Social Development Specialist (Part-time - 50%)

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Contract

This is a NPSA-9 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally only for nationals. It usually requires 2 years of experience, depending on education. More about NPSA-9 contracts.

Background

The Ministry of Irrigation (MoI) with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with the Department of National Planning (NPD), Ministry Irrigation and Water Management (MIWM) Ministry of Agriculture (MA), Ministry of City Planning and Water Supply and Ministry of Disaster Management, secured financing from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to implement a USD 38.1 million project aimed at strengthening the resilience of Smallholder farmers in the dry Zone to climate variability and extreme events.

This Project will support the Government to implement 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, improved 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 a number of 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 and access to weather related data/knowledge including advise and early warning.

Under the Component 02 of the Project, following key activities have been identified:

• Construction of 35 new Community Managed Rural Water Supply Systems – 35 Nos;
• Construction of 70 Water Purification and Treatment Systems to Existing Community Managed Rural Water Supply Systems;
• Construction of 55 new Water Purification and Treatment Systems to Communities, Schools
• and Health Centres;
• Construction of 4000 Rainwater Harvesting and Recharging Systems.

(These outputs have been rationally allocated to the 07 districts while in the first phase of the Project. The work is implemented in Puttalam, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura and Vavuniya districts while in the second phase of the Project the work will be implemented in Trincomalee, Mannar and Polonnaruwa.)

The Project implementation modality includes a Project Management Unit established under the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment with the Project Director, Deputy Project Director, Project Accountant and other project staff. UNDP as the responsible party for Project assurance will provide technical assistance to implement the Project. Under this, the service of a team of technical specialists will be provided by UNDP to facilitate the implementation of the Project. Further, a national level technical advisory committee will be established to obtain specialist’s advice to ensure integrated approach for climate resilient water management.

An important outcome expected from the Project’s interventions is an empowered farmer community who will manage their water and other natural resources using the cascade as the management unit. For this purpose, the Project plans to develop cascade water user organizations, whose responsibilities include, inter-alia, the management and allocation of water within a cascade in an equitable manner. Given the increased uncertainty of weather patterns, this is extremely important to mitigate both the droughts and the floods.

The Social Development Specialist for Social Development for drinking water sector will be a part of the UNDP’s technical team for Project implementation and is responsible to provide specialist inputs on social mobilization and social development on Component 02 of the Project; i.e., investments to increase access to and quality of drinking water in remote and rural areas through a multipronged partnership approach aiming sustainability of the programme.

Providing technical inputs on social development, and community mobilization through CSOs and other stakeholders, including the RWS units of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) and Department of National Community Water Supply (DNCWS) to achieve the sustainability of the Project interventions in RWS systems, Large/Small Advanced Water Filtration Systems and Rain Water Harvesting Systems are important. Thus, it requires to;

• Provide Guidance and close supervision on, social development strategies to the project staff, CSO Staff, appointed Water Supply and Training Consultants, DNCWS and NWSDB RWS unit’s staff.
• Organize and conduct training needs through training consultants, and arrange relevant training and capacity building programme to project staff, CSO Staff, DNCWS, NWSDB RWS unit staff and CBOs.
• Coordinate the works with the NWSDB RSCs, District RWS Offices, DNCWS Head Office/District Offices and PMU of CRIWMP to ensure the sustainability of the outputs.
• Provide relevant policy and other guidance at field level to the Project staff, CSO Staff, appointed Water Supply and Training Consultants, DNCWS and NWSDB RWS unit’s staff in the selected 07 Project Districts of Puttalam, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura and Vavuniya in Phase 01 and, Polonnnaruwa, Mannar, and Trincomalee in Phase 02; under Component 2 of the Project.
• Provide guidance to the project staff, CSO Staff and other partners for the establishment of Cascade Water Management Organizations.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Co-ordinate, support and guide the implementation of the agreed models, programs and activities in field together with the responsible partners and other parties.
2. Assist to sustainable operation and proper functioning of CBOs formed/Existing CBOs and User Groups developed (in all aspects; financial, O&M, business development/diversification, leadership etc) for;
   • New Community RWSs
   • Advanced treatment/filtering systems provided to existing RWS Systems
   • Small filtering systems
3. Coordinate with the NWSDB, Project, CSO, DNCWS, and the appointed Water Supply and Training Consultants to present the agreed program and the progress to the relevant Provincial, District and Divisional level authorities.
4. Liaise with Technical Specialist, water supply and training consultants of the project and provide specialist inputs on social development to carry out the agreed work plan for 2024/25.
5. Liaise with training consultants and provide inputs to deliver the identified training programs in the project cycle and capacity development and training programs for sustainability; to the project staff, CSO Staff, DNCWS, RWS unit staff and CBOs.
6. Prepare the Plan, Conduct and Guide with NWSDB RWS, DNCWS and CSOs to deliver all agreed capacity building and training programs through training consultants to the CBOs established in new RWS Projects and existing CBOs in RWS Projects where treatment/filters are installed and relevant communities; including RWH users.
7. Together with the Technical Specialist, coordinate with NWSDB, Project, CSOs, DNCWS and the appointed Water Supply and Training Consultants for preparing Climate Resilient Water Safety and Security Plans for the deliverables.
8. Together with project staff, CSO Staff, DNCWS, RWS unit staff and CBOs ensure the implementation of the above prepared and developed Climate Resilient Water Safety and Security Plans.
9. Support the Project staff, CSO field staff, DNCWS staff and the appointed Consultants in social matters related to drinking water supply outputs and guide to resolve the day-to-day trouble shooting related to social issues (land issues, water resources issues, accessibility for machineries, approval from relevant parties etc.).
10. Advice, assist and quality assure community development activities carried out by the CSOs that are sector specific, support and strengthen the capacity of the district NWSDB RWS staff, District DNCWS Staff in the implementation of mobilization activities for community development to ensure efficient and cost-effective utilization of available resources.
11. Provide guidance to the project staff, CSO Staff and other partners for the establishment of Cascade Water Management Organizations.
12. Coordinate to finalize the locations for the New Community Managed RWS Systems and Treatment Systems to Existing Community Managed Rural Water Supply Systems; new systems to communities, Schools and Health Centers (if not yet finalized) together with Project, NWSDB and DNCWS.
13. Support the Project staff and CSOs to ensure the Rainwater harvesting beneficiaries properly use the provided Rainwater Harvesting Systems.

Institutional Arrangement

The Social Development 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 greater 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 (insert up to 7 competencies)

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Technical

Working with evidence and data

Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting 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: Drinking water supply

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 Community Development, Regional Planning and Development, Engineering or Public Health and Integrated Water Management.

  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 two (2) years OR Bachelor’s Degree with four (4) years of progressively.
• Responsible work experience in related fields, with experience in community-based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects.

Required skills

• Good computer literacy, including Microsoft Office and Excel.

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

• Experience in working with international organizations providing support in social or knowledge management fields.
• Good knowledge of Rural Water Policy and the Sri Lankan context and practical knowledge of using participatory tools and methodologies shall be an added advantage.
• Strong analytical skills with exceptional ability in communication, networking, and negotiations.
• Ability to prepare reports, presentations, and information for case studies.
• Previous experience working with UN organizations.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency in English and working knowledge of the Tamil or Sinhala languages would be an advantage.

Professional Certificates

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Added 1 month ago - Updated 26 days ago - Source: jobs.undp.org