Senior Coordination Assistant (Inter-Agency Coordination) – G5 – BEY011 – UNOPS Contract - Beirut, Lebanon

Organizational Context

There are currently an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which makes Lebanon the highest refugee-hosting country per capita in the world. There are no approved camps in the country and refugees are spread over 1,750 localities. The refugee response is led by the Government and local actors, 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 to support the Government.

The structure brings together 13 UN agencies, 60 national and International NGO partners in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and other affected populations. The Lebanon national response falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response while UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

Through inter-agency coordination mechanisms, 10 sectors have been established in Lebanon, with UNHCR leading or co-leading the Protection, Basic Assistance, Shelter, Social Stability and Health sectors. UNHCR is also providing information management support to most sectors. The Office has grown substantially in the past years.  Aside from the Branch Office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has two sub-offices in Zahle and Tripoli and two field offices in Mt Lebanon, Tyr (South), and one field unit in Qobayat under the Tripoli Sub-Office.

The Senior Coordination Assistant supports the inter-agency coordination across the Sectors to respond to the needs of Syrian refugees, Palestinian Refugees from Syria, Lebanese returnees and vulnerable host communities, at national and regional level. In this capacity s/he will need to liaise with a wide variety of stakeholders.

The Senior Coordination Assistant is supervised by the Inter-Agency Coordination Officer who defines general work objectives and provides necessary advice and guidance. The incumbent maintains regular contact with UNHCR area offices, UN Agencies, NGOs, government partners and other actors in the operation and must be prepared to travel regularly across Lebanon to facilitate the operation.

The Senior Coordination Assistant within the inter-agency unit will:

Support UNHCR’s Inter-Agency Unit and Sectoral working groups at national and field level as necessary;

Support the Senior inter-agency Coordinator and the Inter-Agency Coordination Officer with relevant tasks including contact with UNDP and OCHA and other UN agencies as needed;

Support liaison and coordination between the national inter-agency unit and the field teams;

Monitor information and support information management; and

Other duties as required.

Functional Statement

Accountability

• UNHCR Area Offices in Bekaa, the North, Beirut/Mount Lebanon, and the South, have the support they need to ensure efficient and effec ve assistance to persons of concern, either from UNHCR’s own resources or from other agency resources, in compliance with the guidance agreed at the relevant Sector Coordination Working Groups and Inter-Agency forums, and with UNHCR’s policies procedures.
• Support coordination activies of UN Agencies and NGO partners effectively.

Responsibility

• Provide secretarial support to the Inter-Agency unit and sector working groups, including drafting and reviewing meeting minutes, keeping recipients' list updated, drafting support materials for meetings, organize and provide logistic support including transportation and translation support, disseminate relevant information to an external audience, etc. 
• Support the sector coordinators in drafting guidelines, strategies and other documents.
• Participate in relevant meetings or events at national level as requested, and provide relevant verbal and written feedback on issues of relevance for inter-agency and inter-sector processes.
• Liaise with partners as requested.
• Participate in field level meetings as required and update the sector coordinator on discussions and relevant developments.
• Support the Inter-Agency Coordinators in ensuring good communication between the working groups in the field and the national working groups in Beirut through regular contacts with the field.
• Support the coordinators in mapping and other exercises, in cooperation with the Information Management Unit.
• Undertake daily monitoring of the Lebanon Web-Portal and liaise with the Information Management Unit for sector updates, checking consistency, providing documents to be posted etc.
• Support the sector coordinators in the review and extraction of the reporting of sector partners on Activity Info.
• Translate relevant documents, articles, legal texts from Arabic into English.
• Support other Inter-Agency functions, including: collecting and disseminating weekly schedules and work plans, organize and maintain IA calendar and other coordination tools, support outreach to partners on issues such as financial tracking, follow up with field offices on weekly distribution schedules and attend IA meetings and/or specific working groups where relevant (including minute taking), etc.

Authority

• Draft reports for clearance by the Inter-Agency Coordination Officer.
• Organise coordination meetings.
• Gather and analyse information from UNHCR, partners and media.