training of key interlocutors on the humanitarian principles, 1,000 installation managers, 200 teachers, and all installation inspectors is planned before the end of March 2022. - Before the end of June 2022, murals are to be painted on a number of UNRWA installations, drawing upon community engagement to spread the word about the humanitarian principles.

Nature of the consultancy

Such that the transition to humanitarian principles be successful, we are looking to fully understand how to effectively incorporate the humanitarian principles in UNRWA framework and operations, also in light of an UN approach to humanitarian principles. Furthermore, the consultant is required to assess what the already existing practice surrounding the humanitarian principles in the Agency has been within the dual humanitarian and human development roles of the Agency. From that assessment, the consultant will provide the conceptual basis from which UNRWA can better implement and promote humanitarian principles through all its programming.

Since the Humanitarian Principles are not programmatic but rather, in theory, are the foundation to all the Agency’s operations, UNRWA has found it difficult to ascertain to what extent these principles are and can be implemented in and by the Agency. Indeed, the Humanitarian Principles are both interrelated, implementing one without the other is not possible, and interdependent, a systematic interpretation of all the principles is always required, for example, implementation measures of neutrality cannot undermine the respect for the principle of humanity. Therefore, understanding the Agency’s commitment to the Humanitarian Principles would require an element of theorizing and academic thought surrounding the nature of the principles themselves. In particular, the consultant is required to explore the link between the values and principles driving the Agency and the United Nations and humanitarian principles, outlining an UN-Charter-based approach to the humanitarian principles.

There is also a practical element of the research that would be required, namely, to understand what activities should be undertaken under humanity, impartiality, and independence, and to what extent existing activities under neutrality do in fact concern that principle. On this regard, the consultant will be asked to appreciate the practical challenges faced by UNRWA personnel in the fields, and formulate new practical tools, including policies and guidelines, aligned with the findings of the theoretical analysis and elaboration.

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: The consultant (or the lead-consultant) should have qualifications and experiences in the following areas: - Doctoral-level degree from an accredited educational institution in: law, human rights, sociology, development studies, international relations, or another field of relevance; Experience: - Extensive research experience, in any of the following fields: humanitarianism, human rights law, international law, UN and international agencies, conflict resolution, or another field of relevance;

Desirable: - Familiarity with the Agency’s five fields of operation and/or the Middle East at large; - Experience with a UN Agency. Language: - Excellent command of written and spoken English.

Desirable:

Arabic Language Skills

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: careers.un.org