Housing, Land and Property Working Group Co-ordinator DR Congo

Background

DR Congo is among the world’s most complex and protracted humanitarian crisis. The legacy of prolonged instability has weakened the core frameworks of political governance, intensified poverty and contributed to the proliferation and splintering of armed groups. The recent escalation of violent armed conflicts in the eastern part of the country has triggered mass displacements, engendering widespread rights violations and humanitarian needs. The UNHCR estimates that more than five million people are internally displaced, while the caseload of refugees and asylum-seekers countrywide has exceeded 500,000, the majority reside outside settlements or formal refugee camps.[1] Recurring conflicts, natural disasters, and epidemics continue to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The inadequate protection of HLP rights and its associated consequences remain among the most pressing protection challenges characterising the current displacement crisis in DR Congo. Displaced communities lack access to land for dwelling and farming. Competition over meagre communal resources continues to foment tensions and create conflicts between displaced and host communities. In parallel, forced eviction is becoming a phenomenon of increasing protection concern due to widespread tenure insecurity. Combined, these challenges constitute obstacles undermining the ability and potential of displacement affected populations to recover and pursue durable solutions. In the absence of strategic focus to address these intertwining HLP problems, they could have direct and/or residual effects on the impact and success of other humanitarian sectors, i.e. Food Security, WASH, etc. Within this broader context, the coordination of the HLP Working Group in DR Congo has become an NRC strategic priority.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in DR Congo since 2001, delivering humanitarian aid and providing protection and assistance to displacement affected populations across five principal sectors: Education, Livelihoods and Food Security, WASH, Shelter, and Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA). With established global expertise in HLP programming and extensive local capacity and experience, NRC chairs the HLP Working Group alongside Save Community in Conflict (SCC) as co-chair at the national level in DR Congo under the Protection Cluster. The structure of the HLP Working Group consists of a national chair, NRC, and a number of sub-national working groups, some of which are led by local partners. As a component part of the protection system, activities of the HLP Working Group feed directly into the overall strategic objectives of the National Protection Cluster.

Role and responsibilities

This is a full-time position intended to provide dedicated and quality leadership to the HLP Working Group in DR Congo on behalf of the NRC. Leadership in this context embodies facilitating all of the processes necessary to raise the profile and functioning of the Working Group to an acceptable strategic level, including ensuring coherent, coordinated, effective response, and programmatically appropriate response by members of the working group. The post holder will consolidate collaboration with the relevant humanitarian, government and community stakeholders to ensure effective and efficient management and functioning of the HLP Working Group. Responsibilities will span across the eight broad Functional Areas (FAs) as particularised under Section 3 of this Job Description – Key Responsibilities.

Key responsibilities

FA1: Strategy Development, planning and assessments

• Facilitate the development of a 3-year strategic roadmap and an implementation plan for the HLP Working Group.
• Initiate, facilitate and lead the design and development of HLP Working Group’s annual objectives, indicators and response plan that feeds into the country-level Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
• Develop the working group’s plan to facilitate coherent and systematic implementation of and reporting against the deliverables set out in the HRP.
• Participate and contribute meaningfully to other national-level strategic humanitarian planning processes on behalf of the working group.
• Ensure that all strategic and operational plans for the working group are updated regularly to reflect the evolving humanitarian context.
• Undertake regular Target-vs-Planned reviews against all strategic and operational plans and update them as required.
• Mobilise members of the working group as may be necessary from time to time, and organise and lead needs assessments (including analysis and reporting) to inform planning, response and strategic decision-making.
• Participate actively in inter-cluster and inter-agency assessments and ensure adequate representation of the HLP Working Group, including the integration of HLP needs and priorities.

FA2: Maintaining an effective and responsive humanitarian coordination mechanism

• Manage and lead the HLP Working Group in keeping with best practices and relevant core cluster functions.
• Provide a visible and robust representation of HLP needs and priorities in relevant strategic humanitarian coordination forums at the national level, and facilitate the same at the field levels.
• Develop a meeting calendar for the working group, and convene and facilitate meetings in line with the HLP Working Group’s ToR. This activity may include HLP specific meetings and/or joint inter-cluster meetings.
• Document and share meeting minutes, and follow-up on agreed decisions and action points.
• Ensure that the working group meetings adhere to the basic principles of partnership, including Transparency, Equality, a Results-oriented approach, Complementarity, and Responsibility.
• Develop and consolidate strong linkages with the Shelter, Food Security and Protection Clusters, other strategic humanitarian and government stakeholders, as well as partners within the donor community.
• Where applicable and necessary, promote and facilitate an equitable division of labour and assignment distribution among working group members, bearing in mind individual technical expertise, operational capacity, comparative competitive advantages, and complementarity.
• Undertake a systematic periodic review of the working group’s operational structure, and in consultation with field teams, designate focal points and establish sub-national working groups as may be necessary for the fulfilment of the broader vision and objectives of the HLP working group.
• Mobilize international and local NGO partners and create awareness in order to increase membership of the working group, promote active participation, and foster an inclusive and accessible coordination system.
• Increase collaboration with structures and networks that are external to the mainstream cluster system but can contribute to and strengthen the operations of the working group.
• Promote and explore possibilities to mainstream HLP across other humanitarian sectors.
• Develop and maintain an updated database of all working group members, ensuring that cluster membership is transparent, inclusive, consultative and results-oriented.

FA3: HLP awareness and technical capacity development

• Facilitate general HLP awareness trainings for government and humanitarian partners, including members of other clusters.
• Explore and/or create technical capacity development opportunities for the HLP Working Group members.
• Identify capacity gaps and organise and facilitate training for members of the working group to address those gaps.
• As appropriate and in fulfilment of the working group’s objectives, develop and facilitate the sharing of technical tools, materials, and resources.

FA4: Advocacy and learning

• Identify (or innovatively create), facilitate and support the realization of strategic advocacy initiatives and opportunities, including periodic high-level HLP forums.
• In liaison with members of the working group, identify strategic HLP advocacy issues/objectives and develop key messaging/talking points and a common action plan.
• Continuously explore opportunities to contribute to broader advocacy initiatives at regional and global levels, i.e. HLP AoR, Protection Cluster, etc.
• Raise the profile of HLP needs and priorities to the humanitarian agenda in DR Congo, i.e. HTC, Protection Cluster, OCHA, but also within the donor community.
• Mobilise and promote strong civil society participation in efforts to promote and protect HLP rights in DR Congo. This may entail invitations to participate in working group meetings and joint brainstorming sessions to identify HLP issues and consolidate inputs for advocacy.
• Escalate urgent HLP issues to the relevant coordination bodies and UN agencies for appropriate action.

FA5: Positioning and resource mobilisation

• Represent the HLP Working Group at the level of the Cluster Review Committee, and provide objective leadership and strategic direction in the assessment and prioritisation of project proposals.
• Advance and advocate for meaningful inclusion of HLP priorities at the level of the Strategic Advisory Group under the National Protection Cluster.
• In consultation with working group members, identify activities and initiatives for inclusion in various response plans as may be required or specifically requested, CERF, CHF, ERF, etc.
• At all times and as may be required or specifically requested, ensure that the agreed HLP priorities are adequately incorporated in various appeal documents.

FA6: Information Management, Monitoring and Reporting

• Develop, introduce tools, and ensure the institutionalisation of monthly reporting among the HLP Working Group members.
• Ensure that the HLP Working Group contributes monthly to the Protection Cluster 5W reporting system.
• Periodically analyse implementation dataset, identify gaps in the overall response process and share the findings with the working group members.
• Provide regular reports and analyses on implementation progress against the HRP results framework.
• Analyse and provide regular updates on the funding situation of the HLP Working Group, focusing on aggregate annual requirements versus funding received.

FA7: Preparedness and emergency response

• Facilitate and lead the HLP Working Group’s contingency and emergency preparedness planning processes.
• Contribute to broader contingency planning at the level of the National Protection Cluster as required.
• Systematically monitor and report HLP violations trends and undertake emergency preparedness planning in order to anticipate emerging risks.

Competencies

• An advanced university degree in law, International Relations, the social sciences or other relevant field from an accredited university.
• Fluency in written and spoken French is a fundamental requirement, while advanced knowledge of the English language is a strong asset.
• At least five (5) years of progressive professional humanitarian work experience with UN agencies and/or international NGOs with proven expertise in coordination and programme management during all phases of displacement. Continuous professional experience in humanitarian coordination is an added advantage.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in HLP programming are required. In addition, knowledge and prior experience with NRC ICLA NRC programming is an asset.
• Thorough knowledge of core HLP concepts and the legal environment in which they exist, and experience with HLP training modules and toolkits. Facilitation experience with these tools is an important asset.
• The ability to anchor the execution of duties and responsibilities on neutrality, identifying solely with the HLP Working Group and not an individual agency or group member.
• Experience with developing advocacy plans, formulating messages and leading advocacy initiatives. An experience advocating for the promotion and protection of HLP rights in a humanitarian context is an asset.

• Demonstrated experience in strategy development, as well as planning and undertaking needs assessments and analyses.

• Balanced knowledge and understanding of International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, Refugee Law, the Humanitarian Charter, IDP protection, The Sphere Project and legal frameworks relating to Housing, Land and Property rights.

• Proven experience in training facilitation and other capacity-building initiatives, including developing training materials.

• Cultural awareness, sensitivity and ability to adapt to contextual realities.

• Excellent representation and networking skills

• Strong negotiation, diplomacy, communication and representation skills. The ability to navigate personalities and build consensus is an asset.

• Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to express ideas and concepts clearly and persuasively in forums with professional field practitioners and senior members of the humanitarian community.

• Ability to facilitate the development of high-quality national-level strategies and create cross-functional and motivated teams.

• A high degree of persuasion and negotiation skills, combined with extensive in-field experience.

• Ability to work under pressure, deliver quality results, and maintain consistency in an environment with heightened insecurity.

• Ability to meet performance expectations in an insecure, psychologically stressful, and culturally diverse environment with considerable physical hardships.

• Demonstrates transparency, credibility, openness and a high level of professionalism.

• Approaches tasks from a process viewpoint and effectively employs accountability and measurement systems to improve efficiency and quality.

Behavioural competencies:

• Working with people
• Communicating with impact and respect
• Strategic thinking
• Empowering and building trust
• Initiate action and change
• Analyzing

What We Offer

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to join our work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility. At NRC we think outside the box. We encourage ideas and give responsibility to all employees at all levels, to help solve the complex issues that we face. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative.

• 12 months fixed term contract
• Grade 8 in NRC scale
• Duty Station: Kinshasa with 60% travelling
• An opportunity to match your career to a compelling cause
• A chance to meet and work with people who are the best in their fields

Find the full job description here.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: 19/02/2022

To apply as an internal candidate, click on the suitcase icon “I am an employee” on the top right of the page to be redirected to NRC’s internal career site.