Associate Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion Officer

Our primary purpose at UNHCR is to safeguard the rights and well-being of people who have been forced to flee. Together with partners and communities, we work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. We also strive to secure lasting solutions.

For over half a century, UNHCR has helped millions of people to restart their lives. They include refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers. Our protection, shelter, health and education has been crucial, healing broken pasts and building brighter futures.

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).

The Associate Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer will be key in operationalizing the strategic vision to align UNHCR’s livelihoods and economic inclusion efforts with the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), which underscores the need to mobilize additional actors and to adopt a whole-of-society approach to strengthen refugee self-reliance and help ease pressure on host countries. Promoting economic inclusion of refugees is a key development area that will enable the achievement of these objectives and contribute to the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals.

Leveraging the growing global momentum, UNHCR is working to translate the objectives of the GCR into impactful results for forcibly displaced and stateless persons. Contributing to the sustainable programming approach, which focuses on inclusion into national systems and self-reliance, the Associate Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer, with support from the Senior Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion (LEI) Officer in the Regional Bureau for Europe and the LEI Unit in the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS), works towards the following objectives:
1) improve the enabling environment for refugees to decent work through advocacy on the right to/at work, access to economic opportunities and service;
2) seek new and strengthen existing partnerships including with the private sector, development actors, government institutions and specialized agencies to advance economic inclusion of refugees; and
3) in line with the sustainable programming approach, promote effective inclusion in national systems and programmes, including through building the business-case, enhancing socio-economic data and strengthening wrap-around services.

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.

The Associate Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer should be proactive and have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, always looking for new opportunities and being persuasive in mobilizing donors and new partners around new models of economic and social integration. He/she needs to possess a unique blend of private sector experience and engagement, coupled with the capacity to effectively interact with a multitude of diverse stakeholders, including government and civil society actors.

The incumbent will interact with the government counterparts and other stakeholders with specific mandate in economic inclusion, as well as with the refugee communities. Within UNHCR, the Associate Livelihood and Economic Inclusion Officer will work under the supervision of the Senior Protection Officer and closely with multi-functional teams on matters including but not limited to protection, community-based protection, social protection, cash assistance, inter-agency coordination, information management, programme, project control, supply, and external relations. S/he will support the office's involvement with livelihoods and economic inclusion, working with relevant external stakeholders from government line ministries, development actors, private sector, UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs, research institutions and universities. His/her main tasks will be as follows:

- Maintain close contact and cooperation with partners to facilitate the economic inclusion of refugees, such as line ministries, private sector and development actors in accordance with UNHCR Global, Regional and Country level policies, priorities, and strategies, in particular the Global Compact on Refugees. This includes advocating with public and private sector services providers to include UNHCR FDSPPOC in supporting services (business development, micro-finance, training, saving accounts, language training, skills recognition, employment counselling, job matching, and social protection, etc.).
- Work with the multi-functional team, more specifically with the Protection Unit, to assess the legal framework for the de facto access to work and rights at work and recommend/implement advocacy initiatives and policy reforms to improve UNHCR POC’s economic inclusion, rights and access to work.
- Build on UNHCR data sources to support regular information sharing and coordination among different humanitarian, developmental and governmental stakeholders, including through the coordination of monthly Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion Working Group meetings.
- Support the implementation of socioeconomic and wealth ranking surveys utilising community-based strategies to inform targeting, monitoring and facilitation of development programmes and promote the progressive inclusion of FDSP in national statistics. Conduct necessary assessments in collaboration with relevant private and public stakeholders, including impact assessments on local economies and surveys that help to identify investment and funding opportunities that enhance the economic inclusion of UNHCR POC.
- Strengthen, guide and monitor the livelihoods interventions and those aimed at potential inclusion in national systems to help ensure they are market-based, and that the role of UNHCR has been strategically determined in consideration of its comparative advantage vis-à-vis other partners.
- Perform other related duties as required.