WASH Officer

Level 3 – the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

The role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

The WASH Officer’s main tasks will be providing professional technical, operational and administrative assistance thought-out the WASH programming process, through the application of theoretical and practical skills in the assessment, analysis, the designing, implementation and coordination of emergency WASH interventions, and the training of local staff and stakeholders in WASH related topics.

Dimensions: Save the Children works in Ethiopia with a current staff complement of approximately 2500 staff and current expenditure of approximately $100+ million each year.

Staff directly reporting to this post:  None.

Under the general guidance of WASH Coordinator, the officer will undertake the following duties.

• Conduct water, sanitation and hygiene need of assessment and analysis independently/ collaboration with partners and local government sectors.
• Undertake field visits and surveys, collect and share reports with partners/stakeholders. Report critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems to supervisor, for timely action.
• Conduct design of the project water supply schemes, hygiene and sanitation facilities to the standard.
• Involve in the project contract administration of WASH facilities that will be implemented and/or sub contracted for private contractors.
• Supervise and be responsible for all the technical aspect for project implementation, make sure that contractors complete project work in a timely, efficient and accurate manner with respect to standard engineering.
• Ensure community involvement at all phases of the project and the development of community ownership of the project.
• Guarantee the standards of construction as well as the safety practices at the project site.
• Provide feedback to the monitoring and evaluation system in order to assess the effectiveness and the impact of the projects and propose recommendations for improvement.
• Facilitate and maintain a good professional relationship between SCI, communities, government sectors and partners.
• Provide regular written and verbal reports to the WASH coordinator on the on progress activities.
• Develop and maintain weekly, monthly plans and written comprehensive records of engineering work undertaken in the project including site visits and reporting of work progress.
• Ensure that cross cutting issues such as protection, gender and environment protection are addresses and mainstreamed in the project.

Coordination:

• Build and sustain close working partnerships with government sectors and partners at woreda/Zonal level through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve WASH output results.
• Participate in cluster, inter-agency meetings/events on WASH programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues representing SCI when assigned

Reporting:

• Provide regular updates (biweekly and monthly) to supervisor and team on progress, priorities and constraints – verbally and in writing.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Ensure regular monitoring of program activities to determine the success of interventions and recommend changes in program design to the WASH coordinator.
• Participating in baseline and evaluation of Knowledge, Practices and Coverage (KPC) surveys to determine how far sector indicators have been achieved.
• Implement and improve existing water and sanitation monitoring and evaluation tools to ensure their appropriateness and completeness.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Essentials

• B.Sc. Degree in Water Engineering, Hydraulic, Water Resources, Water Supply and Sanitation Engineering and other related fields.
• Minimum of 3 years of proven and progressive work experience, preferably in NGOs.
• Proficient in computer skills (MS word, Excel, Power Point, Auto Cad & Water Cad)
• Fluency in English and Afan Oromo language both spoken and written.

Skills and Abilities;

• Familiarity with the culture.
• Ability to work in stressful conditions, and limited movements.
• Ability to work independently with minimum supervision and in a highly results oriented work culture.
• Knowledge, skill and experience in participatory methods for promoting ownership.
• Team player who is able to work collaboratively and with people of diverse backgrounds.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC including willingness to abide and enforce the Child Safeguarding Policy. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.