Associate Wash Officer (Coordination Unit) – Nob – Hru002 - Beirut

2.1 ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT. Define the role of the position within the team, describing its leadership role, if any, it’s external/internal work relationships or contacts, the contextual environment in which it operates and the scope of supervision received, and where applicable, exercised by the incumbent. As of November 2014, Lebanon is hosting 1.1 million registered refugees from Syria, as compared to 600,000 a year ago.  Syrian defacto-refugees now represent approximately 30% of the population of Lebanon and are the largest group of Syrians in exile.  The sudden increase in the population of Lebanon over just a couple of years has brought significant stress and strain on the existing infrastructure and services, already under-designed, aged and poorly maintained prior to the crisis, that the new arrivals share with Lebanese.  There is no clear sign of a political solution to the Syrian crisis, UNHCR continues to register refugees. The Syrian population in Lebanon have been accommodated across the country and in all spectrums of society.  The majority are renting apartments however a significant minority (15%) are living in unofficial spontaneous sites, Informal Settlements, in rural and peri-urban locations with a similar minority (15%) living in sub-standard shelters such as unfinished buildings, garages or shops temporarily adapted into habitations.  Many Syrians are paying rent, for a range of reasons they are highly mobile and service provision is poor in many locations.  The Syrian refugee situation is an additional burden for a country already supporting a significant Palestinian refugee population.  Among the new arrivals there are also vulnerable Lebanese and Palestinians from Syria who require support and there are poor Lebanese among whom many of the new arrivals are living and sharing markets, services and employment. The water and sanitation infrastructure of Lebanon is underdeveloped in a country that, for the region, is resource rich.  Though up to 80% of households had a water connection there are 45% losses for the water network, annual shortages in the summer, under investment in the service providers, high reliance of ‘private’ water supplies in many zones, political deadlock in the oversight and management of water service delivery, an inappropriate tariff system and reluctance by high end users to pay the full cost.  Only 8% of waste water is treated, sewage networks and appropriate management are woefully inadequate and solid waste management is left up to the will of local municipalities.  All of these institutions and services are suffering from the increase in demands.  UNHCR is the designated lead agency for the refugee response in Lebanon. To coordinate the response UNHCR has established a sector based coordination mechanism that operates from Beirut and in Bekaa, North and South of Lebanon.  The Inter-Agency Coordination mechanism brings together 11 UN agencies, 54 National and International NGOs to support the Government in service delivery across several sectors including: WASH, Health, Shelter, Education, Protection and other key areas. The WASH sector of Lebanon is a partnership of 25-30 agencies providing WASH services to the most acutely affected populations.  The group aims to identify a common strategy, set standards and priorities and initiate a common funding appeal.  The WASH sector operates under the Ministry of Energy and Water with links to the Ministries of Public Health, of Environment and to the 4 National Water Establishments and Municipalities. The Associate WASH Officer role is central to the coordination of all the WASH stakeholders and smooth operation of their activities.           2.2 FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT. Describe the accountabilities, responsibilities and authorities associated with the position. Core Function: The core function of the Associate WASH Officer (AWO) is to provide sector leadership and to facilitate the processes that ensure a well-coordinated, coherent, strategic and effective WASH response to the Syrian crisis in Lebanon through a technically-sound, mobilised and adequately resourced group of agencies, organisations, NGOs and local communities. The role of the AWO is that of facilitator of the coordination process, the success of the WASH sector is dependent on the level of participation and contribution that the AWO can generate from the stakeholders in order to strengthen the response and achieve greater results. Accountabilities: Beneficiaries: To ensure the WASH response is based upon most up-to-date internationally recognised standards, policies and technical support for humanitarian WASH service provision. Partners: To ensure there is an effective coordination mechanism that permits equal standing for all partners and respects the diversity of their mandates. UNHCR: To ensure there is a common and agreed strategy with clear priorities based upon an accepted and current needs assessment and gap identification process.     Responsibilities: To ensure that there is an effective and appropriate coordination mechanism at the National and Sub-National level that allows free participation of all WASH stakeholders through regular and routine coordination meetings. To ensure that WASH sector fully contributes to the agreed inter-agency and inter-sectoral processes as led by UNHCR; these include annual appeals and budget planning, advocacy documents, reporting, monitoring and evaluations. To ensure that the WASH sector is represented and participates in cross-sectoral coordination as necessary.  Particular notice is given the Health and Shelter Sectors as the areas of most significant overlap for WASH goals and activities; to the Community Support Programme, Cash and Non-Food Item (core Relief Item) sectors as areas that have incorporated significant WASH activities. To develop and maintain across WASH agencies a common strategic framework and appropriate technical guidelines on the WASH sector response by way of facilitating the steering group and technical working groups to the most important and relevant technical discussions. To identify geographical and thematic gaps in WASH service delivery and to facilitate the appropriate response to those gaps via efficient and effective operational partners. a.    To promote joint needs assessment and analysis of the situation and enable the creation and dissemination of relevant needs assessment reports and response recommendations.  To encourage specific needs assessments as necessary in tracking the changes in population and circumstance dynamics.     b.    To secure commitments from WASH stakeholders in responding to the needs and filling gaps at both implementation/service provision level as well as at the development of a strategic vision level, with appropriate distribution of responsibilities to make best use of the resources available.  To ensure the WASH steering committee is composed of the most experienced and recognised WASH partners and is continuously enabled to oversee the strategic and technical direction of the WASH response. c.     To ensure that the WASH sector is ready and capable to respond to changes in the situation such as a new influx of refugees or outbreaks of water related disease through adequate contingency planning and relationship building. To establish WASH technical groups as necessary to resolve technical issues and provide the necessary technical guidance and strategic operation procedures for the WASH response. To ensure the WASH sector response is guided by the relevant policies, technical standards and commitments that the Government has undertaken under international human rights law. To ensure approval by all relevant national and sub-national authorities of the strategic documents produced in the coordination of the WASH sector.  To provide all WASH stakeholders and UNHCR with regular reports on the sector progress and other key cross sectoral developments.  To provide ad-hoc reports and updates on key changes in operating environment and that impact on the response strategy and any emerging significant issues that affect the WASH response. To oversee the compilation, management and effective redistribution of WASH information with relevant analysis to all WASH stakeholder and other interested parties including sectoral leads. To tirelessly advocate for the WASH sector, the requirements of agencies and the most appropriate means for ensuring a good WASH response. Advocate with donors to ensure they understand the WASH strategy and are ready to fund the activities. Advocate with the Government to ensure they agree to the strategy and the technical solutions. Advocate with the partners for adherence to the common strategy and for full participation in coordination. To ensure that appropriate training and capacity building is available for WASH partners as necessary. To perform regular field visits, to participate to regional coordination meetings, and to take part into emergency rapid needs assessment. Authority (decisions made in executing responsibilities and to achieve results) Intervene with authorities on WASH issues. Negotiate locally on behalf of the WASH Sector Make recommendations on individual WASH issues Appraise the performance of supervised staff Enforce the compliance of staff and partners with the global WASH standards and professional integrity of delivering WASH services Identification of WASH working group priorities and overall sector strategic direction Ensure that the WASH sector is enabled to effectively participate in the Inter-Agency programme schedule from initial appeal to final annual report Engagement with all sectors and non-sector support services.       2.3 REQUIRED COMPETENCIES, which illustrate behaviours that are essential to achieving deliverables described above, and that are critical to successful performance. All jobs require the staff to abide to the Values and Core competencies of UNHCR.  Where applicable, select a maximum of six Managerial and three Cross-Functional Competencies. (Note that the Performance Appraisal and Management System (PAMS) allows for up to five Cross-Functional Competencies to be selected by the staff member and the supervisor. Code Managerial Competencies 1.  M001 Empowering and Building Trust 2.  M002 Managing Performance 3.  M003 Judgement and Decision Making 4.  M004 Strategic Planning and Vision 5.  M005 Leadership 6.  M006 Managing Resources     Code Cross-Functional Competencies 1.  X001 Analytical Thinking 2.  X002 Innovation and Creativity 3.  X003 Technological Awareness 4.  X004 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution 5.  X005 Planning and Organizing 6.  X006 Policy Development and Research 7.  X007 Political Awareness 8.  X008 Stakeholder Management 9.  X009 Change Capability and Adaptability