Information Management Officer- WASH & Climate

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, 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. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations

UNICEF works in some of the world’s most challenging environments to reach the most disadvantaged children and ensure their rights to survival, development, and protection. The core mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child in all its work through programmes, advocacy, and partnerships.
In Sierra Leone, UNICEF supports the Government and partners to improve the lives of children through programmes in health, nutrition, education, WASH, and social protection with strong focus on equity, prioritizing the most vulnerable and underserved populations, including those affected by poverty, geographic isolation, and climate risks. UNICEF’s equity-driven approach ensures that all children have the opportunity to survive, thrive, and reach their full potential, contributing to sustainable and inclusive national development.

Assignment context:

Sierra Leone continues to face persistent challenges in ensuring equitable access to safe, sustainable, and climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. These challenges are most acute among rural populations, informal settlements, and coastal and fishing communities, where access remains limited and climate risks are intensifying. The country is highly vulnerable to climate variability and extreme weather events, including floods, erratic rainfall, droughts, and sea-level rise. These climate-related shocks are already impacting water availability, groundwater quality (including saltwater intrusion), sanitation infrastructure, and public health outcomes, particularly increasing the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera.
While significant progress has been made in programme implementation and sector coordination, gaps remain in systematic data collection, harmonization, analysis, and visualization across WASH and climate-related interventions. Existing data systems are often fragmented across institutions and sectors, limiting the ability to generate real-time insights, inform programming decisions, and support coordinated responses.
UNICEF Sierra Leone’s WASH programme focuses on both development and humanitarian interventions, with a strong and growing emphasis on climate-resilient WASH systems. The programme supports:
•Strengthening government systems and policies
•Climate adaptation and resilience-building in WASH infrastructure
•Targeted interventions for the most vulnerable populations, especially coastal and fishing communities
•Upstream engagement on climate financing, sector coordination, and policy influence

In parallel, UNICEF is increasingly engaged in upstream work, including contributing to national climate financing discussions, investment cases, and strategic policy frameworks where WASH must be strongly positioned.

The National UN Volunteer (Information Management – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) & Climate) will support UNICEF Sierra Leone’s WASH section in strengthening data systems, analysis, and visualization to enhance. The assignment will be based in Freetown and will operate under the supervision of the Chief of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), in close coordination with programme teams and relevant sector partners. Under the direct supervision of the Chief of WASH and in day-to-day coordination with the WASH Specialist, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
Data Collection, Compilation and Analysis
• Lead data collection and information needed for UNICEF's Sierra Leone WASH and Climate monitoring and reporting.
• Support the development and maintenance of internal WASH Information Management tools.
• Support WASH team members handling various portfolios (Construction, MHM, WASH in health centre, Climate action etc.) for ensuring quality and consistency in data collection.
• Support the identification of field-level data gaps and solution finding to ensure the data flow, especially from government agencies, including disaggregation by age and sex, disability, and vulnerable groups as per country office humanitarian performance framework.
Maintain a database of relevant and up-to-date information, e.g. trends, needs assessment, etc., from internal or external sources.

Data Visualisation:
• Provide a regular package of WASH and Climate action data visualization products (including maps, dashboards, infographics and financial/ resource analyses) that presents information in a way that various decision-makers, individuals and groups easily understand.
• Conduct mapping, including situation report indicators, UNICEF geographical response coverage, needs and gaps analysis etc.
• Consider using innovative tools for data visualization, including online mapping, as relevant and applicable.

Information/ Data Dissemination
• Support/maintain the utilization of effective methods and platforms to standardize and share humanitarian response information (e.g. website, mailing lists, share point, Dropbox, hard cop-ices, etc.) – this will also be ensured to strengthen the knowledge transfer function.
• Prepare and maintain catalogues of information management (IM) and data products for the section.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are 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 partici-pation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles and 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 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 technically possible.
• Required COVID-19, vaccination proof for deployment .