WASH and Biosafety Specialist At Project HOPE

Project HOPE is an international NGO of more than 500 engaged employees and hundreds of volunteers who work in more than 25 countries, responding to the world’s most pressing global health challenges. Throughout our 60-year legacy, Project HOPE has treated millions of patients and provided more than $3 billion worth of medicines to local health care organizations around the world. We have helped build hundreds of health programs from the ground up and responded to humanitarian crises worldwide.

Code of Conduct

It is our shared responsibility and obligation to treat each other with respect, take affirmative steps to prevent matters involving Sexual Exploitation & Abuse and Trafficking in Persons, and to disclose all potential and actual violations of our Code of Conduct, which may include Conflicts of Interest, Fraud, Corruption, Discrimination or Harassment. Together we can reinforce a culture of respect, integrity, accountability and transparency.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The WASH and Biosafety Specialist will coordinate, train, and support the implementation of WASH and Biosafety Program related activities in areas of intervention. The WASH and Biosafety Specialist will ensure the proper and effective implementation of activities – to achieve the planned objectives and expected results – as well as technical support to the mission, ensuring qualitative and timely planning, implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation of activities in compliance with relevant standard operating procedures, Sphere standards and good practices for WASH and Biosafety programming, code of conduct and ethical values.

The WASH and Biosafety Specialist will report to the Director of Programs of the mission to ensure the correct implementation of the WASH and Biosafety-related components of the program and ensure adherence to minimum global standards as well as donor compliance. S/he ensures appropriate cross-sectoral coordination with other related sectors such as Health, Communities, Gender and Protection, Logistics and others, advocates in the humanitarian response, supports the mainstreaming of early recovery activities, and spearheads the integration of cross-cutting issues into the work of the funded projects.

The WASH and Biosafety Specialist will guarantee the correct and efficient implementation of project activities and the overall supervision of the WASH/Biosafety and Program teams. S/he will also support with needed technical expertise to ensure common standards and procedures for all the WASH and Biosafety interventions at the national level.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

Implementation of activities:

The individual will plan and implement WASH and Biosafety activities, foster internal and external networks with the different Clusters; and provide technical support to the development of funding proposals.
S/he will manage, lead, and provide direction to the WASH/Biosafety and Program teams in line with Country priorities.
S/he will plan, lead, and manage the WASH and Biosafety program in a phased and prioritized manner in full consultation and co-ordination with the Director of Programs and the Senior Leadership Team.
S/he will lead implementation of the program’s response to the country specific WASH and Biosafety needs, in line with the project design, and taking into consideration community needs, WASH and Biosafety capacity in supported health centers and regions, and the overlapping of WASH-Health staff and other sectors.
S/he will cross-train and supervise WASH and Biosafety staff. This may involve the development of training plans and appraisals.
Undertake detailed technical assessments of WASH and Biosafety needs and gaps for assistance in the project target areas and develop vulnerability evaluation tools, in order to define exact locations of intervention and beneficiaries.
S/he will be responsible to train in WASH, IPC, and Pandemics in Complex Humanitarian response
Provide regular updates and technical guidance to teams on progress, priorities and challenges – verbally and in writing.
Undertake regular field visits to the program sites to provide technical guidance and supervision to the teams as well as regularly monitoring the progress of WASH and Biosafety activities.
Work closely with relevant colleagues to ensure the integration of WASH activities with other sectors.

WASH/Biosafety

S/he will build the WASH and Biosafety team capacity to respond to the humanitarian situation
S/he will ensure gender and protection is considered throughout the project cycle with women being enabled to influence decision- making around WASH challenges.
Support Health, Communities and WASH teams in the implementation of risk communication strategies, hygiene promotion messaging, and distribution of non-food items.
Responsible for guiding WASH response at Community Health interventions and WASH at primary health center levels
Periodically conduct assessments to depict the current humanitarian situation in collaboration with other sectoral staff and affected population; translate the needs into priorities and formulate immediate intervention activities and required resources.
Provide technical inputs and recommendations for new and ongoing interventions and support the development of new proposals.
Support the Programs team in the ToT of Covid-19 and cascade of all training materials related to Health, WASH and Covid-19
Coordinate with the WASH-Programs teams to continuously assess needs of target populations in project areas.
With the support of the Director of Programs, coordinate with logistics, administration, and finance staff to procure equipment, supplies and materials required to implement WASH activities, ensuring cost efficiency and accountability in compliance with Organization and donor regulations and procedures. Additionally, will be responsible for preparing Bills of Quantities for all WASH infrastructure repairs and rehabilitations necessary at supported primary health centers.
Train WASH and Biosafety teams in the use of the various standards and the technical templates including bill of quantities, bill of materials, and technical reporting templates as well as on data entry and analysis.
Conduct weekly and monthly meetings with relevant project staff to review the planning and discuss the main concerns.

Reporting and Monitoring and Evaluation

Ensure quality reporting on achievements through short briefings, monthly and weekly planning presented against weekly and monthly performance reports containing clear quantitative and qualitative information related to the activities.
Ensure monitoring and verification for targeting of beneficiaries.
Ensure relevant monitoring systems are in place and ensure that systems allow appropriate implementation, including quick response to changing circumstances through make adaptations in coordination with leadership.
Apply a result-based management approach and monitor the project outcomes, in addition to the outputs and activities, including changes at the household and community level achieved through the project.
Coordinate with the MEAL Director in assessing, analyzing, and evaluating the impact of project activities, following the approved M&E Plan and Indicator Tracking Table, and needs of the target populations in the project areas, update the situation analysis and propose possible program developments to the Director of Programs.

Coordination and Training

Support in recruitment and selection of additional WASH/Biosafety staff
Support in set-up of the Gender and Protection activities components
Support training in WASH in Pandemics

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

A graduate degree in a relevant discipline in related area (WaSH, Water management, Biosafety); preferably with a Master’s in Public Health or Epidemiology or Engineering.
At least 5 years of work experience with designing and implementing water and sanitation systems in humanitarian and emergency contexts, maintaining sanitation systems, and implementing hygiene promotion programs
5 years in a humanitarian setting; or equivalent combination of education and experience
Experienced in WASH initiatives in a combination of health and nutrition, gender, and protection
A minimum of 3 years of management experience in emergency/humanitarian and transitional programs
Experience and understanding of key institutional donors’ policies, guidelines and strategies e.g. USAid, OFDA, ECHO, DFID and UN Professional requirements
Strong project management, training, planning skills: assessments, design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, management of related data analyses

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical demands:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee must be mobile in an office environment and able to use standard office equipment.
Must be able to communicate in verbal and written form and must be able to travel internationally.
Project HOPE employees may be required to travel or work in countries where working conditions are classified as “hardship.”

Work environment:

Typical office environment with exposure to a minimal noise level.
Emergency deployments may be in resource-deprived environments with austere living conditions.
Travel for extended periods may be by air and/or other modes of transportation.
While international travel is not a regular part of every job, programmatic needs may require it intermittently.
Project HOPE employees may be required to travel or work in countries where working conditions are classified as “hardship.”