Urban Planning Senior Assistant

Background Information - Job-specific

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.

Since 2015, the UN-Habitat Syria Programme has worked closely with Syrian cities and communities to develop an urban resilience and recovery approach. UN-Habitat supports local authorities and communities (1) to collect better urban data to reach a common understanding on urban recovery needs; (2) to jointly identify neighborhood and municipal area response priorities – from humanitarian, to resilience, to recovery; and (3) to design and implement housing, infrastructure and basic services, urban environment, and urban cultural heritage projects that directly respond to these local priorities.

UN-Habitat Syria currently has offices in Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Deir Azzor, The UN-Habitat Syria programme operationalizes projects across Syria.

Project Background

UN-Habitat, in conjunction with five UN agencies, is carrying out the second stage of the UN Joint Programme (UNJP2.0) to strengthen urban and rural resilience and the conditions for recovery in Syria. This objective results throughout improving equitable access to basic services, restoring food systems and providing dignified and sustainable livelihood opportunities for targeted communities, while building trust and cooperation across social divides. Through these pathways, the programme seeks to better equip local communities to withstand future shocks and to empower them to pursue their recovery priorities inclusively and sustainably.

Moreover, the UNJP2.0 is underpinned by a commitment to collective programming towards resilience solutions, applying a nuanced, area-based and conflict-sensitive approach, which facilitates an optimisation of community participation, thereby creating an appropriate space for participatory and bottom-up-led processes with a focus on the rural-urban linkages, while ensuring gender-responsive/gender-transformative and inclusive planning.

As the UN-Habitat’s experience in Syria shows that city profiling and recovery planning is the fundamental basis for community-based activities. Accordingly, As-Safira City's Profile and Recovery Planning addresses the recovery priorities that emphasize the rural-rural linkages between the city and key surrounding communities, including Tal Aran and Tal Hasel.

It is a multi-sectoral and area-based tool designed to i) foster inclusive community engagement in the recovery process, ii) effectively empower vulnerable communities, iii) strengthen the rural-rural and rural-urban linkages and improve crisis response efficiency through resilience programming. By leveraging these linkages, the recovery plan seeks to promote programmatic recommendations that shed light on prioritized interventions, including infrastructure improvement, livelihood restoration and ensuring more resilient and interconnected systems.

The methodology of this comprehensive instrument is integrated with the UN-Habitat Information Management Unit to spatially map the participatory results of urban analysis and damage assessment involving local stakeholders, local authorities and communities, including women, youth, people with disabilities, older persons, internally displaced persons, returnees and residents of informal settlements.

For additional information, please refer to the Urban Recovery Framework publication series available on the UN-Habitat website https://unhabitat.org/urban-recovery-framework-publication-series.

Under the supervision of the Urban Planning Officer, the Urban Planning Assistant will support the Urban Recovery Planning of UN Joint Programme 2.0 in all its phases, including planning, design and implementation through the following tasks:

Assist in conducting a comprehensive desk review of the targeted settlements for recovery planning.

Notetaking during related workshops or events.

Liaise with relevant colleagues (i.e., GIS associate, project associate and other team members) to collect all required data and figures for drafting the city profile and recovery plan.

Assist in tailoring the narrative of the city profile and recovery plan, based on the collected data, through attending conferences, workshops, meetings and field assessments.

Assist the project manager and GIS associate in preparing the required urban analysis and recommendations of the city profile and recovery planning through regular meetings and discussions, according to the delineated work plan.

Assist in drafting the Arabic version of the city profile and recovery planning.

Any other tasks as required by the Urban Advisory Unit (UAU) and the Urban Planning Officer who manages UNJP 2.0.

Impact of Results

The service will help the UN-Habitat Programme in supporting the planning, design and implementation of the city profiling and recovery planning of As-Safira City and its rural-urban linkages under the “UN Joint Programme to Strengthen Urban and Rural Resilience and the Conditions for Recovery in Syria 2.0’’.

Experience: Minimum of one (1) year professional experience in architecture and/or urban planning is required with a bachelor’s degree. Working experience with international organizations or local organizations is required. Proven working experience in supporting report preparation. Proficiency in computers and Microsoft Office software is required. Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is desirable.

Language Requirements: Fluency in oral and written Arabic is required. Upper intermediate knowledge of oral and written English is required. Contract type, level and duration

Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.

Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions

For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post.

For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses ( they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here.

All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.