Information Management Officer (WASH Cluster) in UNICEF Ukraine

Title: Information Management Officer (WASH Cluster)
Job no: 577072
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Duty Station: Kyiv
Level: NO-2
Categories: Emergency

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, hope

UNICEF Ukraine

Join the Emergency Team at UNICEF Ukraine!

How can you make a difference? 

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job

Humanitarian action is of fundamental importance to UNICEF and encompasses interventions aimed at saving lives, alleviating suffering, maintaining human dignity, and protecting the rights of affected populations wherever there are humanitarian needs, as well as interventions addressing underlying risks and causes of vulnerability to disasters, fragility and conflict. UNICEF’s humanitarian action is guided by the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) which set organizational, programmatic and operational commitments and benchmarks against which UNICEF holds itself accountable for the coverage, quality and equity of its humanitarian action and advocacy and which are mandatory for all UNICEF personnel.

Furthermore, UNICEF is committed to support humanitarian coordination through the cluster approach. Introduced as part of the humanitarian reform, the cluster approach, aims at ensuring clear leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labor among organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the different sectors involved in the response. As a member of the IASC, UNICEF work along with national and local stakeholders (including national and local authorities, CSOs, and communities) to support humanitarian coordination and to improve the collective impact of humanitarian response. Whether the cluster approach is activated or not, UNICEF plays a key role in both global and country-level interagency coordination for its areas of programmatic responsibility.  As Cluster Lead Agency (CLA) for Nutrition, WASH, Education (co-led), and Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) within the Protection Cluster, UNICEF is committed to fulfil the core functions defined by the IASC when the clusters are activated or when UNICEF is asked to support sectoral coordination.

A well-run Cluster coordination team, including Information Management (IM), is a formal deliverable of the Cluster Lead Agency and forms a part of the agency’s work. The IM Officer (WASH Cluster) is a core member of the Cluster coordination team.

The 2023 recommended good practices for the minimum structure of coordination teams at country level for UNICEF as a Cluster Lead Agency, and the 2024 UNICEF Country Office Guide on Cluster Lead Agency Accountabilities and Humanitarian Coordination lay out UNICEFs role and accountabilities in ensuring coordination capacity in the clusters led by UNICEF. Given the continued activation of the WASH Cluster in Ukraine – supported by a mixture of UNICEF and partner personnel to ensure the national platform, three sub-national hubs, and several technical working groups – and the expectation of an intensification of hostilities and shifts in the frontline, there is a continued need to ensure sufficient coordination capacity to support the WASH response in priority areas along the ‘crescent’.

Job organizational context:  The IM Officer (WASH Cluster) GJP is to be used in a Country Office (CO) where the WASH Manager/ Specialist Cluster Coordinator is at P4 or P3 and the Representative is at P5 or D1. The post-holder will be based in a national Cluster . The position reports to a WASH Cluster Coordinator for general guidance and direction.

Purpose of the job: Under the overall direction and guidance of the WASH Cluster Coordinator, the IM Officer (WASH Cluster) will manage the IM function of the Cluster at the national level. They are responsible for ensuring IM processes effectively contribute to a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by participants in the Cluster that is accountable to those who are affected by the emergency. In their effort to enable an efficient and effective response to the humanitarian crisis, the IM Officer (WASH Cluster) is responsible for managing the collection, analysis and sharing of information that is essential for the national Cluster participants to make informed, evidence-based, strategic decisions and for ensuring they are adequately coordinating with the national level.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/ tasks

The post holder is responsible for supporting the information management function to enable the effective functioning of the Cluster at the national level, and the achievement of the core cluster functions, throughout the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) in order to facilitate a timely and effective Cluster response.

The postholder's main tasks and responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

Key responsibilities and tasks

Coordination and representation

• As a member of the coordination team, contribute to the effective roll out and monitoring of the core cluster functions (as outlined by the IASC Reference Module) and to the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HNRP and CCPM),
• Support the Cluster IM function and coordinate with others within the function to ensure effective communication, reporting and engagement,
• Actively engage with other IMs at national and sub-national levels, including participating  and representing the Cluster on the inter-cluster IMWG as relevant at national level,
• Promote harmonized and coordinated approaches to IM across partners, AoRs/ Clusters and OCHA at national level.
• Support Strategic Decision-Making:
  • Provide data-driven insights to inform strategic decisions by the Cluster Coordinator and other stakeholders, particularly in the context of the 2025 HNRP.
  • Participate in inter-sectoral coordination meetings (IMWG, AAWG, and other ad hoc groups) and work with OCHA IMS to ensure WASH needs are represented and integrated into broader humanitarianresponse efforts.
• Support with administrative tasks:
  • Provide support to Cluster and Sub-cluster Coordinators in keeping minutes, sending out meeting invitations to meetings, and other administrative tasks when needed.

Information Management function support

• Implement an IM strategy and data collection and analysis plan at national level that take into account the information needs of stakeholders and that are compliant with standards and protocols for ethical data and information management and that is aligned with the national level IM strategy and plan,
• Implement regular secondary data reviews and primary data collection including designing questionnaires using appropriate tools,
• Conduct data processing including organizing, cleaning, triangulating, evaluating and validating the data,
• Analyse data to meet identified information needs of national Cluster Working Group members and other stakeholders,
• Create accurate, quality and timely information products that are in line with agreed style guides,
• Disseminate information and information products through appropriate channels,
• Maintain and ensure the accessibility of a common and shared secure storage system,
• Gather feedback on IM products and use to make improvements.
• Support Information Management for HNRP:
  • Oversee the development and maintenance of IM tools such as the WASH cluster 2025 Strategy and Indicators’ Handbook, and platforms, to support the HNRP process, including data management systems, dashboards, and GIS mapping.
  • Provide IM leadership and support in the development and analysis of needs assessment and monitoring programmes, including joint assessments and training.
• Data collection and Management Responsibilities on ActivityInfo:
  • Collect, consolidate, and manage data from partner organizations on their interventions using ActivityInfo, ensuring timely and accurate data entry into the system.
  • Perform regular data cleaning and validation procedures on ActivityInfo datasets to ensure data quality, consistency, and reliability, providing feedback and support to partners as necessary.
• Strengthen Cluster partners’ IM and Technical Working Groups’ Capacity:
  • Develop and implement IM workshops for Cluster partners to enhance their knowledge and skills in data collection, analysis, and reporting.
  • Promote the use of Global WASH Cluster IM standards and practices within the Cluster including its Technical Working Groups, ensuring interoperability and consistency in data management.
• Enhance Information Dissemination and Reporting:
  • Ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information to all Cluster partners, including the preparation of media monitoring, newsletters, bulletins, and other reports as required.
  • Facilitate the flow of information between national and sub-national levels to support effective decision-making and coordination, identifying information gaps at different levels and proposing ways to bridgethose gaps.
  • Manage an inventory of relevant assessments and reports on the humanitarian situation.

Needs assessment and analysis

• Working collaboratively with other members of the Cluster and its Technical Working Group and Cells at national and sub-national level, contribute to the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including joint assessments and analysis, as requested,
• Collect information on economic needs, markets and price monitoring to support the equal consideration and use of all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services) as relevant at national level,
• Work with national Cluster participants to identify information gaps, agree and implement ways to bridge those gaps by providing technical support to partners,
• Analyse needs assessment data to provide required information for the HNO including estimating People in Need (PIN),
• Contribute to the comparison and alignment of joint needs analysis findings with other AoRs/ Clusters and participate in developing reports as relevant at national level.

Strategic response planning

• Implement partner presence mapping at national level,
• Contribute to strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of the HNRP or other response plans as relevant, including the formulation of objectives, indicators and targets, prioritizing response modalities and activities, identifying and quantifying inputs and the curation of data.

Resource mobilization

• Monitor and analyse the national Cluster’s financial situation and support financial tracking,
• Support and advocate with Cluster partners for financial reporting on the Financial Tracking Service (FTS),
• Support evidence-based advocacy and resource mobilization by providing accurate, relevant and timely data, information and information products.

Implementation and monitoring

• Implement and maintain a national Cluster monitoring plan and associated databases, including a response monitoring (3/4/5Ws) database that is in line with and contributes to national level databases,
• Ensure the national Cluster monitoring plan, and 3/4/5Ws include programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services),
• Support national Cluster members to contribute timely and quality periodic monitoring reports on Cluster and OCHA platforms,
• Support monitoring in the areas of information flows, dissemination, processing, analysis and dissemination,
• Contribute to quantitative and qualitative gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the national Cluster humanitarian response,
• Monitor adherence to relevant sector quality standards, regulations and codes at national level.

Operational peer review and evaluation

• Participate in the annual cluster coordination performance monitoring (CCPM) exercise and annual review,
• Contribute to sectoral and broader humanitarian evaluations.

Accountability to affected people

• Be accountable to affected populations by encouraging the meaningful participation of affected people, maintaining an effective feedback mechanism and handling complaints appropriately, by ensuring data about the most vulnerable is systematically collected and analysed, and by encouraging partners to work accountably,
• Ensure the inclusion of cross cutting issues (age, child protection, disability, gender, gender-based violence (GBV) mitigation and response and HIV & AIDS) in Cluster data collection, analysis and dissemination,
• Adhere to child safeguarding and PSEA policies including procedures for challenging and reporting incidents.

Strengthen national and local capacity

• Support or implement actions to strengthen local and national leadership and capacity by encouraging participation of local and national actors in the IM activities of the national Cluster and providing support to partners to overcome technical and operational challenges in participating in IM activities,
• Implement an IM capacity assessment and capacity development plan for national Cluster partners.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education:

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: Information Management or Information Systems, GIS Information Technologies, Computer Science, Statistics, Social Sciences or another subject area relevant to Information Management or to the Cluster.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible professional experience in information management, data management, geographical information systems, assessments, situation analysis and/or PM&E with the UN and/or NGO is required.
• Experience in demonstrating strong information management skills in a professional context is essential for this post.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in English (verbal and written) and Ukrainian is required.

Desirables:

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency. 
• Formal training in cluster information management is considered as an advantage.
• Experience in a humanitarian context is an asset.
• Experience working in the humanitarian coordination system is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is considered an asset.

Skills: 

The post holder must demonstrate good knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Humanitarian architecture, cluster approach and core functions 
• Humanitarian principles, standards and guidelines 
• WASH specific knowledge and skills
• IM technical knowledge and skills
• Excellent multitasking abilities, ensuring timely and high-quality outputs

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Eligible staff members on fixed-term, continuing or permanent contracts applying to IP TA positions in a duty station designated as L2/L3, may be able to retain a lien and their fixed-term entitlements, subject to approval by their Head of Office. The conditions of the temporary assignment will vary depending on the status of their post and relocation entitlements may be limited as per the relevant policies.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

This position is based in Kyiv, and the incumbent will be expected be work on-site. However, depending on the security conditions and advisory, s/he will be required to relocate within Ukraine.

Application Deadline: 21 November 2024 FLE Standard Time