Volunteer – WATSAN

The International Rescue Committee
(IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose
lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive,
recover, and gain control of their lives. The IRC has been working in Kenya
since 1992, providing crucial services across the two refugee camps, Dadaab and
Kakuma, and a number of counties (Garissa, Turkana, West Pokot, Samburu,
Kajiado, Lamu and Nairobi) implementing programs in the sectors of health,
nutrition, governance & rights, women’s protection & empowerment,
Economic Recovery and Development, as well as providing emergency response
through a network of field offices and a range of institutional and
community-based partnerships.

Job Purpose/Objective

The role of volunteer-WATSAN is to
support in the successful delivery of water supply and sanitation interventions
in the target areas while adhering to relevant quality and technical standards.
Additionally, this position will support development of community capacity in
water supply and sanitation operation, maintenance, and management, participate
in mobilization of WASH resources and ensure implementation is done in close
collaboration with program staff, the local community, the Local authority, and
other relevant agencies. The role will also involve to a large-scale technical
designs of various WASH infrastructures, estimation of costs, support
development of tender documents, bid review and evaluations, and general
construction contract management and discharge in accordance with IRC and GoK
acceptable standards and specifications.

Main Responsibilities

The volunteer – WATSAN supports
the team identify and assess the key needs of WASH facilities and recommend an
appropriate strategy to either construct, rehabilitate or repair such
facilities. She/he will ensure that an engagement approach to working with
communities and the local authorities, other partners is employed, and all
activities are carried out in a way that upholds IRC values, is sensitive to
community needs and promotes the full and equal participation of women, men,
children, youth, people living with disability and other special interest
groups. Primary responsibilities include:

Project Planning and Design

• Participate in needs assessment
  including Baseline surveys in WASH activities and determining most technically
  appropriate water supply and sanitation options.
• Design and develop relevant
  specifications for WASH infrastructure including standard operating procedures
  (SOPs), design reports, drawings, bills of quantities, technical
  specifications.
• Participate in the proposal
  development for potential water supply, sanitation, and hygiene interventions.
• Undertake Topographical Surveys
  and GIS activities, feasibility studies, water resource mapping, EIA support.
• Ensure that Projects/construction
  sites adhere to the laid out technical and quality standards.

Project Implementation

• Preparation of tender documents
  including technical specifications, bill of quantities, drawings, and terms of
  reference, variations and justifications.
• Supervise construction, repair and
  rehabilitation of water supplies systems and sanitation facilities in strict
  adherence to the designs, specification, Kenya government regulations, WHO and
  the SPHERE standard.
• Working with the WASH Officer –
  Hygiene Promotion facilitate training WMCs, other Community structures (SMCs,
  CHWs, CHEWs, Youth Groups) and local authorities on operation/maintenance,
  management, and sustainability of WASH infrastructure.
• Build the capacity of staff, CBOs,
  and Water Users Committees to effectively manage WASH facilities.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation

• Support in supervision of WASH
  activities in strict consistency to IRC Kenya, government Of Kenya regulations,
  the donor’s guideline, and the SPHERE standards.
• Ensure timely delivery of projects
  activities and successful completion of construction works with submission of
  completion certificates to the Contractors.
• Ensure that up to date project
  documents are in place including approved work plans, log frame, detailed
  project implementation plan and financial forecasts Documentation of lessons
  learnt and good practices.
• Support in the development and
  implementation of water safety plans for the water supply projects.
• Ensure laid down SOPs, technical,
  health and safety standards are adhered to in all projects.

Fundraising and Networking

• Support in the development of
  technically sound proposals and project designs.
• Uphold good relations of project
  partners including the contractors, suppliers, site committees and clients.
• Engage actively in relevant
  clusters and networks.

Reporting

• Develop and deliver in a timely
  manner progress reports, monthly, quarterly, semi- annual and end of projects
  reports in accordance with donors’ and IRC Kenya requirements.
• Support development, monitoring
  and evaluation of WASH project indicators and standards.
• Provide regular update reports on
  water supply and sanitation activities and program progress against work plan
  as maybe required.
• Maintain an up to-date activity
  tracking tool (soft copies and hard copies) of all water supply and sanitation
  infrastructure related activities.
• Actively participate in
  inter-sectoral activities.
• Comfortable with performing a
  range of tasks outside of their workstations, when needed.
• Support WASH department in other
  tasks, roles and, responsibilities as may be assigned to by the supervisor.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Degree in Water Engineering, Civil
  and structural Engineering, or related field. A minimum of one experience
  working/programming in WASH, emergencies, relief, or development.

Required Experience & Competencies:

• Minimum of 2 year relevant work
  experience.
• Valid Registration with a
  professional body.
• Strong skills in civil design
  works and /or construction of water supply and sanitation facilities essential.
• Demonstrated skills in technical
  design and costing of civil engineering works related to water supply and
  sanitation facilities.
• Experience in people engagement
  approaches, participatory approaches.
• Excellent verbal and written
  communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and
  ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with a team.
• Ability to conduct community needs
  assessment, project planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Good computer application skills
  (MS-Office, CAD, application software to engineering designs)

Standards of Professional
Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles
outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity,
Service, Accountability and Equity. In accordance with these values, the IRC
operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and
Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity
Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

Gender Equality: IRC is
committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer
benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our
workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and
other encouraging benefits and allowances.

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC
considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex,
color, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or
disability. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided
reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview
process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and
privileges of employment.

Kenyan nationals are encouraged
to apply. International allowances are not available for this position. Salary
and employee benefits are compliant to the Kenyan NGO Sector.

Disclaimer:

Please take note that
International Rescue Committee (IRC) does not ask for any fees in connection
with its recruitment processes