Organizational setting:
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. The UN-Habitat Afghanistan country office is part of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP). The position is in Herat, Afghanistan.
Learning from the experience in the last 30 years and recognizing the realities of the current context in the country, UN-Habitat in Afghanistan designs and implements projects in settlements of all sizes, putting the needs of people first, targeting the most vulnerable and meeting local needs by focusing on area-based and community-driven outputs. The portfolio currently covers projects ranging from humanitarian responses to supporting recovery and meeting basic human needs. UN-Habitat collaborates closely with the UN country team as well as with technical and financial partners in Afghanistan, in alignment with the UN Strategic Framework for Afghanistan (UNSFA) and the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plans (HNRP). In alignment with those frameworks and the new UN-Habitat global strategic plan (2026-2029), UN-Habitat Afghanistan has recently published its strategic priorities for 2026-2027 for the office.
Afghanistan is experiencing a continuous humanitarian crisis, with over half a million people in the need of humanitarian assistance. Many people are displaced due to climate change, internal displacement or massive returns from neighbouring countries, and many have sought refuge in the relative safety of cities, which are growing rapidly. The number of people living in unplanned, underserviced and informal settlements, including in risk prone areas, is increasing and living conditions as well as access to services is inadequate. The unfolding crisis in Afghan cities, which is accelerated by climate change impacts and natural disasters, is occurring in a context of underlying vulnerabilities, including infrastructure deficits, insecure livelihoods and pervasive tenure insecurity. Most at risk are displaced people in informal settlements, with women, disabled and ethnic minorities being particularly vulnerable.
UN-Habitat applies a participatory and community-driven approach, using participatory spatial planning and action planning processes to enable communities to identify and implement priority service and infrastructure investments to support their socioeconomic recovery processes and creating an enabling environment for durable solutions. UN-Habitat's community-cantered “People's Process” is a proven and effective approach to reduce vulnerability at scale in the Afghan context. UN-Habitat builds upon its long tradition of partnering with communities in informal settlements to create
sustainable and safe settlements, improve living conditions and adequate livelihood opportunities to those most in need.
About the Project
The Western region of Afghanistan, more specifically, the provinces of Herat and Farah, are facing an exceptionally complex crisis, shaped by overlapping political, climatic, and humanitarian stressors. The situation is compounded by high rates of forced returns, making it one of the most urgent displacement contexts in Afghanistan. Since January 2025, around 1.66 million Afghans have been forcibly returned from Iran following shifts in government policy and heightened anti-Afghan sentiment. Nearly all these returnees, estimated at 99.9 percent, lack documentation, putting them at immediate protection risk. Herat has become the main entry point, severely straining essential services and community structures.
Among the returnees, profiling indicates that 36% are women, while 13% are female-headed households (FHH). An estimated 7,000 returnee children are unaccompanied or separated. 1.3 million returnees are undocumented. The consequential loss in diaspora remittances, estimated at 1 billion dollars, has caused a drastic drop in household purchasing power, worsening food security, and limiting access to healthcare and other critical services.
An inter-agency assessment conducted in Injil, Guzara, Herat City, and Farah City in August 2025, using a Composite Vulnerability Index (CVI), identified the most at-risk locations. Data was collected through key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), and community consultations with more than one thousand individuals, including returnees, host communities, internally displaced persons, and local leaders, with over 600 female and over 500 male respondents. The results highlight widespread unemployment, poor housing conditions, and extensive service shortfalls. Unemployment among returnees stands between 80 and 90 percent, and most households are heavily indebted. Approximately 70 to 90 percent of families live in unsafe or inadequate housing, with rent inflation ranging from 100 to 300 percent. Health facilities are overcrowded; child malnutrition rates range from 10 to 25 percent, and classrooms host between 70 and 100 students per teacher. Women and children often spend 30 to 45 minutes walking to access water, and sanitation coverage is critically low.
Protection risks are particularly severe. Farah and Herat were among the top three provinces in Afghanistan for explosive ordnance casualties between January and August 2025, with recorded fatalities and injuries rising sharply. Gender-based violence (GBV), early marriage, and child labour are increasing as negative coping mechanisms. While early host community support eased some of the initial impact, continued resource scarcity has started to erode host community's solidarity. Women are disproportionately affected by this combination of stressors, having fewer economic opportunities and little recourse to legal or social protection.
In summary, the intersection of forced returns, economic decline, prolonged drought, and increasing gender restrictions is fueling social tension and deepening protection concerns. Without immediate, coordinated, and multi-sectoral intervention, the risks of renewed displacement, social unrest, and deteriorating security will intensify. Stabilizing the region requires a comprehensive, area-based approach that integrates protection, livelihoods, housing, and resilience-building, ensuring that vulnerable communities can rebuild and access sustainable solutions.
To respond to the challenges outlined above, this section offers the rationale and theory of change for the JP. It explains the transformative changes planned and expected from the JP and how the displacement affected people and communities, and especially vulnerable groups, will benefit from a localized,
integrated, whole-of-community and area-based approach delivered through this JP. It includes: Returnees, IDPs, and host communities in (dis)placement-affected communities across 12 manteqas/clusters in three districts of Herat (Herat, Injil, Guzara) and one district in Farah (Farah Centre) experiencing the highest returns from Iran and critical drought conditions, will benefit from improved access to gender- and disability responsive, and climate-appropriate including earthquake resilient-housing solutions, essential services, economic resilience. This initiative aims to stabilize the Displacement Affected Communities in selected manteqas/clusters of Herat and Farah province, enhance their absorptive capacity, foster social cohesion, and support the durable (re)integration of returnees and IDPs by ensuring the centrality of protection (including child protection) and integrating mine-action considerations.
The incumbent might also be asked to support other UN-Habitat projects as requested and needed.
Reporting Relationships
The project engineer will assist the provincial team leader in the implementation of the technical part of the project components in Herat province's development of the technical work plan, project technical document implementation, coordination with the project team, and reporting on a day-to-day basis to the provincial team leaders and will manage construction and field activities related to ongoing projects. The engineer will collaborate closely with other technical staff, including senior engineers, field technicians, and consultants. The engineer will support regular progress updates to the project management team and participate in coordination meetings with stakeholders and partner agencies as needed.
