WASH Programme Volunteer

Details

Mission and objectives

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, 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 favouritism. 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, hygiene/sanitation and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all 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.

Context

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aim at ensuring access to water and sanitation for all. Despite efforts made in the past decades, current water and sanitation coverage in Mozambique is amongst the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa with only 63% having access to safe water and 42% to adequate sanitation (JMP, 2022). Disaggregated, urban safe water coverage is 87% and rural is 48%, with coverage for small towns estimated to be even lower, reaching only 25% of the population.
Under its 2022-2026 Country Programme, UNICEF Mozambique has a dedicated water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Program, supporting the Government of Mozambique to increase access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. through a range of interventions, including both development and humanitarian contexts across rural and small towns settlements. Specific activities include technical support and advocacy for policy and strategy formulation at national level, decentralized support to Government for planning and implementation of water sources, water supply systems. Over the past years, UNICEF WASH portfolio has increased in scope through the incorporation and scale up of local based interventions including water supply systems in small towns, multi-use / solar powered water supply systems in rural communities, WASH in health centres that have been added to the already established interventions on construction of water points (i.e. boreholes with handpumps) at community and school level, including support and strengthening of operation, maintenance and management of water supply sources and systems. On the sanitation portfolio UNICEF has extended the implementation of CLTS programs in various provinces, with triggering of more than 1.000 communities in Zambezia Province.
Together with its supporting role for field implementation, UNICEF also plays a pivotal role into evidence generation to inform WASH sector policy and strategy and in capacity development and training to increase sector’s abilities for WASH programme planning, implementation and monitoring.
To support implementation of the above priorities, UNICEF is seeking for suitable candidates to fulfil a Volunteer (UNV) position for a WASH officer within the Zambezia Field Office and WASH team, to support implementation of its workplan on WASH related issues in Zambezia province. The UNV position will be directly supervised by the WASH Specialist based in Zambezia. The UNV will also engage with other sectors within the UNICEF Mozambique Country Office, partner organizations, such as governmental offices at national and decentralized level, NGOs and other civil society organizations.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process and afterwards in your assignment.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the WASH Specialist based in Zambezia and in coordination with the other members of the WASH team in Maputo, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
• Support monitoring of field implementation on WASH related interventions (water supply, sanitation and hygiene activities; WASH in schools and WASH in Health centres; in rural and small towns), including liaison and coordination with implementing partners
• Support implementation of CLTS programs from training of partners, triggering of communities, close monitoring, evaluation and certification of ODF communities.
• Support the documentation of good practices and development of technical notes for water supply and sanitation interventions conducted by UNICEF and partners.
• Undertake field monitoring and reporting of WASH related interventions implemented with UNICEF support;
• Support field work and analysis of information related to operation, maintenance and management of water supply systems as per the various UNICEF interventions.
• Support communication activities and liaise with UNICEF communications department for dissemination of UNICEF WASH interventions over mass and social media.
• Support the utilization of previously produced and validated capacity building and training materials; and provide inputs for development of new ones as needed;
• Assist in the monitoring and management of implementation agreements (project cooperation agreements, contracts, etc.)
• Contribution in the development of WASH programme / water supply related reports and other monitoring and reporting documentation as required, including the 5W.