WASH Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated.

Context

Over the past two decades, Viet Nam has made tremendous progress in increasing the coverage of water supply and sanitation. Following Joint Monitoring Report 2020, Viet Nam is likely on track to achieve universal basic water and sanitation services by 2030 UNICEF Vietnam has been implementing its new Country Program 2022-2026 in which the Child Survival and Development and Environment programme shifts to a stronger public health approach, with an increased focus on strengthening primary health care, prioritizing results at-scale in nutrition and Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Increased focus will be given to public financing, policy reform, expanded partnerships – including with the private sector, and social norm change in critical priority areas such as addressing stunting. The WASH programme focuses to align with new areas of work, including privatization, sector financing, public-private partnerships, climate resilience, among others. WASH in emergency is also one of top priority for UNICEF to act as sector lead and supply provision for life saving support to vulnerable people, particularly children and women. UNICEF WASH program will be at both national and subnational level, while national level will focus on advocacy, policy development, sector coordination, at sub national level, UNICEF will prioritize service delivery, innovation demonstration and scaling up covering safely managed water and sanitation and promotion of personal hygiene at school and community. The position will be based in Hanoi at the UNICEF Viet Nam Country Office within the Child Survival and Development and Environment section under the supervision of WASH Specialist. The WASH Officer will contribute to the strengthening of climate resilient WASH in Schools program and communities in Viet Nam in the targeted provinces. The WASH Officer will be working closely with local partners in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Soc Trang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, and with national agencies and NGO partners working in WASH.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of WASH Specialist, the National UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: Provide technical support for WASH team in climate-resilient and gender-responsive WASH programming for both WASH in schools and in community: • Work with national agencies and UNICEF focus provinces to develop and implement annual and quarterly WASH work plan; • Explore, pilot, and scale up climate resilient WASH technology for reaching the marginalized populations, particularly for flood, drought, and salt intrusion areas; • Contribute to evidence base on impact of WASH, by generating and sharing evidence to in-form WASH advocacy using powerful tools to attract attention and funding to the sector; • Support the team in conducting workshop, meetings, and discussions forums for sharing lessons and experiences in aspects of delivering climate resilient water and sanitation ser-vices; • Engage with ongoing, at scale WASH programmes and support efforts to involve multiple stakeholders to support government WASH programmes; • Support the team in fundraising, monitoring, documenting, and reporting for the status of the water and sanitation activities on a regular basis, and the progress towards the expected results indicators of the WASH activities. Provide technical support in programming for empowering Women and Adolescents in Menstrual Hygiene Management: • Support in carrying out consumer research to understand community’s preference, demand creation and supply side, and market development for environment-friendly men-strual hygiene management products; • Provide technical inputs in evidence-based advocacy and BCC campaign strategies, tools development, and implementation for improving personal hygiene for girls and women at community and schools; • Explore partners for localization, adaptation, and national wide application of innovative technologies including Oky app for menstrual hygiene management for Vietnam. Support in WASH in emergency preparedness and response: • Assist the Technical Working Group in the development of WASH preparedness policies and documents, including natural disaster response and contingency plans, guidelines, maps, assessment forms, standards, and partner mapping; Support government agencies in pre-paring and delivering annual training courses on WASH in emergency preparedness and re-sponse; • In the event of an emergency, to coordinate and work with MARD and the sector to plan and distribute WASH kits/supplies to schools, community, and any other emergency sup-port needed; • Provide inputs for joint WASH in emergency working groups to coordinate, share, and up-date response plan including its implementation, results, and assessments if any; • Contribute to development and update of SitRep, UNICEF, One UN and WASH Sector response plans, funding proposal and donor reports as required. Furthermore, National UN Volunteer is required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Youth Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technical-ly possible.