Assistant Government Liaison Officer - FTA - NOA - JR2309907 - PN 10020690 - Tyre, Lebanon

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Assistant Government Liaison Officer is usually located in country operations. S/he plays a crucial support 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 assist senior management 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, s/he 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 support 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.

The Assistant Government Liaison Officer ensures that support is provided for strategic planning, assessment, monitoring and analysis concerning the relationship with the Government. The Assistant Government Liaison Officer will support all planning and reporting activities. The incumbent will support the supervisor in maintaining a constant dialogue with the Government on the overall protection context. A key tool in this regard will be the facilitation and support of periodic meetings with the Government, as well as to support the broadening of mutual information through meeting reports, situation updates and newsletters.

As of December 2022, Lebanon hosts 814,715 active registered Syrian refugees. Based on the estimates, there are 1.5 million Syrian refugees in the country, making it one of the largest number of refugees per capita in the world.  Of the refugees registered by UNHCR, approximately 11% reside in the South and Nabatieh Governorates which is under the area of responsibility of UNHCR Field Office in Tyre.

As the number of refugees has increased since 2011, refugees continue to face myriad protection challenges, increasingly complex in nature, as a result of reducing protection space in Lebanon.  Stringent restrictions on access to territory were introduced in 2015, and prohibitive legal residency requirements have negatively impacted upon the daily lives of refugees. The large majority of refugees believe that lack of legal residency impacts their safety and places them at heightened risk of arrest, detention, and deportation, and severely affects their access to livelihood opportunities. Refugees also face barriers to obtaining civil status documentation, most notably birth registration which may create heightened risk of statelessness. Women and children and persons with specific needs are disproportionally affected by violence and abuse.

The socio-economic downturn coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and Beirut blast have all contributed to some 90% of the Syrian refugees living in extreme poverty resulting in a large number of refugees being forced into debt in view of depleted resources. Refugees face specific risks due to their age, gender, background, and coping strategies. These are further exacerbated by the fact that refugees live in dispersed areas across the country, giving rise to other protection challenges, particularly on access to protection services and information, securing a shelter for their families, and their basic needs. The deteriorating socio-economic situation of refugees over the past few years is also pushing some families to send their children to work and to resort to child marriage and other negative coping mechanism.

UNHCR Field Office (FO) in Tyre is the second largest UN agency in the South after UNIFIL. The office is located south of Litani river and falls under the UNIFIL security plan.  The complexity of the political setting and security situation in southern Lebanon directly impacts humanitarian, protection, and relief activities. Access to the former “Security Belt” area remains restricted for those not possessing a Lebanese passport, thus limiting access of persons of concern (PoCs) to certain areas in the South. Also, the humanitarian actors’ including UNHCR teams travel on mission in these areas and their access necessitates close coordination with local authorities, and further requires clearance prior to conducting any humanitarian intervention.

UNHCR FO Tyre areas of operation covers about 30% of Lebanon administratively under two governorates of South and El Nabatieh with seven districts of Saida, Jezzine, Tyre, Nabatieh, Hasbaya, Marjaayoun, and Bent Jbeil.

The Assistant Liaison Officer position requires a candidate with a strong mix of skills related to communication, teamwork, empowerment and building trust, political awareness, stakeholder management, negotiation, planning, project management and reporting. The candidate should also be experienced in coordination work as UNHCR actively engages with other UN agencies, NGO partners and local authorities to ensure the implementation of humanitarian assistance programmes.

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

- Assist in the establishment of close working relations with Government Officials and/or other external parties.

- Provide suggestions for promoting UNHCR¿s policies and liaising with Government authorities on issues related to latest humanitarian and development processes.

- Support coordination meetings as required, including by preparing meetings and background information, drafting minutes and follow-up documentation.

- Manage the flow of information to/from the supervisor and other senior staff; identifies priority matters that need to be urgently addressed by the supervisor.

- Draft correspondence, documents and reports, and prepares tables and ensures follow-up.

- Assist in ensuring appropriate links with the Government through establishment/maintenance of appropriate coordination and information exchange.

- Act on behalf of the supervisor to convey, clarify and explain UNHCR¿s positions to Government or other external parties as applicable.

- Inform the supervisor on a continuing basis of relevant information on the outcome of discussions with external parties.

- Act as interpreter during meetings held by the supervisor with senior officials or other external parties.

- Accompany the supervisor and Headquarters visitors to camps, border missions and provincial cities.

- May be required to coordinate the work of lower level staff.

- Perform other related duties as required.