WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator, P5, Temporary Appointment, Post# 00121746, Mogadishu CO, Somalia

Job no: 555084

Position type: Temporary Appointment

Location: Somalia Division/Equivalent: Nairobi Regn’l(ESARO)

School/Unit: Somalia

Department/Office: Mogadiscio, Somalia

Categories: Emergency

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Hope

www.unicef.org/somalia

How can you make a difference?

Organizational Context and Purpose for the job:

Humanitarian action is of fundamental importance to UNICEF and encompasses interventions aimed at saving lives, alleviating suffering, maintaining human dignity, and protecting the rights of affected populations wherever there are humanitarian needs, as well as interventions addressing underlying risks and causes of vulnerability to disasters, fragility and conflict. UNICEF’s humanitarian action is guided by the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) which set organizational, programmatic and operational commitments and benchmarks against which UNICEF holds itself accountable for the coverage, quality and equity of its humanitarian action and advocacy and which are mandatory for all UNICEF personnel.

Furthermore, UNICEF is committed to support humanitarian coordination through the cluster approach. Introduced as part of the humanitarian reform, the cluster approach, aims at ensuring clear leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labor among organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the different sectors involved in the response. As a member of the IASC, UNICEF work along with national and local stakeholders (including national and local authorities, CSOs, and communities) to support humanitarian coordination and to improve the collective impact of humanitarian response. Whether the cluster approach is activated or not, UNICEF plays a key role in both global and country-level interagency coordination for its areas of programmatic responsibility. As Cluster Lead Agency (CLA) for Nutrition, WASH, Education (co-led), and Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) within the Protection Cluster, UNICEF is committed to fulfil the core functions defined by the IASC when the clusters are activated or when UNICEF is asked to support sectoral coordination.

A well-run Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group coordination team is a formal deliverable of the Cluster Lead Agency and forms a part of the agency’s work.

Job organizational context:

The WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator (level 5) GJP is to be used in a Country Office (CO) where the Representative is at the D2 or D1 level or a Regional Office (RO) within a hub. It applies in contexts where the humanitarian context is highly-complex and/or large scale, such as a L3 emergency or system-wide scale up, with a large number of Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group partners and counterparts in Government or Partner organizations working at a senior level. The position reports to the Representative. In some situations, the Representative may delegate responsibility to the Deputy Representative/ Deputy Head of Office, Chief of Field Operations, Chief of Emergencies, or similar.

Purpose of the job:

Under the overall direction and guidance of the Representative, the WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator will provide leadership and representation of the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group. They will facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by participants in the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group that is accountable to those who are affected by the emergency.

In their effort to provide an efficient and effective response to the humanitarian crisis, the WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator is responsible for building relationships with stakeholders, for securing the overall coordination of sectoral responses and for ensuring inter-sectoral collaboration.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

The post holder has overall responsibility for providing predictable, timely and strategic leadership and representation for the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group to ensure a timely and effective Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group response. The post holder is responsible for leading a wide range of diverse stakeholders, beyond their immediate team of direct reports, to work collectively towards the realization of a shared goal based on evidence in a highly-complex humanitarian environment.

The post holder’s main tasks and responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

Coordination, representation and leadership:

•  Ensure, establish and maintain a coordination mechanism that facilitates the effective achievement of the cluster functions (as outlined by the IASC Reference Module) and the requirements of the HPC (HNO, HRP and CCPM), and which builds on pre-existing coordination structures where appropriate and furthers the development of current or future national and subnational capacities,
•  Oversee the functioning of any sub-national or hub Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group where they exist, ensuring alignment of work and priorities, effective communication, reporting, engagement and coordination between the levels,
•  Supervise the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group coordination team,
•  Ensure appropriate coordination and build partnerships with all relevant sector stakeholders including government counterparts and national authorities, local, national and international organizations and affected populations,
•  Build complementarity of partner actions within the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group, pro-actively negotiating with a wide range of partners to avoid and resolve duplication and gaps and taking action to resolve any conflict or systemic challenges arising from within or beyond the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group,
•  Coordinate, collaborate and represent the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group with stakeholders across all sectors, including through inter-cluster coordination fora, developing cross-sectoral relationships as appropriate.

Needs assessment and analysis:

•  Lead the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including representing the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group and taking a leading role in multi-sectoral needs assessments and joint analysis of need, at national and subnational levels,
•  Analyze needs assessment data and work collaboratively with the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group partners to create analytical products, including an HNO based on evidence-based information.

Strategic response planning:

•  Lead and coordinate strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of the sectoral response plan that is based on the HNO and aligned with national priorities, policies and plans,
•  Ensure all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services) are given equal consideration in the strategic response planning and establish and implement systematic measures for supporting their consideration and use,
•  Provide high-level technical expertise to drive strategic-level discussion and ensure the sectoral response addresses national priorities and affected populations’ needs drawing on the latest innovations and research,
•  Ensure that the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group response plan is updated regularly according to evolving needs and that it establishes indicators by which performance of the cluster can be measured,
•  Engage with OCHA and other AoRs/ Clusters/ Sectors/ Working Groups to contribute to the development of the HRP, advocating for a response that reflects and addresses the concerns of the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group.

Resource mobilization and advocacy:

•  Support and coordinate the mobilization and equitable allocation of adequate resources to ensure the effective functioning of the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group and its response, identifying and taking actions to resolve any ongoing or potential future challenges that impact partners’ access to resources and subsequent handing over and establishment of medium to long term capacities when the cluster approach is deactivated,
•  Monitor, analyse and communicate information about the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group’s financial situation and resource mobilization and identify appropriate actions to address gaps or constraints,
•  Advocate for improved sectoral outcomes, by developing an advocacy strategy, networking with advocacy allies, influencing stakeholders’ decision-making and ensuring that advocacy activities are adequately resourced.

Implementation and monitoring:

•  Monitor, evaluate and report on the coverage, equity, quality and progress of the response against the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group strategy, priorities and agreed results,
•  Plan and oversee gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group humanitarian response,
•  Monitor Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group adherence to IASC cluster approach principles, relevant humanitarian and sectoral agreements, standards, initiatives and guidelines and provide systemic advice and support to make improvements.

Operational peer review and evaluation:

•  Lead the annual cluster coordination performance monitoring (CCPM) exercise and annual review and contribute to other sectoral and humanitarian evaluations as appropriate.

Accountability to affected populations:

•  Be accountable to the affected population by establishing inclusive and consultative feedback mechanisms, creating meaningful opportunities for the involvement of the affected population in the response and encouraging partners to operate accountably,
•  Ensure the inclusion of cross cutting issues (age, child protection, disability, gender, gender-based violence (GBV) mitigation and response and HIV & AIDS) in Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group activities throughout the HPC,
•  Establish and implement systematic measures for supporting inclusive work practices and processes,
•  Adhere to child safeguarding and PSEA policies including procedures for challenging and reporting incidents and ensure other members of the coordination team comply.

Strengthen national and local capacity:

•  Encourage participation of local and national actors in Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group activities and strategic decision-making, removing barriers to access,
•  Lead the development of a capacity assessment and capacity strengthening strategy for Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group members and oversee implementation and harmonization of initiatives,
•  Lead early warning, contingency planning, and emergency preparedness efforts for the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group, ensuring adequate cluster participation in inter-cluster early warning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities.

Impact of Results

Working in partnership with Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group participants, the WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator provides leadership and representation for the Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group. This contributes to the predictability and accountability of humanitarian action, in line with the aims of the cluster approach and IASC principles, and ensures that the humanitarian response is well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, effective and builds the resilience of the affected population. It also contributes to maintaining and enhancing the credibility and ability of UNICEF to fulfil its commitments as Cluster Lead Agency, in line with the CCCs. By identifying opportunities from the onset and throughout the humanitarian response to build resilience of the affected population, for programming and coordination capacity and leadership, the WASH Senior Manager Cluster/ Sector Coordinator also contributes to a smooth phasing out of the internationally led Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group Leadership.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

•  An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, social sciences, health and hygiene behavior change communication, WASH-related engineering or another relevant technical field. Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/ supplement the main degree are a strong asset.
•  Extensive work experience relevant to this post may be considered as a replacement for formal qualifications.
•  A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in WASH-related programme planning and management is required, with 10 years of professional experience at international level preferred.
•  Relevant experience in programme management in WASH related areas in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.
•  A minimum of 3 years of experience of WASH Cluster/ Sector/ Working Group coordination is required.
•  Experience in effective leadership and management of teams to deliver results in high stress/risk environments is required.
•  Experience in a mixed set of country contexts, in multiple geographic regions, including a deployment mission with UN, Government or INGO is required.
•  Experience in humanitarian contexts is required with experience in development contexts an added advantage.
•  Fluency in English and the official UN language of the duty station are required. Knowledge of other languages is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with child, is a safeguarding response role or has been assessed as an elevated risk role for child safeguarding. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) applies.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable women are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Advertised: Sep 10 2022 E. Africa Standard Time Application close: Sep 17 2022 E. Africa Standard Time