Associate Government Liaison Officer At UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Associate Government Liaison Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Associate Government Liaison Officer is usually located in country operations. S/he plays a crucial role in ensuring UNHCR’s approach to the Government is consistent, strategic and coherent. UNHCR assists the Government on coordination, response delivery and protection issues. Typically, this involves joint coordination arrangements, partnership with various government departments in service delivery, and regular dialogue at all levels on refugee protection issues. The main aim is to ensure that UNHCR can fulfil its role to support the Government to lead the refugee response ensuring the protection of refugees and – in line with the GCR – promote the inclusion of refugees into national systems by coordinating with other actors – including development actors at the early stages of a refugee response and in mixed situations supporting the Government to prevent, respond to and resolve internal displacement while complementing and reinforcing national response efforts. This should be done in line with UNHCR¿s Mandate, the Global Compact for Refugees, the IDP policy, and agreed inter-agency commitments. More specifically, the incumbent advises the senior management on issues and processes concerning the relationship with the Government and related positioning, coordination, advocacy, information, resource allocation, fundraising, reporting, and communication with other UN agencies, NGOs, civil society actors, private sector, media and other relevant actors through strong engagement in humanitarian inter-agency processes, but also with a focus on development processes as they impact on UNHCR. The overall goal of the position is to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of UNHCR¿s leadership roles and responses to situations affecting people of concern to UNHCR (refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs, stateless persons, returnees, host communities) through an open and transparent partnership approach with the Government.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR¿s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Participates in formulating and communicating UNHCR positions on Government-related matters on protection, assistance and inclusion of refugees, providing suggestions for briefing notes, talking points and issues papers for relevant discussions with the Government.
• Provides suggestions for promoting UNHCR’s policies and liaising with Government authorities on issues related to latest humanitarian and development processes.
• Assists in establishing and coordinating country-specific coordination mechanisms for situations co-led by UNHCR and the Government. Where applicable, assists in supporting the development of country-specific refugee response plans (or refugee and migration response plan and refugee and resilience plan) and comprehensive responses.
• Assists in ensuring the coherence of the work of the Multi-sector group (MSG) in accordance with the Government.
• Assists in organizing and implementing capacity-building seminars or training programmes for target groups (government officials, etc.).
• Responds to queries from Government Officials, NGOs, individuals, etc. and provides the information required or appropriately refers the queries elsewhere.
• Assists the supervisor in preparation of statements that represent UNHCR’s overall policies and which highlight specific area of concern, ensuring that the supervisor is prepared for meetings/missions by providing relevant information and establishing contacts.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Field(s) of Education

Political/Social Science,
Economics;
Law/International Law;
Business Administration;
or other relevant field.

Functional Skills

MS-Drafting, Documentation, Data Presentation;
MG-Negotiation;
CL-Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community
MS-Networking
TR-Training and Capacity Building of Governments/Implementing Partners/Refugees

Language Requirements
For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.