Readvertised: Information Management Specialist, NOC – Fixed Term, Whole of Syria Section, MENA Regional Office, Amman, Jordan, #00129274

The Office for the Whole of Syria based within the UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is looking to hire a devoted Information Management Specialist to be based in Amman, Jordan.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling. UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, Hope

The complex crises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and other countries in transitions require highly visible humanitarian response equally supported by subtle, quiet advocacy. The choices of UNICEF are subject to far greater scrutiny and debate than normal, more importantly in the Syrian crisis context. Six years into the violent and destructive conflict in Syria, the population still faces one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world with an estimated 11 million people – 5 million children – in need of urgent life-saving assistance. Around 6.2 million people are internally displaced. Children are particularly vulnerable to rights grave violations, with recruitment into armed groups, exploitation, and abuse, including forced early marriage and child labor of particular concern. There are more than 5.7 million Syrians registered as refugees in the neighboring countries of whom 2.5 million are children. Non-State Entities (NSE’s) are controlling parts of the Syrian Arab Republic territory which triggered the UNSC resolutions 2165 in 2014 to allow cross border (XB) operations to access and scale up assistance to children in need of assistance. 

UNICEF cross border programming and the UN Whole of Syria (WoS) operational working framework requires a full dedicated coordinated approach with multiple actors, the Syria Country Office (SCO), and the several UNICEF hubs across neighboring countries in order to deliver critical humanitarian assistance against CCCs in an efficient, effective, and timely way. This allows a rational use of resources and improved coordination capacity. The XB implementation includes a coordination team based in Amman supported to date by field hubs based in Gaziantep and Amman. This WoS team is led by a P-5 with strong humanitarian, diplomatic skills, managerial experience, and sound understanding of the regional context reports to the Regional Director, ensuring the overseeing of the sub regional Syria humanitarian response working in close coordination with the Syria CO (SCO) Representative.

How can you make a difference? 

Purpose of the job:

Under the overall direction and guidance of the Senior Emergency Specialist AoR/ Sector Coordinator, the IM Specialist will provide leadership for the IM function of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group. Specific roles and responsibilities are shown below: 

Coordination and representation

As a member of the coordination team, contribute to the effective roll out and monitoring of the core cluster functions (as outlined by the IASC Reference Module) and to the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HNO, HRP and CCPM),

Represent the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group IM function at all levels and coordinate with others within the function to ensure effective communication, reporting and engagement,

Supervise an IM staff member if appropriate, • Actively engage with other IMs through relevant IMWGs, including leading or participating in the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group IMWG and representing the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group on the inter-cluster IMWG,

Promote harmonized and coordinated approaches to IM across partners, AoRs/ Clusters/ Sectors/ Working Groups and OCHA.

Information Management function management

Create and implement an IM strategy, a data collection and an analysis plan that consider the information needs of stakeholders and are compliant with standards and protocols for ethical data and information management,

Implement regular secondary data reviews and primary data collection including designing questionnaires using appropriate tools,

Conduct data processing including organizing, cleaning, triangulating, evaluating, and validating the data,

Analyze data to meet identified information needs of AoR/ Sector/ Working Group members and other stakeholders,

Create accurate, quality, and timely information products that are in line with agreed style guides,

Disseminate information and information products through appropriate channels,

Maintain and ensure the accessibility of a common and shared secure storage system,

Gather feedback on IM products and use to make improvements.

Needs assessment and analysis.

Working collaboratively with other members of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group, contribute to the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including joint assessments and analysis, at national and subnational levels,

Collect information on economic needs, markets, and price monitoring to support the equal consideration and use of all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher, and services),

Work with AoR/ Sector/ Working Group participants to identify information gaps at national and sub-national levels, agree and implement ways to bridge those gaps by providing technical advice and support to partners,

Analyze needs assessment data to provide required information for the HNO including estimating People in Need (PIN),

Compare and align joint needs analysis findings with other AoRs/ Clusters/ Sectors/ Working Groups and participate in developing reports.

Strategic response planning

Design and implement partner presence mapping,

Contribute to strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of the HRP or other response plans as relevant, including the formulation of objectives, indicators and targets, prioritizing response modalities and activities, identifying and quantifying inputs and the curation of data. Resource mobilization

Monitor and analyse the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group’s financial situation and support financial tracking,

Support and advocate with AoR/ Sector/ Working Group partners for financial reporting on the Financial Tracking Service (FTS),

Support evidence-based advocacy and resource mobilization by providing accurate, relevant, and timely data, information and information products. Implementation and monitoring

Develop, implement, and maintain a AoR/ Sector/ Working Group monitoring plan and associated databases, including a response monitoring (3/4/5Ws) database,

Ensure the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group monitoring plan, and 3/4/5Ws include programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher, and services), • Support AoR/ Sector/ Working Group members to contribute timely and quality periodic monitoring reports on AoR/ Sector/ Working Group and OCHA platforms,

Support monitoring in the areas of information flows, dissemination, processing, analysis, and dissemination,

Conduct quantitative and qualitative gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group humanitarian response,

Monitor adherence to relevant sector quality standards, regulations, and codes.

Operational peer review and evaluation

Lead the annual cluster coordination performance monitoring (CCPM) exercise and annual review,

Contribute to sectoral and broader humanitarian evaluations. Accountability to affected people.

Be accountable to affected populations by ensuring the meaningful participation of affected people, maintaining an effective feedback mechanism and handling complaints appropriately, by ensuring data about the most vulnerable is systematically collected and analyzed, and by encouraging partners to work accountably,

Ensure the inclusion of cross cutting issues (age, disability, gender, gender-based violence (GBV) mitigation and response and HIV & AIDS) in AoR/ Sector/ Working Group data collection, analysis, and dissemination,

Adhere to child safeguarding and PSEA policies including procedures for challenging and reporting incidents and ensure other members of the IM team comply. 

Take steps to strengthen local and national leadership and capacity by encouraging participation of local and national actors in the IM activities of the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group and providing support to partners to overcome technical and operational challenges in participating in IM activities,

Design and implement an IM capacity assessment and capacity development plan for AoR/ Sector/ Working Group partners.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  Vacancy Announcement – Information Management Spec – NOC -[RDM24018].pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced university degree in Information Management or Information Systems, GIS Information Technologies, Computer Science, Statistics, Social Sciences, or another subject area relevant to Information Management or to the AoR/ Sector/ Working Group is required.
• Work Experience: A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in information management, data management, geographical information systems, assessments, situation analysis and/or PM&E with the UN and/or NGO is required.First university degree in computer science, GIS, Engineering, Statics or Social Sciences, combined with 2 additional years of professional experience in IM field may be accepted in lieu of an advanced University Degree. Formal training in AoR/ Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group Information Management is an advantage.
• Experience in a humanitarian contextn and coordination system is an asset.
• Experience outside the humanitarian sector which is relevant to this post may be considered in lieu of humanitarian experience. 
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Arabic are required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with Others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drives to Achieve Impactful Results (1)
• Manages Ambiguity and Complexity (1)

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply. Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.