CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
Scope of Work - Technical Consultant for WASH
The Sustainable Agriculture and Production Linked to Improved Nutrition Status, Resilience and Gender Equity (SAPLING) project is pleased to announce an opportunity for consultancy to lead Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) component with one of its technical support partner CRS in Chittagong Hill Tracts Region.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is a US-based relief and development agency working in nearly 100 countries/territories to alleviate poverty and suffering. In Bangladesh, CRS supports vulnerable people through partner organization Caritas Bangladesh. Key program sectors include agriculture, livelihoods, food security, emergency response, disaster management, and disaster risk reduction.
Title: Consultancy for Technical Advisor I, WASH
Location: Bandarban
Background:
CRS is providing technical support under SAPLING, a USAID-funded Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) led by Helen Keller International (HKI). SAPLING targets vulnerable, food insecure households in five sub-districts within the Bandarban District of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh. Under this program, CRS is responsible for a.) serving as the consortium technical lead for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and savings-led microfinance (SILC) components; b.) supporting Caritas in grant compliance and reporting; and c.) supporting institutional capacity strengthening initiatives for implementing partners and Government of Bangladesh (GoB) WATSAN and Disaster Management Committees (DMC).
Role and Scope of Assignment:
The WASH TA’s primary responsibilities will be to ensure that all aspects of the DFSA’s WASH program are implemented according to Agency program quality and industry-wide standards for the WASH sector. Based in Bandarban District, the WASH TA will lead and oversee the design, development, planning, implementation, quality control, and monitoring and evaluation for all WASH-related activities implemented under the DFSA. The WASH TA will lead all start-up planning, strategy development, and assessments for the DFAP WASH component. S/he will also provide focused technical support and guidance to all consortium partners implementing WASH activities in the DFSA target areas and ensure sound coordination, Quality and timely implementation and integration of WASH activities with other program sectors and GOB counterparts, like DPHE, BHDC and district administration. S/he will be greatly engaged to liaise with the government leadership at district and sub-district levels on WASH.
Specific Responsibilities:
Program Management:
- Lead planning and coordination of activities including carrying out required assessments and studies; development of coherent annual workplans for achieving hygiene behavior change and increasing access to safe water supply, and sanitation elaboration of staff training and/or work plans; and development of procurement plans
- Support realistic planning of WASH activities in line with approved detailed implementation plans (DIP) and WASH strategy and set high quality performance targets ensuring adherence to technical standards, best practices and donor guidelines
- Provide technical support and strategic direction for day to day quality program implementation and make partners understand the project commitment
- Incorporate the essential WASH messages in Cy, IEHFP, CDRT groups session module with providing day to day technical assistance for capacity strengthening of the sub-district and field staffs.
- Provide advice to Livelihood (P1) team on Water related issue based on issues requested by Livelihood team.
Ensure compliance with any Infrastructure of Hardware intervention for WASH and DRR:
- Lead all processes related to carrying out Cash for Work (CFW) including coordination with local government and traditional leaders, scheme prioritization within SAPLING and GOB objectives, design, budgeting, approval process, implementation and oversight.
- Flag the needs for WASH TA support well in advance from CRS’ larger TA pool.
- Ensure adherence with CRS guiding principles, program quality statements for WASH, and industry-wide technical standards
Financial Management:
- Accompany partners to conduct periodic budget review and management, especially for the WASH component.
- Support partners to prepare budget and notes for WASH activities, as per the WASH interventions listed in the DIP .
- Oversee management of individual construction budgets for schemes (CFW and directly funded by project).
- Support Partners to set periodic result for WASH and guide them in reporting.
- Support WATSAN committees to budget for WASH priorities and advocate with appropriate stakeholders for resources.
- Ensure sound fiscal management within WUCs to ensure sustainability of systems.
- Seek advice/support from CRS Country team related to budget for on time program implementation (request for support from HKI & Caritas).
- Provide strategic direction to develop budget aligning with DIP and if necessary, mobilize support/decisions from Caritas and HKI Senior Finance team and CM, CRS.
Partnership:
- Maintain good relationships within SAPLING consortium (HKI, Caritas, IPs) and with external stake holders (from officials to participants) .
- Work with all implementing partners.
- Engage with and support Caritas and HKI Program Managers (PM) to jointly plan and implement of WASH activities.
- Support the DRR/WASH manager in field level implementation of WASH activities as required.
- Support Caritas and IPs to liaise and mobilize support from GoB departments.
- Assist partners in developing WASH related monthly, quarterly, and annual detailed implementation and field level action plans and formulating monthly and quarterly budget forecasts and annual detailed budgets for WASH-related activities.
- Assist partners in the timely and quality preparation of project narrative progress reports for WASH activities as well as other reports needed/required by USAID or HKI.
Field Implementation:
- Develop WASH module, guideline, template for use of program implementation with different audience/ groups.
- Ensure water, sanitation and DRR related construction projects are identified, designed and completed to the highest possible standards and that the construction process is monitored and documented appropriately.
- Provide technical assistance to implementing partners in the tendering processes.
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for WASH contractors in collaboration with the implementing partner program teams.
- Design & facilitate training for field staff to strengthen knowledge and capacity for ensuring program quality in WASH.
- Identify, troubleshoot, and make recommendations for correcting problems during field visits and systematically document field visit observations and recommendations accordingly.
- Ensure the development of sustainability plans for all WASH infrastructure activities taking into account handover to the community/local authorities, governance committees, maintenance/repair plans, fee-based cost recovery systems, etc.
- Ensure gender, protection, inclusion of PWD and the elderly, and other important cross-cutting concerns are addressed in WASH program design and implementation.
- Ensure all environmental impact assessments and develop mitigation plans as determined by local laws and USAID regulations are completed for all activities and activities are in compliance with the project IEE and EMMP.
- Represent CRS and the SAPLING with local authorities and relevant government agencies; Assist in obtaining necessary approvals from such authorities and agencies.
Monitoring/Learning:
- Review M&E system set up for WASH for quality data collection in field.
- Support the field testing and revision of monitoring tools as required by M&E team.
- Tracking IPTT data and ensure data reporting using IPTT template etc.
- Support in different study as and when required.
Reporting:
- Compile reports from field and draft project reports (periodic reports including quarterly and annual report) using standard templates.
- Liase with GoB and other external agencies as and when required.
- Support efforts to document best practices, lessons learned, success stories and case studies for WASH interventions.
- Develop and maintain a well-organized system for filing all DFSA WASH-related documentation.
Agency –wide competencies: These are rooted in the mission, values and principles of CRS
- Serves with Integrity
- Models stewardship
- Cultivates Constructive Relationships
- Promotes Learning
Key Working Relationships:
The primary point of contact will be the Organization Capacity Building Advisor. The consultant will have close interaction with, DRR Technical Advisor, Organizational Capacity Advisor, Regional/HRD/HQ WASH Technical Advisors, Sub-Regional Head of Programs, Implementing partner program management and WASH field staff; HKI MCHN and Livelihoods Technical staff, HKI Deputy Chief of Party; external technical consultants and contractors
Qualifications:
- Civil Engineering degree or Public health professional or similar degree preferred
- At least 7 years’ experience implementing projects in WASH sector in Bangladesh
- At least 2 years work experience in the humanitarian sector preferred.
- Knowledge of public health as it relates to hygiene, behavior change, water supply and sanitation a plus. Familiarity with behavior change methodologies required.
- Ability to work with local partners and vulnerable communities.
- Knowledge of WASH issues in Bangladesh including relevant governing legislation, policies and procedures, and interventions implemented by the GoB, private sector and NGO community.
- Experience and understanding of construction and management of community or local contractors in relation to water and sanitation activities preferred.
- Familiarity with the culture of the affected population, ability to develop respect from a wide range of people and strong ability to communicate effectively on WASH matters
- Fluency in Bangla and English required. Knowledge of languages in the CHT an asset
- Strong presentation, assessment, analytical, organizational, and planning skills.
- Good oral and written reporting skills.
- Diplomacy, tact, and negotiating skills.
- Training/facilitation skills.
- Willingness and interest in working in the CHT
- Good inter-personal skills.
- Knowledge of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Knowledge of AutoCad or similar software an asset
Physical Requirements /Environment:
This position is based in Bandarban and requires extensive travel (60%) to field locations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts with occasional trips to Dhaka and Chittagong for meetings. Candidates must be comfortable working in this setting and with these travel requirements.
The position is a fulltime consultancy and would be renewed each year subject to satisfactory performance of the deliverables by the incumbents and continuity of the Project |
