Technical Coordinator – WASH/Shelter, P4, Cox’s Bazaar At UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Technical Coordinator coordinates in complex refugee situations the Settlement planning, WASH, Energy and Environment, and Shelter interventions.
The incumbent will ensure compliance of UNHCR policies, rules and regulations in the relevant technical fields. The incumbent will work closely with the technical sector specialists.
S/he will coordinate the technical needs assessments, develop integrated strategies taking into account the community needs, protection concerns, local context, age and gender, culture, climate, environmental conditions and available resources and skills.
S/he will also monitor, support, and provide guidance to partners. In addition, s/he will be the face of UNHCR with external actors and UN/NGO partners with regard to the coordination of technical projects/interventions as part of inter-agency response efforts.

This job only exists at P4 and P5 grade levels.

While the functional responsibility of a Technical Coordinator will always remain the same despite its grade level, the other parameters (therefore the depth and breadth of the competencies) such as the size of the population of concern to UNHCR, their specific concerns, volume of assistance, number of Partners and the budget of the applicable technical sector will determine the appropriate grade level.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR¿s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Proactively lead and/or participate in inter-agency fora to ensure that UNHCR¿s Mandate and programmes are given due attention and reflected in linkage at the country level, bureaux and at the policy levels of humanitarian and development coordination systems.
• Contribute or lead the effective establishment and maintenance of coordination mechanisms for the shelter and settlement, WASH, Energy and Environment technical sectors
• In line with the refugee coordination model and globally-agreed arrangements ensure timely and effective sectoral technical needs assessment, appropriate planning, prioritization, implementation, reporting and evaluation.
• Contribute to joint appeals, regional refugee response plans, regional refugee and migrant response plans, refugee and resilience plans, comprehensive responses.
• Approve project designing including preparation of BOQs/specifications and costing, carry out and provide recommendations, plan of action and verify compliance in the implementation for these technical sectors.
• Coordinate internally and externally the technical interventions and ensure compliance with technical standards.
• Lead actively technical interagency working groups and ensure constructive and amicable relationships with government and partners.
• Ensure environmental considerations are taken into account for all the technical interventions planned and implemented in settlement, shelter, wash and energy programmes.
• Promote the sustainability of technical interventions through local capacity building and self-help in collaboration with partners in the field. Ensure and lead community consultations
• Guide and oversee the procurement of sector related materials or equipment, including the development of technical specifications for bid documents, technical evaluation of bids, review/inspection of the quality of products/works.
• Ensure regular reporting and updating of plans.
• Build key strategic partnerships with development and humanitarian agencies in relation to WASH and other community based infrastructure interventions.
• Lead cross-functional preparation of issues and follow-up within UNHCR in the relevant substantive units and services.
• Ensure comprehensive monitoring of technical related activities is in place.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Professional Work Experience
Years of Experience / Degree Level
For P4/NOD – 9 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 8 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 7 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education
Civil-Engineering, Water and Sanitation Engineering Public Health Engineering
or other relevant field
(Field(s) of Education marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Certificates and/or Licenses
not specified
(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience

Essential
Prior experience of implementing infrastructure and WASH projects in humanitarian context and large scale emergencies coordinating with operational partners, governmental technical departments. Prior experience in designing and implementing a community-based projects. Hands-on project formulation, planning, supervision and management experience. Experience of technical project management (including site supervision, monitoring, quality control, evaluation etc.) and application of participatory approaches to facilitate active participation of communities into the project cycle and into the construction process. Ability to develop projects/activities with political awareness and in due consideration to local context, including sensitivity to cultural and gender specific needs to ensure that the social and cultural background of the communities is taken into account while designing, developing and implementing infrastructure works (engineering/ WASH). Strong experience in inter-agency coordination. Strong experience in building on existing local capacity and transfer knowledge as appropriate.

Desirable
Diverse field experience and familiarity with UNHCR programming.