Somalia: Chief WASH

Aug 3, 2023 | United Nations Children's Fund
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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, it work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. For every child, a champion.

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job

Somalia still has some of the worst indicators for access to water and sanitation in the world with Joint Monitoring Program estimates showing that national coverage for safe drinking water and sanitation stands respectively at 59 percent and 27 percent with large number of population (56 percent) still practicing open defecation. In Somalia, an average of 90 percent of schools does not have access to safe drinking water and 61 percent do not have functional latrines.

Humanitarian:

Since 2020, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has progressively increased – from 5.2 million people in 2020, 5.9 million people in 2021, to 7.7 million people in 2022, and 8.25 million people in 2023 (almost 49 per cent of the total population); with high poverty rates (averaging 69%) among nomadic pastoralists, agropastoral, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and host communities of urban centres. This high poverty rate has been attributed to several complex issues including community vulnerability, limited resilience, monetary poverty, food insecurity and hunger, low levels of education, low living standards, conflict, violence, crime, and poor health.

Water, climate, and conflict:

Somalia is adversely affected by extreme weather events globally. The country ranks 173 out of 182 on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) index of 2019, indicating a high susceptibility to several hydrometeorological risks and a low readiness to adjust. Water is a key input to socio-economic development and underpins multiple aspects of state-building and human development.  The cumulative effects of the five consecutive below-average rainy seasons have resulted in a sharp forecasted increase of humanitarian needs across all sectors, particularly in food, WASH, health and nutrition. This complex compendium of interrelated livelihood needs poses intricate challenges to enabling access to water for Somalia’s estimated population of approximately 16 million, growing at a rate of 3% per year (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019).

Sector Governance:

Within this context, water governance in Somalia is impacted by limited horizontal and vertical coordination between water sector institutions and those sector institutions supporting socio-economic development. In many instances these institutions have limited resources and stretched capacity. These institutions play a key role in supporting the evolving policy, legal and institutional framework, in strengthening water resource management based upon improved scientific data and information, and in developing infrastructure to support development and address climate extremes. Cognizant of the myriad of challenges facing Somalia’s declining water resources, progressive effort to develop a sound constitutional framework to solidify state-building reforms and enact legislative and regulatory instruments for the case for water sector cannot be gainsaid.

www.unicef.org/somalia

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

  • Managerial and technical leadership
  • Strategic guidance in Programme development and planning
  • Efficiency in programme management, monitoring and quality control of results
  • Advisory services and technical support
  • Advocacy, networking and partnership building
  • Quality, timeliness and predictability of humanitarian WASH preparedness and response
  • Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

Managerial and technical leadership

  • Establish the annual work plan, determining priorities and performance measurements. Monitor workplan implementation, to ensure that WASH output results are achieved to schedule and performance standards.  Report critical issues to the Deputy Representative for timely action. 
  • Establish the annual workplan outputs, activities and developmental priorities of the WASH section staff.  Provide timely guidance to enable the WASH section staff to perform their duties responsibly and efficiently.
  • Manage WASH team building and motivation.  Signal potential conflicts and take preventive action, in coordination with Human Resources staff. 
  • Strategic guidance in programme development and planning
  • Oversee the preparation of the WASH inputs for the situation analysis.  Ensure that comprehensive and current data is used to inform WASH policy and programme development, planning, management and implementation. Keep abreast of global, regional and national WASH sector developments, for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in WASH programme design, management and implementation.
  • Collaborate with colleagues and partners to discuss national WASH priorities, resources, strategies and methodologies to ensure the most strategic use of the collective resources of external support agencies.
  • Lead the development of the WASH outcome and output results of the country programme, along with related background, strategic analysis and delivery strategies, ensuring alignment with the UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, UNICEF’s global WASH strategy and the country programme as well as government plans and priorities, and the role of other WASH external support agencies.  Lead the development of output-related indicators, baselines, targets and means of verification.  Lead the development of the WASH content of the CPAP. 
  • Ensure the development and management of a fund-raising strategy for WASH, aligned with the WASH output results in the country programme, and lead interactions with senior staff of donor agencies.
  • Support the development and modification of UNICEF WASH policy and strategy instruments based on WASH programming monitoring, studies and assessments, and UNICEF field experience and lessons learned.

 Efficiency in programme management, monitoring and quality control of results

  • Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes for the achievement of the WASH output results.  Ensure effective collaboration with other UNICEF sectors, where needed.
  • With other external support agencies, analyze national government WASH sector programmes and projects, with a focus on WASH outcomes (behaviors), using bottleneck analysis tools available in the sector (WASH-BAT, CSOs, SDAs). 
  • Manage monitoring and evaluation of the WASH programme and its components, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other partners and prepare reports for CO management and WASH sector coordination bodies.
  • Monitor, report and certify the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity.
  • Ensure timely donor reporting, negotiate any changes required to agreements with donor in a timely manner.  Ensure systems are in place for HACT compliance. 

Advisory services and technical support

  • Participate in strategic discussions to influence national WASH policies and strategies, including the reduction of inequalities, contributing to global sector learning.
  • Advise senior officials in government, NGOs, UN agencies and WASH sector donors on WASH policies, strategies and best practices.
  • Lead the preparation of policy papers, reports, briefing notes and other strategic materials for use by management, donors, UNICEF regional offices and headquarters.
  • Coordinate the use of technical experts from the Regional Office and HQ, as and where appropriate in the WASH programme, through remote support and on-site visits. 

 

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

  • Build and strengthen strategic partnerships with government counterparts, UN agencies, donor agencies, WASH institutions, NGOs, research institutes and the private sector to stimulate coordination and collaboration.
  • Oversee the analysis of national budgets for WASH, cost analysis and value-for-money studies, to advocate for improvements in sector efficiency. 
  • Produce materials for WASH programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support fund-raising.
  • Represent UNICEF in inter-agency discussions, ensuring that UNICEF’s position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in planning and agenda setting.
  • Interact with global and regional initiatives and partnerships for WASH and support / assume UNICEF leadership in key global/regional WASH platforms

Quality, timeliness and predictability of humanitarian WASH preparedness and response

  • Ensure the annual preparation/revision of UNICEF’s preparedness for WASH in emergencies. 
  • Ensure the coordination arrangements for humanitarian WASH are in place, for instant robust coordination in case of an emergency. 
  • Ensure that all UNICEF WASH staff are familiar with UNICEF’s procedures for responding in an emergency.
  • In case of an emergency, ensure that UNICEF meets its commitments for WASH in the response and early recovery. 
  • Support government to strengthen WASH emergency preparedness. 

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

  • Organize and lead the development, implementation, monitoring and documentation of WASH action research and innovation (technical or systems), ensuring rigorous monitoring and wide sharing of results.
  • Determine priorities for learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development.
  • Systematically plan, support and monitor the professional development of UNICEF WASH staff, to ensure its sector capacity remains up-to-date with latest developments.
  • Organize the systematic assessment of WASH sector capacity gap analysis, in collaboration with government and other stakeholders, and support the design of initiatives to strengthen capacities systematically.
  • Ensure regular updates of the UNICEF knowledge sharing platforms with WASH learning / knowledge products in support of the organization wide Enterprise Content Management (ECM) initiative, including support in the feedback and use of the knowledge products and learnings.

Qualifications

  • An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, social sciences, health and hygiene behavior change communication, environmental or public health, water resource management or another relevant technical field.
  • Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are an asset. 
  • A minimum of ten years of professional experience in WASH-related programmes at the national and international levels in a mix set of country context (including humanitarian, fragile, developing) is required.
  • Proven ability to effectively lead a team to deliver results is required.   
  • Emergency field experience working in humanitarian situations, including deployment missions (with UN-Govt-INGO) is required.
  • Experience working in multiple geographic regions is strongly desirable
  • Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset.

UNICEF Core Values

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything it does and how it does it. Get acquainted with UNICEF Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF Required Competencies

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

During the recruitment process, it evaluates candidates following the competency framework. Applicants may become familiar with the UNICEF competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and its global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers a wide range of benefits to its staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.


UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

 Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF only considers Higher education qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Advertised: 29 Jul 2023 E. Africa Standard Time
Deadline: 12 Aug 2023 E. Africa Standard Time

Job no: 564500

Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment

Duty Station: Mogadishu

Level: P-5

Location: Somalia

Categories: WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)