Oxfam Senior WASH Advisor, Asia Region - Closing Date:27 August 2015

jobs.oxfam.org.uk/vacancy/senior-wash-ad...37/2996/description/

Location: The Philippines. Other locations will be considered based on visa regulations.
Region:Asia
Hours:40 hours per week
Type of Post: Fixed-term Contract (1 October 2015 - 31 September 2017, renewable)
Post Level: Global B2
Salary: Competitive
Other benefits: Oxfam offers staff a comprehensive benefits package including annual leave entitlements, sick pay provision, medical cover plus opportunities for learning and development.

As the Senior WASH Advisor you will consolidate Oxfam’s position as a leading WASH agency by promoting innovation and learning across the region. You will lead strategic thinking for WASH programming in the region. You will work closely with the regional team to develop and implement the Regional Humanitarian Strategy. You will explore and test new ways of working in middle income countries, that influence and support government, civil society and the private sector to deliver their humanitarian commitments, in relation to water and sanitation, especially in urban areas.

What we are looking for

You have proven successful experience of working as part of a cross disciplinary team that designed and tested new urban WASH approaches in middle income countries, that created space for influencing and supporting government, civil society and the private sector to deliver their humanitarian commitments. You have the skills needed to build institutional relationships with private sector and academic institutions.

You are a WASH leader and mentor. You have senior level experience leading the design and delivery of large complex humanitarian response and recovery programmes. You have demonstrated skills in knowledge management. You have developed and use tools that promote learning, skill transfer and knowledge generation, that are accessible to both WASH and none technical stakeholders.

DIMENSIONS:

° Influences the development of the regional and country programme and sector strategy and ensures and supports implementation

° Impacts directly on programme quality through providing professional support to senior managers on areas of work covered in their remit

° Develops innovative solutions to diverse and complex problems within organisational policy

° Develops effective networks within Oxfam and strengthen partnerships with external bodies (public private partnerships)

° Maximises sharing of lessons between Asian countries and other regions, both internally and externally of Oxfam

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Direction

° Act as the lead on strategic thinking for WASH programmes in the region, working closely with country teams, global staff and regional colleagues.

° Explore and test new ways of working for Oxfam in Asia in middle income countries that create space for influencing and supporting government, civil society and the private sector to deliver their humanitarian commitments, with a specific focus on urban contexts.

° At the regional level and with strategic countries identify private sector willing and able to play a more active role in responding to humanitarian crises.

° Support willing private sector companies to engage with the humanitarian sector which may involve training staff, contingency plans and stocks

° Leads on raising multi-year funds to support this work Programme quality, learning and representation

° Represent OGB to other agencies and authorities, including academic institutions, private sector and the WASH cluster where this is operating. Building institutional relations to strengthen and grow our WASH influence

° Ensure that programmes are designed based on a strong gender analysis and set up to maximises opportunities for women’s economic leadership.

° Ensure that programmes are set up in a way that maximises learning opportunities, and ensure that lessons learnt are fed back into the refinement and development of other programmes within the region.

° Provide direct or remote support to WASH country teams and senior managers to identify promising technologies for WASH innovation.

° Coordinate with the Oxfam’s humanitarian innovation leads and the Global WASH Advisor to identify new technologies and strategic priorities.

° Coordinate with technical colleagues in other Oxfam affiliates

° Utilise or develop mechanisms to disseminate information and research findings on new technologies, approaches towards engagement within Oxfam and externally as appropriate.

Capacity building

The capacity building component of this role will focus on supporting the development of a 3-5 year capacity building strategy and supervising and working with the Regional Capacity Building Coordinator- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion to ensure delivery of:

° Informal and formal training sessions for a variety of stakeholders and evaluate the impact of this training. Assisting with capacity building of partner agencies. Ensuring that all training take gender issues fully into account. This includes the introduction of mechanisms to enable women to participate in decision making around WASH issues and programme decisions.

° Mentoring and/or coaching of identified OGB staff and partners to enable them to develop their skills in humanitarian programming, DRR programming and building links between our long-term LH interventions and public health priorities.

° When needed recruiting, training and supervising WASH staff as requested by country programmes.

Emergency Programme Implementation:

° Give technical input to country teams, Oxford and the Regional Team to assist in “go/no-go” decision-making

° When required, assist with the start-up of new humanitarian response programmes and provide ongoing support to programme managers and the WASH team as required throughout programme implementation.

° As necessary facilitate the recruitment, training and supervision of public health engineers and health promoters. This may involve coordinating the mobilisation of RRT’s and providing support with the production of job descriptions, work schedules, training plans and appraisals

° As a member of a multidisciplinary Oxfam Regional Humanitarian Team monitor the effectiveness of activities and the continuing level of humanitarian need in the region.

° In certain cases, be deployed during the first phase of a large-scale emergency response as an acting senior public health coordinator

SKILLS AND COMPETENCE:

° Masters degree or higher in water and sanitation, engineering, or public health. Equivalent technical experience and training can substitute for qualifications but not vice versa.

° Experience of senior level representation with Governments, INGO’s, the UN and the private sector.

° Substantial experience of water and sanitation programming in multiple developing countries, including significant experience in complex emergency contexts.

° Experience in integrated public health programming (combining water and sanitation with public health promotion), and a demonstrated understanding of health promotion approaches and methodologies

° Experience in assessment and designing response in both rapid and slow-onset emergencies.

° Experience in the development of urban WASH programming- with a focus on governance and the role of private, public partnerships

° Ability to work well under pressure and in response to rapidly changing needs.

° Good written and spoken English is essential.

° Willingness to travel up to 40% of the time.