UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, education

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the Organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give more children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

UNICEF’s programme in Türkiye focuses on safeguarding and advancing the rights of the most vulnerable children to education, child protection, health care, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and social protection, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children need water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to survive and thrive. This is true both in times of stability and crisis, in urban as well as rural communities, and in every country around the world. WASH is important in its own right, and is also necessary to achieve good health, nutrition, education and other outcomes for children. Girls and women are particularly affected by poor WASH, as are people living with disabilities. UNICEF’s Strategy for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene guides the organization’s overarching contribution to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 – ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. The strategy indicates that strong engagement is needed to adapt to climate change and follow environmental and social standards, while maintaining the focus on helping every child gain access to WASH, including in schools and health centres, and in humanitarian situations.

How can you make a difference?

On 6 February 2023, two major earthquakes (7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes) struck south-east Türkiye, devastatingly impacting 10 provinces (Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kilis, Osmaniye, Malatya, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa and Adana), where approximately 15.2 million people (13.5 million Turkish citizens, 1.7 million registered refugees), including 4.6 million children, of whom 811,000 are refugees, live. UNICEF is targeting these 10 provinces, with a possible gradual expansion to Elazığ. Humanitarian consequences are significant and increasing. As of 15 February, at least 35,418 deaths and 80,278 injuries have been confirmed, over 1 million people are currently residing in temporary accommodations centers (TACs).

Currently UNICEF is working with partners, Municipalities, and water utility companies to ensure safe water and improved sanitation as humanitarian response for affected people in earthquake affected provinces. There will be a time lag around 2-3 years until such time that the reconstruction phase is completed.

There is an urgent and increasing need to invest in climate-proofing the WASH sector especially in Turkiye. Tanking these opportunities, while responding on emergency early recovery, UNICEF is transitioning to climate resilient WASH interventions both at national and service delivery level. In 2024-2025, UNICEF will be working on advocacy, evidence generations, awareness raising, environment, disaster risk reduction (DRR), behavioural change (SBC) and transitioning from humanitarian WASH to climate resilient WASH in Turkiye.

UNICEF as a lead agency in WASH sector, coordinates more than 30 WASH actors at Gaziantep level and at hub level for effective and efficient WASH response especially to earthquake affected population, refugees and host communities.

Purpose of the job:

The WASH Officer reports to Wash Officer NO-B with technical support from WASH Manager based in CO Ankara.  The WASH Officer provides technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the WASH programming process, which includes earthquake emergency and recovery response, climate change and environmental degradation adaptation aspects. The Officer prepares, manages and implements a variety of technical and administrative tasks, related to the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the WASH output results of the Country Programme.

WASH officer provides support for WASH sector coordination, participates in general coordination forums in Gaziantep an in the four provincial hubs.

Key Function, Accountabilities, and Related Duties/Tasks:

Programme development and planning

• Draft updates for WASH in the situation analysis, to inform the development of WASH-related outcome and output results. Research and report on trends in WASH, for use in programme development, management, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Prepare technical reports and inputs for programme preparation and documentation, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevance of information.
• Contribute to the development/establishment of WASH-related outcome and output results, as well as related strategies, through analysis of WASH sector needs and priorities.
• Provide technical and administrative support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing/administering a variety of technical programme transactions, preparing materials/documentations, complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support progress towards the WASH-related outcome and/or output results in the Country Programme.
• Prepare required documentations/materials to facilitate review and approval processes.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results

•  Work collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to collect/analyze/ share information on implementation issues, provide solutions on routine programme implementation and alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level interventions and/or decisions. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other counterparts and prepare reports on results for required action/interventions at the higher level of program management.
• Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity. Report on issues identified to enable timely resolution by management/stakeholders.
• Prepare sectoral progress reports for management, donors and partners.

Technical and operational support for programme implementation

• Undertake field visits and surveys, collect and share reports with partners/stakeholders. Report critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems to supervisor, for timely action.
• Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices in WASH, to support programme implementation.

Humanitarian WASH preparedness and response

• Draft requisitions for supplies, services, long-term agreements and partnership agreements to ensure UNICEF is prepared to deliver on its commitments for WASH in case of an emergency.
• Study and fully understand UNICEF’s procedures for responding in an emergency.
• Take up support roles in an emergency response and early recovery, as and when the need arises

Networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve WASH output results.
• Draft communication and information materials for WASH programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund-raising for WASH.

• Participate in inter-agency meetings on UNDAF planning, to integrate and harmonize UNICEF output results and implementation strategies with UNDAF development and planning processes.
• Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Assist in the development, implementation, monitoring and documentation of WASH action research and innovation (technical or systems).
• Assist in the preparation of learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development.

• Assist in creating and delivering learning opportunities for UNICEF WASH staff, to ensure our sector capacity remains up-to-date with latest developments.
• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders.

WASH Sector Coordination, Responsibilities:

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, WASH Officer will support UNICEF, for delivery of primarily, shared, or contributory results for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results:

• Support in maintaining an appropriate humanitarian coordination mechanism;
• Strengthen pre-existing sectoral coordination through increased predictability and accountability;
• Build complementarity of partner actions: avoiding duplication and gaps;
• Ensure adequate resources are mobilized and are equitably allocated for the effective functioning of the sector and its response;
• Effective and comprehensive integration of relevant cross-cutting issues, including age, gender, environment and HIV/AIDs;
• Support in maintaining flexibility within the sector to respond to changes in the operating environment, evolving requirements, capacities and participation;
• Effectively use and transfer information to, from and between sector participants and other stakeholders;
• Interact with other sector (including through inter-sector coordination fora), humanitarian actors, government counterparts, and relevant authorities for operational planning, engagement and active contribution of operational partners;
• Be accountable to the affected population through effective and inclusive consultative and feedback mechanisms.
• Monitor performance of the core sector functions.
• Where there is both a national and a sub-national sector, the post holder will ensure that there is effective communication, reporting, engagement and coordination between the two levels.
•  Any relevant task assigned by the supervisor to contribute to the success of sector coordination.

Core sector functions:

Supporting service delivery

• Provide a platform to ensure that service delivery is driven by the agreed strategic priorities
• Develop mechanisms to eliminate duplication of service delivery

Informing strategic decision-making of the HC/HCT for the humanitarian response

• Needs assessment and gap analysis (across other sectors and within the sector)
• Analysis to identify and address (emerging) gaps, obstacles, duplication, and cross-cutting issues.
• Prioritization, grounded in response analysis

Planning and strategy development

• Develop sectoral plans, objectives and indicators directly support realization of the HC/HCT strategic priorities through ABC or any coordination mechanism in place.
• Application and adherence to existing standards and guidelines

Advocacy

• Identify advocacy concerns to contribute to HC/RC and HCT messaging and action
• Undertaking advocacy activities on behalf of sector participants and the affected population
• Monitoring and reporting the implementation of the sector strategy and results; recommending corrective action where necessary
• Contingency planning/preparedness for recurrent disasters whenever feasible and relevant
• Accountability to affected populations

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• University (first) degree in public health, social sciences, behavior change communication, sanitary engineering or other specialist field related to WASH is required.
• Bachelor’s degree, or relevant combination of qualifications and experience, in public health in emergencies, water, social sciences, institutional development, water or sanitation engineering or related field.
• Extensive work experience relevant to this post may be considered as a replacement for formal qualifications.
• Formal training in sector/sector information management an advantage
• At least 1 years progressively responsible humanitarian work experience with UN and/or NGO, WASH programming and sector coordination in emergency response and development.
• Extensive work experience outside the humanitarian sector which is relevant to this post may be considered as a replacement for humanitarian experience.
• Fluency in English and Turkish is required. Knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.