Information Management Associate

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Background Information – Amman

The UNOPS Hub in Amman implements projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, in partnership with bilateral donors, national governments, and other UN agencies.  With an established presence across the region, the office runs operations including large-scale procurement, project development, and technical management, and provides financial, human resources, and infrastructure-related services. The functional objective of UNOPS Hub in Amman is to deliver its projects in an efficient and effective manner and in line with the principles, rules and regulations of UNOPS, in order to support the response to the current needs and national priorities in the region.

The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

UNOPS is committed to achieving a fully diverse workforce.

Background Information – Project specific

The Iraq IIC was launched in 2015 following an inter-agency assessment into the information and communication needs of displaced populations in Iraq. Responding to one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world, the Humanitarian Country Team agreed to the establishment of an inter-agency two-way communication and accountability mechanism that allows affected populations to shape their own relief and recovery.

The Iraq IIC was launched as a two-way communication and accountability mechanism that allows affected populations to shape their own relief and recovery. It is a link to the partnership between those who wish to assist and those who need assistance. The Iraq IIC is accountable to both constituencies.

The Iraq IIC is implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) with financial support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHPF), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the UN Iraq Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Since its launch, the Iraq IIC has handled more than 170,000 calls, giving information to more than 1,000,000 individuals. Call content ranges from requests for information on humanitarian services, including how to register for food vouchers to requests for help in dealing with gender-based violence. Feedback ranges from comments on how aid is distributed to suggestions on how to improve humanitarian programmes. The Iraq IIC conducts monitoring calls to evaluate UN assistance programming. Through established referral pathways, the centre channels caller feedback, complaints, and data to the humanitarian community to improve the way information is shared and to shape how humanitarian assistance is organised and delivered.

The Iraq IIC’s primary objective is to promote two-way communication between affected populations to:

1. Empower communities through the provision of accessible and timely information on how to access humanitarian services and resources required to improve their situation
2. Help ensure efficient and effective coordination of humanitarian actors operating in Iraq by collecting and circulating information about the urgent needs and priorities of affected populations
3. Support an environment of transparency and accountability by:
   1. Establishing an easy-to-access and safe mechanism through which affected populations can lodge feedback and complaints
   2. Channelling feedback and complaints to humanitarian actors to influence humanitarian programming and shape quality advocacy

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

UNOPS is seeking an Information Management Associate to support and enhance information management and reporting structures. The outcome of this service is to further strengthen and streamline Iraq IIC’s information sharing and reporting processes as part of its overall objective to strengthen accountability to affected populations in Iraq.

This result of this service achieves Iraq IIC’s objectives through the provision of:

• High-quality information sharing and messaging, which give affected populations access to essential, relevant and timely information to allow for informed decision making and access to services;
• High-quality information products and services, which give humanitarian partners access to essential, relevant and timely evidenced-based data on needs and service gaps, including cross-sectorial analysis, to improve decision-making on strategic, programmatic direction to improve the response. Information products will also document impact of the call centre on contributing to improved and more relevant programming; and
• A professional complaints and feedback mechanism that closes the loop on complaints in a timely manner and measures caller satisfaction with the Iraq IIC services and the relevance of partner services to which the call centre refers callers.

The incumbent reports to the Iraq IIC Information Management Officer who reports to the Project Manager, in order to contribute to the overall project objectives.

With the aim of strengthening the information management activities provided by the project as well as the internal capacity of the Iraq IIC, under the supervision of Information Management Officer, the Information Management Associate will be responsible for the following functions.

 The Information Management Associate will:

• Work closely with the Information Management Officer in regular duties and responsibilities, including, but not limited to: data cleaning and preparation, oversight and maintenance of internal data collection and management systems, production of ad-hoc and regular reports, as well as assist in preparation and development of IIC materials.
• Work closely with Information Management Officer ensure management and feedback of information gathered by the IIC is captured and documented. This requires a thorough review and understanding of the current communication procedures and an alignment of all activities with the objectives of the IIC in closing the feedback loop to affected populations.
• Assist in documenting the impact of the Iraq IIC as an accountability mechanism in alignment with existing reporting indicators and new/thematic indicators as needs arise, which will include, but are not limited to: changes in partners’ programming, availability of services/feedback mechanisms to the affected population, as well as the timeliness of referrals on responsive/corrective action as a result of information shared by the Iraq IIC.
• Work closely with Information Management Officer to meet multiple reporting deadlines for a variety of clients and through a range of mediums where required.
• Strengthen the Iraq IIC’s ability to promote and enhance Accountability to Affected Populations through the provision of timely, accurate, and relevant information sharing, and in particular through the documentation of impact as mentioned below.
• Act as Backup IMO in the absence of the Information Management Officer, and will undertake necessary function as requested.

The Information Management Associate will conduct the following tasks:

• Assist the Information Management Officer in the regular revision and implementation of internal and external information structures, policies and standard operating procedures to facilitate, support, and promote data and information sharing within the humanitarian and wider community.
• Support and act where required as the accountability focal point between partners and the IIC and ensure information flows in accordance with established information management and reporting standards and procedures.
• Assist in daily and weekly analysis of call log, tracking cases referred to partners and their level of feedback as it comes in. Document this feedback from partners in a systematic way to facilitate analysis and reporting of impact and support the overall accountability of humanitarian actors to the affected population.
• Assist in drafting and editing promotional and/or communication materials and strategy to raise the profile of the call centre among affected populations and humanitarian actors (nationally and globally), including communicating updates to Headquarters in Copenhagen.

Other duties as required:

• Daily activities include but are not limited to:
  • Perform front-end updates and support on identifying outstanding items for periodical review as needed.
  • Review of referral sheets and assigning operators with feedback.
  • Review the call log for urgent cases and sharing them through the standardised referral pathways for follow-up and actively engage with partners to gather feedback on previously referred cases,
  • Communicate with NGO Partners on referral key messages and ensure it is clearly understood by the operators.
  • Perform folder and file management including versioning in shared drive.
  • Assist to ad-hoc daily and weekly referrals in coordination with Cluster Coordinator.
  • Compile data and prepare weekly and monthly dashboard and bulletin in coordination with Information Management Officer.
  • Assist in donor reporting and generating ad-hoc reports.
  • Assist in periodical review of information management tools with key partners.
  • Assist in overall database preparedness and management.
  • Document cases and feedback for regular impact analysis,
  • Assist in updating standard operator procedures/guidelines in handling calls as required by the team Supervisor and Project Manager,
  • Communicate with partners to update the IIC’s directory for humanitarian services.
  • Knowledge management functions:
    • Establish and cultivate strong knowledge networks and communities of practice for effective knowledge sharing through actively interact with the PM and project team,
    • Keep informed about best practices in knowledge management and ensure these practices are adopted by UNOPS project team,
    • Provide research and data collection on knowledge management upon request.

• Assist in weekly team training and feedback sessions to operators.

The interview process will include a technical examination and a phone interview.

Impact of results

The outcomes of the role impacts UNOPS Iraq IIC project. The work of the Information Management Associate contributes to achievement of UNOPS mission and vision:

• To expand the capacity of the United Nations system and its partners to implement peace building, humanitarian and development operations that matter for people in need.
• To satisfy UNOPS partners with management services that meet world-class standards of quality, speed and cost-effectiveness. 

In particular, the results of the Information Management Associate contribute to the following strategic goals:

• Enhanced accountability and transparency, through the delivery of services that meet or exceed expectations
• Enhanced UNOPS operational capacity through improved process efficiency and effectiveness of UNOPS practices

Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Assessment of task completion
• Successfully meeting deadlines

Duration and Timeline: initial six-month contract, is subject to performance and funds availability

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

• CV indicating necessary qualifications and all relevant experience
• Cover letter demonstrating relevant experience
• Two (2) examples of previous work relating to IM/data collection, analysis and/or visualization

Education (Level and area of required and/or preferred education)

• Masters degree in information management/technology, computer science and/or international development or related field from an accredited academic institution with 2 years of relevant professional experience. Or University degree in the above fields with 5 years of relevant professional experience.

Work Experience

Required:

• Minimum years of two (2) years of relevant work experience with a Master’s Degree. OR Minimum years of five (5) years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree.
• Strong background in data collection, analysis and presentation
• Experience in producing high-quality reports
• At lease making public presentations and liaising with external stakeholders
• Strong experience in usage of Microsoft Office software package (MS Word, Excel especially)
• Knowledge of Accountability to Affected Populations, and Communicating with Communities

Desired:

• Knowledge of new data analysis and visualization solutions such as PowerBI and Tableau
• Experience in information management software
• Familiarity with professional-grade design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suites)
• Some web development experience also an advantage
• Experience working in the humanitarian field, preferably including the Middle East
• Knowledge of current political, economic, and social fabric of Iraq
• Working knowledge of communicating with disaster affected populations and protection response infrastructure

1. Contract type: ICA
2. Contract level: Local ICA Support, level 7
3. Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.