The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. To respond these complex development issues, and better focus its resources and expertise to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, UNDP has identified a set of approaches that we call our Signature Solutions which are aligned to UNDP’s Strategic Plan. These are:

  • Keeping people out of POVERTY
  • GOVERNANCE for peaceful, just, and inclusive societies
  • Crisis prevention and increased RESILIENCE
  • ENVIRONMENT: nature-based solutions for development
  • Clean, affordable ENERGY
  • Women’s empowerment and GENDER equality

Job Purpose:

Strengthen national coordination capacities for emergency response and recovery with a robust Knowledge Management System for the National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre, including support to expanding the national capacity for Covid-19 testing and increased border surveillance at higher risk cross-border points of entry, transport corridors and Kampala City. This will include generating and documenting knowledge to inform policy and practice;  supporting capacity building through training and guidance in Sectors and Local Governments; and facilitating strategic  communication and engagement of stakeholders within government, CSOs, private sector, academia, development partners, cultural institutions, and faith-based organizations.

Context of the Role:

Uganda is currently hit by multiple natural hazards that have occurred concurrently. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Uganda had been confronting impacts of climate change, food insecurity and strained service delivery in the refugee hosting districts. These have been worsened as a result of the shift in focus to COVID-19 Response.

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Uganda, like many other East African country is, currently, also hit by weather related risks such as floods and landslides due to the current intensive and prolonged rainfall in the region. This heavy rainfall is causing a rise of water levels.

which in turn is highly contributing to floods in many parts of the country. The floods in several parts of the country is affecting livelihoods, displacing people from their homes, affecting built environment, and impairing physical access as roads and bridges are also being affected.  The national and regional forecast show that the East African region and Uganda will continue to receive rains. As a result, casualties and other impacts of the disasters are expected to go high. On the other hand, the second round of locust invasion in Uganda occurred, as hopper bands and an increasing number of new swarms formed in parts of East Africa region and spread to Uganda. This influx is now threatening Uganda’s food production. The fight against the locust infestation is somehow hampered by the occurrence of COVID 19 which diverted attention of actors. Karamoja, the already chronic food insecure sub region of Uganda is under attack from locusts. This is feared to worsen the food insecurity situation in this sub region. In addition, border communities are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 due to their default position as transport hubs for inter-and intra-regional cargo.

This has necessitated increased surveillance and support to these border communities for timely identification and response to public health and other emergencies where need be. Therefore, in the wake of this multi-hazard induced disasters affecting the Uganda, it is imperative to enhance its response, management and resilience capability towards socio-economic stability. This requires concerted efforts of multiple actors including government and non-government actors. With support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre (NECOC) was set up in 2014. The NECOC is within the Department for Disaster Preparedness and Management in the Office of the Prime Minister, established in October 2014. The goal was to establish institutions and mechanisms that will reduce the vulnerability of people, livestock, plants and wildlife to disasters in Uganda. NECOC has over time provided support for response and building resilience to various emergencies in Uganda spanning from floods, landslides, pastoral conflict and health disasters such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter case, Uganda has instituted a national taskforce to manage response and coordination to COVID-19. The taskforce is managed by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and is comprised of public and private sector stakeholders with expertise as needed. The taskforce is mandated to oversee relief and logistics coordination, multi-agency collaboration, citizen engagement and sensitization as well as fundraising CSOs are involved in this process at the national level, as well as the subnational levels. The current post would support the strengthening of the Office of Prime Minister for enhanced coordination of responses to disasters across sectors, ministries, departments, agencies and local governments. Specifically, the position is to strengthen national coordination capacities for emergency response and recovery with a robust Knowledge Management System for the National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre.

 
As a member of a think-tank established to strengthen in-house capacity within OPM, comprising of a small high-level multidisciplinary core-team:

  • Provide independent analyses and timely information that will strengthen knowledge management and policy making for enhanced national resilience to multi-hazard induced disaster risks including pandemics;
  • Provide technical advice to the Office of the Prime Minister for leadership and coordination of multi-sector planning,
  • Support the OPM in forecasting the COVID-19 response and recovery needs;
  • Conduct rapid assessment to establish the existing gaps in conducting of periodic rapid risk assessment and local level surveillance in hotspots for Covid-19 detection and reporting;
  • Engage Uganda Virus Research Institute to agree on specific deliverables and provide a grant to strengthen timely testing and collaboration between sub-national and national arms of the NECOC;
  • Build local capabilities to respond to current and future emergencies given the high refugee and cross boarder population movements from neighboring countries with varied covid-19 response challenges and fragility situations;
  • Facilitate strategic stakeholder engagements;
  • Coordinate, prepare and disseminate analytical reports, policy briefs and best practices to inform policy, planning, budgeting and stakeholder engagement on COVID-19 and other disasters;
  • Design a multi-sector strategy to inform short, medium and long-term capacity development for disaster risk reduction and mitigation;
  • Position better Uganda’s NECOC through distilling emerging insights into timely and responsive action
  • Conduct strategic risk assessments;
  • Generate and document knowledge to inform policy and practice;
  • Preparations of research themes and TOR for recruitment of researchers to be attached to the think-thank  (auxiliary team of eight researchers from Makerere University supported by eight research grants);
  • Prepare grants document for small funding to the researchers;
  • Coordinate with the auxiliary research team to conduct specialized research;
  • Coordinate with UNDP’s Senior Gender Advisor to ensure a high level of gender responsiveness to the analytical, policy advocacy and programmatic work of NECOC and the think-tank specifically.

 
In this section list all core competencies as well as the most relevant technical/functional competencies the role will require along with the appropriate level.  A Detailed list of competencies can be accessed through the following link: https://intranet.undp.org/unit/ohr/competency-framework/SitePages/Home.aspx:

  • Innovation- Ability to make new and useful ideas work;
  • Leadership – Ability to persuade others to follow;
  • People Management -Ability to improve performance and satisfaction;
  • Communication – Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform;
  • Delivery – Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement.

 

 

 
Education:

Master’s degree in disaster risk management, social policy, public policy, politics, economics, development studies or a related area.
A Phd in Resilience related discipline would be an added advantage.

Experience:

  • Minimum of Seven years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian and development coordination or a related field;
  • Experience working within the UN system, preferably with UNDP;
  • Experience in advisory role with government particularly on disaster risk management and resilience planning   has an added value;
  • Experience of  African Context and particularly Ugandan government setting is desirable;
  • Previous experience in producing analytical reports, policy briefs and best practices to inform policy, planning, budgeting and stakeholder engagement on COVID-19 and other disasters;
  • Previous experience in cross-border issues and programming;
  • Working experience in post-disaster recovery and resilience building;
  • Proven experience working with inter-agency sectors in humanitarian and development programmes;
  • Ability to develop appropriate training programmes and training materials to strengthen local capacities for emergency preparedness and response.

Language  requirement:

  • Proficiency in English. Working knowledge of other UN language desirable.

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org no.77523.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website – http://jobs.undp.org no.98444.

  • Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
  • Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  • A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
  • Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
  • Annexes 1 and II – may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/. For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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