UN-HABITAT Urban Resilience Specialist Jobs in Kenya

UN-HABITAT Urban Resilience Specialist Jobs in Kenya

UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate and affordable housing for all. It works with organisations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector, to help build, manage, plan and finance sustainable urban development.

The current Urban Resilience Building portfolio of UN-Habitat is expanding in the Sub-Saharan region, especially in the Sahel, in South-Eastern Africa and the African SIDS, including the proliferation of the City Resilience Action Planning tool (CityRAP) and other Urban Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction activities in these countries. UN-Habitat has developed an extensive portfolio of work on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and urban resilience in Africa, including normative, policy-level and practical infrastructure interventions at the regional, national and city-levels.

The Sahel region has been suffering from different conflicts including political instability and conflict. As a result, approximately 14 million internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees or returnees have been displaced, with no possibility to return, through the rather porous boundaries of the Sahel. UN-Habitat aims at strengthening the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus in the region and to mobilize its spatial planning tools and multi-scaled territorial approach to understand the system of cities of the Sahel in order to help make the fast-growing Sahelian urbanization a more sustainable, inclusive, safe and resilient one.

Support is needed within UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) for undertaking the implementation of the CityRAP tool in the Central Sahel (Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal). In the same region, Senegal and Burkina Faso are part of the French-speaking Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa, that are facing unprecedented urbanization rates and are strongly hit by the socio-economic consequences of the global crisis.

They also have limited human and financial resources and skills to manage cities, particularly secondary cities, in a sustainable manner. Support is needed within UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) to better share knowledge and tools readily available to implement urban solutions adapted to the context of LDCs, in French, particularly in view of building resilient, inclusive, and greener urban spaces.

Additionally, UN-Habitat’s project funded by the Adaptation Fund (AF) entitled ‘Building urban climate resilience in south‐eastern Africa’ is a four-year project covering the four countries of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and the Union of Comoros. Concrete interventions are planned at the city level, while at the national level support to the development of policies and training needs are addressed, and regional activities are linked to cross‐fertilisation and sharing of best practices for specific climate change adaptation interventions.

Support is requested to support the implementation of capacity-building tool activities of the national component, especially in the Union of Comoros. Lastly, UN-Habitat’s ROAf is expanding activities for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) under the “ROAf SIDS framework on Urban Resilience” and other projects on thematic areas around urban tools/normative work as well as Urban Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation.

SIDS face multiple challenges due to their often high vulnerability and exposure, extreme climate, and remote location. These countries are affected by common/transboundary climatic threats, triggering consequences such as devastating tropical cyclone seasons, both seasonal and acute drought, increased incidence of heavy rains, and a rise in sea level. Some of these disasters result in not only deadly but also highly harmful effects, such as destroying communications, energy and infrastructure, homes, health facilities and schools.

Additional support is needed to implement participatory planning activities and undertake data collection in African SIDS, including subsequent resource mobilisation efforts.

Objective of the Consultancy

Under the overall supervision of the Human Settlements Officer (HSO) in the Regional Office for Africa, and in close collaboration with the Technical Leading Team (TLT) for the Sahel Project and the National Project Manager for the country programme in Comoros, the Urban Resilience Specialist consultant will contribute to the implementation of Urban Resilience Actions for the Sahel Urban Resilience project, and provide technical expertise for the implementation the regional DA14 project on SIDS and the country programme in Comoros including efforts to expand actions beyond the current projects to create sustainable actions in UN-Habitat’s mandate.

The Urban Resilience Specialist consultant will contribute to the technical coordination of the implementation of the CityRAP tool in seven (7) cities across the Sahel and will support the Technical Leading Team to create municipal strategies in a participatory manner. He/she will contribute to the implementation of capacity-building tools for the South-eastern region of Africa under the SEA project and in Sao Tomé and Principe for the SIDS portfolio.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Human Settlements Officer (HSO), in the Regional Office for Africa, and in close collaboration with the Technical Leading Team (TLT) of the Sahel Urban Resilience project as well as the National Project Managers in Comoros and Sao Tomé and Principe, the Urban Resilience Specialist will be responsible of providing substantive and administrative contribution to regional work on the Central Sahel, the South-Eastern African region and African SIDS both regional and country programme.

Within the Regional Office for Africa, he/she will have to support in:

Contributing training on writing bankable projects and disseminating the Resilience Framework for Action with purpose of resource mobilization in seven (07) cities under the second phase of the Sahel Urban Resilience project (Outcome 2)

Contributing to the DA15 project in Senegal, Burkina Faso and other French-Speaking LCDs “Harnessing urbanization for a more resilient, inclusive and green recovery in French-speaking Least Developed Countries”

Contributing to the development of concept notes for the further development of the UN-Habitat portfolio for African SIDS, both on the normative aspects and climate adaptation efforts

Contributing technical assistance for the implementation the CityRAP tool in Sao Tomé and Principe under the GCF project

Providing technical assistance for the implementation of the national component of the SEA Climate Urban Resilience project in Comoros, especially through the implementation the CityRAP tool and coordination of/technical inputs to the practical guide for municipalities on urban resilience

Contributing to the overall coordination of Sao Tomé and Principe and Comoros country programs

Contributing technical expertise through best practices to the further development of material for the CityRAP tool

Providing technical inputs to the delivery of the African regional and pilot components of the project “Strengthened Capacities of African, Caribbean and Pacific SIDS for Green, Resilient and Pro-poor Pandemic Recovery”

Qualifications/special skills

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Urban Planning/Design, Architecture, Environmental Studies, Sustainable Development or Development Studies, International Relations is required.

Minimum of 3 years of working experience in Urban Planning, Architecture, Graphic Design, Project Management, or related fields at international level is required.

Familiarity with the concepts of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and urban resilience, and a demonstrable understanding of urban development processes, urban planning, urban social issues, urban policy analysis.

Languages

Fluency in English and French (both oral and written) is required.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; UN-HABITAT Urban Resilience Specialist Jobs in Kenya

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