Social Safeguards Specialist

Background. 
Solomon Islands has around 19.8% (or 102,030) of its estimated present total population of 515,870 (2009 
Census) living in urban and peri-urban areas. The country is divided into nine provinces: Central, 
Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Isabel, Makiri-Ulawa, Malaita, Rennell and Bellona, Temotu, and Western. The 
country’s capital, Honiara City, is situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. Malaita has the 
largest population of 137,596 people, followed by Guadalcanal (93,614), Western (76,649), Honiara city 
(62,609) and Central (26,051) based on the 2009 census. It is known that temporary and informal settlers 
are often not captured in the Census and at any one time the population of Guadalcanal can be closer to 
150,000. This presents challenges in providing potable water supply and sanitation services to the urban 
and peri- urban areas.

To address the challenges the Solomon Islands Water Act of 1992 created the Solomon Islands Water 
Authority, trading as Solomon Water (SW), a state-owned enterprise, and mandated to provide for the 
proper management and development of urban water resources and wastewater services in Solomon Islands. 
SW has been guided by its Five-year Action Plan and 30-Year Strategic Plan since 2017. These plans 
outline the strategy to meet the demand for water and wastewater services up to 2047 for Honiara, 
including peri-urban areas, as well as meeting the needs of other major urban centers in Solomon Islands.

The program. 
In line with SW’s plans, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) together with co-financers the World Bank 
(WB), European Union (EU) and the Solomon Islands government, have initiated the Solomon Islands Urban 
Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (the Project) to help improve access to safe water and 
improved sanitation. The Project outputs1 include: (i) Output 1 - secure and safe urban water supplies, 
(ii) Output 2 - effective, efficient and safe urban sanitation services, (iii) Output 3 – enhanced 
awareness of hygiene and water issues and sustained improved hygiene behavior, and (iv) Output 4 - SW is 
financially and technically sustainable.

Investments will include: (a) in Honiara, (i) rehabilitation of existing water supply sources, and 
expansion of production and treatment systems, (ii) installation of water supply mains to expand and 
rehabilitate the water supply system, (iv) additional water storage capacity, (v) leak detection and 
pipeline repairs, (vi) installing bulk supply metering and expansion of SW’s customer meter replacement 
program to install pre-payment meters, and (vii) expanding SW’s water supply networks to an additional 
5,700 connections in unserved areas, including in informal settlements; (b) in Auki, Gizo, Noro and 
Tulagi, rehabilitation and expansion of the existing water supply systems; and (c) in Munda, development 
of a new water supply system. Project Output 2 is intended for effective and efficient sewerage services 
by: (i) preparing septage management regulations, (ii) constructing a septage treatment facility under a 
five-year design-build-operate (DBO) contract to service the greater Honiara area, (iii) replacing 
existing wastewater outfalls in a state disrepair with new ones, (iv) installing sewers mains to expand 
and rehabilitate the Honiara trunk sewer system, and (v) construction of new sewage pumping stations and 
rehabilitation of existing ones.

The Social Safeguards Specialist will assist Solomon Water monitor, implement, and update the 
resettlement and gender components of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (UWSSSP). The 
Social Safeguards Specialist will also, in collaboration with the UWSSSP Environmental Specialists, 
prepare the UWSSSP semi-annual safeguard monitoring reports. The Social Safeguards Specialist shall 
report to the head of the Solomon Water project management unit.

The Social Safeguards Specialist will assist Solomon Water monitor, implement, and update the 
resettlement and gender components of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (UWSSSP). The 
Social Safeguards Specialist will also, in collaboration with the UWSSSP Environmental Specialists, 
prepare the UWSSSP semi-annual safeguard monitoring reports. The Social Safeguards Specialist shall 
report to the head of the Solomon Water project management unit. 

Tasks and responsibilities of the Social Safeguard Specialist will include:

(i) Resettlement. In collaboration with Solomon Water land management and community liaison staff:
a) provide support and on-the-job training as appropriate to Solomon Water land management and community 
liaison staff in resettlement monitoring and reporting following ADB’s Safeguard Policy Statement 2009 
and World Bank Safeguard policies;
b) update the project resettlement plans and / or due diligence reports based on detailed engineering 
design documents following the UWSSSP resettlement framework and resettlement plan;
c) prepare land acquisition monitoring reports;

(ii) Gender. In collaboration with Solomon Water’s gender focal point:
a) oversee the overall implementation of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) including undertaking field visits 
to monitor GAP progress and coordinating with all relevant stakeholders;
b) Update GAP if any unanticipated risks and/or sensitive gender impacts have been identified. If such 
risks and/or impacts eventuate, adjust, adapt, and/or develop project activities to implement 
appropriate mitigation measures;
c) Conduct and support Solomon Water gender focal point to conduct gender inclusive participatory 
community consultations with local women and men (in focal groups) to meet/exceed women participation 
target;
d) Organize gender trainings(including GBV awareness) , workshops and events for the PMU staff, Solomon 
Water staff, contractors and other relevant stakeholders;
e) Implement the collection of sex-disaggregated data relevant to the project and reflecting on GAP 
targets and indicators and prepare GAP progress reports;
f) Collect qualitative data in 4 – 6 project areas to measure improvements in the quality of women’s 
lives due to safe water usage. These could include baseline, mid and end of project surveys;
g) Collect quantitative and qualitative data on women’s time poverty.

(iii) Semi-annual Safeguard Monitoring Reports. 
In collaboration with the UWSSSP Environmental Specialist, prepare the UWSSSP semi-annual safeguard 
monitoring report which will document UWSSSP environmental management activities, resettlement, related 
land management issues and other social matters including gender, community consultations, and progress 
towards implementation of the UWSSSP GAP.