Career Openings at United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

The consultancy will deliver the following:

• Assist in the development and implementation of UNDRR’s programme and activities in Lusophone countries (Mozambique and Angola) related to early warning and early action, risk information and disaster risk reduction and resilience building, including liaising across the UN system and with national and local governments.
• Works with regional organizations AUC, SADC, SHOC, ECCAS, ACMAD, AGRHYMET, ECOWAS to leverage their services for improving national capacities and connect national systems AMHEWAS.
• Lead the organizations of workshops and capacity building initiatives on early warnings, risk assessment and mapping, risk governance, in Lusophone African countries
• Assist national organizations in developing risk assessment and mapping, including disaster loss tracking system, reporting to Sendai Monitoring Framework. Support in establishing system and procedures for early warnings and early actions protocols, analysis legal and institutional frameworks and organize simulation exercise
• Support national and local authorities in improving risk governance mechanism, local resilience, strengthening partnership with academia and research centre, including engagement with the Africa Network of Centre of Excellence for DRR. The assistance will be provided on site and remotely to ensure continuous engagement of national, subnational and regional organizations and partners.
• Prepares various written outputs, project reports, substantive support to consultative and other meetings, conferences, etc., to include proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations, etc.
• Participates in or lead field missions as well as drafting mission summaries.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in areas relevant to Disaster Risk Management, Climate Science or Disaster Risk Assessments is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Five (5) years of experiences in the areas of Disaster Risk Reduction, early warning, disaster risk management, risk assessment or hazard mapping is required. Experience in hazard assessment or spatial hazard mapping and analysis in the areas of drought, floods, etc. is desirable.

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Duties and Responsibilities

• The consultant will report to the Program manager -Risk Knowledge and will work in close collaboration with national institutions to evaluate and identify opportunities to enhance production, access and use of disaster loss and damage data in collaboration with current initiatives.
• In coordination with agencies and stakeholders, the consultant will carry out the following activities:
• Understanding the current institutional landscape of disaster loss and damage data management
• Collect and analyse existing policies, institutional frameworks and identify stakeholders involved in managing disaster data;
• Conduct an inventory of current disaster loss and damage data quality and accessibility, including data sources, data collection and management mechanisms, and data-sharing or exchange protocols;
• Evaluate the information management platforms and tools used by government agencies from data collection, storage and analysis to access and use;
• Carry out a quick assessment of the technical and human resources capacities of national institutions involved in managing disaster data in order to assess the maturity of the country to collect and use disaster data;
• Understand and highlight the current use of disaster loss and damage data in early warning systems and early action frameworks.
• Development of a workplan and capacity building plan for enhancing the consistency in collecting disaster loss and damage data and managing the existing data
• Propose or review a workplan that, among others, takes into account the existing framework mentioning the roles, responsibilities, and collaboration mechanisms for stakeholders as well as the reinforcement necessary, mentions the review of the standards, protocols, and guidelines for the collection, management, sharing, and use of disaster loss and damage data to ensure consistency, and accessibility;
• Develop a capacity-building plan to enhance the technical and institutional capacities of national institutions in managing disaster loss and damage data for decision making and reporting to regional and global platforms;
• Establish a monitoring and evaluation system to assess the effectiveness of the proposed actions, the sustainability of the disaster tracking system and ensure continuous improvement, reporting to SFM and uploading data into DesInventar.
• Other tasks
• Perform other duties to support the successful planning and implementation of DRR and disaster loss and damage, Risk Knowledge.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree in disaster risk management, risk analysis and management, early warning, environment, social sciences or a related field. A first-level university degree in combination with a minimum of 2 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in disaster risk reduction, disaster loss and damage management or relevant humanitarian and/or development work is required
• Experience in national context on DRR/DRM is required Experience in information management, data analysis, statistics, and post disaster loss and damage assessment is desirable
• Experience in the UN or any other similar international organization related to disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery is desirable.