Co-chair of the Shelter and Settlements cluster – Ukraine

Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading protection agency with a mandate to protect, advocate and promote sustainable solutions for displaced people.

DRC has been active in Ukraine since 2014. Currently, DRC employs over 800 staff in Ukraine and will continue to scale up significantly in 2024 to implement emergency assistance in the Protection, Livelihoods, Shelter/NFIs and Humanitarian Disarmament and Peacebuilding (Humanitarian Mine Action) sectors, through direct interventions, support to duty-bearers and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and partnerships with CSOs. DRC will continue to develop and adapt its portfolio of sustainable solutions to the changing context.

DRC is seeking a qualified Shelter Cluster Coordinator to lead the Ukrainian Shelter Cluster together with the UNHCR Shelter Cluster Coordinator. DRC has been active in Ukraine for over 10 years and has transitioned to emergency assistance since the outbreak of the conflict in 2022. This role will support UNHCR’s coordination efforts and focus on improving collaboration between NGOs, INGOs and UN agencies involved in shelter initiatives. The Coordinator will assist with strategy development, technical guidance, information management and advocacy within the shelter/NFI cluster.

Your responsibilities are:

Strategic direction and coordination

• Support the SC Coordinator in building strong working relationships with all cluster members at national and sub-national levels to facilitate effective collaboration and communication and ensure that feedback and issues important to cluster members are effectively raised and addressed.
• Ensure that coordination services are delivered in accordance with the partnership principles. Ensure that cluster coordination is inclusive, consultative and results-oriented, at the national level and in all the different subnational locations.
• Within the framework of the Inter-Agency Emergency Plan, he/she supports the SNFI coordinator in developing emergency plans, reviewing existing emergency plans and emergency measures. He/she also ensures that these are updated and developed.
• Support the SNFI Coordinator and the Cluster Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) in the development and implementation of a national SNFI strategy that is part of the overall multi-sectoral response, owned by shelter/NFI and government partners and revised as the situation changes.
• Support the SNFI Coordinator in ensuring that the SC strategy reflects the diversity of different contexts in the country and that it is well-aligned with disaster risk reduction, emergency response, and recovery and development efforts.
• Support the SNFI Coordinator in ensuring that the SNFI strategy is integrated into the joint humanitarian action plan of the humanitarian country team.
• Ensure accountability towards affected populations is promoted, local and national stakeholders, such as civil society groups, participate, and support coordination with government partners and other relevant authorities.
• Support the SNFI coordinator in ensuring that appropriate transitional arrangements are put in place for the transfer to government or recovery and development actors.
• Support the SNFI Coordinator in establishing and maintaining the cluster structure, including the core cluster documents as defined in the Global Shelter Cluster Guidelines, including technical standards, guidelines, etc.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the cluster’s performance. Based on the feedback from this evaluation, work with Shelter Cluster members to develop a response plan to improve the cluster’s performance.
• If necessary, you represent the Shelter Cluster in the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG)

Needs assessment and resource mobilization

• Support the SNFI Coordinator in setting up a system to ensure timely availability of data to inform operational decisions by partners and strategic decisions by the humanitarian country team.
• Support the SNFI coordinator in ensuring that the SC covers all identified reception needs of the affected population and not only those related to the specific mandate of individual members of the reception cluster.
• Ensure that transparent strategic direction is given within the SC to the development of common funding criteria, the mobilisation of resources and their prioritisation for inclusion in the consolidated appeals and pooled funds processes.
• Support the SNFI coordinator in setting up mechanisms for responsible and transparent allocation of financial resources within the cluster.

Capacity development

• Support the SNFICordinator in ensuring capacity building at national and subnational levels of the government partners or organisations that will take over the coordination of the cluster once it is phased out.
• Contribute to the coordination of training activities for reception centres for SC members, other local partners and relevant authorities.
• Support the coordination of initiatives to increase the reception capacity of national and local government, partners and civil society.

Setting and implementing standards

• Support the SNFI coordinator in ensuring that the reception response complies with relevant technical standards, including Sphere, and good practices.
• Support the SNFI coordinator in ensuring appropriate cooperation with reception clusters of CCCM, Early Recovery, Education, Health, Logistics, Protection and WASH in the work of the reception cluster.
• Support the SNFI Coordinator in integrating cross-cutting issues into the work of the Shelter Cluster, including age, gender, environment and diversity.

Information management and reporting.

• Support the SNFICordinator in ensuring that the SC has a functional information management strategy and mechanism in place to report and share information within the Shelter Cluster, with the other clusters, with the government, with the wider humanitarian community, including donors, and with the Global Shelter Cluster.
• Facilitate the SC production of analytical shelter reports.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluating the impact of the activities carried out by the cluster members and the performance of the coordination team. For example, ensure that subnational hubs set up monitoring mechanisms to evaluate reception projects and collect feedback from the beneficiaries of the reception cluster.

Advocacy, promotion and fundraising

• Participate in identifying key advocacy concerns for SNFI Cluster C through a consultative process: support the development of joint cluster/inter-cluster initiatives to ensure regular and consistent advocacy.
• In collaboration with the SNFI coordinator, represent the SC at meetings with sectoral and external partners, authorities, donors and other relevant discussion partners.
• Support the drafting of reports and advocacy statements on behalf of the Shelter Cluster.
• Support, where appropriate, the direct, transparent and accountable allocation of financial and other resources within the Shelter Cluster, for example in relation to CERF or CHF.
• If instructed by the SNFI Coordinator, the SC Co-Chair may reach out to donors and other potential funding sources to explain the SC strategy, challenges and progress, and to advocate for funding for the entire reception sector.
• Contribute to a consistent interpretation and application of international law and related UNHCR and IASC legal standards and policies for the adequate provision of shelter.

Contribute to the Shelter Cluster’s compliance with international human rights instruments, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and other relevant international and regional instruments, in collaboration with the Humanitarian Country Team.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have at least 4-6 years of proven international experience in shelter programming and shelter program coordination and at least 3 years of proven international experience in leading or co-leading Shelter clusters at national or subnational level. In addition, we also expect:

• Excellent writing and editing skills for external audiences (including governments and donors).
• Experience in producing high quality technical materials (training materials, program tools, proposals, strategic documents, etc.).
• Excellent reporting skills.
• Degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or a relevant field.
• Full professional proficiency in English. Professional Ukrainian proficiency is a plus.

In this role you will be expected to demonstrate DRC’s five core competencies:

• Striving for excellence: You focus on achieving results while ensuring an efficient process.
• To collaborate: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.
• Taking the lead: You take responsibility and initiative and strive for innovation.
• Communicate: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.
• Demonstrate integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct with respect to our values ​​and code of conduct, including protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer:

• Contract duration: One year contract
• Band: F non-management
• Indication of location: Kiev
• Start date: December 2024