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Description
Millions of civilians continue to grapple with extreme adversity across north-east Nigeria and the rest of the Lake Chad region where a recent surge in violence has uprooted tens of thousands more people, exacerbating an already dire crisis situation. An intractable extremist insurgency that has left tens of thousands of people dead, approximately 2.5 million displaced, and more than 10 million people in the region affected and in need. It is unlikely that security responses alone will be sufficient to address the complex factors that gave rise to the insurgency, and which continue to sustain it. There is increasing consensus that military efforts must be coupled with significant investments in complementary stabilization activities to benefit the local population at both local and Lake Chad Basin (LCB) regional levels if the security-humanitarian-development nexus around Lake Chad is to be effectively addressed.
While robust national and multi-national military operations have re-taken territory previously controlled by Boko Haram, a new approach is required to consolidate these gains and establish the conditions necessary to transition from military to civilian responsibility for security, and from the provision of humanitarian assistance to the resumption of stalled development processes. To this end, UNDP has been developing a new initiative for establishing Lake Chad Basin Regional Stabilization Facility (RSF), supporting four Lake Chad Basin countries (i.e., Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad) as well as LCB regional institutions, such as the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).
The Facility will act as a rapid-response package– delivering within 90 days of target area selection – those relevant authorities can sequence with military operations as necessary, to ensure immediate follow-up in specific locations and curtail the ability of armed opposition groups to re-infiltrate and exploit any security vacuum or community perceptions of non-responsive Government by extending an organized and effective civilian security umbrella, consolidating military progress with development ‘dividends’ for the local population. The Facility aims to address the needs for immediate stabilization in the target areas with high degrees of insecurity, promoting the phased transition of insecure areas toward greater security, and the reduction of current volatility whereby previously secure areas have become more rather than less vulnerable.
Through the initiation of implementation of the Stabilization Facility, improved cooperation among security actors at the federal, state, and community levels have emerged as an urgent need to achieve a joined-up approach to establish a sequenced transition from military to civilian control in selected target areas in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe states. To this end, UNDP seeks a qualified professional as Public Security Coordination Specialist, to provide technical support to strengthen its support for security coordination among the key security providers/law enforcement entities, such as military, police, civil defence, immigration, customs authorities as well as community security providers to maintain stability and protection in the seven target areas of the Stabilization Facility and the North-East region as a whole.
- Effective technical and coordination support to state and community-level security platforms
- Effective advocacy and engagement with security actors
- Safety and security situation analysis including threat assessments
Effective technical and coordination support to state and community level security platforms
- Serve to establish for the RSF a strong coordination, liaison and collaboration with military, police, Civil Defence and other security actors at state and local community levels with UNDP RSF communities. In collaboration with the Head of Stabilisation and CTA Rule of Law and Human Rights, establish and operationalize the Security Planning and Coordination Groups (SPCGs) at the states and community levels respectively bringing together relevant actors include state government, security actors, civil society, and community groups for a coordinated approach to managing security in their communities;
- Assume responsibility for the establishment and operationalization of Community Security Groups (CSG) in the RSF target communities in furtherance of engagement and collective planning between community-level security actors in pre-empting and resolving security risks affecting communities and meeting the security needs of RSF target locations;
- Provide technical support to the functioning and operationalization of the state and community platforms through the development and vetting of agenda and minute of meeting and supporting the development of action plans for workshops;
- In consultation with security institutions and engineers, monitor and coordinate the construction, verification, and hand over of security-related infrastructure in target field locations with a view to ensuring the appropriateness of structure and suitability for use;
- Monitor progress of security-related constructions in target areas as prioritized and coordinate with state agencies for deployments retaining momentum.
Effective advocacy and engagement with security actors in optimizing public safety and security in the RSF target locations.
- Establish and maintain collaborative links with Government security actors, local government authorities, UN, humanitarian actors, RSF partner organizations and community actors at the field level in ensuring access to up-to-date information as they occur in target communities;
- Engage with senior Commanders of security institutions including the Military, Police, NSCDC, Customs, Immigration, DSS and other community security actors in identifying addressing community concerns and challenges with safety and security raised by community security actors;
- Undertake regular assessment of the security requirement of target communities and extensive consultations and advocacy with security actors in facilitating deployments, gender inclusion as well as in discussion of security needs in RSF target communities;
- Identify and communicate emerging security challenges and changes including of key personnel of security institutions to ensure uninterrupted robust engagement while retaining institutional memory to fill capacity gaps of security/law enforcement actors, while providing recommendations for their capacity building needs;
- Support development of training needs and identification of capacity development priorities for Security Forces and Community Security Groups (established in JAP locations). Thereafter support design and delivery of said training for these groups as required /needed and follow up.
Safety and security situation Analysis including threat assessments
- Conduct periodic community-level security consultations and assessments in the wider North-East (NE) region with emphasis on the RSF target communities in Identifying and monitoring security trends, gauging perception and identifying priority security challenges, concerns and coordination needs of the target communities;
- Provide inputs to UNDP RSF reports as required concerning the situation on the ground, status of consultations and progress against project results;
- With M&E team design, review and analyze data from partners (including pulse checks, progress reports etc) for purposes of reporting and ongoing analysis to support programming and inform decision making.
Focus Deliverables:
- Identify, recommend, and work with field-based partners and structures dedicated to monitor progress and report to sustain stabilization programs;
- Identification of security-related project delays in the field and troubleshooting remaining sensitive to community aspirations to prevent protests;
- Primary focal point between UNDP RSF community security actors and government security agencies Operationalisation of Community Security Groups (CSG) [Stabilisation Committees] and Community Security Groups (CSG) at state level;
- Identification, design and delivery of trainings to UNDP and partners in relevant areas of work
- Periodic reporting to RSF partners including Government, donors and others as relevant.
Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:
The incumbent may be called upon to manage staff within their team to support this function.
Core Competencies:
Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity
Technical and Cross-functional Competencies:
Business Direction & Strategy:
Business Acumen: Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.
System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
Negotiation and Influence: Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiate mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and create ‘win-win’ situations.
Business Development: Knowledge Generation: Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.
Operations: Security:
Security information management: Analytical capabilities to process diverse security information and develop recommendations.
Security advice, planning and coordination: Ability to provide with authoritative advice and guidance on security management, plan and coordinate security activities
Business Management: Partnerships Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
- Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Social Sciences, Development, Peace or Security Studies, Criminology, Political Science, International Relations or other related fields.
- A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
- Formal multi-year education in Security Management, such as Military or Police, Junior Command and Staff College (minimum 9 months full time) qualification with command experience.
- Minimum 5 years (with Master’s) or 7 years (with Bachelor’s) working on international peace and security issues, ideally with direct experience of stabilization/crisis response programme design and implementation;
- Direct experience of civil-military relations and effective ways to encourage security actors to cooperate with each other and with local government and civil society is required;
- Experience working in conflict environments, ideally in support of local/national government or security providers in meeting the needs of vulnerable populations is required;
- Experience in leading planning and the technical development of peace and security interventions, ideally at a sub-national level is an asset;
- Relevant experience working in Africa, and in particular Nigeria or the Sahel/Lake Chad region, is an asset;
- Working as part of a multilateral approach to peace and security. Working experience on civil-military coordination/cooperation in the UNDP or UN agencies is an asset;
- Experience in design and/or delivery of training would be an asset;
- In-depth experience in security management and risk management.
Required Technical Skills:
- Functionally related professional management skills including remote office management;
- Strong leadership and team-building skills in complex and conflict settings;
- Plan and prioritize work activities to meet organizational goals and organizes and oversee work processes efficiently to achieve quality results;
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, as well as experience in the handling of web-based management systems.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English (written and oral).
