Vacancy Announcement

ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION: UN-HABITAT

DUTY STATION: Kismayo,  Jowhar  and  Adado  (one  position  per location)

FUNCTIONAL TITLE: Field officer

CONTRACT TYPE: Individual Contractor

DURATION: 6 months with the possibility of extension

CLOSING DATE: 30 October 2026

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities, with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat supports the urban poor by transforming cities into safer, healthier, greener places with better opportunities, where everyone can live with dignity. It works with partners at all levels — including government institutions, civil society, and the private sector — to help build, manage, plan, and finance sustainable urban development.

This position is located within the Somalia Programme, Regional Office for Africa (ROAf), under the Joint Programme on Strengthening Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery (Dowladkaab Programme).

Dowladkaab is a five-year joint initiative by UNDP, UNICEF, and UN-Habitat, funded through the Somalia Joint Fund. The programme aims to strengthen local governments’ capacity to effectively respond to the needs and rights of all citizens — with a particular focus on women, youth, and marginalized groups — while empowering communities to hold their leaders accountable.

The programme works across local, state, and federal levels of government to create an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable governance systems at the district level, advancing responsive social service delivery, enhancing state legitimacy, and rebuilding trust. Within this framework, UN-Habitat contributes by promoting capacity development, unlocking development financing, and supporting local resource mobilization for sustainable and inclusive service delivery.

The programme, launched in late 2024, is community-driven and aspires to foster participatory, locally owned development and lasting change at the district level.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall coordination of the Head of Programmes and the direct supervision of UN-Habitat’s Dowladkaab Programme Manager, the field officer will assist in the implementation of the UN-Habitat/Dowladkaab work plan in Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Galmudug State of Somalia.

✓    Work closely with the Dowladkaab Programme team to provide strategic input to improve programme interventions and performance.

✓    Oversee the development, implementation, and evaluation of program interventions at the district, ensuring follow-up with relevant stakeholders and active participation of staff from the relevant state and local government institutions.

✓    Support urban planning and engineering activities at the State and District level, work closely with the international urban planner, and collect the key data from the field.

✓    Closely monitor urbanization drivers at the State and District and provide essential inputs to the urban planner to support the district with possible solutions and interventions.

✓    In close coordination with the programme team, the officer will provide technical assistance to the relevant line ministries and district administration to ensure effective implementation of the program activities.

✓    Support the State relevant line ministries in drafting the program interventions’ concept notes in order to better manage the delivery of the planned activities.

✓    Maintain good rapport with the mayors and local government technical staff to ensure the smooth running of the program interventions

✓    Conduct regular district visits and provide on-the-job training and coaching for staff on financial reporting, visibility, revenue management, expenditure management and accountability and transparency.

✓    Support the development of tools, manuals and guidelines to strengthen district’s relevant departments based on the regular visits and consultations with the district officials and the State relevant line Ministries.

✓    Support the development of district’s financial management system that aligns with the State’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) and Somalia’s Public Financial Management (PFM).

✓    Provide technical assistance and on-the-job training for the operationalization of the district’s domestic revenue mobilizations exercises.

✓    Assist the district in producing, analyzing and presenting the yearly financial report to the State Ministries and UN-Habitat, providing evidence to inform decisions and highlight priority improvement areas.

✓    Coordinate closely with capacity injection consultants at district to better plan and coordinate the program interventions among Dowladkaab implementing agencies.

✓    The field officer will collect the IPs’ financial and narrative reports, review them and share them with the programme team for their final review and processing.

✓    Represent the program and UN-Habitat in all field level coordination and contribute to all relevant thematic intervention areas of UN-Habitat in the state.

✓    Supports the programme monitoring and evaluation efforts, providing input into monitoring and evaluation reports in collaboration with relevant staff