Technical Advisor I-WASH (telecommuter)

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Note: This is a telecommuter position.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in the area of WASH in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ WASH programming is across the globe.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools and best practices in WASH that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions to CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
• Contribute to, and in some cases lead, the development of the technical design for proposals. Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals. As needed, act as a technical writer on proposal development teams. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in WASH programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the WASH learning agenda.
• Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, participate in forums in the area of WASH to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

Required Languages – English and a plus if the candidate can also speak Spanish, Portuguese, and/or French.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 50 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Good technical writing skills
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
• Knowledgeable and experienced in provision of technical solutions to CRS country programs as needed through contributions to short, medium- and longer- term strategic planning, design, implementation, and the monitoring and evaluation of water, sanitation and hygiene components.
• Able to provide technical assistance to WASH programs – from the initial emergency response phase to the recovery phase and longer-term development for a determined period.
• Able to provide technical assistance for sectorial assessments, intervention strategy development, implementation, and management, including project monitoring.
• Able to see the WASH sector from a wider perspective by analyzing institutions governing water and sanitation such as state, municipal or private utilities as well as community managed services to find solutions
• Able to design appropriate hardware systems through technical drawings and BOQ’s for water supply systems/schemes with strategies that:
  • Incorporates water quality surveillance systems
  • Incorporates a water security logic whenever water extraction projects are to be implemented in recognition that environmental degradation and sustainable natural resource management are increasingly critical issues in both emergencies and development settings
  • Map government policies, strategies, and plans related to water supply and water security
  • Look for innovative and sustainable market-based water supply/delivery responses
• Able to ensures that sanitation is targeted in sustainable ways by:
  • Designing innovative solutions and systems, both in emergencies and in non- emergency settings, always considering the whole sanitation value chain as a final result
  • Looks into solutions that include wastewater treatment and solid waste management.
  • Looks beyond sanitation in the community and targeting also key institutions such as schools and health facilities/hospitals
• Able to design appropriate Hygiene Promotion and Community Engagement activities complementary and supportive to relevant hardware implementations (Vector Control, MMH and Environmental Health solutions)
• Able to look at WASH as a crosscutting component that contributes to nutrition, health, livelihoods outcomes and in support of achieving SDG 6.
• Able to align any humanitarian WASH programming with Core Humanitarian Standards, Sphere Minimum Standards for WASH, CRS’ Protection Mainstreaming guidelines, CRS’ Minimum Standards for Mainstreaming Gender Equality, Global/ National WASH Cluster standards and donor requirements
• Able to lead and/or support the development and writing of WASH proposals or sections related to WASH within multi-sectoral proposals.
• Able to work collaboratively with country program staff and partners and provide on-the-job training as needed.
• Able to help with national WASH staff recruitment in terms of contributing to the development of SOWs and JDs, and assessing, interviewing, and selecting candidates.
• Able to conduct program evaluations and support the identification and implementation of any needed corrective actions.
• Able to design or adapt existing detailed WASH assessment methodologies for training, implementation, analysis, and reporting of data from assessments in both complex and natural disasters as well as for non-emergency situations.
• Able to keep up to date on the latest policies and procedures to define and disseminate best practices and standards for Water and WASH.
• Promotes innovative Water, Sanitation and Community Engagement opportunities through internal CRS collaboration as well as with relevant donors and research institutions.
• Participate and contribute to Global meetings as required by HRD WASH Team Lead.

Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none)

None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: HRD Teams, PIQA Health, Nutrition and Water & Environment teams, WASH RTAs WARO & CARO

External: Global WASH Cluster, others

Qualifications – External

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Water and Sanitation Engineering, Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Environmental Engineering and Public Health or other related field strongly required.

• Minimum of three years relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of two years relevant field-based experience in WASH

• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in WASH. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.

• Experience in project design and proposal development. Experience in writing content for proposals.

• Knowledge of capacity strengthening best practices.

• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.

• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

· Integrity

· Continuous Improvement & Innovation

· Builds Relationships

· Develops Talent

· Strategic Mindset

· Accountability & Stewardship

*Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

*Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.*

Note: All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.

CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer