Chief WASH (Climate Resilience), P-5, Fixed Term, Juba, South Sudan #23598 (Open to non-South Sudanese only)

Contract

This is a P-5 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 173,732 USD and 217,725 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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, a future

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the Organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give more children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

UNICEF WASH focuses its efforts on increasing sustainable access to safe drinking water, eliminating open defecation, improving access to adequate sanitation and promoting hand washing and good hygienic practices, including in schools and healthcare facilities and with particular attention to girls and to children with disabilities. Leveraging its presence before, during and after emergencies remains one of the core areas of UNICEF WASH support, ensuring timely and quality access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene among children and families in humanitarian situations, lead WASH cluster coordination and strengthening national and staff capacity in preparedness and response.

UNICEF supports WASH programming across a range of countries, from stable to fragile contexts, and with emphasis technical support to strengthening the WASH enabling environment, from sub-national to global levels. This requires technical expertise and leadership role in critical areas beyond a UNICEF WASH programme towards stronger climate resilient and sustainable WASH services and more WASH sector support as sector policy and strategy; institutional arrangements (coordination, service delivery arrangements, accountability and regulation); budgeting and financing; planning, monitoring and review; and capacity development. At the senior level position, the emphasis in your role will be on demonstrating strategic, technical and management leadership on WASH areas, providing guidance in quality WASH programming, advocacy and leveraging financial and other resources for WASH build on evidence, analysis of data.

How can you make a difference?

At Country Office level, the Chief (Climate Resilient) WASH reports to the Deputy Representative for general guidance and direction. The Chief is responsible for managing and supervising all stages of the WASH programme from strategic planning and formulation to the delivery of the WASH outcome and output results. The Chief is also responsible for leading and managing the CO WASH team. The Chief WASH is accountable for ensuring that the WASH outcome and output results are achieved according to the South Sudan Country Program Document 2023 to 2025, annual work plans, allocations, results based-management approaches and methodology, Ensures that COs work is aligned with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, standards of performance and accountability framework. The CO role includes demonstrating UNICEF’s strategic technical and management leadership in WASH generally, including in key areas as emergency preparedness and response areas, high level advocacy on WASH needs and issues, leveraging financial and other resources, build on evidence, analysis of data to mobilize resources and partnership for advancing WASH and UNICEF’s contribution to achieving sustainable, resilient and inclusive SDG results in diverse contexts to “Leave No One Behind.”

Trends from the 2023 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme data show that the South Sudan WASH sector faces significant challenges with decreasing access to safe water and very slow progress in access to safe sanitation services over the past 10 years. Over 60% of the population lacks access to basic levels of drinking water, and 86% lack access to basic sanitation services, with an alarmingly 63% of the population, or an estimated 6.8 million people practicing open defecation, posing a serious risk to people’s health, economic development and well-being[1]. With WASH indicators like this it is not surprising that the incidence of diarrhoea is over 30% and malnutrition rates are over 16%, among children under 5 years of age.

The country has endured prolonged civil war, chronic instability, and recurrent climate-related disasters, which have intensified its vulnerability to shocks. As a result, 2023 estimates show, over 9.4 million individuals, out of an estimated total population of 12.4 million, required humanitarian assistance and protection. The impacts of climate change, combined with existing fragility, volatile economy and insecurity, and lack of basic services including water and sanitation have compounded the hardships faced by the population. Furthermore, the protracted conflicts, extreme climate shocks such as flooding and drought and, since early 2024, the unstable economic challenges including the rapid depreciation of the currency, are affecting the coping mechanism of the population exposing them to extreme vulnerability.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Managerial and technical leadership
2. Strategic guidance in Programme development and planning
3. Efficiency in programme management, monitoring and quality control of results
4. Advisory services and technical support
5. Advocacy, networking and partnership building
6. Quality, timeliness and predictability of humanitarian WASH preparedness and response
7. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

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

Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, social sciences, health and hygiene behavior change communication, environmental or public health, water resource management or another relevant technical field.

Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are required.

Experience: DEVELOPMENTAL: a minimum of ten years of professional experience in WASH-related programmes at the national and international levels in a mix set of country context (including humanitarian, fragile, developing) is required.

Proven ability to effectively lead a team to deliver results is required

HUMANITARIAN: Emergency field experience working in humanitarian situations, including deployment missions (with UN-Govt-INGO) is required. Experience working in multiple geographic regions is strongly desirable.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

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

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.