Host & Impacted Community Resilience Activity (HICRA)

Organization:
 Friends in Village Development, Bangladesh (FIVDB)
Position:
 Technical Officer, WASH (8 positions)
Location:
District-based positions with designated coverage areas in Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachari
 Contract Length: Open ended
Grade:
 VII Post Type: Regular

INTRODUCTION:
Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachari districts are among the lowest ranked in Bangladesh for education, skills training, food security, poverty and agricultural productivity. The situation has worsened since 2017, with the Rohingya refugee influx, which has put enormous pressure on the local economies, resulting in loss of livelihoods, depressed local wages, and distorted local markets. Moreover, these districts are prone to chronic and rapid onset disasters. The entire Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and Cox’s Bazar region – ecologically critical in nature – have also emerged as a climate-disaster hotspot. Erratic rainfall, seasonal and flash floods, tidal surges, cyclones, landslides, and droughts, continuously resulting in loss of crops, houses, and lives.
In response, the USAID Host and Impacted Communities Resilience Activity (HICRA) led by Friends In Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB) is taking an integrated approach to improve the overall well-being and resilience of people residing in the communities hosting or impacted by the Rohingya refugee crisis.  This includes implementing livelihoods; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); natural resource management (NRM); and disaster risk reduction (DRR) interventions with an estimated 114,000 households across the four prioritized districts.

ROLE PURPOSE:
The Technical Officer, WASH will play a pivotal role in helping households obtain access to clean water and basic sanitation services; understand menstrual hygiene and access products; and  access waste collection services, and fecal sludge disposal services. The candidate will help achieve HICRA’s objective of improving access to basic WASH services in HICRA areas. The Technical Officer, WASH is responsible to ensure effective implementation of the USAID Host and Impacted Community Resilience Activity (HICRA) water, sanitation and health (WASH) activities within his/her designated upazilas/unions including forming and strengthening Water User Groups, conducting awareness sessions, overseeing construction, training community members, and organizing awareness and advocacy events with the help of frontline staff, i.e. field facilitators and community mobilizers. The Technical Officer, WASH will serve as the primary field contact for the WASH team in terms of supporting frontline staff to carry out WASH-related messaging and training with vulnerable households. This position will coordinate and collaborate with district, upazila and union level team members and key stakeholders (including other projects), and support reporting, achieving targets, providing actionable insights for program improvement, and enhancing accountability.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Coordinator, WASH (Functional)
District Coordinator (Administrative)
Dimensions: District-based, with assigned upazilas. 80% field visit, occasional trips to Dhaka/Cox’s bazar (if CHT based)
Staff directly reporting to this post: None
Budget Responsibilities: Provide insights to support budgeting WASH activities
Key contacts: District-level technical coordinators, MEL Coordinator, Coordinator - KM & CLA, other Technical Officers, MEL officers, Upazila Coordinators, Union-based Area Coordinators, and front-line staff.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Work Planning

  • Support the development and regular updating of the district and upazila-wise Detailed Action Plan (DAP) for implementation of all WASH activities in the district/designated upazilas based on the HICRA Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP).
  • Prepare monthly work plans for WASH activities based on the DAP, carry out planned activities against DAP targets and track progress against it.
  • Assist the District, Upazila and Area Coordinators to plan WASH activities and track progress.
  • Prepare WASH achievement reports and share with supervisor and relevant TOs/coordinators

Program Implementation
Community Engagement and Mobilization

  • Organize and facilitate community consultations to identify challenges, gaps, and opportunities in WASH service delivery.
  • Form and strengthen Water User Groups (WUGs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to manage WASH facilities and train Field Facilitators and community mobiliers to support them.
  • Lead awareness raising sessions on hygiene practices, sanitation, and waste management.
  • Build relationships with community leaders and stakeholders to ensure active participation and ownership.
  • Engage with marginalized and indigenous communities to ensure their participation and address context-specific barriers to WASH access.

Implementation of WASH Interventions

  • Oversee the construction and renovation of WASH infrastructure, including ponds, boreholes, tubewells, rainwater harvesting systems, gravity-fed systems, latrines, waste collection points, and water purification systems.
  • Coordinate with Local Service Providers (LSPs) to implement WASH-related activities.
  • Monitor the progress and quality of construction activities, ensuring compliance with the Construction Implementation Plan (CIP) and Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP).

Training and Capacity Building

  • Train frontline staff and community members, including adolescent groups, on hygiene practices, menstrual hygiene management, and waste segregation.
  • Enhance skills for local WASH entrepreneurs and service providers in installing and maintaining WASH facilities.
  • Facilitate workshops and demonstrations on the proper use and maintenance of WASH technologies.
  • Include gender-sensitive approaches to ensure equal participation of women, girls, and marginalized groups in training and decision-making.

Awareness and Advocacy

  • Organize events for key WASH campaigns such as Global Handwashing Day, World Water Day, Menstrual Hygiene Day, and World Environment Day.
  • Lead door-to-door campaigns and public sessions on sanitation, hygiene, and life skills, including good adolescent hygiene practices.
  • Promote community-led waste management and behavior change strategies for sustainable WASH improvements.
  • Develop culturally tailored messaging to ensure acceptance and understanding of WASH-related practices among diverse community groups, including indigenous populations.

Coordination and Communication:

  • Work closely with the WASH engineer to plan and implement construction activities.
  • Participate in monthly district, upazila and union-level coordination meetings and provide support in insight in relation to WASH activities. 
  • Support Upazila and Area (union-level) Coordinators to develop monthly work plans in accordance with approved project detailed implementation plan (DIP) with a focus on WASH, and ensure they understand what is needed to carry out planned activities against DIP targets.
  • Facilitate knowledge-sharing sessions with stakeholders to ensure alignment with national WASH policies and global best practices. (e.g. WASH ISCG Working group forTeknaf and Ukhiya)

Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation

  • Collaborate with local government bodies, traditional leaders, and NGOs to align interventions with community needs.
  • Collaborate with local government bodies, such as DPHE and WATSAN committees, for effective WASH implementation.
  • Align field activities with project strategies, national WASH policies, and guidelines.
  • Support private sector engagement to enhance WASH infrastructure and services and facilitate linkages between the private sector and communities.
  • Contribute to the documentation of lessons learned, success stories and best practices.
  • Watch and report on any new WASH-related needs arising in the project target areas.
  • Participate in any orientation/training organized by the program team/management.
  • Support the development of adaptive strategies based on monitoring data to address emerging WASH challenges.

Data Collection, Reporting and Documentation

  • Generate monthly activity progress.
  • Collect and analyze data on water quality, sanitation coverage, and community feedback.
  • Document progress, challenges, and lessons learned related to training, infrastructure development, and community engagement.
  • Submit regular reports to the project management team to inform strategic adjustments.
  • Ensure adherence to ethical standards
  • Provide logistical and other support for data collectors hired/contracted by HICRA for any WASH-related survey, assessment, etc.
  • Collaborate closely with the MEL team to receive, provide and address feedback to improve data quality and accuracy.
  • Support the implementation of data quality assurance (iDQA) protocols for WASH activities.
  • Monitor the progress and effectiveness of resilience-building activities and infrastructure development.
  • Conduct post-training evaluations and debriefing sessions to refine emergency response strategies.
  • Leverage digital tools and platforms for real-time data collection and analysis to improve decision-making and reporting.
Any other tasks assigned by the Supervisor

ESSENTIAL

Working experience:

  • At least 4 years of experience working in WASH programming preferably in disaster-prone and culturally diverse regions..
  • At least 2 years of experience with development organization (USAID funding preferred)
  • Experience in providing training on WASH to key stakeholders
  • Experience training, coaching and/or mentoring frontline staff on WASH
  • Experience of working in multi-sectoral programs (USAID preferred)
  • Working familiarity with USAID requirements, regulations, and policies around WASH and construction preferred
  • Experience in facilitating and supporting programmatic decision making, adaptive management, and learning.

Knowledge:

  • In-depth understanding of WASH, including water and sanitation infrastructure water systems maintenance, repair and/or construction, water harvesting technologies, menstrual hygiene, water, sanitation,waste management and/or solid and human waste disposal
  • Knowledge and skills in implementing WASH  initiatives at the district, upazila and/or union level, (preferably for USAID-supported interventions)
  • Contextual knowledge of CHT region and Cox’s Bazar will be a value addition
  • Proficiency in tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for vulnerability mapping and community assessments is preferred.

Skills:

  • Good organizational skills, ability to pay close attention to detail and capable of reporting in a timely manner.
  • Good facilitation and coordination skills
  • Willingness and ability to live within and travel frequently to the program areas in Cox’s Bazar and the CHT districts, and other locations as required.
  • Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines accurately and on time;
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office and mobile-based data collection tools (e.g., Kobo Toolbox, CommCare) is required, with experience in GIS or other spatial analysis tools preferred.
  • Capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult working circumstances.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication in Bangla and English.
  • Conversant in a relevant local language will be an added advantage
  • Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience

Competencies:

  • Credibility
  • Leading and inspiring others
  • Delivering results
  • Developing self and others
  • Problem solving and decision making
  • Innovating and adapting

DESIRABLE

Academic:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in civil, water, sanitation, environment, or public health engineering or relevant discipline preferred.

Expertise:

  • Technical expertise to perform the WASH activities in the areas of  water systems, menstrual hygiene, water purification, basic sanitation, solid waste management, fecal waste management, capacity building, community-based water systems, early warning systems, and resilience-building measures.
  • Experience in engaging with indigenous communities and marginalized groups.
  • Experience in collaborating and coordinating with local authorities, local leaders, and other relevant stakeholders on WASH-related and reporting issues.
  • Experience of working with international and national NGOs within a consortium arrangement.
  • Experience in implementing effective accountability mechanisms that enable the program to receive, respond, and act upon feedback and complaints from the program participants and other stakeholders.
  • Experience working in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong Hill Districts is desired

Attitudes:

  • Ability to work independently or as a member of the team, ability to thrive in a matrix organization.
  • Ability to be detail-oriented, and ability to manage stress effectively in a fast-paced environment.
  • Ability to maintain confidentiality on work-related matters.
  • Non-discriminatory and gender sensitive
  • Willing to work in remote, rural locations

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.

Health and Safety:
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with HICRA Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Application Deadline : December 21, 2024