Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist - Retainer

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations (UN), supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Mandated as a central resource of the UN, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.

Established in 2009, UNOPS Ethiopia Office has been providing services to various partners, including the government of Ethiopia, UN agencies such as WHO, UNHCR and UNICEF, and other international organizations. In 2014, the UNOPS Executive Director decided to establish the UNOPS Ethiopia Multi Country Office (ETMCO), which leads and coordinates the UNOPS activities in Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti.

UNOPS EMCO activities range from tailor-made administration, operations, human resources and logistics support for implementation of development and humanitarian projects; infrastructure and procurement management services; and advisory services to partners to facilitate effective procurement, supply and financial management.

Project Information:

ETMCO has plan to embarked on a project for humanitarian assistance in water supply and sanitation. The goal of the projects will be to improve the health status of affected communities; amid the COVID-19 pandemic with the overall objective of improvement of access to water supply and sanitation facilities. 


Purpose of Assignment:

Under the supervision of the Project Manager, the WASH Specialist in close coordination with the Principal Water Engineer, Social/ Environment Specialist and the Site Engineers will be called when needed to undertake the following specific tasks:

• Analyze the current WASH coverage, the impact of inadequate WASH and the WASH interventions that work at scale in order to define and implement the most cost effective WASH solutions and interventions; 

• 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; 

• Develop and maintain relationships and work closely with local WASH actors, including national and local government, private sector, community, NGOs, other donors, etc.

• Help develop internal WASH-related training and development of tools, guidelines, standards to improve program quality;

• Write background documents, briefs, and presentations, reviews, landscape analyses, and data analysis on WASH, as needed; and

• Act as the program’s WASH representative as it relates to WASH activities to the community 

• Prepare materials for WASH programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support to the community

• Contribute to and provide inputs of work plan, required project reports, baseline data, tools and indicators for monitoring and evaluation, collection / sharing of lessons learned;

• Prepare learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development.

• Evaluate the relevance, connectedness, timeliness, sustainability and quality of the WASH portfolio. Provide a view on the appropriateness of the WASH investment, and the overall Value for Money (VFM) of the investments.

• Assess the extent of the stakeholders engagement including community in the delivery of WASH interventions.

• Plan for use of technical experts from the Regional Office and other partners, as and where appropriate in the WASH programme, through remote support and on-site visits.

• Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of end users and stakeholders to achieve WASH output results.

• Assess strategies implemented by WASH partners to minimize conflict related to the use of water by host communities and Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Also assess the extent to which the WASH partners collaborated with other sectors within the response.

• Provide an analysis of the effect of surroundings on access to WASH facilities and the overall impact on the IDPs and host communities.

• Harness lessons learnt and best practices for the project;

Key Deliverables:

WASH Specialist is expected to deliver the following key deliverables at the agreed timeline and quality in discussion with the Project Manager:

• Design Review of the WASH program during planning and design of the project; preferably the design drawings and technical specifications, plans and programs related to WASH facilities; 

• A weekly and monthly report to the PM during implementation encompassing the strategies and plans devised to improve WASH related activities, and implementation of the various technical and administrative tasks conducted during the month;  

• Minutes of meetings and reports of community gatherings and awareness conducted to the community related to WASH activities;

• Lessons learnt and best practices of the WASH related tasks and facilities implemented for the project;

• A summary and final report on the best practices and  challenges of WASH related activities and facilities upon completion of the project. 

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent, preferably in Water/Environmental Engineering, Public Health, Social Science, Environmental Health, or other relevant fields.  

• Bachelor's degree  with  2  additional years  of  relevant  experience  may  be  accepted  in  lieu  of  a Master’s degree.

Experience:    

• Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in WASH, preferably working on humanitarian/development projects/programmes. 
• Experience in emergency infrastructure projects of the construction/engineering of WASH facilities is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.

1. Contract type: ICA
2. Contract level: LICA 10
3. Contract duration: One year with possibility of extension subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Open to Ethiopian nationals/locals only.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.