Kenya: Programme Support Officer for Francophone Africa,(Nairobi), Deadline:01 February 2015

CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Issued on: 19st January 2014

ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION:

UN-HABITAT, Slum Upgrading Unit

DUTY STATION:

Nairobi

FUNCTIONAL TITLE:

Programme Support Officer for Francophone Africa

DURATION:

6 months with option of extension

CLOSING DATE:

01 February 2015

Background
UN-Habitat is the lead agency for the Millennium Development Goal 7c and 7d aiming for access to water and sanitation and the significant improvement of living conditions in slums.

UN-HABITAT’s Regional Offices, the Project Office and the Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch as well as the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Secretariat and the European Commission (EC) have partnered to establish the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) as one of UN-Habitat’s efforts to mobilise partners and resources to commonly achieve urban poverty reduction.

PSUP consists of three components: Phase 1, participatory urban profiling, Phase 2, participatory action planning and Phase 3, participatory pilot slum upgrading project implementation. Currently, 35 ACP countries are implementing one of these three PSUP phases, and provisions are being made to structure the scaling-up of the programme: a future PSUP Phase 4.

With reference to the Phase 3 of the PSUP, 8 African countries that finalised the Phase 2 activities were selected to continue with this phase and currently develop their respective action plans for the implementation of slum upgrading pilot projects in selected informal settlements.

Slum Upgrading and Prevention
Slum upgrading and prevention can only be efficiently addressed through a systemic and integrated approach and with the involvement and participation of all concerned key stakeholders.

Slum upgrading programmes need to concomitantly tackle security of tenure and land regularisation as well as provision of basic urban services, promotion of good governance, creation of job opportunities, as well as planning challenges and decent housing.

In the past, slum upgrading has been addressed through a project-to-project basis and experience has shown that this approach is ineffective, because it rarely gained scale and/or replication.

The latest generation of slum upgrading actions around the world are part of the city-wide slum upgrading initiatives reflecting a strategic move from project to programme scale such as PSUP.

PSUP in 35 ACP countries
Countries participating in the programme are:

PSUP Phase 1, the Urban Profiling: Benin, Botswana, Lesotho, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Togo, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

PSUP Phase 2, the Action Planning: Antigua and Barbuda, Burundi, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Fiji, Gambia, Haiti, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda.

PSUP Phase 3, the Pilot Project Implementation”: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo (D.R.), Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal.

Outputs of Phase 1– the urban profiling and Phase 2 – the action planning can be found on the PSUP website www.unhabitat.org/psup and the www.mypsup.org).

The objectives of this assignment are:

Provide technical support to PSUP country implementation in Francophone Africa;Undertake missions to selected PSUP countries;Provide inputs to the PSUP monitoring and evaluation framework;Guide countries on the programme approach including during training workshops and national consultations;Review Phase 1, 2 and 3 PSUP outputs and contribute with technical review helped by guiding tools of the PSUP.Strengthen the resource mobilisation activities regarding slum upgrading and prevention;Deliver country documentation regarding slum upgrading and prevention;Develop background material for PSUP-related international conferences and regional workshops.

Approach
For the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) and in cooperation with the ACP Secretariat as well as the European Commission (EC), six general programme criteria have been agreed and applied in the proposals to the EC. Consequently, the indicators are essential for future EC external evaluations looking at the successful implementation of Phase 3.

That is why these indicators shall be also integrated in this evaluation and country selection process.

Quality of the project design: the appropriateness of the suggested project objectives and underlying problems, the needs and priorities of the intended target groups and beneficiaries that the project is supposed to address and the adaptation to the physical and policy environment within it operates. This shall include the quality of the project preparation and design – the logic and completeness of the project planning process, and the internal logic and coherence of the project design.Achievement of the main objectives and effectiveness of Phases 1 and 2 implementation as well as the proposed Phase 3 pilot projects: the assessment of expected results and impacts, including unintended ones, and then the comparison of intended and unintended consequences for Phase 2 and Phase 3. The consequences shall be evaluated in relation to the overall goal and the objectives of the PSUP, and the respect countries’/cities’ objectives.Efficiency of the implementation to date: to what extent funding, human, financial resources, regulatory, and/or administrative resources contributed to, or hindered, the achievement of the objectives and results. This also includes the ownership of the national and local governments to contribute to the programme implementation in line with national priorities and budgets.Sustainability of the effects: an analysis of the extent to which the results and impact are being, or are likely to be maintained over time, taking into account the multiplier effect of the planned slum upgrading activities and the extent to which the projects identified in Phase 2 are being or are likely to be financed and implemented (based also on the developed resource mobilisation strategy).Key cross-cutting areas of interventions: for example land, environment, gender, human rights, housing, basic urban services etc. are combined and are taken care off in the programme design which leads to a strong project with multiplier effects.Coordination, complementation and coherence: the degree that the proposed pilot projects are coherent with national priorities and current efforts of the key local and national partners, with donors and EU policies and Member States in particular, with the UN Country Teams, UNDAF and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as well as UN-HABITAT’s Country Programme Documents (if in place). This shall include an assessment of the positioning of UN-HABITAT within the overall context of donors in the field of urban development.

Responsibilities
To achieve the above objectives, this assignment is expected to accomplish the following activities:

PSUP country implementation:

The consultant will act as focal point to selected Francophone countries implementing PSUP Phases 1-3. The consultant will provide technical support to PSUP implementation as needed and actively follow-up on country implementation in order to ensure project compliance and output delivery. The consultant will report to the PSUP management about the progress in the assigned countries;

Material development on slum upgrading and prevention:

The consultant is preparing country documentation such as case studies, best practices, lessons learned from the assigned countries and other especially francophone countries to strengthening the normative approach to slum upgrading and prevention.
Further the consultant will engage in the ongoing elaboration of e-learning and other training material for slum upgrading and prevention. The consultant will provide technical input for the preparation, implementation and documentation of regional and country level training workshops for PSUP countries in Phases 1-3 with the specific focus on francophone countries.

Resource mobilisation activities:

The consultant will further strengthen existing resource mobilisation activities and support the identification of further resource mobilisation opportunities including the development of concept notes and project proposals both at the global and country level regarding slum upgrading and prevention;

Develop background material for PSUP-related international conferences and regional workshops:

The consultant will develop specific material to be used in international and regional conferences and workshops for the promotion of slum upgrading and prevention.
Overall Implementation Set-up
The consultant will be directly communicating to the PSUP Project Leader. The consultant is based in the office and is in close communication with the team.

Implementation Schedule
The outlined activities are expected to be undertaken within 6 months and the consultant is expected to deliver an updated time schedule at the commencement of the contract.

Property rights
Once the outputs are accepted by UN-Habitat, it will be the property of the United Nations, which shall be entitled to all property rights, including but not limited to patents, copyrights, and trademarks with regard to all material which bears a direct relation to, or is made in consequence of, the services provided to UN-Habitat by the Consultant.

UN-Habitat will make reference to and acknowledge the contribution made by the consultant to the preparation of the materials produced by the consultant.

Outputs

Progress reports on country implementation of the assigned countries;Reviews of submitted draft outputs assigned;3-4 country documentations (case studies, best practice, lessons learned);2-3 thematic backgrounders on slum upgrading and prevention for regional and international conferences.

Competencies (maximum of five)

CREATIVITY

Actively seeks to improve programmes or servicesTakes calculated risks on new and unusual ideas; thinks “outside the box”Takes an interest in new ideas and new ways of doing thingsIs not bound by current thinking or traditional approaches

COMMITMENT TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Keeps abreast of new developments in his/her own occupation and professionActively seeks to develop oneself professionally and personallyContributes to the learning of colleagues and subordinatesSeeks feedback to learn and improve

ACCOUNTABILITY

Takes ownership for all responsibilities and honours commitmentsDelivers outputs for which one ha responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standardsOperates in compliance with organisational regulations and rulesTakes personal responsibility for is/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable

CLIENT ORIENTATION

Consider all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of viewIdentifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solutionsKeeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projectsMeets timeline for delivery of product or services to client

PLANNING & ORGANIZING

Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategiesAllocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing workForesees risks and allows for contingencies when planningUses time efficiently

Education

Master’s in the following fields: International Development, Urban Development, Urban Planning, Urban Geography, Community Management or Environmental Planning is required;

Work Experience

Minimum of 3 years working experience in slum upgrading from an international perspective and field research;Demonstrated ability to undertake capacity building activities in slum upgrading and prevention;Experience in documentation of experience regarding slum upgrading and prevention;Experience in project design and management.

Language Skills
Fluency in written and spoken English and French is a requirement; knowledge of Spanish, Arabic or other UN official languages is an advantage.

Remuneration
The assignment will be undertaken for a total of 6 months. Fees are dependent on the qualification and experience of the candidate.

Applications should include:
• Cover memo (maximum 1 page)
• CV in the PHP format, accessible through the INSPIRA website (inspira.un.org) Please note, if using INSPIRA for the first time, you need to register in order to activate your account, which will allow you to log in and create a personal History Profile.
• The PHP should be attached to the application as a PDF file.
• Summary CV (maximum 2 pages), indicating the following information:

Educational Background (incl. dates)Professional Experience (assignments, tasks, achievements, duration by years/ months)Other Experience and Expertise (e.g. Internships/ voluntary work, etc.)Expertise and preferences regarding location of potential assignmentsExpectations regarding remunerationThree references

Please also be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the
UN-HABITAT e-Roster in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the e-Roster
through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org/

All applications should be sent to psup@unhabitat.org

Deadline for applications: 01st February 2014

UN-HABITAT does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and requesting the payment of a fee, please contact:recruitment@unon.org