Senior Programme Officer at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

• The Senior Programme Officer may be based in HQ, field/regional bureau, typically reporting to and be guided by the Chief of Section/Deputy Director/Operations Manager and may supervise a small team of local and international staff. He/she may refer to UNHCR's Programme Manual (Chapter IV), UNHCR's corporate and regional strategic priorities, operation plans and other relevant institutional rules and regulations for further guidance.
• The Senior Programme Officer will provide strategic programmatic guidance and advice to senior management with regard to the implementation of country or Bureau level protection and solutions strategies within available resources. S/he will coordinate with the other sections/units within the Bureau and/or office(s) across the country/region to ensure harmonized programmatic approaches at all levels and throughout the UNHCR Operations Management Cycle. S/he will work in line with the overall UNHCR directions which crucially require working with partners, including with persons of concern, governmental institutions and the private sector, ensuring that programme management is approached as per UNHCR's Strategic Directions, Global Strategic Priorities (GSPs), Global Compact for Refugees (GCR), corporate positions on SDGs.
• The incumbent is expected to work in line with the multi-functional team (MFT) approach as defined within the Program Manual, ensuring the participation of relevant stakeholders in all phases of the Program Management Cycle.
• 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

• Oversee a coherent approach in assessing and analysing the needs of persons of concern in a participatory manner, using an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective as basis for planning.
• Provide guidance to office(s) on programmatic aspects of developing multi-year protection and solutions strategies and annual plans with corresponding priorities taking into account corporate priorities.
• Support Results Based Management and programme capacity in light of evolving requirements, programming approaches and gaps.
• Support the planning process in compliance with planning parameters outlined in the Programme Manual and the planning instructions.
• Ensure effective and results-based resource allocation in the planning processes and cost efficiency in the delivery of outputs.
• Review and analyse plans, mid-year and year-end reports of UNHCR office(s), ensuring quality assurance and compliance with established policies, guidelines, procedures and standards.
• Support the provision overall direction to broaden partnerships with key stakeholders in order to maximize the protection and solutions response for persons of concern.
• Guide and provide directions to office(s) in operationalising new and emerging policies, strategies and partnerships, including in an inter-agency context, identifying opportunities and innovative solutions and ensuring compliance with existing standards.
• Guide office(s) in managing a consultative process to ensure a consistent application of the framework for implementing with partners, including the effective implementation of the policy on selection and retention of partners, management of partnership agreements, risk-based project performance monitoring, and risk-based project audits, among others.
• Actively contribute to UNHCRs programming of community of practice and continuously contributing to improvements of programming tools and processes.
• Identify potential gaps and problems and in cooperation with other relevant sections recommend appropriate solutions to ensure the efficient implementation of programme activities
• Develop comprehensive assistance programmes that compliment activities implemented from other operational partners.
• Oversee a timely and effective follow-up of internal and external audits observations and recommendations that relate to programmatic issues.
• Lead risk assessments and discussions with team(s) to proactively manage risks and seize opportunities impacting objectives. Ensure that risk management principles are integrated in decision-making both at strategic and operational levels. Allocate resources for planned treatments with resource requirements in Strategic Plans. Ensure that risks are managed to acceptable levels and escalate, as needed. If a Risk Owner, designate the Risk Focal Point and certify that the annual risk review is completed and ensure that the risk register is updated during the year, as needed.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

• 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

• Business Administration, Social Science, Economics,
• International Relations or other relevant field.
• Certificates and/or Licenses
• Programme Management

Essential

• Demonstrated experience in developing and managing humanitarian projects and programmes including the allocation and management of resources. Sound knowledge of the UNHCR Operations Management Cycle Knowledge and practical experience on Results Based-Management. Demonstrated experience in field operations. Sound knowledge on the centrality of protection in programming. Enhanced knowledge on Joint Needs Assessments and the principles of targeting.

Desirable

• Demonstrated experience in coordination within an inter-agency context and other actors, in a refugee or humanitarian context. Solid experience in training and capacity building activities.

Functional Skills

• PG-Resource planning
• PG-Needs Assessment and Response Analysis
• PG-Stakeholder management and coordination with Implementing Partners (Gov/NGO/Corporate)
• PG-UNHCR's Programmes
• PG-Results-Based Management
• (Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

• For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
• For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
• For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

Desired Candidate Profile

• The successful candidate will have considerable experience as programme officer and will be fully conversant with the UNHCR programming systems and software. S/he will be familiar with cash based interventions and also conversant with tracking and programming earmarked contributions. S/he will have managed a programme team before and will be confident in representing UNHCR in various joint UN programming approaches, i.e. joint programmes, MPTF. S/he should fully conversant with the CRRF/GCR agenda of the agency and be able to represent the approach in multi-stakeholder setting.

Required languages (expected Overall ability is at least B2 level):
Desired languages
Operational context
Nature of Position:

• BO Nairobi has an overall supervisory role for programme activities at Sub-Offices Kakuma and Dadaab, in addition to direct programme management of the Urban programme.
• The incumbent reports to the Deputy Representative.
• The incumbent may supervise some professional staff and several support staff. UNHCR Manual, programme objectives, Operations Plans, UN and UNHCR financial/budgetary rules and regulations will guide the work of the Snr. Programme Officer. S/he is also expected to stay abreast of the challenges posed to the region by the political context, the changes being made by the Government, the UN and humanitarian reform and institutional developments.
• S/he will establish close working relations with the relevant staff working in the protection, programme, supply, project control and technical sectors as required. The post holder will be expected to support partners in a range of areas including monitoring and evaluation, financial accountability and technical support where required.
• The incumbent will backstop the operations in Dadaab and Kakuma and is expected to keep abreast of key issues in both PPGs, to be able to provide support to both programme teams in the field. Also, the incumbent will support the Snr. Ops Coordinator in the ongoing Global Compact for Refugees application in the Kenya refugee operation, the implementation of the Marshal Plan and support to drought related activities.
• The current Kenya operational budget stands at close to US $146 million, implemented by 21 partners and increasingly through CBI as an assistance modality, and with anticipated shift towards nationally provided services, starting with health and education. The incumbent will be in addition in charge of the PPG for the Urban Refugees and Statelessness.