WASH Coordinator (Consortium Community Mobilisation Lead)

The post is to be based in Sittwe and opened to International candidates and advertised globally.

This is a rolling recruitment and interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. Applicants are therefore advised to apply as soon as possible

Oxfam is a leading International NGO with a worldwide reputation for excellence and over 70 years of experience. It’s not unfortunate that people live in poverty. With enough wealth in this world to go around it’s unjustifiable. It’s not just their problem. It’s ours too. Our humanitarian, development and campaigning projects change lives around the world, and with the right support, we can beat poverty and injustice. Thousands of people already commit their time and talents to our campaigning, humanitarian and long-term development projects. Now we’re looking for yours.

The role:To develop and lead the implementation of the Community Engagement and Hygiene behavior change strategy for the Sittwe Humanitarian WASH Consortium. This position will be part of a team who will lead the implementation of a multi-year programme providing high quality WASH services to more than 80,000 IDPs living in displacement camps in Sittwe, Rakhine State. Oxfam works in partnership with Solidarites International (SI) in this programme, and in close collaboration with Camp Management Agencies and other WASH actors. 

Whilst the context is humanitarian, people have been living in IDP camps for five years – and the overall approach of this programme is to transition to community development approaches promoting strong community engagement and community ownership of facilities and services within the IDP camps. This requires a strong focus on the upgrading of WASH infrastructure during the first nine months, with a transition to community ownership of the infrastructure following the upgrades. Many transitional strategies are to developed and implemented across the camps, with a view to transition of services to external agencies (government or private sector), an increase in market based approaches, greater investment in community mobilisation, accountability, protection, and new approaches to hygiene promotion.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the Community Engagement and hygiene related behavior change planning and implementation for the Sittwe Humanitarian WASH Consortium programme. This will include leading the transition of hygiene promotion activities into community-centered approaches that are strategic, evidence-based, and lead towards sustainable community-led actions and ownership of WASH services.
• Ensure that Community Engagement activities are planned and implemented on time in line with contractual obligations and with accountable approaches towards communities.
• Validate the community engagement approaches used by each of the project partners against the project plans and best practice, and provide advice on adaptations as required
• Ensure that all work is carried out in a way that is sensitive to community needs and gender issues. In particular, to promote the full and equal participation of women in all aspects of the work and to ensure that the programme’s response is in line with the needs of IDPs and host communities.
• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator and with programme staff to strengthen monitoring, evaluation, learning, accountability and reporting of WASH programme.
• Validate and consolidate technical inputs from Oxfam and SI to produce quality reports for donor.
• Share and document best practices with the programme teams, ensuring that the Community Engagement strategy is implemented to the highest quality standards and is integrated with interventions in the programme.
• Recruit and supervise national staff. This may involve the writing of job profiles, work schedules, objective setting and performance appraisals.

Representation/Coordination:

• Represent the programme at national and sub-national coordination bodies including the national WASH cluster and the Rakhine WASH cluster.
• Work closely together with Solidarites International and the donor to share information and develop common designs, approaches and MEAL framework for Community Engagement and hygiene based behavior change programme.
• Liaise with regional and global WASH Advisors in Oxfam and the program team of SI in order to get technical inputs as well as to assess the appropriateness of the Community Engagement and public health promotion approaches in the Myanmar context.

Capacity Building:

• Provide technical capacity building to staff on community engagement, hygiene promotion and behavior change.
• Support the team to build the capacity and empower our volunteers and camp-based staff.

General:

• Be an active member of Programme Management team; participate in appropriate staff meetings and planning sessions

SKILLS AND COMPETENCE:

• A graduate qualification or equivalent in one of the following, or a related discipline: social sciences, environmental, public or preventative health, anthropology, or community development.  
• Experience of working with communities in emergency WASH programmes
• Proven ability and at least 5 years experience in project co-ordination / management in either a humanitarian or development programme
• A good understanding of the theory and practice of community engagement and hygiene based behaviour change.
• Experience of working in a participative way with communities; strong counterpart/capacity building skills
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to communicate in English clearly both verbally and in writing and with all levels of staff
• Proven initiative, flexibility and ability to prioritise in a demanding environment and to tight deadlines
• Strong assessment, analytical and planning skills.
• Working knowledge of Do No Harm approaches and at least basic knowledge of conflict sensitive approaches
• Sensitivity to cultural differences and the ability to work in a variety of cultural contexts and communicate with a diverse range of people.
• Sound understanding of the importance of gender and participation in programme implementation; sensitive to the needs of displaced and disadvantaged populations.
• Strong report writing, and presentation skills, including the ability to present complex issues clearly and concisely to a broad range of audiences

Desirable

• Experience working in politically sensitive, conflict affected locations
• Ability to work effectively independently with minimal support

Closing date:                                      31 December 2017, 5:00 PM

Early application is encouraged as this is urgently required and Oxfam reserves the right to carry out the process as soon as we identified appoint able person.

How to apply:                                     Please state applied position in email subject line and send Cover Letter and CV to Human Resources Department through myanmarhr@oxfam.org.uk 

(OR)

Oxfam office, No. 34, Corner of Aung Taw Mu Street and Golden Hill Avenue Street, Golden Valley Ward 2, Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

Phone: +95 (0)1 539986, 539987, 539958, 539189 and 504918

Detail and complete job profile is available upon request.

We regret that only short-listed applicants will be contacted.