Senior Water Resources Advisor

Contract

This is a NPSA-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally only for nationals. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about NPSA-10 contracts.

Background

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sri Lanka has been working as a key development partner of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) since 1967 to achieve sustainable human development on economic, social, and environmental fronts. In recent years, UNDP has been working with the GoSL to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while addressing the impacts of climate change.

The UNDP is implementing several initiatives with the GoSL to address identified issues related to water resources development and management. They include initiating discussions for a Water Platform, technical assistance for the GCF (Green Climate Fund)-funded Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management Project (CRIWMP), developing baseline information on water resources infrastructure and updating/formulating related technical guidelines. The CRIWMP aims for a paradigm shift in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).

This Project will support the Government in implementing integrated solutions to water management in three river basins in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. The Project aims to achieve higher levels of food, livelihoods and water security for flood and drought-affected poor communities. GCF resources will be invested in improving access to irrigation and eco-system-based agricultural practices, improving community-managed drinking water infrastructure, scaling up decentralized drinking water systems and strengthening early warning, forecasting and climate advisories to protect farmers, particularly women, from climate-related impacts.

The Project will benefit 750,000 people living in the three river basins directly through investments in irrigation, drinking water and disaster risk management. Moreover, around 770,000 people living in these districts will indirectly benefit from the project interventions in capacities and early warning systems. Under this Project, which will be implemented from 2017 to 2024, UNDP will work with several government institutions to deliver the Project outputs and activities and measures its impacts.

The Project covers three key components:

• Component 1: Climate resilient investment to rehabilitate small tank-based cascading systems and related infrastructure and facilitate sustainable, climate-proof agricultural practices in targeted areas.
• Component 2: Investments to increase access to and quality of drinking water in remote and rural areas through a multi-pronged partnership approach that seeks to replenish sources, build storage, purify contaminated water and address root causes of water quality issues.
• Component 3: Improve community access to timely early warning for flood and drought to avoid losses and impacts on key livelihood assets. This includes the generation, coding, modelling, dissemination 2 and access to weather-related data/knowledge, including advice and early warning.

The Project implementation modality includes a Project Management Unit (PMU) established under the Ministry of Irrigation with the Project Director, Deputy Project Director and other project staff and field office established in Anuradhapura. In addition, UNDP provides technical assistance to implement the Project. Further, Project has already recruited four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to work directly with the project beneficiaries.

The Senior Water Resource Specialist will be part of the UNDP’s technical team for Project implementation and is responsible for providing higher-level technical advice to the project. S/He will provide expert technical guidance and direction to the CRIWMP to maximise the impact of interventions undertaken through new and existing programming areas. Compiling the subject-specific inputs by the technical specialists to the Annual Performance Report (APR) and technically supporting the enhancement of the CRIWMP’s visibility and knowledge sharing will be his/her focus areas. Further, s/he will provide technical guidance/advice and direction to the programme areas related to water resources management of the Climate and Environment Team (CET).

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Review the proposed paradigm shift of the project and produce a report on the project’s integrated, holistic approach to enhancing water management through the interconnected elements of irrigation systems and farming practices, drinking water supply and management.
2. Document how each output of the project contributes to the long-term objective and how the resulting project impacts can be sustained, replicated and scaled to contribute to climate-resilient development in Sri Lanka.
3. Provide technical direction and advice to Cascade Water Resources Development and Management Plans in Cascades where Village Irrigation Systems (VISs) are upgraded.
4. Liaise with the Technical Working Committee (TWC) of CRIWMP, submit papers for their review and approval and facilitate the incorporation of their advice to the cascade water resource management.
5. Provide strategic guidance on partnership building in the areas of irrigation and water resources management.
6. Capture lessons learned and best practices from several successful project interventions in order to enable a transformative impact through the improvement of community irrigation water infrastructure and associated agricultural practices.
7. Provide technical advice on issues related to investment support and the proposed Water Platform in water resources development and management and the proposed National Water Symposium as required by the UNDP.
8. Contribute to high-quality reporting, mainly focusing on the CRIWMP’s annual performance report drafted based on the sectoral reports provided by the subject-matter specialists.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Senior Water Resource Specialist will directly report to the Project Manager of CRIWMP/GCF at UNDP.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results:

LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have a lasting impact

Think Innovatively:

LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks and develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously:

LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility:

LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination:

LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate tasks/barriers and take action to achieve more significant results

Engage and Partner:

LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigating the complex landscape, championing inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

LEVEL 3: Appreciate the benefits of a diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Technical

Working with evidence and data

Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data to discover useful information, inform conclusions, and support decision-making.

Technical

Strategic engagement

Ability to capture and sustain engagement, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure in buy-in of high-level vision and objectives.

Technical

Nature, climate and energy

Climate change adaptation, embedding adaptation into policy/planning /decision-making.

Technical

Nature, climate, and energy

Climate change adaptation: Water management.

Cross-Functional

Horizontal scanning/Trend analysis

Ability to scan and analyze the trends, provide early warning and projections.

Cross-functional

Strategic Thinking

Ability to develop effective strategies and priority]ed plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground and creating tangible solutions. Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

People for 2030

Gender

Gender Mainstreaming

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Engineering, Water Resources Management or any other relevant field.

  OR

• A first-level university degree (bachelor's degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

(Degree must be from an accredited university)

Min. years of relevant work experience

• Master's Degree with Five (5) years OR Bachelor's Degree with Seven (7) years of progressively responsible work experience in Water Resource Management in Sri Lanka is required.

Required skills

• Good computer literacy, including Microsoft Office and Excel.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Proven knowledge and experience in the design and implementation of integrated development projects, eg: poverty reduction, irrigation development and rehabilitation, food, livelihood, and water security, including working on community-based initiatives, will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in formulating and managing similar projects with global funds, including project design, management, and monitoring & evaluation would be highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to work with multidisciplinary teams, including local and expatriate technical experts; would be desirable.
• Previous experience in donor reporting, preparation of technical proposals, and conducting assessments and evaluations in the area of water resource management will be an added advantage.
• Previous experience in working with UN/international organizations would be an asset.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency in English and a working knowledge of Tamil or Sinhala are required.

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