Overview
Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) are basic essential of human and animal health and well-being as well as to environmental health and integrity. Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene is essential for all areas of life including infection prevention and control at household, community levels including in schools, health Care facilities and for watering animals and vegetation. Recent (2021 statistics) by the WHO and UNICEF indicates that globally, 2 billion people lack safe drinking water, 3.6 billion people lack safe sanitation, 494 million people still practice open defecation and 2.3 billion people lack basic hand washing facilities at home or in schools.
Purpose of this Position:
The WASH Technical Advisor is a key technical position responsible for overall strategic oversight; technical guidance/direction and performance of ForAfrika’s WASH Programming in all the countries of its operation. The range of duties include the critical role in defining the WASH programme portfolio –viz principles, programming framework, WASH Sector Strategy with concrete strategic and measurable targets and objectives; programme implementation strategies in line with ForAfrika’s Theory of Change, Programming Framework and respective WASH Strategic and Monitoring and Evaluation Plans.
The WASH Technical Advisor is responsible for WASH Programme oversight during the entire Programme Cycle — (programme design/planning/budgeting/implementation/ monitoring and evaluation.
The Advisor is responsible for the review of the design and planning, formulation, oversight for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as quality assurance of all ForAfrika WASH Programming to ensure overall efficiency and effectiveness of the programme relevance and value of money of the investments, delivery and accomplishment of programme goals and objectives. He/she will oversee and provide technical support in the design, implementation and monitoring of appropriate WASH interventions in close cooperation with ForAfrika WASH Officers/technical staff on the ground. The WASH Advisor is expected to prepare and provide guidance to field WASH managers and ensure WASH programme outputs and outcomes are realized.
The position also ensures partnership/collaboration with counterpart agencies representing the organization in external engagement with partners. This position is expected to ensure ForAfrika delivers on its WASH strategic objectives and expected results as planned.
WASH Technical Advisor functional Responsibilities:
The WASH Technical Advisor is responsible for the following:
- Technical Leadership, technical support and oversight to ForAfrika field teams during the entire WASH programme cycle. S/he will be responsible for technical quality assurance for these programmes ensuring that the WASH programme choices in each country of ForAfrika’s operations meets all technical and policy standards and requirements/targets and quality in compliance with internal organization’s; international and donor guidelines requirements.
- New project/programme development starting with the identification of program initiatives appropriate to both the sector and country office strategies, all the way through the submission of quality programme proposals and reports.
- Assures synergy among projects/programmes within the sector as well as with other ForAfrika sector programmes in Health and Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods and Economic Empowerment.
- Establishment of WASH Community of Practice.
- Representation of ForAfrika in all relevant fora including the WASH Cluster meetings/ donor meetings/Ministry of Water Resources and related line ministry meetings in coordination with respective governments where ForAfrika operates.
Program strategy and development
- Develop and lead the implementation of the WASH portfolio.
- Proactively seek new business development in WASH sector cultivating relationships with donors, proposal writing, etc. in line with ForAfrika’s WASH Programming Framework; WASH Strategy and ForAfrika Country Offices WASH Strategies.
- Provide WASH programme proposals and program roll-out plans.
- Coordinate with program support and finance teams to ensure adequate budgeting for new initiatives.
- Promote adherence to standards and best practices taking into account the need for local adaptation.
- Ensure that WASH interventions within humanitarian operations are adequately programmed for
- Analyze the current WASH programme coverage/ interventions work at scale in order to achieve the expected results using the most cost effective WASH solutions.
- Provide strategic and technical leadership on improving WASH activities that aim to improve the lives of the community in lasting ways and operating environment by advancing locally driven solutions;
- Contribute to the identification of critical issues that require multi-portfolio responses and coordinate with other ForAfrika portfolio owners and Country Offices to develop appropriate responses.
- Provide support in negotiation and review of funding contracts.
- Coordinate external technical assistance and draw on the resources of WASH program support in new program development exercises
- Serve as the focal point for donor liaison, in technical areas of WASH in close collaboration with the Technical Unit and EXCO.
- Generate clear ForAfrika WASH model/s and best practices ensuring these are tested and proven.
Capacity Building
- Develop training materials for use in all ForAfrika WASH programmes.
- Undertake capacity building of ForAfrika WASH teams in the countries its operation
- Ensure the quality of ForAfrika WASH programing and promote adherence to global WASH standards.
- Support the timely and effective implementation of WASH projects/programmes and activities across operational areas, in line with budgets and work-plans.
- Provide technical support to the recruitment of WASH staff recruitment processes including the development of the WASH personnel Job Descriptions/short listing/interviews.
- Regularly assess and strengthen the capacity of ForAfrika’s WASH teams, ensuring that the teams are able to access training and professional development resources, appropriate to their capacity gaps/needs.
- Build the technical capacity ForAfrika staff/partners including government counterparts as required.
- Coordinate with ForAfrika’s Country Offices and other portfolio owners to ensure WASH integration within other related programme sectors including Health and Nutrition, FSL.
- Ensure the mainstreaming of protection/disability/gender in WASH programming.
- Support the generation of learning from ForAfrika’s’ WASH programming and the production of WASH related research papers/policy briefs.
- Coordinate the dissemination of key technical material and organize trainings with a special focus on standards and best practice.
External Representation and Communication
- Establish and maintain communication with key WASH stakeholders (including national, state and county WASH authorities, international organizations including the UN system (UNICEF, WHO) and civil society actors
- Represent the organization in relevant working groups, sector fora, conferences, and high-level meetings including during WASH humanitarian settings and Cluster meetings.
- Engage proactively with donors and other stakeholders for the purposes of advocacy and fund raising.
- Ensure strong donor relations with current and potential donors.
- Lead and support the implementation of positioning strategies for ForAfrika including the cultivation of/engagement with new partners/events/publications/advocacy etc.
- Coordinate with ForAfrika’s WASH teams and other technical and operational staff.
- Supply necessary information to ensure timely reporting and communications with donors, government and other key actors.
- Elicit partnership/technical support from other/respective technical units as needed for WASH programmes and or in contributing to other related sector programmes.
- Support and work effectively in coalitions, networks and social movements for advocacy, research and resource mobilization with peer INGOs, NNGOs, Academic institutions.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting
- Work closely with the Country WASH teams in the monitoring of WASH interventions; ensuring the accurate collection, analysis and collation of data related to WASH project/programme activities to ensure timely and accurate evaluation and reporting of WASH interventions.
- Support the development of WASH programme needs assessments Tools and oversee their application in needs assessment/surveys and conduct in-depth analysis of the data collected through the tools developed.
- Support the other ForAfrika teams in ensuring that WASH programme monitoring systems are in place and that reviews are undertaken regularly.
- Lead the reviews of WASH programme reports – contributing both in terms of accuracy in reported WASH targets within the narrative reports.
- Ensure timely submission of quality donor reports within the FSL portfolio.
- Regularly review and improve FSL programming (emergency response, recovery and resilience programming) performance and assess coherence with prevention and mitigation components in other programs/sectors.
- Conduct monitoring visits to project locations, develop field reports and follow up on critical issues in a timely manner.
- Participate in grant start-up and close out workshops to ensure collegial understanding of donor expectations and integration of learning from projects in subsequent designs.
Research Innovation and Learning
- Lead on the development of WASH research papers and policy briefs.
- Lead in identifying and documenting, lessons and promising practices from ForAfrika WASH portfolio.
- Lead in identifying themes for operational research within ForAfrika’s WASH programming
- Remain abreast of latest development and professional norms, upcoming project models, standards, tools and methodologies within WASH sector for inclusion in program development and sharing with WASH teams.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Competencies:
- Masters’ Degree in Water/Environmental Engineering, Public Health,
Experience:
- Minimum 7 years of relevant work experience in WASH (working in humanitarian settings and or in community development WASH projects/programmes).
- Extensive working knowledge/experience with data systems.
- Must have proven knowledge and experience in community WASH Programming
- Must have excellent oral and written communications skills, team building skills
- Being proactive, seek to identify and communicate potential problems and propose solutions to the appropriate level of management.
- Able to function effectively in a complex work environment and to set appropriate priorities and deal effectively with numerous simultaneous requirements.
- Ability to carry out responsibilities independently with minimal technical support.
- Diligent/ paying attention to detail, pro-activeness, multitasking and ability to work under pressure and handle competing tasks
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English is required.
- Knowledge of other languages in particular, French, Amharic, Portuguese is an asset.
HOW TO APPLY:
- All interested candidates should send their CVs’ to the following email address: recruitment.sa@forafrika.org
- Closing Date: 24th January 2023
- Disclaimer: Candidates who do not meet the minimum criteria will not be shortlisted.
