Environmental Health (WASH) Coordinator

Continued conflict and worsening drought conditions have driven thousands of displacements each month throughout Afghanistan. Compounding with displacements is a severe food security crisis, more than 250,000 people are currently displaced from drought affected areas across the Western Region. IRC is currently implementing emergency response programming to respond to the drought in Herat, Badghis and Helmand provinces and is currently scaling up our response.

SCOPE OF WORK

The IRC is seeking a dynamic, highly motivated, and technically skilled Environmental Health (WASH) Coordinator, who will provide technical and managerial leadership to the water, sanitation and hygiene program and ensure quality implementation, standardization, monitoring and evaluation of all activities in the WASH sector. The EH/WASH Coordinator will strengthen sector activities and provide technical oversight of the program across all sites of implementation in Afghanistan. Moreover, s/he will lead on strategy development and program design. S/he will also focus on emergency response capability, with the ability to respond to a fluid programming context, and deliver key services rapidly and effectively.

The EH/WASH Coordinator supervises other EH staff, and reports to the Deputy Director of Programs.The position is based in the IRC country office in Kabul.Travel to program sites will be mandatory, but will depend on security protocols.

Length of assignment: 12 months

Availability: Must be able to deploy in less than 4 weeks from date of offer.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Program Management & Development

• Oversee the technical aspects of the implementation and coordination of the EH program; provide support to the program managers and field teams to develop work plans to guide implementation of activities.
• Lead the program managers and field teams in technical design of programs, and support implementation and monitoring of work plans, ensuring that activities are effective and well targeted, and reflect the commitments made to the donor and the communities we serve.
• Work closely with M&E team to develop and improve M&E tools and feedback mechanisms for the EH program, ensuring that the EH teams in the field actively monitor set indicators and effectively address concerns of the target communities.
• Coordinate and participate in the development of new proposals and initiatives for the IRC EH program in accordance with the country program’s strategy action plan.
• Coordinate and participate in the development of budgets for program proposals in conjunction with the Grants and Finance departments.
• Support emergency needs assessments in response to the developing humanitarian situation.
• Together with field teams, develop programs and proposals for rapid and timely support of populations affected by conflict.

Staff Support

• Work with the Emergency Response Coordinator, Deputy Director of Programs and Human Resources to ensure the Performance Management System documentation for the program teams is in place and followed up regularly.
• Provide ongoing training, technical support, and guidance to the program managers and teams, and ensure all EH staff adhere to best practices in all aspects of program implementation.

Grants Management & Reporting

• As budget holder for all EH activities, assure appropriate and timely spending of grants to achieve program goals, grant reporting contributions, use and distribution of supplies and resources
• Review progress in achieving program objectives and targets in collaboration with the program managers.
• Participate in grant opening, mid-term review, and grant closing meetings.
• Draft technical aspects of internal and external reports within agreed deadlines using IRC and donor formats, as required.
• In collaboration with the program managers, review Budget vs. Actual expenditures for EH programs on a monthly basis. Bring any over/under expenditure issues to the attention of the Senior Management Team in a timely manner and jointly develop corrective plans in collaboration with the SPC and the Grants team.

Representation & Coordination

• Represent the EH program with national authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, donors, and other stakeholders.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

Internal: Deputy Director for Programs and Country Director; Emergency Response Coordinator; Grants Unit staff; Field Coordinators/Managers; EH Managers and Officers; other key staff in IRC regional/HQ, including Environmental Health Technical Advisor

External: Partners as required.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Master’s Degree in Engineering, Public Health, Hydrogeology or similar.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working with INGOs in the field of WASH and with implementation of water supply, sanitation, construction, hygiene or infrastructure projects.
• Demonstrated experience in working in emergency settings
• Proven strong ability to provide technical assistance and expert advice to staff and partners in infrastructure and related fields.
• Experience in project management, planning, supervision, quality assurance and reporting
• Background in situation analysis, WASH assessments and program implementation.
• Knowledge and experience in providing gender-inclusive and responsive programming and team building.
• Experience in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Building is an asset.
• Knowledge, skills and experience in participatory methods, community development and partnership.
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, and facilitation skills.
• Excellent coordination and networking skills.
• Excellent computer skills in programs such as: MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
• Previous experience working in Afghanistan and knowledge of Pashto and/or Dari is an asset.

SPECIFIC SECURITY SITUATION/HOUSING:

The WASH Specialist will be based in Kabul.The security situation in Afghanistan continues to be volatile with the security level at 3 (orange). The EH/WASH Coordinator will live in shared housing at the IRC Guesthouse.The candidate should be prepared to implement programming in insecure environments. This is a non-accompanied position.

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