Yemen: Hygiene Promotion Officer

Aug 17, 2022 | Mercy Corps
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Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities.

Program / Department Summary

Political instability, civil insecurity, an intensified war, and localized conflicts have plunged the country into a serious humanitarian crisis, and put into further jeopardy an already precarious humanitarian situation of Yemen. Through the Emergency Response for IDPs, Returnees and Conflict Affected Communities in Yemen program, Mercy Corps has been providing effective and timely lifesaving and livelihood-restoring assistance to the most vulnerable populations in Yemen since 2015. Mercy Corps is anticipating WASH project ‘’Improved Access to Safe Water and Hygiene Practices for IDPs and Host Communities in Taiz Governorate’’  to improve access to drinking water and hygiene practices in targeted communities.

General Position Summary

Under the leadership of the WASH Project coordinator, the Hygiene Promotion Officer will take the lead in the planning and execution of the hygiene promotion activities of the Emergency Response for IDPs, Returnees and Conflict-Affected Communities in Al Qahira and Saber Al Muwadim districts, Taiz governorate. This key field position requires a committed and energetic professional with the ability to reach out and mobilize target communities to actively participate in the project activities. The position holder is expected to work closely with community volunteers (CVs) for hygiene promotion and hygiene kits distribution. This position is based in Taiz city.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Program Implementation:

  • Oversee hygiene promotion component of the project startup and ongoing management and administration of hygiene teams – composed of WASH assistant and community volunteers.
  • Organize and carry out daily hygiene promotion activities within the targeted areas in line with agreed work plans, strategies and methodologies.
  • Facilitate planning meetings and support field teams to develop work plans, budget forecasts, and monitoring tools to document inputs, activities, outputs, achievements and lessons learned.
  • Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners; consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic objectives; and complies with donor regulations and policies.
  • Conduct orientation and meetings at the district/village level to ensure good understanding of the project by the community/stakeholders.
  • Supervise and regularly monitor hygiene promotion activities being carried out in the targeted locations.
  • Conduct trainings for community volunteers on hygiene promotion elements, approach and methodologies in communities.
  • Provide technical support to the hygiene community volunteers in strengthening and promoting community engagement processes in the project areas, particularly identifying project beneficiaries, assessing their needs and addressing and resolving community issues.
  • Provide regular reports on hygiene issues and project progress against work plans and project activities including donor reports according to donor requirements.
  • Conduct field visits for monitoring of activities implementation, solving of problems inside the communities related to project’s interventions.
  • Provide capacity building support to village committees (and others as requested) to encourage local management of the WASH activities.
  • Develop and design of behavioral change, and hygiene promotion approaches.
  • Design and produce Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials.
  • Lead the procurement requirement including raising Purchase Requests (PRs), market assessment and payment requests.
  • Identify target areas for the family hygiene kits distribution.
  • Facilitate stakeholder consultations and community mobilization in preparation for the distribution of family hygiene kits.
  • Ensure monthly payment requests for CVs (including participant’s costs, incentives) are prepared and submitted to the Finance department on time.
  • Coordinate with Complaint, Accountability and Reporting Mechanism (CARM) team and ensure the effective implementation CARM in the project site.
  • Manage the sub-sector (Hygiene promotion) budget to ensure that spending is donor-compliant and program-effective.
  • Submit monthly Cash Projection to the WASH project coordinator.

Team Management:

  • Supervise and build WASH assistant and community volunteers, deepening understanding of their roles and assisting with career development.
  • Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
  • Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
  • Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

Coordination and Reporting:

  • Deliver sound coordination and information sharing and accurate and timely reports are submitted to the relevant cluster.
  • Serve as focal person in the field for Mercy Corps’ stakeholders, maintain respectful and constructive relations, and ensure regular meetings and ongoing coordination with local authorities/partners and community leaders.
  • Act as focal point for inquiries on the sector’s response plans and operations for the 3rd Party Monitoring.
  • Ensure timely submission of weekly, monthly and semi-annual donor reports regular and adequate and regular reporting against sector indicators to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team.
  • Document lessons learned and success stories on the project.

Security:

  • Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
  • Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.
  • Keep his/her supervisor, Security Focal Point and Area Director updated with regard to the security situation in the project implementation area and provide advice as to how to manage our presence in this environment.
  • Maintain the highest standards of behavior when working with the project beneficiaries.

Organizational Learning: 

  • As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

  • Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically 
    to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Knowledge and Experience:

  • 2+ years of work experience and knowledge on hygiene promotion, behavioral change, WASH, disease prevention (in particular cholera) and awareness raising.
  • At least 1 year of programme officer position in emergency/early recovery contexts with vulnerable populations (including displaced/refugees) in areas affected by conflict and insecurity and post-conflict transition.
  • Strong experience of working directly with local communities, local authorities and the private sector with good understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues.
  • Demonstrated attention to detail, adherence to procedures, ability to meet deadlines as well as to work independently and cooperatively with team members.
  • Effective multi-tasking, organizational capacity and prioritization skills are necessary.
  • University professional certification, license or technical coursework.(university degree or specialized training in a specific field)
  • Good knowledge of spoken and written English.
  • Good data management skills ( collection & analysis)
  • Reporting Writing.
  • Intermediate computer literacy.
  • Strong organizational & interpersonal skills.
  • Good judgment and strong adherence to MC policies
  • Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply

Qualifications

Behaviors

Preferred

  • Leader: Inspires teammates to follow them
  • Functional Expert: Considered a thought leader on a subject
  • Team Player: Works well as a member of a group
  • Dedicated: Devoted to a task or purpose with loyalty or integrity

Motivations

Preferred

  • Ability to Make an Impact: Inspired to perform well by the ability to contribute to the success of a project or the organization
  • Peer Recognition: Inspired to perform well by the praise of coworkers
  • Flexibility: Inspired to perform well when granted the ability to set your own schedule and goals
  • Financial: Inspired to perform well by monetary reimbursement

Education

Preferred

Bachelors or better.

Experience

Preferred

  • Good data management skills ( collection & analysis)
  • Reporting Writing.
  • Intermediate computer literacy.
  • Strong organizational & interpersonal skills.
  • Good judgment and strong adherence to MC policies
  • Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply
  • University professional certification, license or technical coursework.(university degree or specialized training in a specific field)
  • Good knowledge of spoken and written English.
  • Effective multi-tasking, organizational capacity and prioritization skills are necessary.
  • Demonstrated attention to detail, adherence to procedures, ability to meet deadlines as well as to work independently and cooperatively with team members.
  • Strong experience of working directly with local communities, local authorities and the private sector with good understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues.
  • 2+ years of work experience and knowledge on hygiene promotion, behavioral change, WASH, disease prevention (in particular cholera) and awareness raising. • At least 1 year of programme officer position in emergency/early recovery contexts with vulnerable populations (including displaced/refugees) in areas affected by conflict and insecurity and post-conflict transition.