WASH Coordinator

Desired start date: June 22^nd2020
Duration of the mission: 1 year
Location: Cox’s Bazar

Solidarités International (SI) opened its mission in Bangladesh at the end of 2007, following cyclone SIDR.

Today, SI’s intervention and strategy in Bangladesh is to address primary needs of crisis-affected people in terms of food security, livelihood (FSL), disaster risk reduction (DRR), water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) and shelter, by making use of an integrated DRR approach and by taking into account the effects of climate change, whilst working in parallel on mid / long-term resilience strategies.

In line with the 2019/2020 country strategy, SI is focusing on the following 4 key strategic objectives:

1. Responding to the most urgent needs of conflict and disaster affected populations;
2. Strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities to recurrent shocks;
3. Strengthening communities’ capacities to access resources;
4. Reducing marginalisation through inclusive programming.

As of April 2020, the mission consists in 8 projects, which represent a budget of approx. EUR 6.5 millions. We are working with  IOM, DFID, SDC, Europaid, ECHO, OFDA; and we are operating from 5 different locations:

• 2 Coordination offices: Dhaka and Cox
• 4 Operational bases: Dhaka, Teknaf, Bandarban, Shatkira.

To learn more about the mission, please click here.

About the job 1/2

Why we need you

At SI, the WASH Coordinator is the Head of WASH Department, which means you will be a technical advisor, a coordinator, and a manager. More specifically, you will be working on 2 levels:

Programs: you will help more than 160 000 beneficiaries by leading:

• Water supply and storage infrastructures construction
• Construction of latrines and hygiene infrastructure
• Distribution purifying products and hygiene kits
• Hygiene awareness activities
• Prevention and response to disease outbreaks
• Creation and reactivation of water management committees

Internal and external coordination / communication:

• Proactively attend meeting with external bodies / the WASH community
• Communicate, coordinate, liaise with all mission’s departments and bases.

What you will do

To successfully complete your mission, you will:  

• Design strategic orientations

Work on the sector-based strategy, support the DCD-P, and be responsible for the monitoring and analysis of the WASH sector.

• Staff management

1 direct line report + functional manager for several WASH PM (detail below)

• Ensure the relevance and quality of the WASH projects

Evaluation missions, validation of technical approaches, respect of SI’s procedures, financial validations.

• Coordination, technical support and operational monitoring

KPIs definition and monitoring, tools monitoring, updates and improvement, technical and methodological support, activities adaptation.

• Capitalization

Liaise with the technical advisors in HQ: tools, methods, network.

• Carry representation, reporting & communication activities

Relationships with authorities, communication with the coordination.

About the job 2/2

The current challenges you’ll tackle

• Deal with a large volume of operations in a relatively vast area with program implementation organized by zones and not by grant;
• Need to keep increasing the quality and development of new approaches in WaSH, which require strong technical capacities;
• Play a key role in incorporating protection and DRR mainstreaming within Wash activities;
• Heavy representational duties at sector coordination level: representation and negotiation with UN partners/agencies and the sector is quite difficult and time consuming.

Your priorities for the 2/3 first months

1. Follow-up of the operationalization and action plans of the Wash strategy;
2. Follow up on consultancies, both internal and external, to be organized in the coming months;
3. Prepare for AWD season/possible outbreak (September to November) and ensure preparedness and coordination of response across partners working in host communities in Teknaf;
4. Assess needs and possible WASH program development in all SI’s bases, including Dhaka, Sathkira and Bandarban.
5. Ensure strong and close support to the PMs in the design and toolkits technical development;
6. Ensure project management and technical monitoring tools are developed and in place for the Wash programs

As you will be based in Cox’s, the job involves remote management, as well as very regular visits to the field bases.

Your teams

• You’ll be part of the program team, which is led by a Deputy Country Director for Programs (DCDP), and is made of a FSL department, a WASH department, a MEAL department, a Grants management department.
• You’ll also work on a regular basis with the support services team, which includes a finance department, an HR department and a logistics department.
• You’ll be under the direct management of the DCD-P. 

You will be managing a team of 6 people based in Teknaf – 4 engineers and 2 laboratory manager/assistant. A deputy WASH Coordinator is also under recruitment at the time of writing of this advert. You will also be the functional manager of one deputy field coordinator program in Teknaf, himself/herself supervising 3 Programs Managers, and one 2 WASH Program Managers in Dhaka.

You will also be in touch regularly with HQ, especially the Bangladesh program advisor, the grants advisor, and the WASH technical advisor.

Your profile

Experience

• Proven experience as Head of WASH department mandatory: we are looking for people who are rock solid in WASH (technical AND strategy, micro AND macro) and in management (people).
• 3 years’ experience minimum in relevant Water, Sanitation and Hygiene project management and/or coordination in NGO / humanitarian fields.
• Experience in representation, especially in complex UN systems, highly important.

Profile and main skills needed

**Please note that this is an expatriate position**

For the WASH Coordinator position, we are basically looking for a marathon runner who never quits, no matter the obstacles on the road (be it gravel or a pile of rocks).

You need a strong technical background, to be able to bring your expertise to the table – and particularly in infrastructures / construction.

You will also, and as importantly, be a diplomat, who will be willing to liaise relentlessly with external bodies – one of the major challenges of the job, not to be underestimated! Therefore, we are looking for:

• Knowledge of project cycle management, project design and proposal writing.
• Technical knowledge on water supply (hydrogeology basics, boreholes drilling and O&M, wells construction, stream catchment and gravity flow network design and management) and Sanitation (wastewater and sludge management/treatment).
• Knowledge of community mobilization, water and sanitation social management, hygiene promotion methodologies and public health basics.
• High level of fluency in English

• Autonomous and confident in your WASH Skills
• Innovative spirit, solution-finder

Bonus skills

• Previous experience in emergency contexts and protracted crises (conflict / post conflict country)
• Experience in cash-based project
• Knowledge of disaster risk reduction approaches

Do not apply if…

• You do not have the following: diplomatic skills, patience, perseverance / endurance, intercultural skills, prioritization skills.
• You are scared when you hear the words “coordination”, “donors”, “external partners”, “capacity building”.
• You are not comfortable with processes, remote management, HQ involvement.
• You don’t like working in a fast paced-environment, you are not field-oriented or do not have a hands-on mentality.

SI will offer you

A salaried post:
Salary : According to experience, starting from EUR 2640 gross per month(EUR 2400 base salary + 10% annual leave allowance paid monthly).

Monthly Per Diem: USD 450.
There is no housing or family package available for this position.

SI covers accommodation costs and travel expenses between the expatriate’s country of residence and the mission.
 

Break policy

• 1 break of 7 working days every 3 months + USD 850 allowance (for each break).
• 1 day off per worked month.

These days off, as well as the breaks, are not deducted from the paid leaves that are paid every months with your salary: they are offered by SI.

Social and medical cover:
Expatriates benefit from an insurance package which reimburses all healthcare expenses (including medical and surgical expenses, dental care and ophthalmological expenses, repatriation) and a welfare system including war risks. Essential vaccination and antimalarial treatment costs are refunded.

Your daily living conditions

The offices and guesthouses in Dhaka, Cox’s and Teknaf are all comfortable, well-located in terms of security and social life, adapted to SI team’s needs, and assuring to international staff good standards in terms of privacy and comfort, even though in Teknaf, the working conditions are a bit rougher but still completely bearable.

The 3 cities offer diverse opportunities for social life and activities, even though Cox’s, as a major humanitarian hub, provides more diverse options.

Application process

Want to be part of the mission? Please send us your CV AND Cover letter in English. Yes, we do read those. We do not need a 3 pages-long letter that details everything you’ve done so far though – that’s what your CV is for! However, we would really like to know why you are interested in this mission / SI. A few paragraphs are completely acceptable, and we are ok with bullet points.

Please bear in mind that we receive a high volume of applications, which means it can take us a few weeks to get in touch with you. Al

If you are shortlisted, please note that SI’s recruitment process usually includes: an HR interview, reference checks, written test, technical interview.

If you haven’t made up your mind yet, check our website.   

NB: the vacancy may close before the deadline.