ALL COUNTRIES – ACCOUNTABILITY & QUALITY ASSURANCE INITIATIVE (AQA) PROJECT MANAGER (M/F)
JOB DETAIL
- Job number: SRH05440
- Domaine de competence: Water Sanitation and Hygiene promotion
- Statut: Salarié
- Type de poste: Overseas missions
- Country: France
- Contract Type: Short term contract
About us
Desired start date: ASAP
Duration of the mission: 18 months
Location: Headquarters – Possibility of homework worldwide upon discussion
SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL (SI) is an international humanitarian aid association which, since more than 40 years, has been providing assistance to populations affected by armed conflicts and natural disasters by meeting their basic needs for food, water and shelter. Particularly committed to the fight against diseases linked to unsafe water, the leading cause of death in the world, SI’s interventions provide expertise in the field of access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, but also in the essential area of food security and livelihoods. Present in some twenty countries, the SI teams – 2500 people in total, made up of expatriates, national staff, permanent staff at HQ, and a few volunteers – intervene with professionalism and commitment while respecting cultural norms.
About the job (1/2)
General objective:
As part of the Deputy Directorate of Operations for Programs, and under the direct supervision of the Senior Wash Technical Advisor, the AQA Project Manager will oversee coordinating and implementing, in partnership with OXFAM and in coordination with the GWC, the activities under the responsibility of Solidarités International for the Phase 3 of the Accountability & Quality Assurance Initiative (AQA).
The Accountability & Quality Assurance Initiative (AQA) was conceived in October 2017 at a meeting organised by the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) and the Global WASH Cluster (GWC). This meeting highlighted the challenges faced in ensuring that humanitarian WASH responses meet the minimum standards and expectations of quality for people affected by crisis. The AQA Initiative, emerged from recommendations made at this meeting around strengthening the role of national humanitarian WASH coordination platforms in monitoring quality at the sector level, and providing guidance to WASH partners on actions to improve quality.
The initial phase of the project started in 2018 and was completed in 2019. It was implemented on behalf of the Global WASH Cluster as a collaboration between Oxfam, Solidarités International, Tufts University and UNICEF as the Cluster Lead Agency and funding agency. The objective was to provide UNICEF, NCPs (National WASH Coordination Platforms) and WASH partners with a Quality and Accountability Assurance System that is based on communities’ inputs and feedback, and which encourages participation and accountability of WASH Partners.
The first phase of the project consisted in (i) conducting a comprehensive desk review, (ii) visiting four humanitarian WASH responses (in Bangladesh, Myanmar, South Sudan and Colombia), (iii) developing an understanding of the current best practices in quality assurance, (iv) crossed comparing this to the systems in place at the response level and (v) developing the core documents of the initiative: a Guidance Note and a Modular Analytical Framework.
The second phase of the project, that took place in 2020, focused on (i) participation, engagement and dissemination of the system developed among various stakeholders at global, regional and national level, (ii) support to countries (mainly remote) and (iii) improvement and further development of guidance, tools and training packages to support set up and early implementation.
The third phase of the project, funded by ECHO, in partnership with Oxfam and Tufts University, started in January 2022 and should be completed by December 2023. It aimed at achieving the 3 following objectives:
- NCPs, partners and key stakeholders are trained and equipped with guidance, tools and training resources to support the implementation of effective AQA,
- Targeted NCPs and partners implement AQA adapted to their context and integrated into HPC workflows and
- Lessons learned, good practices and technical resources developed by the initiative are shared and accessible to partners at the global, regional and local level, integrated into WASH programming and used across sectors.
About the job (2/2)
A total of 10 countries were selected to pilot this phase: Burkina Faso, Mali, Venezuela, Mozambique, Sudan, Bangladesh (Cox’s Baazar), Myanmar, South Sudan, Northwest Syria and Yemen. This phase is an operationalisation and scale up phase to support the roll out of the mechanism widely. A training package was also developed with the support of RedR, both for face-2-face sessions and online self-paced one. This will help support the continuous roll out of the initiative.
By the end of Phase 3, GWC Priority National WASH Coordination Platforms should have an effective, routine and collective mechanism for quality assurance and accountability.
In addition to this phase 3, a new funding request has been submitted to BHA in order to strengthen the deployment in the pilot countries and extend it to other countries. This funding, if approved, will enable the support team to be strengthened with roving staff who will particularly reinforce the monitoring and evaluation aspects, as well as the information management elements. It will run for two years, from mid-2023 to mid-2025.
For more information, see the GWC Website (you will find the core documents and other tools, reports and guidance):
Responsibilities and main activities:
1. To train and equip WASH NCPs (including IPs, and key stakeholders) in the pilot countries with contextually adapted guidance and tools to support the implementation of effective AQA systems:
- To develop an AQA Toolkit.
- To train WASH Implementing Partners and other AQA stakeholders in AQA systems and methods.
2. To support WASH NCPs (including IPs, and key stakeholders) in the pilot countries to implement effective and contextually adapted AQA systems integrated into Humanitarian Program Cycle (HPC) workflows:
- To provide technical support to WASH NCPs, IPs, and key stakeholders to integrate AQA systems into the Humanitarian Program Cycle.
- To develop a system to inform coordination, identify gaps and opportunities, and create information on quality and accountability that is relevant for coordination.
- To review existing cluster documents, tools and approaches at NHWCP level, identifying and prioritising next steps and briefing partner.
3. To produce, share and disseminate lessons learned, good practices and technical resources to be accessible for WASH NCPs, partners, and key stakeholders, and support their integration into Strategic Operational Frameworks (SOFs) in the pilot countries and used across the WASH sector:
- To product and disseminate AQA awareness materials, learning, good practices, advocacy points and initiative outcomes.
- To engage and follow-up stakeholders to address issues, bottlenecks and capture lessons learned.
- To hold regional workshops with supported WASH Clusters and GWC TWG to identify lessons learned and recommendations.
- To present lessons learned, good practice and technical resources at WASH sector events (GWC Meeting / EEHF, UNC, WEDC)
- To support post-visit follow-up to address issues, bottlenecks and capture lessons learned.
Your profile
Education / academic background
Master’s degree, or relevant combination of qualifications and experience, in public health in emergencies, water, social sciences, institutional development, water or sanitation engineering or related field.
Specific skills and experience:
- Minimum five (5) years of field management experience in WASH emergency humanitarian contexts.
- Very good understanding of the main obstacles that can affect the quality of humanitarian WASH responses.
- Strong experience in coordination or in a wider leadership role (cluster preferred)
- Experience of developing and implementing WASH strategic tools.
- A good understanding of the humanitarian policy environment including current knowledge of the latest WASH policies, research, international standards and developments in the field.
- Proven ability to conceptualize, develop, plan, monitor and evaluate programmes, as well as to train skills and build team capacity.
- Experience with natural / complex political emergencies in diverse cultural and climatic settings.
- Experience of applying humanitarian accountability standards and practices.
- Experience liaising with a broad range of stakeholders, ability to build relationships and networks.
- Proactive problem solving and operational decision making.
Language:
Fluently spoken and written English & French. Spanish will be an added value.
SI will offer you
- Position based at Solidarités International headquarters in Clichy la Garenne (Metro Mairie de Clichy) with possible field deployments. Possibility of homework in France or worldwide (through wage portage) upon discussion
- Permanent contract / fixed-term contract
- Gross monthly salary and conditions to be discussed
Application process
Vous reconnaissez-vous dans cette description ?
Si oui, envoyez-nous votre CV et Lettre de Motivation !
Les candidatures contenant uniquement les CV ne seront pas considérées.
Solidarités International se réserve la possibilité de clore un recrutement avant la date d’échéance de l’annonce. Merci de votre compréhension.
Et pour mieux connaître Solidarités International: www.solidarites.org
