Humanitarian Affairs Officer (Anticipatory Approach)

About the role

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is hiring a Humanitarian Affairs Officer (Anticipatory Approach) in Panama City, within the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC). The post supports the scale-up and mainstreaming of the anticipatory approach and reports to the Head of ROLAC, with a second line to the Climate and Innovation Section in the Financing and Outreach Division.

Key responsibilities

• Support the regional scale-up of the anticipatory approach, including revising and developing coordinated anticipatory action frameworks.
• Deploy to support emergency response when anticipatory action frameworks are triggered, promoting learning and integration with early action, response and recovery.
• Support regional mechanisms such as the anticipatory action working group and other bodies.
• Monitor, analyse and report on the anticipatory approach, including the complementarity of disaster risk finance, humanitarian finance, IFI and climate finance.
• Organise studies and interagency technical review meetings, and take part in complex projects and situation reporting.
• Partner with other agencies to plan and evaluate programmes, and assist in producing appeals and managing pooled funds.
• Provide capacity-building support, liaise with governments, UN agencies, NGOs, diplomatic missions and the media, and advise on policy and safeguarding humanitarian principles.
• Supervise new or junior staff and perform other duties as required.

Required profile

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in political science, social science, public administration, international studies, economics, engineering, earth sciences or a related field; a first-level degree plus two years of qualifying experience may be accepted.
• At least five years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian affairs, emergency preparedness, crisis relief, rehabilitation or development.
• Experience developing or implementing inter-agency anticipatory humanitarian action; experience in humanitarian, climate or disaster risk finance, with IFIs, and in Latin America and the Caribbean is desirable.
• English and Spanish at UN Level III reading, writing and listening; speaking at UN Level III, with French at UN Level II desirable.

What we offer

• A fixed-term appointment of one year, renewable if the mandate and funding continue.
• No fee charged by the United Nations at any stage of the recruitment process.