Associate Registration and Identity Management Officer, UNOPS IICA-1, Ouagadougou

As of 28 February 2022, Burkina Faso hosts 1,779,060 persons of concern to UNHCR, including 1,741,655 internally displaced persons (IDPs), 25,191 refugees and 12,214 asylum-seekers. Most of refugees are hosted in rural areas in the Sahel region, while IDPs are scattered across all the 13 regions, with over 70% of them settled in the Sahel and Centre-nord regions. Most of this population is composed of women and children, who are in dire need of protection and assistance. The number of those fleeing for safety has doubled in 2020 alone – making Burkina Faso one of the fastest growing humanitarian and protection crisis globally. To ensure that protection risks/incidents and human rights violations are identified to allow timely and effective protection response, UNHCR has set up a protection monitoring mechanism implemented by its partners INTERSOS and MBDHP. They are mainly tasked with collection, verification, analysis and reporting of protection incidents and population movements in areas affected by insecurity so as to inform planification, programming, advocacy and operational interventions by humanitarian actors. Based on its mandate and engagement in IDP situations, UNHCR bears the responsibility to ensure that protection monitoring activities are well planned, implemented and coordinated in an efficient manner, hence the need to invest in competent human resources. Despite efforts deployed by the government of Burkina Faso and UNHCR to enhance registration process and ensure that each asylum seeker benefits from registration, almost 12,181 individuals remain unregistered. In addition to this situation, UNHCR is engaged to accompany the Government in IDP registration process providing guidance and technical support to CONASUR team.

It is against this background that the UNHCR Representation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso would like to request the deployment of an Associate Registration and Identity Management Officer on UNOPS contract to strengthen the capacity of the Protection team to deliver and support the Representative in ensuring the fulfilment of UNHCR’s mandate. as well as its engagement in IDP situations.

Title: Associate Registration and Identity Management Officer
Duty Station: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Duration: 6 months
Contract Type: UNOPS International ICA1– (equivalent to P2)
Closing date: 20/04/2022
Start date: Immediately

Organisational context

Overall, the security situation across the country continued to deteriorate, marked by threats and intimidation, looting of property including livestock, the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and targeted kidnappings followed by killings of civilians. Since early August, there has been an intensification of attack by armed groups on the Government Forces of Defense and Security (FDS). To date, UNHCR continues its operations despite hindered access in certain areas of the country, notably the regions of East, Sahel, Center-North, North and Boucle du Mouhoun. Instability in the country has also led to cross-border movements, with an estimated 38,000 Burkinabè refugees and asylum seekers across the region.

UNHCR Burkina Faso is present in six offices, including the Branch Office in Ouagadougou, a Sub-Office in Kaya, Field Offices in Dori, Bobo Dioulasso and Ouahigouya and a Field Unit in Fada-Ngourma.

The position

Under the overall guidance of the Senior Protection Officer and direct supervision of Operation Data Management Officer, the Associate Registration and Identity Management Officer will be responsible for ensuring the coordination of registration activities implementation, enrolment and digital identity strategies, guidance on data collection methodology and data protection, strengthen of government staff members’ capacity and ensure that continuous registration is in place and functioning in accordance with UNHCR registration guidance. The incumbent will be based in Ouagadougou and will support all operations in the country.

S/he will build and maintain effective collaboration with other relevant teams within the operation including Programme; external relations; IM, communities of concern, authorities, protection and partners involved in the registration and assistance activities.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Operation Data Management Officer , the UNOPS ICA holder will undertake the following tasks:

• Assist in the implementation of registration, enrolment and digital identity strategies, for populations of concern in compliance with global and regional protection and inclusion objectives and priorities, ensuring that relevant standards are met, and appropriate methodologies and technologies are implemented.

• Provide technical support to staff on planned registration and digital identity management activities.

• Contribute to the development and dissemination of operational guidance, instructions and capacity-development initiatives, in accordance with policy and guidance disseminated by the Global Data Service in Headquarters.

• Design appropriate procedures and systems for assurance of quality registration data and conduct regular data quality and audit checks to monitor the accuracy of data collected, as well as a tool for identification and prevention of fraud.

• Provide post-deployment support and maintenance of the UNHCR refugee systems applications as required.

• Assist the country team to establish and strengthen internal digital identity, registration and identity management capacity and/or that of government counterparts to manage registration and maintain population data.

• Liaise with Digital Identity and Registration Section of the Global Data Service as necessary to facilitate registration and identity management activities in the country.

• Advocate with and support government authorities to establish and strengthen fair and efficient registration and digital identification procedures and systems and that POCs’ identity documents or credentials are recognised for the purposes of accessing humanitarian, public and private sector services.

• Establish linkages with key partners to implement appropriate case and data management approaches for efficient, accountable and standardized targeting and delivery of assistance and other programming and protection needs.

• Support the operationalization and negotiation with government and UN partners related to interoperability of external digital identification systems with UNHCR refugee registration and identity management systems.

• Liaise and actively engage with government, humanitarian and development actors, and the private sector to promote the inclusion of refugees and asylum-seekers into host States’ population registers and digital identity systems and the registration of birth, marriages, deaths and other vital events of forcibly displaced persons in the host Government’s civil registry.

• Support the collection of reliable data and the availability of effective analysis relating to POCs’ registration, identity management and digital identification at global, regional and country levels (as appropriate) including for the purposes of strategy development and monitoring and evaluation.

• Monitor, document and report on registration and identity management activities at the country level, and report on the impact of support interventions to the management of operations.

• Perform other related duties as required.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

The ideal candidate will:

• Have 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1 year relevant experience with Doctorate degree.
• Have diploma in one of the following fields: Law Development Social Sciences; Information Technology, with focus on Database Development, Data Management and Analysis; Demography; Geography; Political Science; Business Administration; Humanities; Statistics; or other relevant fields.
• Have understanding of the principles and concepts of international protection and UNHCR, including UNHCR’s registration and identity management guidance and the Policy and Guidance on the Protection of Personal Data of Persons of Concern is essential.
• Have excellent communication skills with strong interpersonal, ability to work in team and negotiation skills.
• Good IT Skills including database management skills ;
• Technical expertise in registration, digital identity or biometric management systems and experience with UNHCR’s PRIMES applications.
• Be fluent in French, with advanced writing skills. Good knowledge of English will be an asset.
• Be able to multi-task and to prioritize workload.

Location

The successful candidate will be based with the team in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Conditions

The individual contractor Agreement is for six (06) months and will start in Mai 2022. It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8.00am to 5. 30 pm Monday to Thursday and from 8 h 00 to 14 h 00 pm the Friday (40 hours per week).

Burkina Faso has very basic infrastructures, including in the health sector. In Ouagadougou, there are more than 20 health clinics, but only nine are recommended by the UN System. Epidemics and other disease outbreaks are common in the operational area.

Ouagadougou is a family duty station and education is carried generally out in French, however there is also a US English school. Banking services are available including more than five international banks among which two are recommended by the UN System (United Bank of Africa and Ecobank).