National Programme Officer, NOD - Hargeisa, Somaliland

Background
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat helps the urban poor by transforming cities into safer, healthier, greener places with better opportunities where everyone can live with dignity. It works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector to help build, manage, plan and finance sustainable urban development. The UN-Habitat Somalia Programme is implementing projects in Somaliland for more than 25 years and is active in the areas of Local Governance, Land Management, Security of Tenure and GIS, Participatory Urban Planning and Management, Environmentally Sound Urban Infrastructure and Basic Service Delivery, Local Government Finance, Shelter Construction, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and the direct supervision of the UN-Habitat Somalia Programme Managers, the National Programme Officer will be responsible for representing UN-Habitat at the country level in the UN Heads of Agencies team (the UN Hargeisa Team - UNHT), for the overall management of the UN-Habitat Office and programmes in Hargeisa, for close coordination between UN- Habitat and the Local Governance Joint Programme (JPLG) Somaliland Team and partner agencies, programme partnerships with the Government of Somaliland and the civil society. Detailed tasks are as follows:

A) General Management & Coordination
1. Closely follow and advise the CTA and relevant UN-Habitat Managers about changes in the political situation in the region and Somaliland that may impact on UN-Habitat’s operations.

2. Collaborate with the UNHT to ensure programmatic integration and harmonization.

3. Coordinate and negotiate with national and international high-level representatives, partners, donor organizations and NGOs in Somaliland.

4. Promote close collaboration between UN-Habitat’s programmes, the Government of Somaliland and the Nairobi Liaisons Office to further develop partnerships, identify support opportunities and contribute to global knowledge sharing of UN-Habitat.

5. Ensure timely implementation of all UN-Habitat’s programmes (II, III and IV below) in Somaliland through promotion of effective team work and day-to-day management support to staff, especially in problem solving.

6. Promote and plan for continued development of the UN-Habitat Hargeisa office operations and programme management.

B) Programme Management
I. General
1. Provide Somaliland context-specific support in human settlements analysis and needs assessments, participate in activities aimed at developing human settlements policies, strategies and programmes and knowledge sharing on the same.

2. Contribute to and backstop the preparation and implementation of UN-Habitat’s annual work plans and budgets, contracts, Terms of Reference for staff and implementing partners to ensure their appropriateness in the Somaliland context.

3. Contribute to the monitoring, evaluation and reporting of UN-Habitat programmes and projects in Somaliland for further improvement of effectiveness and sustainable impact.

4. Facilitate programme progress review meetings with Somaliland authorities.

5. Ensure good visibility and public awareness of programme actions across the region, including through the media and UNHT.

II Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralised Service Delivery (JPLG)
a. Manage the planning and implementation of all UN-Habitat’s JPLG projects to ensure that the results and impacts are achieved as planned and budgeted.

b. Closely collaborate with partner agencies within the JPLG Somaliland Team and the Programme Coordination Unit to ensure effective and harmonized planning and implementation of UN-Habitat programme within the JPLG.

c. Assume the duties of an Acting JPLG Team Leader as and when requested.

d. Contribute to the policy development on municipal finance and revenue collection, including advice on the strategic direction and emerging opportunities in Somaliland; supervise and monitor the performance of implementing partner of Integrated Municipal Finance Systems programme.

III Hargeisa Water Infrastructure Project
e. Provide strategic leadership to the technical team in the planning and implementation of the Hargeisa Urban Water Project; foster political support for the Agency and the Project activities; participate in overall coordination efforts, Steering Committee meetings, and liaison with Hargeisa Water Agency, the Municipality and the line ministries.

f. Assist in problem solving and alert on any local developments or in social or political context that may have a negative impact on the project.

g. Provide technical support to activities in the field of Hargeisa Water Agency capacity development, revenue optimization, pro-poor water supply, and water operator partnerships.

IV Shelter Construction for IDPs and the urban poor in Hargeisa
h. Provide strategic leadership support to the Shelter Project Manager and the technical team in the implementation of the Ayaha shelter project; in particular, in the areas of project coordination, government liaison, political support and public awareness raising, stakeholder involvement through the Project Steering Committee, project communication with Somali partners, and project-related strategic advice to the UN-Habitat Nairobi office.

i. Provide management support to the community development components of the project, such as beneficiary selection, host community and beneficiary involvement, household profiling, skills development activities, and coordination of the implementing partner NGOs.

Work implies frequent interaction with the following: Counterparts, representatives and officials in national and local governments, officers and technical staff in the Somalia Programme, within UN-HABITAT and other UN agencies, non governmental organizations and consultants.

Results Expected:

• Programmes/projects developed, managed, monitored and evaluated;
• Effective management of teams;
• Well reasoned written contributions and innovated approaches for dealing with issues;
• Effective working relationships through internal and external communications, and strengthened partnerships with relevant parties.

All applications including a covering letter, PHP/P11 should be submitted to:
UN-Habitat RTCD/ROA/Somalia
P.O. Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO, Kenya
Email: un-habitat.som@unhabitat.org
Fax: +254 20 762 3328

For more information, kindly see attached file.