WASH Specialist Cluster Coordinator

Job Posting Organization:
UNICEF, established in 1946, operates in over 190 countries and territories with a mission to save children's lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential. The organization is committed to promoting the rights of every child and offers diverse opportunities for professional and personal development. UNICEF employs a large workforce dedicated to humanitarian action, ensuring that children and communities receive the support they need during crises. The organization emphasizes a culture of diversity and inclusion, providing an attractive compensation and benefits package to its staff.

Job Overview:
The WASH Specialist Cluster Coordinator is responsible for providing strategic leadership and representation for the Cluster at the national level, ensuring a timely and effective response to humanitarian needs. This role involves coordinating with various stakeholders, including government counterparts, local and international organizations, and affected populations, to achieve shared goals based on evidence. The post holder will lead needs assessments, strategic response planning, resource mobilization, and monitoring of the Cluster's activities, ensuring alignment with national priorities and community needs. The position requires a proactive approach to building partnerships and fostering collaboration among diverse actors in the humanitarian sector.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Coordination, representation, and leadership: Maintain effective coordination mechanisms for the Cluster, ensuring alignment with national and sub-national priorities. Build partnerships with relevant stakeholders and facilitate communication and reporting.
• Needs assessment and analysis: Contribute to planning and implementing needs assessments, analyzing data to create evidence-based products.
• Strategic response planning: Engage in national-level strategic planning, ensuring all program delivery modalities are considered.
• Resource mobilization and advocacy: Support partners in resource mobilization and advocate for improved sectoral outcomes.
• Implementation and monitoring: Monitor and evaluate the response against the Cluster strategy, ensuring adherence to humanitarian principles.
• Operational peer review and evaluation: Participate in performance monitoring exercises and contribute to evaluations.
• Accountability to affected populations: Establish feedback mechanisms and ensure the inclusion of cross-cutting issues in Cluster activities.
• Strengthen national and local capacity: Encourage local participation in decision-making and contribute to capacity-building initiatives.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess an advanced university degree in public health, social sciences, health and hygiene behavior change communication, WASH-related engineering, or a relevant technical field. Additional post-graduate courses are considered an asset. Candidates should have a minimum of 5 years of professional experience in WASH-related program planning and management, with relevant experience in UN agencies or organizations being advantageous. Experience in humanitarian contexts is required, while experience in development contexts is a plus. Candidates should also have experience in managing human resources in high-stress environments and working in diverse geographic regions.

Educational Background:
An advanced university degree in a relevant field is required, with additional post-graduate courses being a strong asset. Candidates must have qualifications recognized by the World Higher Education Database (WHED).

Experience:
A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in WASH-related programs is required. Relevant experience in program management within a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset. Experience in humanitarian contexts is essential, while experience in development contexts is an added advantage. Candidates should have experience in managing teams in high-stress environments and working in various geographic regions, including deployment missions with UN, Government, or INGO.

Languages:
Fluency in Spanish is required, along with proficiency in English. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian) is considered an asset.

Additional Notes:
The position is subject to medical clearance and may require compliance with vaccination requirements. UNICEF promotes a zero-tolerance policy on conduct incompatible with its objectives, including discrimination and abuse. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks. UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, or background, and provides reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities.