Head of Department Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) - Readvertised

Company Overview

Action Against Hunger is an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending world hunger. For almost 40 years, across nearly 50 countries, we have been working to fight undernutrition and support communities affected by crisis across the globe.

We carry out innovative, lifesaving programmes in Health, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Disaster risk reduction, Mental Health and Care Practices, Food security and Livelihoods and Social Protection.

Action Against Hunger began operations in Nigeria in 2010 in response to the high rate of chronic malnutrition in Northern Nigeria, focusing on integrated programming.

In 2011, we expanded our work to begin implementing nutrition development projects in Jigawa and in Yobe. Following the crises in Northeast Nigeria, we further expanded our operations to address the Nutrition, Health, Food security and livelihoods, WASH, and shelter needs of conflict-affected communities.

Action Against Hunger Nigeria programme is supported by FCDO, ECHO, GAC, BHA, SDC, UNICEF, EU, AFD, SIDA and GFFO.

Action Against Hunger is currently looking to fill the role of Head of Department Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), who will be responsible to guarantee the quality, relevance and scaling up of WASH programme of the mission, in conformity with ACF and international standards and national policies.

Position Details

Reporting to: Deputy Country Director Programmes

Proposed start date: April 2025

Work location: Abuja, FCT

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensuring that ACF's key WASH indicators are adhered to and analyzed in his/her zone of intervention;
• Monitoring of general indicators;
• Adopting the technical strategies and positioning documents produced by headquarters;
• Writing up the WASH sections of the mission strategy;
• Sharing the strategy and ensuring its consistency with those of other sectors;
• Sharing the mission strategy with and explaining it to all teams within the WASH Department;
• Ensuring that international, national and ACF documentation is available at the mission, mastering its content and sharing it with the WASH teams;
• Planning external evaluations of adherence to international standards (OECD/DAC);
• Organizing a contingency planning workshop for WASH and taking part in consolidation meetings at mission level;
• Coordinating with the other Coordinators/ HoDs in order to ensure the greatest impact of projects by utilizing integration;  
• Ensuring that the seasonal calendar is produced by Program Managers in each of the zones of intervention;
• Defining and driving the compilation of strategy monitoring indicators;
• Collecting data on the humanitarian situation and the WASH sector, formatting and transmitting them to the appropriate channels (Country Director, Region, Technical Advisors at Headquarters)
• Proposing subjects for WASH technical advocacy for the mission;
• Writing up or consolidating reports on chosen subjects in consultation with the Country Director;
• Defining a plan for the diffusion of sectoral advocacy for the mission;
• Interacting with the sectoral coordination body on the major subjects for WASH advocacy;
• Defining, coordinating and carrying through assessments of WASH needs in projects and closely related areas;
• Coordinating and/or writing up reports of the needs and feasibility assessments and proposals to funding agencies;
• Consulting the Logistic and Finance Coordinator/HoDs concerning project proposals;
• Meeting with sector donors, alone or in company with the Country Director;
• Consolidating or writing up the WASH parts of project proposals;
• Validating the WASH project proposals submitted by the mission;
• Establishing and updating the portfolio of donors;
• Accompanying donors on field visits at the request of the Country Director;
• Validation of the methodologies and documentation produced by Deputy HoDs and PMs;
• Regular visits to projects and functional interaction with DHoD and PMs;
• Supporting the Field Coordinator in APR monitoring (quantitative and narrative), provide feedback on technical matters and flag deficiencies;
• Proposing action plans and solutions to ensure the smooth implementation of programs;
• Ensuring that narrative sections in the technical parts of donor reports are written up correctly by the PM, reviewing them for complete, accurate content and coherence;
• Consolidating the technical parts of donor reports before submission;
• Seeking the technical support of the Technical Advisors at headquarters on an ad hoc basis (tools, methodology, and innovation, sharing experience....);
• Preparing needs assessments and project evaluations (TOR, recruitment of experts, briefings);
• Checking the technical adequacy of the projects with reference to internal framework documents and sectoral technical literature;
• Checking conformity with standards (SPHERE, WHO, national...);
• Arranging field visits and producing reports containing technical and operational recommendations;
• Feeding the project and mission quality with internal and external recommendations;
• Seeking technical support from the Technical Advisor  on an ad hoc basis (tools, methodology, innovation, sharing of experience, or flagging up missing competences in technical areas ...);
• Producing terms of reference for visits by WASH Advisors and internal evaluators;
• Familiarizing him/herself with the precautionary principle, the “Do No Harm” approach and implementing it or recommending its implementation to decision-makers in the projects;
• Judiciously including external evaluations of projects in proposal submissions;
• Preparing external project evaluation visits  (along the lines of ACF-UK terms of reference, recruitment of experts where necessary, briefing and accompaniment on field visits);
• Validating the recommendations made by evaluators and translating them into good practice in the projects;
• Ensuring that project proposals include complaints  & feedback mechanisms and training the teams to adopt this participative methodology (notably by using Global WASH Cluster tools);
• Defining the necessary measures of protection and safety on WASH work sites (protection of teams, equipment and the wider population);
• Monitoring compliance with the safety rules during site visits;
• Forming close relationships with the coordination forums, participating in coordination meetings and strategic working groups and sharing information both upwards and downwards;
• Familiarizing him/herself with Cluster procedures and training members of the mission in them;
• If relevant, involving ACF as joint leader of the WASH cluster at national and local levels;
• Participating in the writing up of documents dealing with the financing of humanitarian action (e.g. CAP, Flash Appeal etc) and with national strategies;
• Getting to know and meeting with key actors in WASH sectors at national level (authorities, ministries, UN organizations etc) in order to secure ACF's place as a recognized and influential actor in the field;
• Contribute towards the development of WASH national standards, sector working groups and technical reviews;
• Organizing workshops and training programs targeting sectoral partners;
• Identifying and promoting partnerships with local partners (national NGOs in particular);
• Taking part in the development of operational partnerships in line with the ACF partnership policy;
• Taking part in the recruitment of national PMs or involvement in the selection of expatriates when relevant (defining profiles, interviews and/or complementary tests, technical competence for the project);
• Contributing to the technical aspects of HR requests for expatriates (job description, technical criteria of recruitment, action plan);
• Ensuring that a WASH Department action plan is produced and followed through;
• Contributing to and monitoring individual action plans for the WASH Department ;
• Taking part in staff development appraisals with both functional and hierarchical team members; identifying technical training needs of national teams and expatriates, in collaboration with the HR Coordinator/HoD;
• Development of staff capacity building plan, resources and organization and facilitation of training workshops;
• Identifying possible technical training resources at local and regional levels in collaboration with the HR Coordinator/HoD;
• Providing technical support to the teams (creating training programs, spreading good practice....);
• Seeking technical support from headquarters to reinforce his/her skills and/or those of the teams;
• Compiling the hardware work implemented by ACF into a national/central database, shared with the relevant line authorities;
• Encouraging the WASH teams to write up their experiences;
• Approving capitalization documents, finalizing them and submitting them to Headquarters;
• Distributing relevant documents throughout the WASH networks at country and regional levels;
• Identifying needs and opportunities for technical research and development;
• Writing up projects in response to calls from Headquarters or donors for research and technical development;
• Coordinating funded research projects;
• Supervising and documenting innovations introduced in projects;
• Identifying research partners where relevant (universities, for example);
• Taking part in seminars and colloquia at national and international levels with a view to improving practice in the mission;
• Organizing departmental meetings on the technical constraints affecting the projects, discussing them with advisors at headquarters and formulating recommendations;  
• Writing up and submitting a handover/mission report together with a database of photographs at the end of the mission;
• Ensuring that each expatriate PM documents his/her experience in the form of a technical handover/end of mission report (in addition to any reports required by donors).

Position Requirements:

• Degree in Water Engineering/Construction Engineering/Public Health with experience in water, sanitation, hygiene and health education projects with over 3 years of experience OR
• Relevant degree with at least 5 years’ experience in project management, preferably in a humanitarian context. Experience can be considered in lieu of academic qualification, but not vice-a-versa.
• Interest and/or experience in hygiene education and training and/or community led methodologies;
• Demonstrated previous experience in and strong proposal writing and donor reporting skills;
• Demonstrated experience in financial management and preparation of budgets for programming;
• Proficient in MS Office Applications;
• Excellent management and representation competencies;
• Excellent influencing and negotiation skills;
• Experience in developing world context;
• A strong understanding of project cycle management, monitoring and evaluation;
• Working experience in complex emergencies;
• Willing to work in insecure context.