Closing date: Wednesday, 18 March 2015

WASH Specialist (Sanitation and Hygiene), P-4, New York, USA

Vacancy No: E-VN-2015-000508

Duty Station: New York

Country: United States of America

Region: NY HQ

Job Level: P-4

Position: 00053177

Application Close: 18-Mar-15

Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)

Purpose of the Position

As a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, the incumbent is to provide specialist technical advice and support to Regional and Country Offices enabling the scaling up, with quality, of UNICEF support in sanitation and hygiene, including capacity development of UNICEF field staff in this area.

Key Expected Results

1. Scaling-up Sanitation and Hygiene

• Provide technical support to regional and country offices on sanitation and hygiene through both periodic and ad-hoc assistance to field colleagues, including frequent field visits to priority countries.
• Enhance UNICEF support for sanitation and hygiene, through the development, revision and application of child friendly policies, strategies, guidelines and plans based on evidence, lessons learned, and good practices; and by ensuring their integration into the UNICEF WASH policies and strategic frameworks.
• Keep abreast of research and developments in the sector and provide advice on implications for policy development, capacity building and support to regional and country offices particularly in the areas of Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS), sanitation marketing, technology innovations, sector financing, social norms and behaviour change.
• Promote improved monitoring and reporting on sanitation and hygiene at country level through the development of applicable monitoring systems and frameworks. Coordinate UNICEF sanitation and hygiene research, impact assessment and evaluation efforts and ensure results are synthesized and disseminated.

End Result(s): sanitation and hygiene programming throughout UNICEF through improved monitoring and evaluation structures, enhanced knowledge base and greater capacity at all levels.

2. Capacity Building

• Provide specialist advice and inputs in the area of sanitation and hygiene for the development of capacity building instruments including guidelines, manuals, circulars, instructions, training programmes, etc. for both the WASH and Communication for Development Sections.
• Collect, analyze and synthesize case studies, assessments, good practices and similar information related to sanitation and hygiene from UNICEF Country Offices and disseminate the same to colleagues in Headquarters and the field.
• Contribute to a strengthened evidence base for child friendly sanitation and hygiene programming.
• Under the guidance of the Senior Adviser for Sanitation and Hygiene, be responsible for the updating of sanitation and hygiene materials on the WASH sections of the UNICEF internet and intranet sites.
• Develop and support specific training programmes on specialist sanitation and hygiene topics for UNICEF staff and partners. Contribute to convergent water sanitation and hygiene programming with health and nutrition programmes

End Result(s): Enhanced Country and Regional capacity for the management and implementation of sustainable sanitation and hygiene services. Improved documentation and learning.

3. Other Responsibilities

• Provide assistance to the Associate Director and the Senior Adviser for Sanitation & Hygiene related to sanitation and hygiene, including the preparation of promotional and advocacy materials and support to sanitation and hygiene partnerships and regional and global conferences.
• Provide specialist advice and support in the area of sanitation and hygiene to major partners and donors for the development and implementation of new global/regional funding partnerships for UNICEF WASH programmes including the preparation of specialist inputs to funding proposals and donor reports , presentations and other submissions to current and potential donor partners.

End Result(s): Enhanced global and regional advocacy through strengthened partnerships and advocacy activities.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• Advanced university degree in a relevant field such as medicine, public health, environmental health, social sciences, social marketing or sanitation engineering, development communication ideally with a specialization/additional studies (or experience - see below) in the area of sanitation and hygiene.
• Eight years of progressively responsible relevant work experience in public health, health and hygiene promotion programming in developing countries, including at least three years focused specifically in the area of sanitation and hygiene.
• Experience in both developing programme and humanitarian response an advantage.
• Fluency in English and another UN language.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, both in writing and during formal public speaking.
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
• Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.
• Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
• Analyzes and integrates diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.
• Identifies urgent and potentially difficult decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates team- and department-wide activities.
• Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
• Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.
• Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

Application information: https://careers.unicef.org/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/hrrcf_a_posting_apply?PARAM=cG9zdF9pbnN0X2d1aWQ9NTRFOTlEOEQyNTdFMEMxMEUxMDAwMDAwOUU3MTBGMEYmY2FuZF90eXBlPUVYVA