CONSULTANCY - TERMS OF REFERENCE
UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated
to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees.
Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to
achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s
services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and
improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance. UNRWA is the largest UN operation in the
Middle East with more than 30,000 staff. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions
Senior International Expert “Design of Emergency Cash Transfer Schemes
and Vulnerability Analysis”
BACKGROUND
More than 2 million Palestine refugees are registered in Jordan, the majority of them live around and
outside the 10 official and 3 unofficial camps. The main programmes of Jordan Field Office (JFO) are
basic education, comprehensive primary health service, relief and social service, and camp
improvement. The programmes are delivered directly to the refugees by nearly 7000 staff.
In addition, UNRWA currently provides critical humanitarian and protection assistance to 15,000
Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS). The Agency expects that their number will reach 17,000 by
end 2015. PRS are a highly marginalized group in Jordan, who relies heavily on UNRWA’s assistance
to meet basic needs, including relief, health and education.
DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Under the direct supervision of the Deputy, Director of UNRWA Operations (Programmes) and in
close collaboration with the Deputy Chief of Relief and Social Services and with the Senior
Emergency Coordinator, the incumbent will support JFO to design and implement social safety nets
with a focus on cash transfers and carrying out vulnerability assessment, and will be responsible for
the following tasks:
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Prepare and submit a work plan for the assignment period;
Review existing vulnerability assessment frameworks, targeting criteria, available data sets and
data collection methodologies, and make recommendations to strengthen the assessment of
household vulnerability and targeting of assistance including:
1. Conducting additional analysis to enhance understanding of vulnerability profiles and trends
2. Supporting the design together with partners of a survey tool for the identification, tracking
and monitoring of vulnerability levels of refugees, including an adequate targeting approach
for the emergency response.
Liaise with humanitarian partners working on targeting mechanisms for humanitarian support for
Syrian refugees and contribute to the ongoing efforts in designing respective tools and response
modalities;
Support selected capacity development measures for improving data collection, analysis and
reporting of vulnerability data in support of decision-making on modality, scope, amounts and
frequency of social transfers/humanitarian support for refugees and draft respective guidance
and tools as identified as necessary;
Participate and contribute to technical discussions on social safety net/social transfer
programmes and modalities within UNRWA departments and its partners.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
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Master degree from an accredited educational institution in Statistics, Economics or Social
Sciences or other related field;
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Minimum 8 years of relevant experience: analyzing complex data sets and designing survey
tools; vulnerability analysis for policy and programme design; and preferably experience with
social protection and/or social safety net policies and programmes.
CONDITIONS OF SERVICE
 The duration of the consultancy is 3 months;
 Remuneration for this consultancy as per relevant salary scale (based on P4/P5 level; depending
on the qualifications and experience of the candidate) + TSA;
 The incumbent is expected to be based in Amman; if the consultant is traveling from abroad, the
flight ticket will be covered by UNRWA;
APPLICATION PROCESS
Applicants should submit a cover letter and CV or UN Personal History Form demonstrating clearly
the knowledge and experience required to meet the consultancy requirements via
consultancy@unrwa.org indicating the title of this consultancy “Senior International Expert
Design of Emergency Cash Transfer schemes and vulnerability analysis”” in the subject line of
the message. The deadline for the submission of applications is 31 January 2015.
Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Due to a large amount of applications,
only qualified applicants under serious consideration will be contacted. UNRWA is a non-smoking
environment.
6 January 2015/ LAN