About the Project

The USAID Kenya Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (KIWASH) intends to improve lives and health of Kenyan citizens in nine counties through development and management of sustainable WASH services.  KIWASH activities are implemented in nine counties in two principal focus areas: Busia, Nyamira, Migori, Siaya, Kisumu, and Kakamega counties in the Lake Victoria Focus Area, and Kitui, Makueni, and Nairobi counties in the Tana/Athi Focus Area. The first phase of the project ran for five years (October 2015–September 2020). An extension running from November 2020- July 2021 will pivot its activities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining and advancing the development gains with county governments, water service providers, WASH enterprises and sector stakeholders. The KIWASH in whole will aim to improve access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services for an additional 140,000 Kenyan citizens in nine counties by September 2021.

Job Description

Under the technical guidance of the project sanitation and hygiene manager, the specialist will provide technical support in projects design and development (includes implementation, monitoring and reporting) of the sanitation and hygiene workstream in Nairobi county. S/he will work closely with the departments of public health and water in the county to support sector coordination and planning in the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors, including support to conduct risk assessment and communication in at risk populations or settings,  support to Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) activities with focus on health facilities, schools, community and institutional engagements and support to behavior change communication campaigns including targeted advocacy with local and international partners and the civil society organizations.

Essential Duties:

1. Technical support in design and development of sanitation and hygiene work stream plans and activities

• Provide technical assistance to county staff, local and national agencies in planning, design, implementation and reporting of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions entailing household water treatment, water safety planning, hand washing hygiene and sanitary surveillance. Support includes technical assistance for any activities related WASH COVID IPC and building resilience services.


• Provide technical input in design and facilitate roll out of behavior change communication campaigns in households, communities and within WASH sector institutions in respective counties.


• Support development of education and communication materials for sanitation and hygiene


• Support development, updating and operationalization of WASH COVID response and recovery plans at respective counties.

2. Coordination and capacity development

• Conduct training and other capacity building activities for county staff, staff in critical at-risk settings – e.g border points, marketplaces, health care facilities, transport areas and informal settlements- and build local community champions to promote improved risk communication and engagement on COVID.


• Establish and/or strengthen WASH COVID-19 coordination platforms while ensuring equal participation by all partners, communities and Government representatives and consultatively facilitate strategic information management to inform decision making in response and recovery


• Establish local partnerships with relevant county departments, communities and WASH partners. Collate, analyze and share information on progress or impacts from project investments, evolving impact of ongoing COVID-19 and our containment measures to facilitate planning, monitoring and advocacy.

3. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

•  Support development of standard WASH assessment tools for identification of high-risk populations and settings and facilitate evaluation of WASH emergency interventions.


• Undertake regular field monitoring of sanitation and hygiene activities to ascertain progress against benchmarks, utilization of resources and make timely recommendations for follow up by county KIWASH teams.


• Support development and deployment of systems and strategies to efficiently monitor and report of water safety, sanitation and hygiene activities in the respective counties


• In consultation with logistics teams, support procurement, distribution, monitoring and tracking of IPC supplies to vulnerable populations and settings.


• Support the organization and documentation of WASH subsector meetings; draft minutes; maintain communication with partners and follow up on agreed action.


• Support the documentation of good practices and lessons learned on WASH COVID response and resilience programming


• Contribute to timely preparation and submission of projects (technical and financial) reports for management and donors’ decision-making process

4. Any other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in either Environmental Health, Public Health or other related discipline such as Community Development


• Five years of experience working in sanitation and hygiene programs in Kenyan context, with desirable experience in outbreak management and response and SBCC


• Knowledge of Kenyan environmental, Health and Sanitation legislation and regulatory framework required


• Familiarity in working with existing institutional sanitation and hygiene frameworks


• Knowledge and experience designing and implementing behaviour change communication strategies is required

Additional Information

Base of Operation: This position will be based in KIWASH offices in Nairobi county.

Contract Duration: 6 months

Desired Start Date: February 2021