South Sudan: WASH Officer (South Sudan nationals)

Mar 31, 2024 | World Health Organization
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The prolonged political conflict that started in 2013, and the subsequent occurrence of sub-national violence, flooding in the country led to continues complex humanitarian crisis including disease outbreaks, acute food insecurity, and their associated public health consequences. Food insecurity and malnutrition have dramatically worsened in the Country resulting in to devastating impact on already vulnerable population, global acute malnutrition rates, spreading of communicable diseases and on health services coverage and effectiveness. Millions of people are facing severe levels of food insecurity in the country, the latest released Integrated Food security Phase Classification (IPC) Analysis in November 2022 showed an estimated 6.3 million (51% of the population) people likely to face high level of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) in December 2022- March 2023, this is expected to deteriorate in the projection period of April-July 2023 to 7.76 people. In addition, 1.4 million <5 children and 737,812 pregnant and lactating women will need treatment for acute malnutrition by June 2023

Purpose of the Position and Role

WASH Officer will be responsible for key component in strengthening the States and Administrative Areas coordination engagement in WASH activities and oversight of response and preparedness, water quality Testing and IPC/WASH in health Facilities Assessment at assigned states with special focus on high-risk priority areas within the states assigned to him or her. Will have overall responsibility for delivery of quality WASH interventions both emergency situations of the response including regular water quality testing, monitoring and Monitoring, environmental hygiene and sanitary survey. He/she will work closely with the IPC/WASH lead and Health officers, Nutrition to ensure that WASH interventions are integrated into the acute emergencies and incident responses. The WASH Officer is supervised by and reports to the WCO IPC/WASH lead and is responsible for any WASH activities in health facilities, nutrition sites, and during any public health events.

Objectives of the Programme and of the immediate Strategic Objective

The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (The Programme) is to help counter countries, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies and to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality as a result of emergencies such as floods.

Organizational context

(Describe the individual role of incumbent within the team, focusing on work environment within and outside the organization)

The WASH officer will closely work with the WCO and Emergency Medical Mobile Team (EMMT) to support floods response in floods affected areas, will report directly to the WHO Health Emergency Team lead and the WASH/ IPC, under the overall guidance of the Head, WHO Country office, for technical issues should, be directed to the WCO WASH/IPC lead and in collaboration with relevant technical officers.  S/he has first line responsibility is for ensuring that all decisions or action points are taken back to the IPC /WASH TWG for implementation. The WASH officer will coordinate with relevant partners to participate in all IPC/WASH TWG meetings in assign state and administrative area.

The incumbent will contribute to strengthen the secretariat functions of the STF and ideas in meetings.

Summary of Assigned Duties

Within the framework of the delegated authority, WASH officer will follow and monitor the

high threat pathogens, flood preparedness and response in his /her assigned states or part of the following

responsibilities:

  1. Co-ordination of IPC/WASHTWG and overall liaison with WASH partners.
  2. Strengthen IPC/WASH measures in health facilities through water quality testing control and Surveillance
  3. Conduct water quality testing and map all the contaminated drinking water points’ sources with clear GPS and share the report to guide WASH cluster and implementing partners in implementation.
  4. Ensure evidence-based interventions are implemented and evaluated to determine effectiveness.
  5. Linkage between assigned state and IPC/WASH and Health lead to update on the WASH and health cluster meetings (action points from the taskforce meetings should be shared at all levels with WCO WASH/ IPC lead).
  6. Conduct assessment of IPC/WASH in healthcare facilities status and primary health care facilities using WASH FIT tool.
  7. WASH partners in basic water quality testing and the implementation of universal precaution adhering to IPC and WASH measures and standards.

 Key Areas of Accountability

*Services Delivery

  • Support the implementation plans including, but not limited to integrated WASH project targets activities including the WASH assessments, data collection, reporting and data analysis related to water, sanitation and hygiene, water quality testing and monitoring, environmental hygiene, and sanitary assessment within the WASH Sector for the assign state.
  • Implementation of training and other capacity-strengthening activities in the WASH sector
  • Train / provide refresher training for community-based staff on key hygiene messages and approaches.
  • Will be responsible and accountable for generating timely WASH activities reports for the state assigned to.
  • Undertake responsibilities assigned to him/her from time to time by his/her supervisor.
  • Ensure correct record keeping and data management for all WASH activities of the program.
  • Ensure that raw data reports are prepared and submitted on a timely basis to IPC/WASH Lead.

Qualifications

* Essential

Degree/ Diploma in WASH related studies (Applied biological Sciences/Microbiology, public health, water and sanitation, engineering, environmental health) from an accredited/recognized University. 

Desirable: 

Professional qualification in Epidemiology or training in WASH and Infection prevention and control.

Experience

* Essential

  • At least two years of work experience in design and implementation of WASH interventions in emergency context and Disease outbreak preparedness and/or response.
  • Relevant work experience in WHO, other UN Agencies, Health Cluster partners, recognized.
  • humanitarian organizations or relevant nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations.
  • Strong community mobilization skills and experience of working in a rural setting.
  • Excellent management and personnel skills to enable the motivation, encouragement and participation of members.
  • Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with state and county government in South Sudan
  • Ability to assess evolving emergency health needs quickly and calmly and work under pressure of tight deadlines.
  • Excellent communication skills, with good spoken and written English and experience in report writing. 

Person Specifications/Functional Knowledge and Skills

  • Emergency response
  • Teamwork
  • Coordination

Skills and Competence

*Essential

  • Excellent computer skills with ability to use MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Good report writing skills.
  •  Good interpersonal, cross cultural, oral and written communication skills with fluency in oral and written.
  • English and excellent report writing skills, Patience, with good negotiating skills and able to work in a multi-cultural setting and culturally sensitive communities.
  • Energetic and able to work and live in insecure and hardship conditions when on the field.
  • Fluency in written/spoken English and/or other languages in the assigned state.
  • Ability to communicate in English through verbal and written communication.
  •   Good level of physical health and fitness
  • Previous community mobilizing experience

Behaviours (Values in Practice)

*Desirable

Ambition:

  • Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same

Collaboration:

  • Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
  • values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

Creativity:

  • Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

Integrity:

  • Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

See original job posting for Additional Information.

Job Description - WASH Officer - Grade NOB (2402684)

  • WASH Officer - Grade NOB - (2402684) 
  • Grade: No grade
  • Contractual Arrangement: Special Services Agreement (SSA)
  • Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): Six Months
  • Job Posting: Mar 23, 2024, 8:25:10 AM
  • Closing Date: Apr 6, 2024, 11:59:00 PM
  • Primary Location: South Sudan-Juba
  • Organization: AF_SSD South Sudan
  • Schedule: Full-time 
  • IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications indicated above reflects the personal device's system settings.