Senior adviser (N1) in Kenya, The Inclusive Refugee Response Programme at Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA)

• As Senior Adviser, you support the Danish-funded and led Inclusive Refugee Response Programme in Kenya that aims to respond to the protracted forced displacement situation in Kenya, and specifically in Turkana. Under a new legal framework, The Refugees Act, the government of Kenya will take a leading role in service provision, and improved rights for refugees to work and settle in designated refugee hosting counties. The overall plan aims to progressively transform refugee camps to integrated settlements and enhance social-economic inclusion of both refugees and host communities.
• Within the Department of Refugee Services in Nairobi, you will particularly focus on supporting the Turkana County in the implementation of the Refugees Act. You will also provide specific expertise in mapping and addressing the systemic constraints, the capacity building needs, planning, budgeting and implementation of the milestones and transitional steps for government leadership. You have substantial experience in program planning, implementation, and monitoring, preferably within government institution. Additionally, you should have a minimum of 8 years development cooperation experience, focusing on refugee affairs, minorities, and vulnerable populations, preferably in East Africa region.

The programme in short:

• The enactment of The Refugees Act, 2021 provides a different and ambitious approach to seek a durable solution to the refugee situation with a move away from encampment towards socio-economic inclusion and eventual integration of refugees. The Refuges Act implementation will also institute a major shift of roles between the government and UNHCR. The Government is expected to progressively take up its responsibilities and mandates such as security, protection and documentation of refugees and asylum seekers. The Government is further developing the so-called Shirika Plan which is defined as the “roadmap” for the implementation of the new Act and will lay out the support and financing needed at both national and county level. The plan aims to progressively transform refugee camps to integrated settlements and enhance social-economic inclusion of both refugees and host communities.
• To promote a humanitarian-development and durable solutions approach to the refugee situation, the County Government of Turkana has since 2018 partnered with UNHCR and international agencies to implement the Kalobeyei Integrated Social and Economic Development Programme (KISEDP 1), as a multi-agency collaboration that brings together the government, UN agencies, development actors, NGOs, private sector and civil society to start a transition towards sustainable services and economic opportunities in Kalobeyei for both refugees and the host community. The successor plan, KISEDP 2, was launched in March 2023. The IRRP and its three projects will align with the Refugees Act and support the implementation of the KISEDP 2 plan, which is also aligned with the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP). Moreover, Kakuma has been gazetted as a municipality in March 2023.
• The Inclusive Refugee Response Programme (IRRP) contributes to the overall implementation of the Refugees Act, regulations and the upcoming Shirika Plan by enhancing the capacity of the central government, Department of Refugee Services, and the Turkana County Government on legal, institutional, and “socialisation” issues. Secondly, the IRRP seeks to facilitate the transition process towards government-led social service delivery in health, education and water through technical support to build the capacities and enable this shift. The IRRP will have a strong focus on gathering overall learning elements of the programme. In this regard, the learning is understood as an inclusive process, where the monitoring reports prepared by the different actors in the programme are being posited and shared amongst stakeholders, and learning is synthesised and disseminated.
• The programme will start end of 2023, and for the programme to meet its overall objective a long-term adviser to be particularly focused on supporting the Turkana County in the implementation of the Refugees Act will be recruited to DRS.

Reference no.: 2024/KEN.01

Application deadline: 15 January 2024 at 12.00 noon (CE(S)T).