Wash Officer - Hygiene Promotion
full-time
Reports to: WASH Coordinator
Staff directly reporting to this post: None
Role Dimensions: Field office-based position
The responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children or young people and, in the overseas context all posts are considered to be level 3 posts in view of potential situations which may allow staff unsupervised access to vulnerable children and young people.
Role Purpose
To support the implementation, monitoring and reporting of WASH-hygiene promotion activities under the UNOCHA-funded integrated humanitarian response in Borno States.
The post holder will provide technical guidance and capacity strengthening to partners to deliver community-based hygiene promotion interventions, improve hygiene practices, prevent hygiene-related diseases, and establish and strengthen community hygiene groups.
The role will also promote the integration of WASH and hygiene promotion into Health and Nutrition and Child Protection. Working closely with the WASH Coordinator, WASH Officer - Infrastructure, relevant programme teams, implementing partners, community structures and government authorities, the post holder will support the delivery of inclusive, evidence-based and accountable hygiene promotion interventions in line with approved project targets, relevant humanitarian standards and SCI policies.
Key Areas of Accountability
Objective 1: Lead hygiene promotion and integrate WASH into Nutrition and Child Protection
Plan, implement and provide supportive supervision for hygiene promotion activities across SCI project locations, ensuring alignment with approved workplans, humanitarian needs and relevant WASH standards.
Integrate context-specific hygiene promotion into Health and Nutrition and Child Protection activities, including health and nutrition service points, child-friendly spaces and other relevant community and institutional settings.
Design and deliver culturally appropriate, age-sensitive and inclusive hygiene promotion sessions addressing handwashing with soap, safe water handling and storage, household water treatment, sanitation, food hygiene, menstrual health and hygiene, and environmental cleanliness.
Build the capacity of SCI staff, implementing partners, community hygiene promoters and community structures through training, coaching and supportive supervision; engage community leaders, women, youth, persons with disabilities and relevant government authorities to strengthen participation and ownership.
Conduct or support hygiene risk assessments, baseline surveys and behavioural observations; support emergency hygiene promotion during disease outbreaks, flooding and displacement; coordinate with relevant WASH stakeholders; and contribute technical inputs to hygiene item distributions, post-distribution monitoring, evaluations, advocacy and donor proposals.
Objective 2: Support the integration of hygiene considerations into water and sanitation infrastructure at Nutrition and Child Protection sites
Collaborate with the WASH Officer - Infrastructure and relevant sector teams to assess water, sanitation and hygiene needs at supported facilities and identify gaps requiring rehabilitation, construction or operational improvements.
Provide technical inputs on hygiene promotion requirements in the design, use and management of water and sanitation facilities, including handwashing facilities, safe water storage, cleaning arrangements, sanitation practices and accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Conduct routine monitoring visits to assess the functionality, cleanliness, safe use and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities, and communicate identified infrastructure defects to the WASH Officer - Infrastructure for appropriate action.
Support community and facility-level sensitisation on the proper use, cleaning and maintenance of water points, latrines, handwashing facilities and other WASH infrastructure.
Coordinate with facility managers, community structures, contractors and relevant sector teams to ensure that hygiene promotion activities complement infrastructure interventions and encourage sustained utilisation of facilities.
Contribute to the monitoring of rehabilitation and construction activities by verifying hygiene-related requirements and reporting concerns to the responsible technical officer.
Support the documentation of facility-level hygiene gaps, user feedback and recommended corrective actions, and follow up on agreed actions with the relevant teams.
Objective 3: Monitor programme performance, strengthen accountability and ensure safeguarding compliance
Prepare weekly and monthly field activity plans in coordination with the WASH Coordinator and relevant programme teams, ensuring alignment with project targets and implementation schedules.
Develop, adapt and implement hygiene promotion monitoring tools in collaboration with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team, in accordance with the approved project logframe and reporting requirements.
Collect, verify, analyse and report hygiene promotion data accurately and promptly, with appropriate disaggregation by sex, age, disability and other relevant characteristics, where feasible.
Monitor progress against agreed indicators, including people reached with hygiene promotion activities, community hygiene groups supported, hygiene kit distribution and utilisation, and changes in key hygiene practices where these are measured by the project.
Conduct routine field monitoring, behavioural observations, post-activity reviews and post-distribution monitoring to assess intervention quality, coverage, appropriateness and effectiveness.
Identify implementation gaps, emerging public health risks and barriers to achieving planned results, and recommend corrective actions to the WASH Coordinator and relevant programme teams.
Document programme achievements, challenges, community feedback and lessons learned, and prepare timely weekly, monthly and ad hoc reports in accordance with SCI procedures and UNOCHA reporting commitments.
Ensure that affected populations receive appropriate information about project activities and have access to safe, accessible and confidential feedback and complaints mechanisms.
Ensure that hygiene promotion activities and distributions are gender-sensitive, disability-inclusive, culturally appropriate and accessible to vulnerable and marginalised populations.
Promote safe and meaningful participation of women, children, adolescents and other at-risk groups through age-appropriate, inclusive and context-sensitive approaches.
Comply with SCI policies and procedures on child safeguarding, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), staff conduct, fraud prevention, data protection and prevention of harm.
Maintain confidentiality and promptly report safeguarding concerns, suspected misconduct and other protection-related incidents through established SCI reporting and referral mechanisms.
Ensure that community mobilisation, beneficiary selection and hygiene item distributions are transparent, impartial and consistent with humanitarian principles and SCI accountability requirements.
Undertake other relevant duties assigned by the WASH Coordinator that are consistent with the scope and technical responsibilities of the position.
Skills and Behaviours (our Values in Practice):
Accountability:
Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.
Ensures partners and contractors meet agreed standards.
Ambition:
Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same.
Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.
Collaboration:
Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters.
Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength.
Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.
Creativity:
Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
Willing to take disciplined risks.
Integrity:
Honest, encourages openness and transparency, demonstrates highest levels of integrity.
Qualifications
Degree/ Postgraduate certificate in Public Health, Environmental Health, Water Engineering, Sanitary Engineering, Social Sciences, or a related field
Minimum 3 years of relevant working experience preferably in a humanitarian/recovery WASH context;
Experience on WASH related projects specially
Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile.
Experience and Skills:
Essential:
Previous experience working with local or international NGOs in humanitarian or development programmes, preferably in WASH or hygiene promotion.
Experience implementing community-based hygiene promotion, community mobilisation and behaviour-change interventions in emergency or development settings.
Strong field implementation, monitoring and reporting skills, with the ability to work effectively in remote, challenging and insecure environments.
Good understanding of community dynamics, cultural norms, hygiene practices and participatory approaches to promoting sustainable behaviour change.
Strong interpersonal, communication, listening and facilitation skills, with the ability to engage effectively with communities, implementing partners, government authorities and other stakeholders.
Ability to work collaboratively with government agencies, local and international NGOs, implementing partners and multidisciplinary programme teams.
Good analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify implementation challenges, recommend practical solutions and adapt activities to changing humanitarian needs.
Ability to work independently and proactively, manage competing priorities, multitask and meet tight deadlines while maintaining quality standards.
Proficiency in relevant computer applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, email and electronic data collection or reporting tools.
Demonstrated commitment to humanitarian principles, safeguarding, accountability to affected populations, inclusion and respect for cultural diversity.
Desirable:
Familiarity with relevant humanitarian WASH standards and guidance, including Sphere standards, WHO guidance and applicable national WASH policies and standards.
Experience supporting community hygiene groups, training hygiene promoters, facilitating community dialogues and conducting hygiene promotion campaigns.
Experience in stakeholder engagement, advocacy and coordination with state and local government authorities, particularly WASH-related ministries and agencies.
Experience supporting hygiene kit distributions, post-distribution monitoring, hygiene assessments and community feedback mechanisms.
Ability to develop and adapt hygiene promotion messages and approaches to suit different population groups, including children, women, adolescents, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
Experience working in multicultural and multidisciplinary environments, demonstrating diplomacy, negotiation, adaptability, flexibility and effective teamwork.
Additional job responsibilities:
The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.
Competencies:
SC Values are: Accountability, Ambition, Collaboration, Creativity, and Integrity. To meet the value system, the post holder is expected to demonstrate the following competencies on an ongoing basis.
Leading Delivering result: Takes personal responsibility and holds others to account to deliver our ambitious goals for children, continually improving own performance or that of the team/organisation.
Thinking Applying technical and professional expertise: Applies the required technical and professional expertise to the highest standards; promotes and shares best practices within and outside the organisation.
Communicating with Impact: Communicates clearly and confidently with others to engage and influence; promotes dialogue and ensures timely and appropriate messages, building confidence and trust with others.