Disaster Risk Reduction Expert

The UN Volunteer will be part of the Field Operations and Emergency Section of UNICEF Syria Country Office, based in Damascus. The section leads UNICEF's engagement on emergency, disaster risk reduction (DRR), humanitarian coordination, field operations, and resilience-building initiatives across Syria. In close collaboration with government counterparts, UN agencies, and development partners, the section supports national and sub-national systems to strengthen risk analysis, emergency response capacities, and long-term resilience, with a particular focus on protecting the rights and well-being of children.

This United Nations Volunteer (UNV) assignment is part of UNICEF Syria's support to strengthening national disaster risk reduction (DRR) and emergency systems in partnership with the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management (MoEDM). The initiative contributes to national efforts to reduce vulnerabilities to natural and human-induced hazards, including earthquakes, floods, droughts, extreme weather events, environmental risks, and conflict-related threats.

The project supports several strategic priorities of the Government of Syria, including:
• Development of the country's first National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy.
• Review and updating of the national risk registry.
• Strengthening national contingency planning mechanisms.
• Improving inter-ministerial coordination and risk governance systems.
• Promoting child-centred, gender-responsive, and youth-inclusive approaches to disaster risk management.

Key stakeholders include the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management (MoEDM), relevant line ministries, governorate-level authorities, UNICEF programme sections, United Nations agencies, technical partners, civil society organizations, youth representatives, and other national and international actors engaged in disaster risk management and emergency.

Expected outcomes include strengthened national disaster risk reduction frameworks, enhanced institutional capacities for response, improved multi-hazard risk analysis, stronger coordination mechanisms among national stakeholders, and greater integration of child-focused and community-based approaches within Syria's disaster risk management architecture.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Chief Field Operations and Emergency, and the Deputy Representative for Programmes or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer will:

• Support the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in collaboration with the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management and other relevant stakeholders.
• Contributes to the development, review, and updating of disaster risk reduction strategies, risk assessments, action plans, and related technical documents.
• Assist in coordinating consultations, workshops, meetings, and technical discussions with government institutions, UN agencies, academia, civil society organizations, and other partners.
• Support the collection, analysis, and consolidation of information related to disaster risks, vulnerabilities, and resilience-building initiatives.
• Help strengthen coordination and collaboration among national and sub-national stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction.
• Contribute to the preparation of reports, presentations, briefing notes, meeting summaries, and other knowledge products.
• Support the documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations related to disaster risk reduction and emergency management.
• Assist in monitoring project activities, tracking progress against planned outputs, and identifying implementation challenges and opportunities.
• Support the integration of child-sensitive, gender-responsive, and community-based approaches into disaster risk reduction initiatives.
• Liaise with UNICEF programme sections and external partners to facilitate information sharing and coordinated implementation of activities.
• Perform any other related tasks assigned by the supervisor in support of UNICEF's disaster risk reduction, and resilience-building efforts.