Communication Assistant (CWC) – G4 – BEY132 – UNOPS Contract - Beirut, Lebanon

General Background

Eight years into the Syria crisis, Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with nearly 950,000  Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR, about 20,000 refugees of other origins - mostly Iraqi - and Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.  There are no formal camps for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and refugees are living in hundreds of communities and locations across the country. 

The refugee response is led by the Government and UNHCR and UNDP, supported by the international community. As the designated lead agency in the refugee response, UNHCR has established a sector-based structure in Beirut and in the field. The structure brings together over 150 UN agencies, national and international NGO partners [over 150 actors, including UN agencies, national and international NGOs and Ministries] in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese communities. The Lebanon Chapter of the Response Plan falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response and UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

The UNHCR operational response in Lebanon is one of the largest for the organization. Media attention and the frequency of influential high-profile visitors is high. The Office has grown substantially in the past years and is currently operating with around 650 staff. Aside from the country office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has field offices in Mount Lebanon, Qobayat, Tripoli, Tyre and Zahle.

Communication with Communities is not a core functionality within UNHCR and there are very few CwC skilled staff in the organization at global level. Previous CwC posts in Lebanon were always advertised internally and externally because of the recurrent challenges in identifying internal candidates with basic knowledge and understanding of CwC. In fact, all current CwC staff were previously non UNHCR staff. There is a common wrong perception in UNHCR that CwC is related to media or to community-based protection, while CwC is cross cutting and aims to support every sector and unit and requires versatile skills juggling from technology awareness to counseling, from monitoring to trainings, from translations using refugee terminology to innovative approaches. Such broad frame of skills should often be accompanied by protection familiarity due to the fact that two-way communication with persons often in distress is carried with high levels of sensitivity. 

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

Accountability

• Protection activities are guided by the UNHCR country protection strategy
• The participation of persons of concern is facilitated through supporting participatory, rights and community based approaches
• Staff is responsible for monitoring, coordinating input, analyzing reports
• Staff is responsible to use all technical tools used by the CwC unit, including monitoring softwares and dashboards ie. Access, Grytics, RAIS, etc. 

Responsibility

• Monitor social media, particularly Facebook accounts managed by refugees with the support of UNHCR 
• Monitor the LEBBE email and the refugee website to process queries and requests from refugees
• Support in processing all the emergency and protection related calls coming from the call center
• Generate daily, bi-weekly and monthly reports
• Support with translation into Arabic
• Assist in drafting reports, routine correspondence, updating relevant databases and compiling statistics for the protection unit/section. 
• Authority (decisions made in executing responsibilities and to achieve results)
• Provide appropriate advice and counselling to persons of concern.
• Define distribution channels and methodology of public awareness material
• Additional authority as required