DRC: WASH Senior Manager

Dec 5, 2016 | International Rescue Committee
View Original

With headquarters in Kinshasa and field offices in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut Katanga and Tanganyika, the IRC is one of the largest humanitarian actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The IRC aims to save lives, to strengthen Congolese institutions and to reinforce social cohesion through carefully designed and professionally-implemented programs. The IRC has been working in the DRC since 1996 and currently operates in five core programming areas – primary health care, community-driven reconstruction and local governance, women’s empowerment and the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence, education, and emergency preparedness and response. These programs reflect IRC’s guiding principles of capacity-building; participation; partnership; protection and promotion of human rights; and holistic programming.

The WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion) Senior Manager will provide technical oversight of the WASH components of the program. The WASH Senior Manager will be responsible for technical support to ensure quality implementation, standardization, monitoring and evaluation of all the WASH activities in the program. The WASH Senior Manager will closely work with all relevant partners to ensure high quality project implementation standards. The WASH Senior Manager reports to the IWRM Deputy Director. He / she will supervise the following staff: WASH manager, WASH engineers, WASH officers, WASH assistants and WASH community mobilizers. The WASH Senior Manager will as well closely work with partners field staff and NNGO partner staff.

With support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the IRC seeks to implement the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) “Maji ya Amani” Program in the Ruzizi Plain in collaboration with its partners Search for Common Ground (SFCG) and ZOA. The program’s goal is to reduce conflict and increase stability in the Luberizi groupement of the Ruzizi Plain through increased and more equitable access to land and water for household and agricultural use, and improved governance around the use of land and water resources. The proposed intervention primarily targets the Luberizi groupement and should benefit an estimated 28,800 people. The WASH component of the program is comprised of the following approaches: Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), community-based WASH and public health.  

Responsibilities:

Overall program quality and strategic management:

  • Supervise the in-depth technical assessments which will be conducted at the inception phase and ensure that proposed water and sanitation infrastructure serves the whole community and is accompanied by the development of strong committees focusing on public health issues;
  • Support the program team and partners in developing technically sound and contextualized  training materials for the different approaches to be promoted: IWRM, community based water infrastructure, community based public health approaches such as PHAST and CHAST;
  • Supervise the inception phase for the WASH component to ensure activities are in line with local realities, are conflict and gender sensitive and are technically sound;
  • In collaboration with the relevant partners and IRC staff, ensure that the WASH outcomes are delivered according to the donor contractual requirements and that all activities and deliverables are completed within the agreed timescale and budget;
  • In collaboration with the relevant partners and IRC staff, define the implementation strategy for the WASH component of the program, and support the design of relevant project management tools (i.e SoPs, technical guidance notes, M&E matrix and plan, etc);
  • Provide the technical supervision and support to WASH activities, including the activities implemented by the partners (ZOA, etc);
  • Support the WASH program have and utilize customized protocols, policies and guidelines;
  • Oversee performance of consortium partners and sub-grantees on WASH-related activities;
  • Support the development of relevant M&E systems and ensure regular follow-up on monitoring data relevant to IRC WASH to feed into the on-going review of IWRM activities and approach;
  • Through site visits, ensure that all WASH activities are consistent with established best practices, are evidence-based and gender and conflict-sensitive;
  • Remain relevant with the developing trends in the DRC WASH sector working group and adjust the programmatic priorities as necessary;
  • Ensure, in collaboration with the country program's operations and finance departments, that the financial management, procurement, administration, HR and logistics needs of the WASH components of the program are conducted within IRC policy.

Grants Management and Program Development:

  • Contribute to development of IWRM program reports for the donor;
  • When possible, contribute to technical assessments as a basis for future IRC DRC WASH programs and the development of program and project proposals, which are aligned with the IRC DRC Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2015-2020. 

Staff development:

  • Develop and implement continuous staff capacity building plan to ensure quality gender-sensitive WASH programming (IRC and partners staff);
  • Provide timely and quality performance evaluations of WASH program staff;
  • Promote the IRC Way with all supervisees; 

Coordination and Representation:

  • Collaborate closely with other technical coordinators to ensure an integrated program strategy;
  • Participate in internal coordination and management meetings to promote effective and efficient information sharing and program integration;
  • Actively participate in periodic program meetings and ensure a summary of progress and challenges are prepared and presented with follow-up actions as required;
  • In coordination with the supervisor, represent IRC to UN, international and national NGOs, relevant line ministries, and donors for WASH working groups;

Skills / Experience:

  • Professional degree preferably at the advanced level (Master) in WASH, civil engineering environmental engineering or other relevant areas, etc;
  • Minimum of five years’ of experience managing experience (including 2 years at a senior level) in field based IWRM or WASH programming; strong technical skills in designing and implementing IWRM projects and community based water infrastructure projects;
  • Experience in managing a program in consortium preferred;
  • Experience on addressing gender constraints across water infrastructure and WASH programs;
  • Demonstrated skills in strategic planning, budget development and management, gender responsive multi-sector work plan development, and program reporting for diverse audiences;
  • Proven skills in leadership and supervision, with an ability to work effectively and efficiently in a challenging, complex work environment;
  • Proven ability to manage a complex and demanding workload;
  • Able to respond rapidly to changing environments and experience in Africa, specifically DRC;
  • Experience / skills managing programs in insecure regions required;
  • Fluency in written and spoken French required.

SECURITY SITUATION / HOUSING

This is an unaccompanied post based in Bukavu, South Kivu, with frequent travel to field locations within South Kivu. Comfortable and secure shared housing is provided by the IRC. The current security situation in eastern DR Congo is unpredictable and complex, but all possible measures are taken by the IRC to ensure staff safety and security