Watershed and water climate change officer

Job Purpose

The Watershed and climate change officer is responsible for the overall provision of technical support with regard to sustainable community-based degraded land management (DLM) interventions in the program intervention areas, lead the preparation and the implementation of Community-led Climate Resilient Water Safety Plans (CRWSP) and facilitate Woreda-wide water allocation strategic plan, buffer zone protection plan and byelaw development. S/he will also oversee coordinating participatory mapping of indigenous natural resource management (NRM) and traditional WASH institutions. The Watershed and climate change office will be responsible to conduct a thorough analysis and make sure that Water development doesn’t end up in the degradation of the environment, impacts of climate change on water resource and visa Vis, implementation of catchment protection related activities, support utilities and water user association on development of climate resilient water safety plan. The incumbent will also be responsible for providing relevant technical assistance to pertinent offices (to NRM officers of government line offices, and its partner organizations) working in the programme intervention area specially to promote sustainable WASH intervention.  Support the project coordinator on managing budget and partnership with project consortiums and stakeholders. 

Technical Support and implementation of the project activities:

• Provides technical support for field staff, partners, and government offices regarding sustainable community-based water shade management and WASH interventions in project areas.

•  Facilitate community action planning and support implementation of the plan of action to minimize degradation of water and natural resources.

• Coordinates participatory mapping of indigenous natural resource management (NRM) and water management institutions. 

• Provides relevant technical assistance to pertinent offices, NRM, government line offices, and other partner organizations working in project sites.

• Provide support in the areas of DNH (Do-No-Harm) approach.

• Regularly communicates with impact areas and site offices on the progress of planned NRM activities and provide them with appropriate information and feedbacks accordingly.

• Device and implement livelihood diversification of the community in the project area.

• Prepare Terms of Reference (TOR) for trainings and project visits including methodology preparation, sample selection and staff training if needed, and provide overall technical direction to conduct surveys.

• Support the conducting evaluation of all completed activities to establish key learning and recommendations to inform future programs and projects.

• Takes a leadership role in the development and implementation of NRM, water safety catchment protection and water allocation related activities.

•  Work closely with local partners to implement NRM activities in the project sites. 

• Work closely with organizations and Technical Working Groups at local and regional level that do have much experience and exposure in natural resource management.

• Ensure water ECOSAVE project’s NRM and watershed  components are designed in a way that promote integrated NRM-WASH programming.

• Work the downstream community of the intervention water shade has a plan of climate resilient plan and practice. 

• Conduct assessment of the Stakeholders and consortium organizations capacity in the field of watershed and climate change, and develop, design, and lead the implementation delivery of a capacity of watershed and climate change capacity building to staff and personnel of stakeholders, together with implementing partners involved in the implementation of grants.

• Directly support government, utility, water users’ association and partners in the field for any capacity on water resource management, water allocation and water safety plan.  

• Support capacity building of partner NGOs across all water resource and climate change if applicable.

• Strengthen systems and tools, and training materials to train stakeholders and other implementing partners personnel.

• Works with the PMER Specialist to develop a system that will enable WaterAid Ethiopia to assess the impact of interventions such as NR Mapping, DNH (Do-No-Harm) approach and WASH-NRM integrated approaches.

• Provides guidance and support to WASH project staff members related to natural resource management and water security to enable them to administer the monitoring system.

• Keeps up to date with developments in the sector, including best practice examples within the region.

• Assist the Country Programme in the identification of potential implementation problems for NRM and water security and bottlenecks and recommend appropriate strategies to address them, ensuring disparities between planned and actual outputs are addressed.

• Establish, develop, and maintain relationships with the country programme team of WaterAid and partners. 

• Maintain cooperative relationship with all key stakeholders, and partners in the project implementation areas. 

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding, Child Protection and Gender policies and Code of Conduct (CoC).

• Adheres to any local security protocols that have been put in place when working in the office, travelling to the field, or undertaking project / programme activities.

• Immediately reports any health, safety and security incidents or near-misses that occur on WaterAid duty to their line manager, Security Focal Point or CD.

• Behaves and acts in a manner that does not put colleagues or anyone that interacts with WaterAid in immediate danger or harm’s way.

Capacity Building:

   Learning, Monitoring and Networking:

Safeguarding, Safety, and Security:

Other:

• Perform any other duty as may be assigned by supervisor or designee from time to time

• Participate and contribute to committees and task forces e.g., Procurement Committee at the project office.

Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience

Essential Criteria

• BSc degree or higher in Natural Resource Management, Integrated Water Shade Management, Agriculture, hydrology, climate change or other related fields.

• Minimum relevant experience of 5 years for MSc and 7 years for BSc in water resource management, water safety planning, WASH, climate change, disaster risk reduction and forester in an NGO setting in the field of WASH. 

• Demonstrated track record in project implementation role, preferably on watershed management, water safety plan and climate change.

• Extensive knowledge of Water security and climate change both in a development and humanitarian sectors.

• A strong background in WASH Programmes, having managed projects wherein related to water security, water resource management, water supply service etc.. 

• Good knowledge of project planning cycle and management; and strong hands-on experience in implementation of project as well as project designs and proposal writing.

• Strong knowledge in the development and use of software (SWAT) and database applications for water and climate change. 

• Solid experience in management of people and systems and working in high-pressure environment.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Able to communicate complex information clearly to others. 

• Self-motivated, has driven, meet deadlines and capable to work under extreme pressure. 

• Ability to convey technical information/ data in clear and vivid prose. Excellent presentation and public-speaking skills.

• Strong planning and organizational; problem solving skills, prioritization of work.

• Strong interpersonal skills. Able to build relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, negotiate and influence across teams in order to achieve the best outcome.

• Experience of collaborating, managing and motivating others; drive change within a multi discipline team. 

• Competency in WaterAid common approaches to work including partnerships, convening, inclusion, systems strengthening, creating behavioral change, and mainstreaming gender and inclusion of youth.

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, especially matrix and distance management environments.

• Must be a team player with mutual trust and understanding in a mixed team.

• Provides vision, direction, and a problem solver.

• Values driven, demonstrates gender and cultural awareness.

• Promotes high performance, innovation, and learning.

• Behaves consistently in approach to work and decision-making.

Behavioral competencies

• Self-motivated, has driven, meet deadlines and capable to work under extreme pressure. 

• Ability to convey technical information/ data in clear and vivid prose. Excellent presentation and public-speaking skills.

• Strong planning and organizational; problem solving skills, prioritization of work.

• Strong interpersonal skills. Able to build relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, negotiate and influence across teams in order to achieve the best outcome.

• Experience of collaborating, managing and motivating others; drive change within a multi discipline team. 

• Competency in WaterAid common approaches to work including partnerships, convening, inclusion, systems strengthening, creating behavioral change, and mainstreaming gender and inclusion of youth.

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, especially matrix and distance management environments.

• Must be a team player with mutual trust and understanding in a mixed team.

• Provides vision, direction, and a problem solver.

• Values driven, demonstrates gender and cultural awareness.

• Promotes high performance, innovation, and learning.

Behaves consistently in approach to work and decision-making.