Regional WASH Advisor

Oxfam Great Britain

Closing Date:22nd of March 2015

Based in Sierra Leone

Contract type: Fixed term until 31 March 2016- not accompanied 

Salary : £26,596 - £35,656 per annum + competitive benefits

West Africa is experiencing a deepening cycle of chronic poverty, whose roots lie in a number of complex issues. In many ways, West Africa`s crisis is a crisis of decreasing livelihoods options and decreasing food security. Other issues also play their part, including cyclical drought, floods and disease outbreaks, which further undermine people`s capacity.  WASH has a major role to play in addressing issues of food security, livelihoods and emergencies. To date Oxfam in West Africa has had a moderately sized WASH program in the region. However we now have an opportunity to increase the scale of our WASH work, and more importantly to increase the impact of the program, by ensuring that it is structured to most appropriately respond to the real underlying problems and to ensure that it integrates more effectively with other existing programs.  Oxfam`s WASH work in West Africa also includes using water for livelihoods - including water harvesting and appropriate irrigation. We also aim to build on approaches to WASH that can lead to risk reduction in regard to potential emergencies in the region.  Oxfam in West Africa is seeking to have a much more significant impact in the region through its WASH Work. This is an opportunity to lead on the process of change required to help Oxfam achieve this aspiration.

Dimension:

• Leads on strategic thinking for WASH programs for the region
• Required to be a leader of innovation in respect to WASH approaches across the region
• Develops and manages regional programs as appropriate
• Budget oversight and direct budget management as appropriate
• Matrix manages staff in at least 5 countries
• Direct line management of staff as required
• Represents Oxfam externally in WASH for a at regional level
• Forms part of the regional program advisory team and contributes to all regional program design
• Leads on knowledge management and lesson learning for the region on WASH issues
• Contributes to Oxfam globally in terms of innovation, learning and program development
• Maintains a close involvement with the WASH sector in general, is aware of and shares developments on best practice with Oxfam`s programs.

Strategy:

• Facilitate review consultations with Country Program Managers, HQ based staff, Advisors, regional stakeholders and external experts regarding the options and most appropriate approaches for taking forward Oxfam`s WASH work in the region.
• Support countries to contextualize the regional WASH strategy
• Develop a WASH advocacy strategy in consultation with the regional campaign policy manager and country WASH program managers
• Work closely with other regional advisors, especially DRR and livelihoods and food security advisors to ensure that the WASH strategy closely integrates with other program approaches.
• Highlight areas of innovation and innovative technology that may be appropriate in West Africa for inclusion in the strategy and overall approaches.
• Lead on initiating, monitoring and learning from trial projects that will contribute to increasing our overall effectiveness

Program Development and Implementation:

• Support country WASH leads to develop a program plan and program proposals to take forward the WASH strategy at country level.
• Ensure that program plans are appropriately informed by an in depth gender analysis and an analysis of the malaria & HIV situation in country.
• Ensure that program plans fit closely with livelihoods and food security strategies and programs.
• Support recruitment for dedicated WASH staff in countries where necessary
• Lead on the development of regional proposals - such as Water Resource Management
• Monitor program implementation, and undertake support visits as necessary to ensure Oxfam attains a high quality of program and achieves its intended program impact.
• Provide proactive support on program monitoring and development of appropriate monitoring frameworks and tools
• Assist with program evaluations as required.
• Assist directly country WASH program to cover gap in strategic senior WASH staff

Technical Advice:

• Provide technical advice, or find alternative sources of technical advice as necessary, to programs on hardware and software issues relating to WASH, as well as on issues such as integrated water resources management, low cost technologies and urban WASH

Emergency Work:

• Review Oxfam`s capacity for emergency WASH responses and the effectiveness of current and recent responses.
• Implement strategies to increase Oxfam`s preparedness and response capacity, utilizing to the greatest extent possible capacity within existing development staff. 
• Take the lead on WASH components of emergency responses in the region when capacity is exceeded within country programs.
• In times of acute crisis, take an active and hands on role in assessing impact, advising on appropriate interventions, and operationalizing strategies
• Coordinate with HR on management of the regional humanitarian register
• Contributing to program quality standards:
• Ensure that work aims to meet Sphere Standards and adheres to Oxfam`s emergency guidelines and protocols
• Ensure that all work is carried out in a way that is sensitive to community needs and promotes the full and equal participation of women
• As much as possible ensure that an empowering approach to working with communities is employed rather than one, which relies on didactic message based methodologies
• Be familiar with and abide by Oxfam`s Code of Conduct and other regulatory codes such as the Red Cross Code of Conduct, Partners in Aid Code, Oxfam International protocols and the Inter- agency Field Co-operation Protocol.
• Contribute to program reviews and evaluations where appropriate

Learning and Development:

• Ensure that programs are set up in a way that maximizes learning opportunities, and ensure that lessons learnt are fed back into the refinement and development of other programs within the region
• Identify and develop systems to share information and extract lessons learnt between country WASH programs and eventually feedback on a technical brief (e.g. extract lessons learnt from the various consortium, 3 at country level and 1 at regional level - use of low cost technologies in at least 3 countries
• Ensure that lessons learnt are well documented and transparent  Lead on WASH staff technical capacity development within the region - this may include various forms of training as well as possibly playing mentoring and coaching roles for key staff
• Share learning within Oxfam globally and with external organizations as appropriate.  Lead on developing trial projects that feed into our learning, especially around new and appropriate technology
• Ensure technical cross regional learning is effective where appropriate

Coordination:

• Work closely with Oxfam regional and country advisors to ensure that programs are well integrated - using a one-program approach as the ideal model
• Work closely with line management on key program decisions
• Link with appropriate professional networks at country, regional and global levels to ensure that Oxfam remains connected to current thinking and has an opportunity to influence others outside of the organization Regular liaison with HD / HQ for support / advice / information sharing
• Coordinate with technical colleagues in other Oxfam affiliates
• Work with Key Business Unit staff in countries and Regional Centre to support and develop best practice, cost effectiveness and compliance with Oxfam standards and processes.

We are looking for:

• Masters Degree or higher, or equivalent technical experience and training in WASH
• At least 5 - 7 years experience of leading WASH programs in both emergency and development contexts
• Experience of assessing and responding to slow and fast onset emergencies
• Experience of managing and advising teams from a distance
• Ability to influence effectively both inside and outside the organization
• Ability to work as part of a team and adopt a consensus based approach to working where possible
• Creative and innovative approach - ability to lead thinking on technology choices and development approaches
• Experience of designing program strategies and of implementing new programs
• Experience of training staff and developing staff capacity
• Able to take on a mentoring and coaching role
• Experience of monitoring and managing budgets of several million pounds
• Experience of establishing and using effective program monitoring frameworks
• Willing to travel up to 50% of the time (according to the needs)
• Good written and spoken English AND French are essential (candidates with no working skills in both languages will not be short-listed)
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time
• Knowledge of any West African language would be advantageous

Applications must be submitted through our online system. For further information about the role and to apply please go to: https://jobs.oxfam.org.uk/vacancy/2233/description

All applications must be submitted in English and include an English CV