UNV Humanitarian Access Assistant

UN Entity: UNOCHA

Assignment Context:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA)‘s overall goal in Lebanon is to support the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in his work to ensure a coherent and effective humanitarian response to all people in need in Lebanon in line with the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan.  OCHA Lebanon’s focus is to:

• Enhance coordination mechanisms at the strategic level, in support of the HC and the HCT to improve planning and monitoring of a joined-up response across all sectors;
• Strengthen situational awareness in a fluid context as well as the analysis of humanitarian needs, gaps and response;
• Mobilize flexible, predictable humanitarian funding; and  advocate for improved protection and humanitarian access.

This UNV assignment is based in the OCHA Office in Beirut. The volunteer will support the Access and Civil-Military Coordination Unit in delivering on their objective to facilitate access and support humanitarian operations across Lebanon.

The volunteer will be expected to support the unit in a wide range of tasks, from reporting, and managing communications for the access unit, to providing technical support to the Humanitarian Notification System (HNS) project team and supporting the policy and training workstreams as needed.

Task description:
Under the direct supervision of the Head of Access and CMCoord Unit in Lebanon , the UN Volunteer ​Humanitarian Access Assistant​ will perform the following core tasks:  
- Support the preparation of the different Access Working Group, CMCoord Cell, and relevant meetings, the drafting of talking points, meeting notes, key messages and other operational tools.  
- Serve as a focal point for HNS-related tasks, including the processing of sites, humanitarian movements, tracking of movements and follow-up with humanitarian partners in Lebanon.  
- Contribute to the implementation of contextualized humanitarian access practices, standards, mechanisms, and tools, such as Joint Operating Principles and Access Monitoring and Reporting Framework.
- Support and maintain an up-to-date database of stakeholders and relevant actors, analyzing trends and access impediments to planned missions.  
- Assist in organizing workshops, events and training sessions on different topics under access and CMCoord.  
- Maintain up to date list of contacts, information products, maps and other documents to improve communication and information-sharing within the unit.  
- Establish and maintain dialogue with the relevant internal and external stakeholders, including OCHA ROMENA access team, the HNS project team, HNS users, and the humanitarian partners.  
- Assist in the development of access and CMCoord reports and products and ensure regular update of relevant reports, presentations, minutes, snapshots, including analysis of HNS-related access trends.
- Perform other duties as requested by the Head of Unit.   

The UN VOLUNTEER may also be requested to support the service in the following:
- Monitoring and reporting on humanitarian developments, disaster relief/management or emergency situations.
- Participate in field missions, when necessary, often at short notice.
- Contributes to capacity building and training initiatives through preparing agenda and content packages, delivering briefings and information sessions - as required.     

Results/Expected outputs:  
- Maintain a communications and knowledge management mechanism for the access and CMCoord unit.
- Ensure weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly progress reports are delivered in a comprehensive and timely manner.
- Support other colleagues in other tasks as required, including but not limited to content creation, follow-up communications with partners, assist in drafting of documents, organization of events and webinars for knowledge sharing, etc.

Languages
Arabic, Level: Fluent, Required
English, Level: Fluent, Required
French, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable

Required Experience:
Bachelor degree or equivalent in Humanitarian Action, International Relations, International Development, Communications, Programme Management, Social Science, or related Field.   

Inclusivity statement:
United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements
Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy.

Living conditions and remarks
As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. This position is based in Beirut. National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan. National UN Volunteers are expected to be culturally sensitive and adjust to the prevailing culture and traditions.

National UN Specialist Volunteers in Lebanon are entitled to:

• Monthly Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) at the amount of USD 1,606.56
• Annual and learning leaves
• Medical and life Insurance
• Free access to different learning platforms.

For more information on UN Volunteer benefits, entitlements and support, please visit:
https://www.unv.org/volunteer-your-country-conditions-service