UN-Habitat Moçambique
1.Background
Mozambique is a highly susceptible country to risks and disasters. According to Global Climate Risk Index (2014), Mozambique falls in third place amongst the African countries that are most vulnerable to disasters such as floods, droughts, tornados, epidemics, earthquakes of small magnitude, among the most frequent and recurrent disasters.
A variety of factors contribute to the high vulnerability of Mozambique against the natural threats, namely (i) its location along the Rift Valley (one of the regions with the increased seismic activities), (ii) the vast coastal area with about 60 percent of the population and the country’s largest school network of about 2470 km (bordering one of the most active cyclonic basins southwest of the Indian Ocean), (iii) the extensive hydrographic network that guarantees food subsistence and livelihood for the majority of the Mozambican families, with nine (9) rivers of international importance flowing in the Indian Ocean, above-average rainfall-mainly due to tropical depressions or cyclones – and poor management of dams either in the national territory or in the countries where the rivers cause large floods that occur regularly in Mozambique. The post-cyclone Freddy Emergency situation that affected Mozambique during the months of February and
March 2024 resulted in the partial destruction of approximately 163 healthcare facilities and 4430 classrooms in the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala, Manica, Tete, Zambézia and Niassa.
After the passage of cyclone Freddy, and with the aim of ensuring the resilience of Education and Health infrastructure, the World Bank approved new funding to the Government of Mozambique to support the reconstruction activities in response to the impact of cyclone Freddy.
In this sense, The United Nations for Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has been selected as the technical assistance to support MINEDH and MISAU to carry out the damage and vulnerability assessment of healthcare and education infrastructure affected by Cyclone Freddy, as well to elaborate all the technical documentation needed to start the reconstruction activities.
To support the proposed activities and to carry out the design of architectural projects including the incorporation of resilience measures in the education and healthcare infrastructure, UN-Habitat is hiring Junior Architects.
2. Objectives of the post
The Junior Architect will play a key role in supporting the team by developing architectural designs, and devising technical solutions, ensuring that all the projects related to disaster risk reduction and reconstruction follow the guidelines and resilience measures emanated on the National Ministerial Diploma 122/2021 signed by MOPHRH and MINEDH and other documents related to healthcare infrastructures.
S/he will also support the elaboration of maintenance guidelines to ensure that the proposed projects also have guidelines to provide the longevity of the infrastructures.
3. Duties and responsibilities
Under the general supervision of the Program Manager of Climate Change and Building Back Better Unit, and the direct guidance of the DRR team, the Junior Architect will fulfil the following duties and responsibilities:
- Bring technical support for architectural design solutions for a range of architectural projects through an innovative and affordable approaches responding to the existing needs in reconstruction areas.
- Assist the elaboration of technical documents such as construction works surveys, measurements, budgets, and technical specifications for executive projects.
- Elaborate technical documentation (drawings, technical specifications, reports, and descriptions) of the solutions adopted by UN-Habitat to resist cyclones, floods, droughts, and earthquakes.
- Support UN-Habitat’s team during technical meetings and activities related to the Safer Schools, Health facilities and Housing initiatives.
- Write monthly reports on the activities carried out and other reports required by the team during the implementation process.
4. Qualifications/Experience/Skills
Experience
- Minimum of a 1 year of working experience with the elaboration of technical projects (drawings, designs) of housing or school or healthcare facilities infrastructures.
- Experience in UN agencies is an advantage.
Skills
- Solid computer skills in ArchiCAD (Required), Windows Office packages especially the main programs Excel, Word, PowerPoint (Required). Adobe Photoshop (Required), Adobe Illustrator (Required), Adobe InDesign (Required) among others design software’s are an advantage.
- Capacity to analyse and synthesize information.
- Ability to work independently with a high degree of responsibility, in a flexible manner and often under pressure.
- Good communication skills
Qualifications
- University degree in Architecture or equivalent degree in a related field.
Others
- Good knowledge of English and Portuguese.
- The consultant will use his/her own equipment as laptop and software.
5. Outputs
Technical / Architectural drawings, budgeting and technical specifications for classrooms, and
healthcare infrastructures
For the interested candidates, please share your CV to the below address with the following subject:
“Candidatura a Vaga de Arquitecto ou Engenheiro Civil – Cidade de Maputo.”
Date for submission of application: 18 of March of 2024
Electronic address for submission of application: unhabitat-moz@un.org
