National Project Manager

Result of Service Under the general supervision of the Senior Human Settlements Officer (SHSO) for West Africa at the Regional Office for Africa, and in close collaboration with the Technical Leading Team (TLT) of the project, as well as the UNDP focal points at the country level, the National Project Manager will contribute to programmatic work at the national level by providing overall technical assistance and liaison with key national stakeholders

Work Location Bamako, Mali

Expected duration 6 months

Duties and Responsibilities The current portfolio of UN-Habitat is extending in the Sahel, and more particularly in Mali. Consequent of the conflict and environmental crisis, massive population movements have cause profound impacts on land, property and on the urban agglomerations, which have sometimes doubled or tripled in size in a few months. Local authorities have not been well prepared to cope with such rapid population growth, with major challenges emerging in terms of provision of basic services, housing and livelihoods. This situation not only increases the vulnerability of the population, but also creates conflicts between host and displaced populations as well as violence within households.

As most IDPs seek refuge in urban areas, UN-Habitat’s extensive experience in designing strategies and carrying out concrete actions in urban areas of conflict/post-conflict countries is highly relevant. UN-Habitat aims to strengthen the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus in the region and to mobilize its land-use planning tools and its multi-scale territorial approach to understand the system of cities in the Sahel in order to contribute to making Sahelian urbanization growing more sustainable, inclusive, safe and resilient.

UN-Habitat has developed the City Resilience Action Planning tool (CityRAP). The main objective of the tool is to enable local governments of secondary cities in developing countries to understand the risks and plan practices to progressively accelerate urban resilience. UN-Habitat also has a very useful regional strategic planning tool, the Spatial Development Framework (SDF), which meets the requirements for the regional spatial analysis to be undertaken under this project. Plus, UN-Habitat is also supporting the implementation of a Center of Excellence on Housing (CEH), serving as an innovative and sustainable knowledge hub, for the WAEMU sub-region, also including Mali.

Therefore, support is needed within the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) to undertake the implementation of its activities in Mali, regarding the SDF and the CityRAP methodology, as well as other on-going programmes (e.g CEH, PSUP…). UN-Habitat is also intending to strengthen its presence and activities in Mali, developing its portfolio and strengthening partnerships with national stakeholders.

Under the general supervision of the Senior Human Settlements Officer (SHSO) for West Africa at the Regional Office for Africa, and in close collaboration with the Technical Leading Team (TLT) of the project, as well as the UNDP focal points at the country level, the National Project Manager will contribute to programmatic work at the national level by providing overall technical assistance and liaison with key national stakeholders.

Within the Regional Office for Africa, he/she will:

1) Assess the availability, the validity and the reliability of housing and land data in Mali, drafting analysis of data from primary and secondary sources on housing in Mali and contributing in the design of training tools and the development of data collection methods; 2) Draft minutes reports from the meetings held with national and local institutional partners and from coordination meetings with the UNDP project representative in the country as well as other United Nations agencies present at the national level; 3) Organize meetings and draft reports for the CityRAP activities in Nioro, liaising with national stakeholders and elaborating the resilient framework for action of the city. 4) Provide written content and review of the Spatial Development Strategy for the Sahel (SDSS) document; 5) Draft minutes of meetings of internal consultations and approvals, as well as external and peer review processes and validation of the Spatial Development Strategy for the Sahel (SDSS). 6) Provide written reports of UN-Habitat’s activities in Mali.

Qualifications/special skills 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. A first level university degree with an additional 2 years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree

Minimum of 5 years of working experience in the field of urban planning at the international level is required. A demonstrable understanding of urban development processes, urban planning, urban social issues, urban policy analysis and/ or the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus is required. 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.

Languages 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.