The purpose of the position is to provide technical support and specialist advisory role on water and climate themes and facilitate actions under the themes. The post holder will ensure that WASH programmes and projects planning, design, and implementation are climate resilient and are in line with WaterAid’s requirements and are according to all national and international standards and specifications. She/he will manage innovation and learning in water and climate themes for WASH Programmes and projects and advice on how these can be applied to continuously improve WaterAid’s WASH programmes work. She/he will ensure that water and climate interventions in WASH programmes and projects in both Universal WASH and Climate Resilient WASH Aims are implemented as per the programme quality standards of WaterAid. The post holder is also responsible to provide implementation support and quality monitoring, provide technical assistance to WAE staff and partners, and technical networking at national level on water and climate themes. 

The WASH Specialist – Water and Climate will contribute to defining clear narratives for Climate Resilient WASH policies and sharing learnings from practices for influencing. She/he will act as a recognized WAE spokesperson and expert advisor on WASH and Climate Aim. In addition, she/he will play a major part in realizing WaterAid’s ambition to strengthen the resilience of WASH to Climate Change, sustainability of WASH services, and achieve national change through its research, policy work global advocacy priorities and campaigns.

Main Responsibilities and Duties

Technical Advisory:

• Provide appropriate advice to the Country Programme to ensure adherence with national, subnational and WaterAid’s policies and recommended practices on Climate Resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) with a focus on water and climate themes.

• Contribute for the development of the technical approach of WAE in water and climate themes and provide technical support and development of the programmes and projects to be implemented within WASH and climate change sectors.

• Support the development of annual detailed implementation plans for projects with technical oversight.

• Contribute to programme/project design, implementation, learning, and monitoring and evaluation through active collaboration with all team members.

• In coordination with the Programme Quality and Innovation team, Programme Managers (implementation), and projects team, ensure that WAE’s water and climate interventions are aligned with national and international priorities and the implemented in accordance with the National and Global standards.

• Collaborate with other departments to ensure common approach, synergy and sharing of information.

• In collaboration with the other team members and units, provide technical guidance to the delivery of innovative and sustainable WASH services and water supply management models.

• Update the Programme Quality and Innovation Manager on the emerging technical requirements on water and climate interventions in WASH programming through regular reporting.

• Lead Life Cycle Costing Analysis for water infrastructures and ensure lessons learnt are documented and disseminated for wider influencing.

• Lead the design and implementation of climate resilient water safety and water quality standards.

• Ensure that water and climate thematic interventions are implemented as per the WaterAid systems strengthening approach.

• Provide technical support on water efficiency, conservation and reuse, water resources, watershed management as well as urban water planning, utility operations, etc.

Implementation Support, Technical Assistance, and Programme Quality monitoring:

• Develop technical standards for water and climate for WASH programming in development contexts adhering national and to global and standards.

• Contribute to and provide inputs to annual work plan, required project reports, baseline data, tools, and indicators for monitoring and evaluation, collection/sharing of lessons learned.

• In collaboration with other team members, develop internal organizational water and climate related training and development of tools, guidelines, standards to improve program quality.

• Provide technical guidance and support to field programmes on water and climate related issues, to ensure quality, cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and environmental soundness in their implementation.

• Provide technical support in the delivery of Universal WASH Access and Climate and WASH Aims on water and climate related themes in WaterAid intervention Woredas and towns. 

• Conduct a participatory risk assessment, including climate risks, forecasting & scenario planning’ and support the implementation of integrated risk assessments that identify, differentiate, and respond to simple, cumulative, systemic (cross-cutting, cross border, complex) and cascading risks and impacts.

• Analyses emerging patterns and short – and long-term adaptation options to identify and evaluate future risks and opportunities.

• Applies systems thinking that leverages the synergies between disaster, water, and climate.

• Support programme learning, knowledge management, and capacity development on water and climate themes, including collating and disseminating programme knowledge, facilitating knowledge exchange, developing normative documents as well as foster and support programme and technical partnerships and networks to enhance programme effectiveness and promote knowledge sharing.

• Participate on the Technical Assistance to the government and service providers multi-region and multi-year projects e.g; Strengthening Climate Resilient WASH Technical Assistance commercial contract with NIRAS LTS and on new projects.

• Ensure that technical support is provided to partners and WAE staff including project coordinators and field-based officers like climate change, Water Engineer and Environmental Health Officer to enhance programme quality and Innovation.

• Arrange or facilitate training and capacity building as necessary.

Programme Development and Resource Mobilization:

• Provide technical and strategic input on water and climate themes into the development of the Country Strategy.

• Work closely with the Programme Quality and Innovation Manager, MEAL Specialist and other technical team to ensure high quality programmes through the application of Quality Programmes Standards of WaterAid.

• Contribute to the development of operating business plan for programmes in collaboration with the other technical leads and departments.

• Contribute for the development of new proposals in close coordination with other teams to ensure high quality proposals that meet the requirements of the donors.

• Actively participate in preparation for grant bidding activities, such as capability statements, project summaries, partner profiles, etc.

• In collaboration with other team members, ensure that cross cutting issues like equity, inclusion and gender are mainstreamed into all programme activities.

• Develop concept notes on innovative water and climate interventions in WASH projects.

Advocacy and Influencing:

• Provide technical and strategic input in the Water and Climate Campaign content development and media campaign.

• Advise and support networking on water and climate sector donors and stakeholders for Climate Financing.

• Support research and studies that are aimed at generating evidence for Climate advocacy.

• Contribute for increasing the quantity and quality of WASH Financing.

• Engage with big water and businesses to improve climate resilient WASH.

Accountability, Learning and Innovation:

• Ensure high quality water and climate programming are implemented through projects and are innovative and inclusive.

• Ensure that findings and recommendations from various accountability mechanisms such as Reviews, Programme evaluations, external and internal evaluations, are acted upon in a timely and effective manner.

• In close collaboration with People and Organizational Development team, participate in recruitment and selection processes to ensure skilled programme staff are recruited, retained, and provided with, mentoring, and coaching for development.

• Best practices and lessons learned are documented, shared, and integrated into programming.

• Keep up to date with developments in the sector, including best practice examples in the regions and nationally, and ensure ongoing personal development and learning.

• Participate in the documentation and dissemination of lessons learned in the project/program. Extract water and climate learnings from the programmes and projects and share widely.

• Prepare technical reports for dissemination to various stakeholders. 

Networking and Coordination:

• Maintain effective technical cooperation and coordination exist with local governments, UN agencies, other NGOs, and government partners.

• Develop and maintain good relationships with national government ministries, Regional, Zonal and Woreda level government WASH sector offices, other NGOs, and the development sector in general.

• Work closely with field staff capacity building of staff and knowledge sharing within the region.

Equity and Inclusion:

• Ensure that all water and climate interventions consider equity and inclusion principles and mainstreamed in the programmes/projects to influence both national and sub-national WASH sector and other stakeholders to include E&I in their WASH interventions.

Safeguarding, Safety, and Security:

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding, Child Protection and Gender policies and Code of Conduct (CoC).

• Adheres to any local security protocols that have been put in place when working in the office, travelling to the field or undertaking project / programme activities.

• Immediately reports any health, safety and security incidents or near-misses that occur on WaterAid duty to their line manager, Security Focal Point or CD.

• Behaves and acts in a manner that does not put colleagues or anyone that interacts with WaterAid in immediate danger or harm’s way.

Other

• Perform any other duty as may be assigned by supervisor or designee from time to time.

• Participate and contribute to committees and task forces e.g., Procurement Committee.

Job Requirements

Key Competences, Skills, experience, and Knowledge

Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience

• BSc degree or higher in Engineering, Water Resources Management, Climate Change, Hydrogeology, Environment, Development Studies, or other related disciplines. 

• Minimum relevant experience of 7 years for MSc and 9 years for BSc with a thorough understanding of WASH and Climate nexus in a complex, international development organization especially in development and resilience sectors.

• Demonstrated track record in programme advisory role, preferably on water and climate sectors.

• A strong understanding of project cycle management, WASH, Climate Change and Resilience is essential. 

• The position holder must be results oriented and team player.

• Knowledge of WaterAid working systems, policies and standards will be an advantage.

• A member of a Professional Body is an advantage. 

• Excellent in writing and speaking English and Amharic languages.

Behavioral Competences

• Should have competency in WaterAid common approaches to work including partnerships, convening, inclusion, systems strengthening, creating behavioral change, and mainstreaming gender and inclusion of youth.

• Cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity.

• Ability to work to deadlines and under pressure.

• Strong proven delegation, time management and prioritising skills.

• Flexible, patient, and adaptable to a changing environment.

• Excellent interpersonal, communication and team building skills.

• Effective networking abilities.

• Excellent people management capabilities.

• Good public speaking ability in English and Amharic.

How to Apply

Qualified applicants can send their CV's and motivational letters through THIS LINK. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 

WaterAid is an equal opportunities employer regardless of sex, race, disability, age, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. WaterAid Ethiopia does not discriminate on grounds of gender, marital status, race, tribe, religion, culture, disability, age, HIV/AIDS status, or any other factor. WaterAid Ethiopia encourages female candidates to apply. 

WaterAid is committed to ensuring that wherever we work in the world, there is no tolerance for the abuse of power, privilege or trust. WaterAid reinforces a culture of zero tolerance towards any form of inappropriate behavior, abuse, harassment, or exploitation of any kind. The safeguarding of our beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf, is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All staff and volunteers are required to share in this commitment through our Global Code of Conduct. We will conduct the most appropriate pre-employment references and checks to ensure high standards are maintained.