Programme Specialist, HDP Nexus

Job Posting Organization:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the lead United Nations agency focused on delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. Established in 1969, UNFPA operates in over 150 countries and territories, working to ensure that every individual has access to reproductive health services and the opportunity to lead a healthy and fulfilling life. The organization is committed to the principles of human rights and gender equality, striving to empower women and girls and promote sustainable development. UNFPA's mission is guided by the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to address the interconnected challenges of population dynamics, gender equality, and sustainable development. With a diverse workforce of thousands of employees, UNFPA emphasizes the importance of cultural diversity and inclusivity in its operations, fostering an environment where all voices are heard and valued.

Job Overview:
The Programme Specialist, HDP Nexus, plays a crucial role in the UNFPA Philippines Country Office by integrating humanitarian, development, and peace approaches within the Country Programme (CPD9, 2025–2029). This position is essential for designing, implementing, and monitoring programs that enhance resilience and connect humanitarian actions with long-term development and peacebuilding objectives, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected areas like the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and disaster-prone regions. The Specialist will report to the Assistant Representative and work under the overall supervision of the UNFPA Representative, collaborating closely with various thematic program teams, including Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Gender/Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Adolescents and Youth, and Population. The role requires a strategic approach to strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace continuum, ensuring that the rights and choices of women, girls, and young people are advanced and safeguarded. The incumbent will enhance the Country Office's capacity to anticipate and manage risks, promote community resilience, and support disaster risk reduction and conflict-sensitive programming.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Programme Management and Integration of the HDP Nexus: Lead the integration of the HDP nexus approach across UNFPA program areas, ensuring coherence between humanitarian action, risk-informed and climate-resilient development, and peacebuilding efforts at national and subnational levels. Provide technical guidance and quality assurance for the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs in line with CPD9 and national priorities, and relevant humanitarian and development frameworks. Support evidence-based programming by assessing vulnerabilities, risks, and barriers, and identifying opportunities for resilience building, particularly for women, adolescents, and marginalized groups, including climate-related demographic risks and the implications of climate impacts on SRHR and GBV services. Generate innovative approaches to operationalize the HDP nexus—linking humanitarian preparedness, anticipatory and early action, gender-responsive recovery, systems strengthening, accountability to affected populations (AAP), and localization. Monitor financial and programmatic performance of nexus-related interventions, ensuring timely, accountable, and high-quality delivery.
• Humanitarian Coordination and Technical Support: Serve as UNFPA’s focal point for humanitarian preparedness and response, ensuring coordination and alignment with the Humanitarian Country Team and relevant cluster mechanisms (Health, Protection/GBV, SRHR), while strengthening linkages with early recovery, resilience, and development actors. Facilitate rapid assessments, mapping of partners, development of contingency and response plans, and contribute to anticipatory and early action planning, in coordination with government and UN counterparts. Contribute to inter-agency coordination on humanitarian and early recovery, promoting conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive, and risk-informed approaches to ensure UNFPA mandate areas (SRHR, GBV, A&Y) are integrated into multisectoral responses. Support national and local partners to strengthen institutional capacities in preparedness, response, and disaster risk reduction, including through localization, systems strengthening, and alignment with national resilience and peacebuilding frameworks. Ensure accountability to affected populations (AAP) and protection mainstreaming across humanitarian and nexus interventions.
• Advocacy, Policy, and Partnerships: Advocate for the inclusion of SRHR, GBV, and gender equality priorities in national disaster management, peacebuilding, climate adaptation, and recovery frameworks, as well as in relevant development policies and plans. Contribute to evidence-based policy dialogue with government, donors, and humanitarian actors to strengthen nexus-oriented planning and financing. Support resource mobilization efforts through the development of donor proposals, briefs, and concept notes on resilience, recovery, anticipatory action, and nexus programming. Contribute to situation reports, annual reports, donor reports, and visibility materials related to humanitarian and nexus work, ensuring alignment with national priorities and UNFPA’s strategic positioning. Build strategic partnerships with national agencies (e.g., NDRRMC, BARMM ministries), CSOs, academia, and development partners to operationalize a coordinated HDP agenda, including localization and sustained engagement with women-led and youth-led organizations.
• Knowledge Management and Capacity Development: Document lessons learned, best practices, and innovative models of nexus programming, and facilitate their dissemination within UNFPA and among partners, ensuring linkages to national and regional learning platforms. Build capacity of CO staff and partners on humanitarian principles, nexus integration, and risk-informed programming. Maintain close liaison with APRO and HQ on global humanitarian and nexus initiatives to ensure contextual application in the Philippines. Ensure UNFPA participation in regional learning networks and knowledge exchanges on resilience and HDP integration, including communities of practice related to DRR, peacebuilding, accountability to affected populations, and anticipatory action.
• Reporting and Representation: Represent UNFPA in inter-agency humanitarian and nexus coordination fora, ensuring strong articulation of SRHR, GBV, adolescents and youth, gender equality, and resilience priorities across humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding platforms. Perform other duties as required by the Representative or Assistant Representative.

Required Qualifications:

• Education: Advanced university degree in public health, international relations, gender, development studies, humanitarian affairs, or a related field.
• Knowledge and Experience: Minimum five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian and/or nexus programming, including experience in fragile, conflict-affected, or disaster-prone settings, required. Demonstrated expertise in programme design, implementation, and monitoring using a resilience or HDP framework, required. Experience in inter-agency coordination and familiarity with IASC humanitarian architecture, required. Proven track record of policy engagement and partnership building with government, UN agencies, and civil society, desired. Knowledge of SRHR, GBV, gender, and youth programming in humanitarian contexts is required. Experience with the UN system or international organizations is desirable.

Educational Background:
The position requires an advanced university degree in public health, international relations, gender, development studies, humanitarian affairs, or a related field. This educational background is essential to ensure that the candidate possesses the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical understanding of the complexities involved in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding work, particularly in the context of the Philippines and similar settings.

Experience:
Candidates must have a minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian and/or nexus programming. This experience should include work in fragile, conflict-affected, or disaster-prone settings, which is crucial for understanding the unique challenges and dynamics present in these environments. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated expertise in programme design, implementation, and monitoring using a resilience or HDP framework, as well as experience in inter-agency coordination and familiarity with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) humanitarian architecture. A proven track record of policy engagement and partnership building with government, UN agencies, and civil society is also desired, along with knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender-based violence (GBV), and youth programming in humanitarian contexts.

Languages:
Fluency in English is required for this position, as it is essential for effective communication and collaboration within the UNFPA and with external partners. Knowledge of another UN language is considered desirable, as it can enhance the candidate's ability to engage with a broader range of stakeholders and contribute to UNFPA's global initiatives.

Additional Notes:
This position offers an attractive remuneration package, including a competitive net salary, health insurance, and other benefits as applicable. UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity, and a healthy work-life balance. The organization is committed to ensuring gender parity and encourages women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation, and selection for all, regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are at the heart of UNFPA's workforce.