Are you looking for a meaningful career? Are you curious about the careers at OCHA and wondering what we look for in our candidates? Join us in this webinar to hear first-hand from some inspiring UN-OCHA staff about what it's like - and what it takes - to coordinate life-saving humanitarian assistance.
In this webinar UN OCHA staff will share insights into career paths within OCHA as well as information about the recruitment process.
Who you will meet during the webinar:
Fernando Hesse, Chief of Governance and Partnerships- Country Based Pooled Funds, Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, OCHA New York
Fernando currently leads the Governance and Partnerships Team in the Country-Based Pooled Funds Section, in OCHA headquarters in New York, following a stint as acting Chief of Section between April 2019 and July 2020. His work in humanitarian financing for the last years has focused on supporting the analysis and development of humanitarian financing policies and in enhancing partnerships with major country-based pooled funds (CBPF) stakeholders, including donors and non-governmental organizations. Prior to that, he has worked with OCHA in several humanitarian operations including Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Indonesia and in the Middle East, based out from Cairo, Egypt. His past experience with the UN Development Programme in Peru focused on social development, working with government agencies and line Ministries, overseeing a major returnee programme for IDPs. Fernando has a Law degree, pursued architecture studies and holds a master’s degree in International Development and Regional Planning.
Sonia Almassad, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, OCHA Yemen
Sonia is a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with OCHA in Yemen. Being the only woman working in the field with OCHA Yemen, Ms. Almassad lead a team of five men in Hudaydah during the first half of 2020 to negotiate for access and ensure that UN relief aids could reach those in need in the war-torn country. In her previous position as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the Access Unit of OCHA Syria, Ms. Almassad was in charge of planning the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas, assessing needs, and negotiating with the Government, armed groups and agencies in order to get the aid convoys moving. Prior to this, she worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for 9 years, supporting humanitarian field operations in several regions including Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon. Ms. Almassad began her humanitarian career in 2006 as a field worker with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), during the war between Lebanon and Israel. Ms. Amassad holds degrees in Arts (Arabic Literature), as well as Arabic- English translation, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Educational Habilitation.
Nadia Hadi, Section Chief for the Great Lakes region of Africa, Operations an Advocacy Division, OCHA New York
Nadia Hadi is the Section Chief for the Great Lakes region of Africa for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Headquarters New York. In this capacity, Ms. Hadi provides policy advice to UN senior officials on humanitarian developments in the countries in her area of responsibility (Burundi, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo mainly), coordinates with all actors involved in humanitarian assistance, including UN agencies, UN Member States and Non-Governmental Organizations, and supports the OCHA Offices in the field. In her previous position, she was the Desk Officer for Asia, with a portfolio including, among others, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and ASEAN. Prior to her current posting in New York, Nadia was based in Timor-Leste for six years where she supported the nascent country to transition from a humanitarian to a development situation, first in her capacity as Humanitarian Affairs Officer with OCHA, as Special Assistant to the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and finally as Head of Office for the United Nations Resident Coordinator. With 20 years of experience with the UN, both at headquarters and in the field, in natural disasters and complex emergencies settings, Ms. Hadi most recently deployed to respond to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, the Nepal earthquake in 2015, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016 and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019. Ms. Hadi holds a master’s degree in European and International Law as well as a Diploma in Criminal Science.
Yan Meng, Human Resources Business Partner for the Operations and Advocacy Division, OCHA New York
Yan Meng joined the United Nations Secretariat in 2004 through passing the National Competitive Recruitment Examination. She started her UN career as an Associate Programme Management Officer with Transport Division at United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). She was transferred to New York in 2009 through a managed reassignment programme for junior professional officers and started serving as an Associate Examinations Officer in the Office of Human Resources Management. She also worked as Staff Development Officer before she joined the HR Services division in 2011 to provide policy advisory services to clients across the UN Secretariat. She joined the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2018 as an HR Policy Officer. She is currently on temporary assignment as an HR Business Partner for OCHA's Operations and Advocacy Division. In this role, she leads a team that leads the recruitment of a diverse workforce for OCHA’s field operations by providing HR advisory services to managers and staff in the portfolio. Her team support the effective and efficient management of human resources in OCHA’s field operations and also support OCHA’s change management in its field operations particularly in the structural change of the field offices. Ms. Meng holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Laws.
Alain Ouattara - Deputy Head of Office a.i., OCHA Nigeria
Mr. Alain Ouattara, a national from Burkina Faso, is the acting Deputy Head of Office based in Maiduguri, Nigeria. He has more than 15 years of field experience with the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) working in various parts of Africa and the Caribbean, in a wide range of settings including protracted and conflict settings (DRC, Nigeria), natural disasters (Haiti), and the Ebola crisis/health emergency (DRC). Mr. Ouattara's work in OCHA has focused on preparedness and emergency response in the field of information management, strengthening the organization's role in humanitarian response, context and conflict, and stakeholder analyses, and providing oversight of programmatic tasks. He has also led the Humanitarian Programme Cycle that brings together all humanitarian actors to agree on a standard for inter-agency joint programming in humanitarian emergencies and cooperate to achieve collective results and ensure coherent response strategies and implementations. Before joining OCHA in 2005, Mr. Ouattara worked for United Mission in Iraq from 2002 to 2004, providing information technology services support. He also worked in the private sector in Burkina Faso from 1995 to 2002. Mr. Ouattara holds a Doctorate in Information Technology from Walden University and a Master of Science from the University of Liverpool.
About OCHA
As part of the United Nations Secretariat, OCHA plays a fundamental role in bringing in humanitarian actors to ensure a principled, coherent and effective humanitarian response through coordination, advocacy, policy, information management and humanitarian financing tools and services.
Our Vision
A world that comes together to help crisis-affected people rapidly get the humanitarian assistance and protection they need.
Our Mission
OCHA coordinates the global emergency response to save lives and protect people in Humanitarian crisis. We advocate for effective and principled humanitarian action by all, for all.
Who we are looking for:
Gender equality and diversity are key priorities in every aspect of OCHA’s work, including amongst the OCHA workforce. OCHA is committed to achieving gender parity and more balanced geographic representation amongst our personnel. Women and candidates from under/unrepresented countries are strongly encouraged to apply to OCHA vacancies.