Strategic Advisor – Housing Sector Assessment (Retainer)

**Job Highlight**
Within the framework of a project titled “Scaling Up Community-Driven Processes of Mapping of Land Rights and Land Use Planning in the West Bank, including Area C” funded by the European Union. It is implemented and managed by UN-Habitat in close partnership with the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), Palestinian Local Administration (PLA). This project aims to enhance the resilience of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, particularly in Area C, by advancing planning and land rights in partnership with national and local stakeholders. It seeks to improve land tenure security through gender-responsive, community-led land settlement; enhance service provision and resilience via inclusive spatial planning; and strengthen the institutional capacities of Palestinian authorities in land governance and service delivery.

UNOPS is supporting UN-Habitat with this selection process. The successful candidate will be a UN-Habitat personnel under UN-Habitat's full responsibility.

**About the Region**
The UNOPS Middle East Region (MR) provides strategic leadership, performance oversight, and support to UNOPS operations across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the State of Palestine. MR is responsible for positioning UNOPS as a key development partner in the region through high-level engagement with regional bodies, UN coordination mechanisms, development banks, donors, and intergovernmental organizations. By fostering strategic partnerships and promoting operational excellence, the region supports country teams in delivering sustainable solutions to complex development, peace, and humanitarian challenges.

UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. It is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations agency for human settlements. UN-Habitat’s mission is to promote transformative changes in cities and human settlements through knowledge, policy advice, technical assistance and collaborative action to leave no one and no place behind.

UN-Habitat works through a medium-term strategy approach. It has recently completed the Strategic Plan 2020-2025, and started working on the Strategic Plan 2026-2029, and produced a pre-final draft in February 2025, which introduces a strategic focus for 2026-2029 on: adequate housing, land, basic services for all, including the urgent transformation of informal settlements and slums. With the aim of achieving impact on peoples’ lives, and to focus on sustainable urbanization, the new strategic plan for 2026-2029, adding value to the efforts of the United Nations and the broader multilateral system, seeks to address global challenges mirrored by three impact areas: a) equitable and inclusive prosperity for poverty eradication; b) preparedness, response, recovery and reconstruction; and c) environment and climate action.

As part of its crucial humanitarian and development work worldwide, UN-Habitat presents concrete examples of its engagement with partners working in the field of transport planning, service delivery and urban safety monitoring. Moreover, in humanitarian contexts UN-Habitat has been coordinating GIS and data-science based urban and neighborhood profiling in order to prioritize short-term humanitarian interventions and longer- term urban recovery efforts.

**Job Specific Context**
The housing sector in Palestine is a central component of the urban system, with strong linkages to land use, infrastructure, service delivery, and socio-economic stability. The sector has long faced structural challenges, including limited land availability, housing affordability constraints, and institutional and regulatory fragmentation, all of which have affected its ability to respond to growing demand and evolving development needs.

According to SDG 11 indicator 11.1.1, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) reported that 19.5 per cent of the urban population in Palestine was living in slums, informal settlements, or inadequate housing, reflecting pre-existing structural challenges in access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing. Since then, and even though there is no available data yet, the situation has significantly deteriorated due to the accelerated geopolitical context and recent developments on the ground intensifying pressure on an already fragile housing sector, widening the gap between housing needs and available solutions.

Since late 2023, the housing sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has undergone significant and unprecedented changes. In the Gaza Strip, large-scale destruction of housing stock, widespread displacement, and disruptions to infrastructure and basic services have drastically altered housing conditions and needs. The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) reports t