Wash Officer (NOA) Full Time

Overview of position

• Central & South Regions (CSR) are the largest & more populated regions in Somalia. These are crisis regions & receiving IDPs influx on yearly basis. Over population, fast urban growth due to manmade crisis & climate change impacts have put unprecedented stress on the water supply & sanitation facilities. During abnormal dryness or drought periods, these water points are used by host, IDP populations & water trucking markets to address the needs of communities with limited / no access to water. These strategically located boreholes need to be preventively upgraded to sustain a higher demand in times of drought & abnormal dryness & avoid breakages due to unavoidable over exploitation. Upgrading these water sources will also involve strengthening the related infrastructures, such as the pumping mechanisms (hybrid system solar / generator) & a proper distribution system for surrounding beneficiaries. To enhance the quality of care during the AWD / cholera outbreak in health facilities, pipeline network connections will be connected to nearby facilities, schools & communities.
• Additionally, despite Somalia being prone to epidemic outbreaks such as cholera, polio, measles, etc, health systems are weak & under resourced. This is exacerbated by other disasters such as drought & insecurity, which lead displacement of people. To avert the drought induced migrations due to perennial water scarcity, there is an urgent need to drill new productive boreholes & construct water systems. For the past decade, these regions are the most vulnerable in terms of impacts from droughts, flooding & AWD outbreaks. During emergencies, the regions are general becomes dependent on temporary water supply while harsh conditions persist & sustainable exit mechanisms had still not been achieved. Therefore, our client engaged the services of implementing partners for construction & rehabilitation to improve the access to water for vulnerable people.

Role objectives

The main objective of this part of consultancy service is to provide following services in CSR in Somalia:

• Provide an effective & efficient supervisory support to all construction / rehabilitation activities of water & sanitation infrastructure as per contractual conditions & established norms / standards.
• Ensure that borehole records (logs, water quality tests, pumping test & recovery data / curves) are well documented & equipped as per design standards guided by results of pumping tests.
• Ensure that all WASH in institution (schools & health care facilities) activities is implemented as per national standards.

Justification / purpose of the assignment:

• Under the supervision of the WASH Officer (NOB), the WASH Officer (NOA) is responsible to ensure that our client support WASH programs are technically sound, efficiently implemented & administered to meet WASH cluster quality standards, in order to respond to lifesaving needs of the most vulnerable / crisis affected children & their families. Particularly s / he will provide technical oversite to contractors drilling boreholes & / or building water systems & sanitation facilities, oversee supervision firms, respond to queries & quality assurances required from NGOs & state government implementing partners.
• Therefore, the need for results requires intensive & regular supervision monitoring of the construction process to ensure that the implementing partner applies the right techniques & standard procedures for WASH activities implementation. In addition to the above, our client’s Field Officers have very limited access to the drilling sites due to exiting movement & security challenges, while the proper development, construction of the boreholes & others WASH activities is very critical for its’ functioning & sustainability.
• With the aforementioned, it is here imperative to maintain a technically competent drilling / construction supervisor at the work sites. The WASH Officer is therefore needed to fill in the human resource gap for the effective supervision of the WASH activities to be carried out by the implementing partner.

Expected outputs include but are not limited to:

Emergency program development & planning:

• Work with colleagues, partners to discuss strategies, methodologies for the achievement of emergency WASH output results in relation to drought, flooding & AWD / cholera outbreaks.
• Provide technical support throughout all stages of programming processes, ensuring integration, coherence & harmonization of WASH with other sectors, for the achievement of the WASH output results with due consideration of climate resilient emergency program requirements.
• Advise the emergency focal point & sector partners on innovative ways to enhance WASH facility sustainability, hygiene promotion for behaviour change.

Program management, monitoring & delivery of results:

• Prepare / assess monitoring & evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths / weaknesses in programs, management, identify & document lessons learned working closely with TPM & borehole supervision firms.
• Monitor & report on the use of sectoral program resources, verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations / procedures, donor commitments, standards of accountability & integrity. Report on issues identified to enable timely resolution by management / stakeholders.

Technical & operational support for program implementation:

• Actively monitor our client supported activities through field visits, surveys & exchange of information with partners, to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, potential problems, take timely decisions to resolve issues & / or refer to relevant officials for timely interventions.
• Provide technical & operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, other country office partners / donors on the application, understanding of our clients policies, strategies, processes, best practices in WASH, to support emergency & development programs implementation.
• Coordinate with other WASH team members & our clients staff, especially logistics, health / nutrition, child protection, education & communication section, to ensure a rapid, proportionate, effective & integrated response.

Project reporting

• This role works under the supervision of the WASH Officer (NOB).

Key competencies

Skills required for this role:

• Master’s degree in one of the following fields namely civil engineering, hydrology, ground water engineering, geology, structural engineering or water resources engineering.
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in boreholes drilling, water system construction & others WASH related activities.
• Background / familiarity with emergency is considered as an asset.
• Borehole drilling & WASH construction supervision.
• Remote operations supervision & contract management experience.
• Excellent computer skills in Microsoft (MS) Word, Excel & related software.
• Prior & relevant experience in emergency or humanitarian settings is desired.
• Fluent in oral & written English & knowledge of any other official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

Core values required for this role:

• Care.
• Respect.
• Integrity.
• Trust.
• Accountability.

Core competencies required for this role:

• Nurtures, leads & manages people.
• Demonstrates self & ethical awareness.
• Works collaboratively with others.
• Builds & maintains partnerships.
• Innovates & embraces change.
• Thinks & acts strategically.
• Drive to achieve impactful results.
• Manages ambiguity & complexity.

Common technical knowledge required for this role:

• Methodology of emergency program / project management.
• UN programmatic goals, visions, positions, policies & strategies.
• Knowledge of global human rights issues, specifically relating to children & women, and the current UN position & approaches.
• UN (United Nations) policies, strategy to address on national, international issues, particularly relating to conflicts, natural disasters & recovery.
• UN emergency program policies, goals, strategies & approaches.
• Gender equality & diversity awareness.

Technical knowledge to be acquired / enhanced (for the job):

• UN policies, strategy to address international humanitarian issues & responses.
• UN common approaches to programmatic issues & positions.
• UN security operations & guidelines.

Team management

• Team management experience is required for this role.

Further information

• Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply for this role.

Tagged as: CTG (Committed To Good), Somalia