Vacancies

CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT                  

                                                                                                                 Issued on: 12 April 2018

BACKGROUND

The Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch develops strategies, policies, and programmes to provide access to adequate housing for all, improve the living conditions in existing slums, and curb the growth of new slums. It focuses on improving the supply and affordability of serviced land and new housing opportunities, while also implementing city-wide and national slum upgrading programmes to improve housing and quality of living conditions of the poor.

The Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch two Units: the (a) Housing, (b) and Slum Upgrading which are handling in a cross-cutting manner for the following programmatic areas: (i) housing policy including housing delivery systems and finance mechanisms, (ii) housing rights, (iii) urban poverty reduction and slum upgrading and prevention, (iv) sustainable building materials and construction technologies and (v) community development.

The Slum Upgrading  Unit also manages the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) is a joint effort of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, the European Commission (EC) and UN-Habitat. The PSUP was launched in 2008 and this consultancy will contribute to the completion activities geared towards the closure of the Second Implementation Cycle of the PSUIP (PSUP II 2012-2016) that is expected by the end of July 2017. 

To date, the programme has reached out to 35 ACP countries and 160 cities, and has provided the necessary enabling framework for improving the lives of at least 4 million slum dwellers. The PSUP’s approach is grounded on its emphasis on integrating slum dwellers into the broader urban fabric and adopting a positive stance towards slum dwellers and in-situ slum upgrading, using city-wide participatory planning methods. ACP Member States have joined the programme with the aim of addressing the challenge of slums and improving living standards of urban poor by adopting the integrated strategies and systemic change fronted by the PSUP as well as benefit from inter-regional technical exchange achieved in each other’s efforts.

The programme’s purpose is to:

• Improve the lives of slum dwellers by changing mind-sets through policy change and delivering relevant information, participatory planning acknowledging the challenge of slums and community aspirations for change, physical improvements to the slum environment and integration into the broader urban fabric.
• Strengthen the capacity of local, central, and regional institutions and key stakeholders to undertake settlement and slum upgrading through the use of good governance and management approaches, pilot projects, and contributing to policy development and the implementation of institutional, legislative, financial, normative and implementation frameworks.
• Support local and national authorities in identifying adequate additional funding to carry out further slum upgrading activities and expanding programmes to be truly city-wide.

To meet these challenges, the PSUP programme seeks to harmonize with local and national stakeholders on key slum upgrading projects through creating a network for local, country level and regional slum upgrading challenges.

For this purpose, regional training and policy seminars on the programme’s concept, themes, and methods are organized with all stakeholders involved.

RESPONSIBILITES:

This consultancy is envisaged as support to contribute to the successful implementation of the PSUP III work plan. The consultancy will support the Climate Change Cities Initiative (CCCI) and its promotion within international events. The consultancy also informs and assist on environment-related challenges and explore new perspectives and partnerships for upscaling, and expanding the Programme towards Asia and the Middle-East. Also, the consultancy is to support the World Urban Campaign through the implementation of a communication and advocacy strategy for the PSUP.  Finally, the consultancy is providing the follow-up and support for Francophone phase III countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Niger, Sénégal and DR Congo). Finally, the consultancy will assist in the documentation and reporting of the Community Managed Fund.

The consultant, in collaboration with the unit coordinator and the team will be expected to deliver on:

• Assist the strategic management and operationalisation of PSUP III in ACP countries under the supervision of the Project Leader
• Outcome: Assist in compiling an overall branch strategy delivering the PSUP integrated approach and connecting it to the country-based implementation as well as to the knowledge management within;
• Outcome: Monitoring of PSUP implementation in ACP countries – set up
• Outcome: Support the reporting to the ACP Secretariat and the European Commission and assist in the different tasks in relation with the tripartite partnership.
• Support the PSUP’s resource mobilization strategy and distribution of programme knowledge products.

• Activity: Assist in complementing the research and financing tool with donor surveys including an overview of the NIPs, it involves assisting partner countries in the leveraging of new resources and partnerships. The consultancy will be involved in sensitization, administrative support, researches and reporting work of the PSUP.
• Activity: Research on opportunities to expanding PSUP partners and assessing case studies and learning networks.
• Consolidate the Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) publication following the PSUP approach and challenges, and support its advocacy in the perspective of its launching and promotion in the different international events occurring during the period of the consultancy.
• Outcome: Slums 5 deprivations and overall urban poors’ challenges are incorporated in the CCCI publication and develop a broad outreach in global events event that make take place within the consultancy period;
• Support communication and engagement of CCCI pilot countries in implementing the joint PSUP-CCCI assessment tool;
• Support the strengthening of the PSUP climate change portfolio, and to insure the integration of sustainability principles in the implementation of projects on the ground, but also in the promotion of the Programme.
• Provide follow-up and communication for Francophone phase 3 countries (Burkina Faso, Niger, Sénégal, Cameroun and DRC). This activity involves the implementation of CMF activities and of upscaling projects in the selected countries.
• Output: Final reports updating and implementation of projects in the selected countries towards the empowerment of the communities.
• Assist in organising events, development of capacity tools, workshops and meetings– in view of opening the new PSUP programme.

Outputs: workshop reports, logistics, cost estimates etc. and whatever needed.

COMPETENCIES

• Good written and verbal communication skills and ability to articulate complex ideas in a clear and accurate manner including the ability to present the content of the thematic area in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to prioritise activities within a team to support a range of activities. This includes ability to use time efficiently in the context of competing deadlines.
• Good organisational skills to liaise with stakeholders of different capacities towards a common goal

EDUCATION

• University degree in a field relevant to development and urban planning, public policy, social sciences, international development, political science, or similar.
• Demonstrated level experience in slum upgrading sector or previous consultancies in this area.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• UN internship including experience in country operations especially in programmes dealing with poverty alleviation and environmental issues. This internship also involved experience in communication and advocacy strategy;
• General knowledge and experience stakeholder engagement (especially slum resident communities) for slum upgrading.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

• For the consultancy advertised, excellent proficiency in spoken and written English and French are required.

REMUNERATION

Remuneration will be defined per experience of the candidate