Company Profile

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. CRS Ghana was established in 1958, a year after Ghana gained independence. In Ghana, CRS works with local partners to tackle poverty on several fronts including improving health and nutrition; increasing access to safe water and improved sanitation; promoting agriculture to enhance food security; and increasing financial assets through Savings and Internal Lending Communities. 

Job Description

• Job Title:        WASH Officer
• Department:    Programming (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion)
• Band:             C
• Reports To:      Community Mobilization Specialist
• Country/Location:     Walewale (West Mamprusi District, NR, Ghana);
• Tongo (Talensi District, UER, Ghana)
• Start Date:        August, 2017
• End Date:         July, 2020

Job Summary:
As a member of the Integrated Community Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement (ICOWASH) project team, you will monitor and report on all project activities in support of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Your thorough and service-oriented approach will ensure that the project consistently applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve. This will be achieved through providing technical guidance to implementing partners to achieve quality WASH programs and ensure appropriate documentation is available for strategic and policy influencing work.

Job Responsibilities:

• Support the coordination and implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Support to mobilize and sensitize communities on key project strategies including participatory sanitation and hygiene behavior change approaches using Behavior Change Communication (BCC), Community Lead Total  Sanitation (CLTS), WASH in Schools (WinS), Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC), etc. etc. to promote and market sanitation in rural communities.
• Provide direct backstopping support to households, sanitation advocacy groups, staff of key institutions, etc. for the implementation of Water, Hygiene and Sanitation related projects.
• Assist in reviewing the work, records, and reports of consulting engineers, construction managers in the construction/rehabilitation and installation of water and sanitation infrastructure (boreholes with hand pumps, latrines construction/repairs, hand washing stations, water quality testing, etc.) and other technical services hired to perform work under the project.
• Develop training programs and facilitate training of staff of partner organizations and project committees.
• Monitor project communities and facilitate households to ensure the construction of household latrines and soakaways and installation of hand washing stations.
• Develop and manage relationships with partner organizations especially in the District Wide Approach Program to ensure the effective implementation of sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene projects in communities, schools and health centers
• Ensure that gender, protection, local culture and other important cross-cutting concerns are considered in program implementation, especially in ensuring that gender issues are considered in the selection and training of WASH committees, Sanitation Advocacy Groups, etc.
• Monitor and report any challenges and/or gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities and assisting partners in their efforts to collect and analyze project data per specified mechanisms and tools. Actively seeks and responds to feedback from all members of targeted communities and other stakeholders.
• Collect information on technical assistance needs of partner organizations and monitor capacity building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.
• Complete project documentation for assigned activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.

Key Working Relationships:

• Supervisory:      Not Applicable
• Internal:     Regional/HQ technical advisors, Head of Programs, WASH and other line managers, Project Coordinator, WASH Specialist, SILC Specialists, M&E Specialist, and other WASH Officers
• External:      Government partners and Service providers (Contractors)

Travel Required:

• 75% of time (day trips)

Scope:

• Not Applicable

Required Skills or Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Water Management, Environmental Engineering, Sanitation Engineering, Water Resources Engineering /Management, Civil Engineering, public or environmental health, or any other relevant professional background in WASH .
• Minimum of 3 years of work experience in a WASH project, one year of which should be directly linked to CLTS field level implementation. Experience working for an NGO would be a plus.
• Experience in facilitating CLTS triggering and post-triggering monitoring.
• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Possession of License to ride a motorcycle.
• Knowledge of local language would be preferable.

Personal Skills:

• Observation, active listening and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and community members.
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented.
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills.
• Knowledge of local level issues

Required/Desired Foreign Language:

• Not Applicable

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.

• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning

MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Competencies:

• Accountability: Improving our accountability to a range of stakeholders through increased participation, transparent communication, responsive feedback mechanisms, and adherence to internal and external quality standards and requirements.
• Analysis and Critical Thinking: Engaging with data, challenging biases and assumptions, posing thoughtful questions, pursuing deeper understanding of evidence through reflection and perspective-taking, and making informed programming decisions.
• Monitoring: Implementing monitoring activities, including timely collection of quality data, set up and maintenance of databases, facilitation of participatory reflection on monitoring results, and submission of timely progress reports.