Closing date: 04 Sep 2019
Consultant: Developing UN/IASC Guidance on Collective Outcomes
Background:
Ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul, in May 2016, the UN Secretary-General issued a report that aimed to lay-out an ambitious plan to transform the way humanitarian action is delivered, coordinated, and financed. One of the central themes for the report’s “vision for change” was the need to transcend long-standing conventional thinking, silos and other attitudinal, institutional, and funding obstacles. The report urged “the international aid system, including the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and donors to commit to transcend the humanitarian-development divide by working towards collective outcomes, based on comparative advantage and over multi-year time frames”. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), coordinating body for humanitarian affairs has since 2016 prioritized the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding nexus and developed a series of normative products for humanitarian actors to ensure better analysis, coordination and programming with development and peacebuilding actors.
Since 2016, the UN Development System (UNDS) and the UN Peace and Security pillar reforms also aim for better cross-pillars coherence across humanitarian, development and peacebuilding interventions. This drive for improved coherence in programming was confirmed in several other reports of the UN Secretary General (1), call calling for increased cooperation across UN pillars and with the humanitarian community through a strong “development-humanitarian-peacebuilding continuum”. The new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) guidance and its companion pieces on the humanitarian development peacebuilding collaboration provide clear directions to the UN system to “strengthen coherence among development, humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts and human rights mechanisms in relevant contexts for the realization and sustainability of peace and development gains “. The guidance in particular requires that “in protracted crises, the Cooperation Framework reflects the “collective outcomes” that address risk and vulnerability”.
This notion of “collective outcomes” was placed at the center of the humanitarian system and UN reforms. Moreover, the concept of collective outcomes is also central to the reform efforts of OECD donor countries as expressed in the OECD DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. These recommendations clearly specify that the OECD is “recognizing that engagement in the humanitarian-development-peace nexus should be context-specific, based on respective mandates, governing principles and modes of action and on stakeholders’ comparative advantage, common, or shared, multi-stakeholder analysis, shared planning and the common pursuit of collective outcomes”.
(1) UNSG reports: “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: ensuring a better future for all” (June 2017), “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: our promise for dignity, prosperity and peace on a healthy planet” (December 2017); “ Peacebuilding and sustaining peace“ (January 2018); “Implementation of General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system” (April 2019)
Purpose:
The Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) Reference Group (RG) on humanitarian and development collaboration (later called RG4) was created by IASC Principals to recognize the significant shift that needs to take place in the way humanitarian, development and peacebuilding actors work with one another, especially for protracted crises**.** The group was tasked by IASC Principals to develop guidance on Collective Outcomes to advance their implementation in the field.
Throughout the UNDS and UN Peace and Security reforms the UN Secretary General also created a Principals-level coordination group, the Joint Steering Committee to advance humanitarian and development coordination (later called JSC). Principals in this group also requested the development of a UN guidance on collective outcomes.
To this end, a sub-group was formed in July 2019 to support this work, co-led by WHO and UNHCR, with the ambition to develop a joint IASC-UN guidance on collective outcomes. The sub-group agreed the scope, content, and process around the development of such guidance and have collectively agreed on a draft outline which will be shared in the inception package with the successful applicant.
Objectives of the Project:
In line with the recommendations the consultant will produce this draft guidance articulating why, what, when and how Collective Outcomes should be articulated. The main objective is to produce a document that will guide field practitioners in carrying out inclusive Collective Outcomes design and implementation at country level.
Description of Duties:
Under the supervision of WHO emergency programme’s inter-agency focal point, and under the joint guidance of the co-leads of the IASC RG4 sub-group (UNHCR and WHO), and in close coordination with PBSO and DCO to coordinate with the JSC, the incumbent will be assigned the following responsibilities.
1.Consultations with key HQ/ROs stakeholders: the consultant will hold both an online questionnaire and direct conversations with each member of the broader membership of the IASC / UN sub-working group for this activity. This will include at least the following Agencies: DCO, ICVA, IOM, OECD INCAF Secretariat, OCHA, OHCHR, Oxfam, PBSO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, World Vision International (10 days)
Consultations with country field practitioners, members of the IASC community of practice on the nexus gathering over 30 countries. This consultation will be a mix of direct conversations, online surveys, and group meetings (10 days – no travel planned, all conversations will be held remotely)
Drafting the Guidance: produce a draft light guidance on collective outcomes that guides field practitioners. This should include concrete actions, based on best practice from the field. (20 days).
Post-drafting consultations and re-drafting: collect 2 rounds of feedback from key stakeholders and field practitioners and revise the draft accordingly (12 days)
Main Outputs:
Consultation results with HQ/RO stakeholders and field practitioners
Draft guidance on Designing and Implementing Collective Outcomes
Final guidance on Designing and Implementing Collective Outcomes
Scheduled payments will be made to the consultant following delivery of each output.
Travels may be required for an inception mission to Geneva and for a validation workshop in November or December (New York, Geneva, or Paris).
Start date: 20 September 2019
Application deadline: 4 September 2019
Level: P3-P4
Education:
Advanced university degree in international relations, social sciences, business administration or related fields, or equivalent work experience in lieu of formal education.
Experience Required:
Minimum of 6 years of international experience in coordination or policy/strategy development work with the UN, Donor Governments, other multilateral system entities, or NGOs – Essential.
Familiarity with the humanitarian, development, peacebuilding nexus (HDPN) - Essential
Demonstrated experience in producing operational guidance and other strategic documents - Essential
Demonstrated capacity to bring together diverse perspectives and disparate point of views - Essential
Strong project management skills and experience working with UN / IASC agencies - Essential
Experience in Knowledge Management processes, and capturing of best practices - Desirable
Experience working across/blending HDP programming - Desirable
Skills:
- Good analytical skills
- Strong organizational skills
- Project management skills
- Attention to detail
- Excellent writing/editing skills
- Ability to coordinate writing of official documents with various stakeholders
- Self-motivated
Languages:
- Written and spoken English at native speaker level or equivalent is essential
- Working knowledge in other UN languages especially French is an advantage
Place of assignment
To be discussed with the successful applicant: home-based, Geneva, New York or combination thereof.
How to apply:
Application procedure:
Applicants are requested to send their CVs with a cover letters in electronic format by email to simoniang@who.int; sharonc@who.int; brass@unhcr.org .