Head of Bureau Protection and Solutions Service

Please note that this vacancy is only open to eligible staff members who have been individually notified of their eligibility to apply for positions advertised in the Accelerated Posting Compendium.

July 20, 2026

B

Family

DI1

Professional

Reason

Regular > Regular Assignment

2026-07-02

Head of Bureau Protection and Solutions Service

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships
The incumbent heads the Protection and Solutions Service in the Regional Bureau and reports to the Bureau Director. S/he has direct supervisory responsibility for protection staff in the Bureau and may supervise other staff.

The incumbent ensures coordination of regional protection and solutions support and acts as a senior advisor to the Bureau Director and to Country Operations in the region on all protection and legal matters and accountabilities, including durable solutions. These include: statelessness (in line with the campaign to End Statelessness by 2024), Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) commitments, age, gender, diversity (AGD) and accountability to affected populations (AAP) through community-based protection, child protection, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response, gender equality, disability inclusion, youth empowerment, registration, asylum systems building and refugee status determination, resettlement, local integration, voluntary repatriation human rights standards integration, national legislation, judicial engagement, predictable and decisive engagement in situations of internal displacement and engagement in wider mixed movement and climate change/disaster-related displacement responses. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring the centrality of protection in all of UNHCR's activities.

The incumbent works in close collaboration with relevant Divisions.

He/she maintains close working relations with senior protection staff in all countries in the region as well as regionally based UN entities, other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organisations, embassies, donors, international financial institutions, academic institutions and the media and represents the Organization on protection and legal matters.

The incumbent is responsible for ensuring, in an effective and efficient manner which supports the Organization's Mandate, overall quality assurance and managerial support of operations, in line with the Bureau's 2nd line function, within the three lines of defence conceptual framework for effective control and risk management adopted by the UN system.

S/he will, further, cover the full spectrum of managerial oversight, manage performance and monitor the adherence of Country Operations to UNHCR's rules and regulations, monitoring, identifying and addressing any emerging issues and risks as appropriate. The incumbent also promotes a culture that is results-oriented, efficient and based on trust and pursues measures to ensure that inclusion, gender balance and diversity are taken into due consideration in staffing, resource allocation and representation at all levels throughout the region.

As a key custodian of the organization's standards of conduct, s/he will proactively establish a working environment where all personnel feel safe, heard, equipped and empowered to speak up; demonstrate no tolerance for sexism, gender inequality, discrimination of any kind, abuse of power, harassment or sexual harassment; foster ongoing dialogue on those matters; take seriously all issues of inappropriate behaviour and actions reported, whether formally or informally; and seek guidance and support as necessary to ensure that appropriate follow-up is taken, working on the basis of zero tolerance for any form of misconduct.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties
- Provide strategic guidance to the Bureau Director on all protection matters.
- Develop a regional protection and solutions strategy consistent with UNHCR's priorities and commitments; support regional and country programming for protection from planning to evaluation including contingency planning and advocate for adequate resource allocations.
- Ensure the continued functioning of the protection service under her/his supervision as one strong team, guided by common strategic, principled and practical protection objectives, working towards increased protection impact.
- Coordinate quality, timely and effective protection responses to the needs of forcibly displaced and stateless persons in the region including emergency responses. Facilitate overall harmonization, coherence and application of the Bureau's protection strategies, policies and operations.
- Engage in regional fora and forge regional partnerships with broad cross-section of stakeholders to advocate for key protection and mandate issues, to ensure effective protection leadership and strengthen regional and national protection frameworks plans and capacities. Coordinate development of the Bureau's strategic protection partnerships with selected institutions, including regional organizations, relevant NGOs, civil society and academic institutions. Advocate for protection within regional coordination mechanisms.
- Maintain a functional link and oversight of the most senior protection staff in Country Offices. Coordinate and provide legal, technical and policy advice to Country Operations and enforce Country Operations' compliance with, and operationalization of, UNHCR's global protection policies and standards, priorities and commitments.
- Support Country Offices in identifying and taking up opportunities to influence legislative, institutional and judicial processes in relation to asylum, statelessness and internal displacement; ensure quality comments are provided on draft legislation and policies and to Human Rights mechanisms; review judicial interventions and engage with legal and judicial institutions as relevant.
- Guide and support Country Operations in the development of strategies to build and further develop national asylum/RSD systems with a view to ensuring their fairness, efficiency, adaptability and integrity.
- Support Country Operations in the preparations of Exchange of Letters, Tripartite Agreements, and other agreements as required.
- Support Country Operations and ensure they meet their complementary pathways objectives and resettlement quotas. Support local integration objectives and well as efforts to promote social inclusion.
- Guide and support risk management related to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), fraud, data protection, and human rights due diligence at country level, in consultation with relevant Divisions (as appropriate).
- Consolidate and share analysis of emerging protection risks and recommended practices with DIP for global analysis and consult DIP on sensitive protection issues and when proposed regional/local UNHCR policy/position could affect global coherence and accountabilities.
- Coordinate efforts to harmonize and ensure the effectiveness of the Bureau's external protection communications with key counterparts including donors and the media.
- Develop protection capacity of senior protection and legal staff in the region through protection training and regional consultations; promote reviews and evaluations across all areas of protection and identify, document and disseminate promising practices.

- Lead risk assessments and discussions with team(s) to proactively manage risks and seize opportunities impacting objectives. Ensure that risk management principles are integrated in decision-making both at strategic and operational levels. Allocate resources for planned treatments with resource requirements in Strategic Plans. Ensure that risks are managed to acceptable levels and escalate, as needed. If a Risk Owner, designate the Risk Focal Point and certify that the annual risk review is completed and ensure that the risk register is updated during the year, as needed.
- Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level
For D1 - 17 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 16 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 15 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education
International Public Law; International Refugee Law; Political Science; International Human Rights Law; Refugee and Forced Migration; International Relations;

or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses
Not specified.

Relevant Job Experience
Essential
Minimum 12 years of previous work experience in progressively responsible functions in an organisation or institution that assists asylum-seekers, refugees, stateless persons and/or IDPs, preferably within the UN. Thorough knowledge of International refugee law and its application; ability to analyse and advocate the application of various regional legal instruments for the benefits of the persons under UNHCR's mandate. Proven and outstanding track record and intimate familiarity with UNHCR's protection doctrine and operational experiences, including experience of application of protection doctrine in highly political context, senior level protection management, leadership in coordination within UNHCR and the UN and with government counterparts. Excellent drafting and analytic skills.

Desirable
Solid UNHCR experience from both the Field (including Hardship Duty stations) and Headquarters.

Functional Skills
*PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards and indicators
*PR-Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD)
*PR-Developing Strategic Protection Framework
*PR-Comprehensive Solutions Framework
*PR-Gender Based Violence (GBV) Coordination
(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements
For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

Essential Attributes:
• A solid operational background in protection in refugee, IDP and returnee settings and in the context of mixed movements, with a combination of field, Regional Bureau and Headquarters experience, preferably including the region; knowledge of and familiarity with Africa operations and their political and humanitarian challenges would be beneficial.
• Solid managerial experience and strong leadership and organizational skills to supervise teams across the bureau, promoting team spirit, functional collaboration and diversity.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to analyze data on refugee, IDP, returnee and broader humanitarian crises with a protection focus, in support of effective programme planning, development and management.
• Excellent communication and drafting skills, orally and in writing, with a proven ability to establish rapport with stakeholders, create an enabling working environment, and lead and work with diverse teams.
• Demonstrated high-level negotiating skills in complex and sensitive situations with governments, customary institutions, authorities and transitional and non-traditional partners.
• Demonstrated ability to partner at scale with UN agencies, development and private sector actors.

Desirable Attributes:
• Working knowledge of French is desirable.
• Flexibility, a high degree of accountability and pro-activeness in anticipating and managing situations, and the ability to travel on missions to remote field locations with challenging working conditions and security concerns.
• Strong familiarity with UNHCR’s policy guidelines, protection standards and operational priorities at field, regional and global levels.
• A clear vision of the protection and solutions outcomes UNHCR aims to achieve through its engagement with development actors and the private sector, in line with the Regional 50by35 Roadmap.

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French

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit this link: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Nature of Position:

The UNHCR Regional Bureau for Eastern and Southern Africa (RBESA) is based in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a critical hub for collaboration, strategic engagement, and addressing cross-cutting operational challenges. A Regional Director heads the Bureau and has primary accountability for strategic decision-making, regional prioritization, and quality assurance—and enhanced delegated authorities to manage the region effectively. With functional links to the Divisions at HQs, technical experts are integrated within the regional bureau structures/pillars and lines of authority.

 

Strategic Planning and management ensure the region’s overall coherence with UNHCR’s global objectives and High Commissioner’s Strategic Directions; set regional bureau-wide priorities, manage, and direct all regional resources and assess contextual changes to adjust regional operational priorities; provide support to country operations, including on Human Resources, Supply, Finance and Information and Communications Technology (ICT); ensures financial and procedural oversight.

 

Protection elaborates and empowers regional approaches to UNHCR’s global protection priorities; monitors and supports the exercise of UNHCR’s core protection mandate at the country level.

 

External Engagement defines and oversees the implementation at country and regional level of strategic communications, resource mobilization, and partnership strategies, including with UN and NGO partners, development institutions, and the full range of stakeholders under the whole of society approach of the Global Compact on Refugees. The partnership approach includes cultivating and supporting partnerships for economic and financial inclusion, livelihoods, and social protection, supported by socio-economic analysis.

 

Data, Identity Management and Analysis (DIMA) supports regional information, data management, and analysis in alignment with regional objectives and provides expertise in the collection, validation, curation, protection, interpretation, and representation of operational data.

The Bureau provides operational support and oversight to 25 country operations: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Some 3600 staff are deployed in the Bureau and country offices. The Bureau also oversees UNHCR’s Representation to the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Most UN agencies, including WFP and UNICEF, have regional offices in Nairobi, and host some of their HQ teams.

 

The region has the largest number of people with and for whom UNHCR works in Africa. This includes 6.3 million refugees and asylum seekers, over 17.0 million internally displaced people, as well as approximately 238,000 returnees in 2026, over 68,000 stateless persons, or persons at risk of statelessness. The majority of people forced to flee their countries are hosted in 7 countries, namely Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania (United Republic of), and South Africa. Uganda hosts over 2 million refugees, the largest refugee population in Africa. Ethiopia has over 1.9 million internally displaced people. Before the current crisis in Sudan, approximately 2.3 million people were internally displaced in Sudan. More than a year since the start of the current crisis, close to 6.72 million people were uprooted and forced to flee their homes to safer parts of the country bringing the total internally displaced to 9.0 million people. Sudan is one of the largest internal displacement situations in the world and one of the fastest-growing displacement crises. The Regional Bureau Director also serves as the Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Sudan situation thus RBESA RB supports him with coordination and planning, reporting and resource mobilization for the Sudan situation. South Sudanese still accounts for the highest displaced outside the country coming to around 2.37 million people. In Somalia, around 3.3 million people are internally displaced throughout the country. Mixed movements and human trafficking are significant regional protection challenges.

 

The region is characterized by pockets of instability and insecurity, recurrent climatic events contributing to intercommunal conflicts, fragile state institutions and governance systems, and heightened socio-economic vulnerability of forcibly displaced. Political instability and conflicts in Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan have led to displacement, resulting in large internal and external population movements. Despite the challenges, the Bureau seeks to expand opportunities that exist in the humanitarian/development/peace nexus to enhance collaboration and engage strategically with governments, donors, and financial institutions for the inclusion of refugee programmes in national systems, while seeking contributions of development actors to sustainable reintegration initiatives in Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

 

The ESA region has received over half (51%) of the World Bank’s total global IDA allocations under the special instruments for refugees and host communities covering seven countries. The Bureau engages with partners in the UN, financial institutions (AFDB, IFC, WB) and Regional economic communities (IGAD and EAC) and ICGLR as part of its agenda. A broad range of progressive pledges were made by States, regional entities and other stakeholders at the second Global Refugee Forum 2023, which will drive the protection and solutions agenda in the region for the coming four years.

The Position

The Deputy Director reports to the Regional Director and assists him in the full performance of his regional management responsibilities. The incumbent will lead the Protection and Solutions Service, working closely with teams across the Bureau including the Strategic Planning and Management Service, DIMA and External Engagement Service. The Deputy Director ensures overall quality assurance, managerial support and oversight of operations, and fosters close collaboration with communities, UN agencies, NGOs and other external partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Bureau’s Protection and Solutions Service, and serve as principal advisor to the Regional Director on protection and solutions matters.
• Drive the implementation of the region’s comprehensive protection and solutions agenda, anchored in the Bureau’s Regional 50by35 Roadmap and Multi-Year Strategy, and guide country offices in contextualizing solutions pathways across the full spectrum of forced displacement.
• Oversee the Bureau's engagement and work with communities, ensuring that community-based protection, accountability to affected people, and the meaningful participation of refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities are embedded across regional strategies and operations.
• Oversee UNHCR’s protection strategies and protection teams at regional level, ensuring coherence with UNHCR’s global protection policies and standards in close collaboration with the Division of International Protection and other Headquarters Divisions, and oversee monitoring and reporting on progress against protection priorities and regional 50by35 targets.
• Maintain strategic analysis of political, social, economic and security developments affecting the protection environment in the region, advise the Regional Director on appropriate courses of action, and guide preparedness and response to refugee and IDP emergencies.
• Position protection and solutions at the center of humanitarian-development collaboration and ensure its protection and solutions outcomes are monitored.
• Represent the Bureau in regional fora and lead high-level negotiations with governments, customary institutions, authorities and traditional and non-traditional partners, leveraging regional frameworks – including those of IGAD, EAC, the ICGLR, and SADC – to ensure effective protection leadership and advance UNHCR priorities and commitments on forced displacement, mixed movements and comprehensive solutions.
• Build and sustain strategic partnerships and networks with senior interlocutors across the region, including UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, humanitarian and development partners and academic institutions.
  

Living and Working Conditions:

Nairobi is in UN Security level 2 (Moderate) however politically instigated demonstrations and riots can occur at any time. There is general crime similar to that in large cities and a high sense of vigilance and alertness is required. Overall, these risks are manageable and do not significantly limit movement, operations, or quality of life for UN personnel.

Despite the security concerns mentioned above, Nairobi is a very good duty station for families. It has good medical facilities and the recreational facilities, schools and hotels are of international standards. It has an excellent climate, and comfortable houses and other forms of accommodation available as well as good banking facilities, unlimited access to all forms of communications such as internet, telephone Sim cards, etc. The city offers reliable infrastructure, diverse amenities, and a well-established UN and diplomatic community, which enhances day‑to‑day living and support networks.
 
 

Additional Qualifications

Skills

PR-Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD), PR-Comprehensive Solutions Framework, PR-Developing Strategic Protection Framework, PR-Gender Based Violence (GBV) Coordination, PR-Protection-related guidelines, standards and indicators

Bachelor of Arts: International Human Rights Law, Bachelor of Arts: International Public Law, Bachelor of Arts: International Refugee Law, Bachelor of Arts: International Relations, Bachelor of Arts: Political Science, Bachelor of Arts: Refugee and Forced Migration Studies

Certifications

Competencies

Accountability, Analytical thinking, Client & results orientation, Commitment to continuous learning, Communication, Empowering & building trust, Judgement & decision making, Leadership, Managing performance, Managing resource, Organizational awareness, Political awareness, Stakeholder management, Strategic planning & visions, Teamwork & collaboration

https://icsc.un.org/Home/SalaryScales

Compendium

Addendum to the Accelerated Posting Compendium 2026

Additional Information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance