About the job
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian organization that provides impartial medical care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care in over 70 countries. We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s common mission.
Job Purpose
The WASH Programmes Support Manager strengthens MSF Hong Kong’s contribution to field operations by providing independent technical expertise across water, sanitation, hygiene, environmental health, and climate-WASH linkages within the Programmes Unit workstreams. The role sits within a small, operationally oriented unit responsible for supporting climate adaptation, emergency preparedness, partnerships, mitigation intelligence, and medical advocacy across the Asia-Pacific region and, where relevant, globally within the MSF movement.
The WASH Programmes Support Manager is responsible for end-to-end delivery of assigned technical activities — from planning and technical design through to output production and documentation — without requiring the Programmes Director to be involved in day-to-day execution. The role is a mid-level position: the postholder operates independently on technical tasks and escalates strategic or politically sensitive decisions to the Programmes Director.
While the Programmes Director retains strategic and technical leadership of the unit, the WASH Programmes Support Manager holds operational responsibility for the delivery of defined WASH-specific support workstreams, ensuring coherence, quality, and alignment with MSF’s humanitarian and medical mandate—without exercising operational command over field missions.
Key Responsibilities
Climate Adaptation & Operational Resilience
- Provide technical support on climate (heat,flooding) resilience in MSF operations, including WASH systems, vector control, and health facility protection, through assessments and practical operational recommendations.
- Develop tools and technical guidance on Climate Resilient Health Infrastructure, including heat adaptation measures and environmental health considerations aligned with the WHO CRESHCF Framework.
- Contribute WASH and environmental health expertise to Heat Duty of Care assessments and operational recommendations.
- Produce environmental public health analyses linking extreme weather events, water quality, sanitation, and vector risks with seasonal and climate outlooks to support operational planning.
- Represent MSFHKF in climate adaptation technical forums, including climate, flood, and heat-related communities of practice, and provide relevant technical inputs and feedback.
Emergency Preparedness & Humanitarian Response Capacity
- Integrate WASH, flooding, and environmental health scenarios into emergency preparedness frameworks, simulations, and crisis activation tools.
- Develop and deliver technical WASH and environmental health content for emergency preparedness workshops, trainings, and simulation exercises.
- Provide technical support to emergency preparedness initiatives, including development of guidance materials and facilitation of preparedness activities.
Partnerships, Access & Alternative Operational Models
- Contribute WASH and environmental health analysis to regional access and blind spot assessments, including contexts of countries of interest for the section- MSF.
- Support technical scoping of WASH capacities, gaps, and operational feasibility within partnership and alternative operational model initiatives.
- Provide technical inputs to partnership assessments and strategic planning processes related to environmental health and WASH programming.
Mitigation Intelligence & Strategic Positioning
- Conduct analysis of climate finance, carbon economy, and mitigation-related developments across the Asia-Pacific region to inform strategic positioning and decision-making.
- Support carbon accounting and emissions-related assessments relevant to section operations.
- Produce intelligence briefs and analytical products on mitigation trends and developments with operational relevance for MSF.
Medical Advocacy, Evidence & Capacity Building
- Develop and deliver WASH and environmental health content for climate adaptation, operational resilience, and field leadership training programmes.
- Contribute technical evidence, research, abstracts, briefs, and presentations for scientific, operational, and advocacy platforms.
- Support knowledge generation and dissemination on climate, WASH, environmental health, and operational resilience priorities.
Cross-Cutting Responsibilities
- Serve as a technical resource on WASH and environmental health for internal stakeholders, including Programmes, Partnership, Communications, Fundraising, HR, and other units across section offices.
- Contribute to internal learning, documentation, knowledge management, and cross-unit collaboration initiatives.
- Support emergency response activities and deploy to humanitarian operations as required and agreed.
The Ideal Candidate
Essential
- Degree in environmental health, public health, civil/environmental engineering, or closely related field.
- Minimum 4 years of professional experience in WASH programming, including direct field experience in humanitarian or low-resource settings.
- Demonstrated ability to produce practical, operationally grounded technical outputs — not purely academic or policy-oriented work.
- Experience working within or alongside humanitarian operational frameworks (MSF, UN agencies, INGOs).
- Strong written English; ability to produce clear, standalone technical documents independently.
- Proven ability to work autonomously in a small, high-autonomy team with limited administrative support.
- Strong analytical, coordination, and communication skills; demonstrated capacity to translate field realities into clear, feasible technical recommendations.
- Willingness and ability to travel to MSF field projects, HQs, and regional partners.
Desirable
- Familiarity with MSF’s operational structure, OC system, and field mission realities.
- Experience in climate-WASH linkages: flood resilience, heat impacts on water/sanitation systems, climate-sensitive disease vectors.
- Exposure to emergency preparedness frameworks and simulation design.
- Experience in Asia-Pacific humanitarian contexts.
- Ability to facilitate technical workshops for non-specialist field audiences (HoMs, MedCos).
- Knowledge of additional regional languages.
