Programme Management Officer, Human Settlements

Org. Setting and Reporting

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. UN-Habitat is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system. UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty. UN-Habitat is initiating its activities in Ukraine and there is an urgent need to fulfil the position of Programme Officer (P4) as part of the UN-Habitat programme in Ukraine.

• The UN-Habitat Programme team in Ukraine is currently launching the implementation of UN-Habitat’s mandate in response to the ongoing emergency situation, in collaboration with the Urban Lab. The primary focus is on developing city profiles to assess the rehabilitation and recovery needs for damaged housing, public facilities, and utilities.
• The Urban Planning and Design Lab (Urban Lab) of UN-Habitat, located in the Urban Practices Branch (UPB) under the Global Solutions Division (GSD), is an initiative to promptly respond to the requests of national and local governments to support sustainable urban development. The Urban Lab is the integrative facility of the Agency where innovative processes and partnerships are translated into tangible and transformative solutions to complex urban challenges, including urban recovery in crisis and post-crisis contexts. The Urban Lab acts as a neutral broker, managing knowledge in complex stakeholder settings to resolve multi-sectoral, multi-scalar and multi-stakeholder challenges, by offering a multi-disciplinary team capturing the necessary thematic areas. In this context, the Urban Lab applies an integrated approach to systemic and strategic planning to deliver transformative change for sustainable urbanization and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
• The focus of the position of Programme Officer is meant to oversee the implementation of projects at sub-regional and country level, mainly related to urban recovery in crisis and post-crisis contexts, Internally Displaced People (IDP), development of urban profiles to identify the immediate and long-term rehabilitation/recovery needs of the built environment, including damaged housing and public facilities and utilities, to inform strategic and actionable approaches to urban recovery, and support the fundraising activities for programme development.
• The incumbent of this position will report to the Chief Technical Advisor, responsible for UN-Habitat programming in Ukraine, and will work closely with the Emergency Director on the crisis response. Within delegated authority, the Programme Officer will be responsible for the following duties:

Responsibilities

• Supports the set-up of UN-Habitat presence in Ukraine, including an Urban Lab; establishing partnerships and collaboration with national and local authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, CSOs, etc. on the ground
• Develops, implements and evaluates assigned programmes/projects, etc.; monitors and analyzes programme/project development and implementation; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed and initiates corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties; ensures follow-up actions.
• Performs consulting assignments related to urban and territorial planning, including in crisis and post-crisis contexts, in collaboration with the client, by planning facilitating workshops, through other interactive sessions and assisting in developing the action plan the client will use to manage the change.
• Researches, analyzes and presents information gathered from diverse sources on strategic urban and regional planning
• Coordinates internal networks and assesses capacity needs in urban planning across the agency, developing adequate capacity development strategies in collaboration with relevant colleagues;
• Coordinates policy development, including the review and analysis of issues and trends related to urban planning and design, city extensions and densification, and their interrelation with local finance and economic development; preparation of evaluations or other research activities and studies.
• Generates survey initiatives; city profiling activities, designs data collection tools; reviews, analyzes and interprets responses, identify problems/issues around planning and design and prepares conclusions.
• Organizes and prepares written outputs, e.g. develops local level plans at city, neighborhood and site level, draft background papers, analysis, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, etc.
• Oversees for quality and coherence the work of projects with a view of ensuring consistent standards and the translation of UN-Habitat’s vision and objectives into practice and concrete recommendations and policy support to cities and other partners;
• Provides substantive backstopping to consultative and other meetings, conferences, etc., to include proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations, etc.
• Initiates and coordinates outreach activities; conducts training workshops, seminars, etc.; makes presentations on assigned topics/activities, e.g. urban planning and design;
• Leads and/or participates in large, complex field missions with UN-Habitat colleagues and external partners, including provision of guidance to external consultants, government officials and other parties and drafting mission summaries, etc.
• Coordinates activities related to budget funding (programme/project preparation and submissions, progress reports, financial statements, etc.) and prepares related documents/reports (pledging, work programme, programme budget, etc.).
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in architecture, engineering or urban planning, Geography, programme management or a related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in urban planning and design, project or programme management, in the context of urbanization, housing, land management, displacement, humanitarian settings, sustainable reconstruction and recovery, climate change adaptation, among other topics is required.
• Experience in the field of capacity development, institutional reform or training with a focus on sustainable urban development, with previous experience within the UN system, is desirable.
• Recent working experience in data management and analysis, mapping or profiling in a conflict/post-conflict context is an important asset, including knowledge of the complexities and dynamics of government and governance issues and interactions with a range of partners at country level, with past experience and/or knowledge of the dynamics in the region, is desirable. Two (2) years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge in any other language is desirable. NOTE: “fluency equals a rating of “fluent” in all four areas (read, write, speak, understand) and ” Knowledge of” equals a rating of ” confident” in two of the four areas.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/246342?language=en