Security Officer, NOB, Tamale, Ghana (Temporary Appointment-364 days)

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Future

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The Sahel crisis has resulted in forced displacement in the central Sahel and beyond which, reached new heights in 2022, with over 2.9 million refugees and internally displaced people across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and an emerging trend of Burkinabe seeking asylum southward and northward, including in North Africa and Europe. Violence and conflict spilled over to coastal countries (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo), with several thousand new arrivals recorded. Given the complex interplay between conflict, climate change, food insecurity and widespread lack of socioeconomic opportunities, high levels of forced displacement are expected to continue into 2023. Ghana border with Togo in the East, Burkina Faso in the North and Cote d’Ivoire in the West. There are more than 20 districts bordering with these three countries, where the potential impact of Sahel Crisis Spill-Over is expected but not limited. In addition to the Sahel Crisis, there are on-going security issues in the regions specially related to land and chieftaincy issues. UNICEF Ghana has on-going programme interventions in these areas. Despite the challenges posed by the volatile context, UNICEF will endeavor to stay and deliver basic social services such as health, nutrition, education, water supply and sanitation, child protection and social protection through supporting the local government service providers an d communities by building the capacities and resilience. To be effective and operational in these areas, it is very important that there is clear understanding of the security risks and how to manage it to ensure that UNICEF programmes are implemented without any security implications. Therefore, UNICEF wants to strengthen its internal capacity in programme security risk management, hence, recruiting a Security Officer to support the UNICEF programmes and staff in Ghana, especially focusing on the Northern Regions.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job: The Security Officer reports Tamale Chief of Field Office for supervision. The Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance to the supervisor to manage a range of activities on security planning, management and risk assessments to ensure the safety and security of personnel and their eligible family members and safeguarding of UNICEF premises, assets and resources at the duty station.

Security Risk Management and Planning

• Provide supervisor with input related to the safety and security of UNICEF personnel and eligible family members, premises, assets, and resources in accordance with UN and UNICEF Security Management Systems. Participate as a member of the security coordination cell established by United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS).
• Assist in the implementation of all technical security requirements contained in the UN Security Plan, Minimum Operating Security Standards (MOSS), Residential Security Measures (RSM), and other relevant policies, guidelines, and assessments. Provide technical support for contracted security providers.
• Provide technical input to UNICEF security documentation including security contingency plans and assist in drafting mandatory reports in accordance with UNICEF security reporting guidelines including Security Incident Reports (SIRs).

Safety and Security Services

• Monitor the security situation and provide information, through the supervisor, on emerging security threats to UNICEF personnel and eligible family members, premises assets and resources. Assist in security activities that support UNICEF operations and participate, as requested, in security risk management for all locations where UNICEF personnel and eligible family members are present.
• Ensure that UNICEF personnel are kept informed of matters affecting their safety and security and the actions to take in the event of an emergency including those identified in the UNICEF/UN Security Plans. Support the establishment of an effective and functioning communications system for security management within UNICEF that is fully integrated into the UN Emergency Communications System. Coordinate with UNDSS to ensure all UNICEF personnel undertake all mandatory security training/briefings and participate in all security related contingency exercises. Assist in the implementation of security surveys of international personnel residences in accordance with the Residential Security Measures

Security Networking and Partnership Building

• In close coordination with UNDSS, actively participate and maintain official liaison with host government agencies, local authorities responsible for security, law and order, and counterparts in the UN.

Innovation, Knowledge Management and Capacity Building

• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
• Implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders on security related preparedness and operations

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: Security Risk Management, International Relations, Conflict Analysis, Intelligence Analysis, Diplomatic Studies, Conflict and Security, Counter Terrorism or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in national/global security risk management and/or security analysis is required.
• Work experience in the local area (northern Ghana) will be an asset.
• Demonstrated national/international security management experience and understanding of the United Nations Security Management System is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.