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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The WASH in Emergency Consultant will support the UNICEF Country Office in Vietnam in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of UNICEF’s WASH emergency response and recovery efforts and advocacy to safeguards and improve public health of emergency-affected populations. The focus will be on programming to ensure improved hygiene practices, access to safely managed water and sanitation and recovery efforts in the context of the current Flood and storm in Northen Mountain Provinces in line with UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children (CCC) in Emergency and national/ international humanitarian standards.

Scope of Work:

Viet Nam, as a lower middle-income country since 2010, is at critical juncture in its development journey, especially under the New Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework which provides a strengthened partnership platform for supporting Vietnam’s efforts towards achieving key national priorities. With the increasing national capacity to invest its own resource for the development programs, UNICEF is increasing its role in upstream advocacy and technical assistance to eliminate barriers and bottlenecks across sectors including in the water and hygiene (WASH).

Since 6 September 2024, the Northen Mountain region of Viet Nam has been hit by the third storm, Typhoon Yagi. This is the strongest to hit Asia and Vietnam this year, which have brought unprecedented heavy rains resulting in landslides and cascading floods. The Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VDMA) has recorded that the Typhoon Yagi kills 292 people, 140 people missing and destroys homes across north of country as of 11 September 2024. The Government of Viet Nam organized rapid assessments to the most affected provinces and released a call for emergency relief and support. The project aims to address immediate needs of water and sanitation, health and nutrition and child protection supplies and services, reducing the risk of water-related diseases, micronutrient deficiency and severe acute malnutrition of children under five; reduce the risk of abuse, exploitation and violence against children and women in affected communities.

The assessments found that the landslides and floods have deprived communities' access to safe water supplies and sanitation facilities, as systems have been damaged or destroyed. The affected populations urgently require safe and equitable access to a sufficient quantity and quality of water and sanitation services. The project aims to reach the affected communities and families with improved water supply systems and sanitation facilities in affected households, schools and health centers. The interventions, include provision of WASH supplies including water filters, and improving water treatment services, safe storage facilities, strengthening water quality monitoring, improving access to hygienic latrines particularly in schools and health centres and safe excreta management;

In response to the floods and storms and following requests from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for supporting impacted provinces, as part of UN joint wide efforts, UNICEF has been providing critical support to the government of Viet Nam to prepare for, take early action, and respond to both emergency situations. At the request of the government, UNICEF is providing water storage facilities, and delivering key messages for the targeted communities on WASH, Health and Nutrition, Education, Child Protection. The emergency response aims to address immediate needs for water and sanitation, health and nutrition and child protection supplies and services, reducing the risk of water- related diseases, micronutrient deficiency and severe acute malnutrition of children under five; reduce the risk of abuse, exploitation and violence against children and women in affected communities.

The incumbent Emergency WASH Consultant is expected to bring in critical inputs to the emergency component of WASH programming to meet to the UNICEF's CCC in emergency with the overall supervision of Child Survival and Development (SCD) Section Chief. The position further aims to provide technical assistance for the recovery component of WASH programming with special focus on risk informed programming and humanitarian-development continuum. This in turn will help UNICEF to demonstrate DRR/CCA incorporated into the overall rural development programs in selected provinces and help scale up across the country.

Due to the need to ensure a timely and effective WASH response to the current flood emergency, it is necessary to recruit an Emergency WASH Consultant to enhance the CSD's capacity to effectively respond to key commitments in the areas of WASH response to provide life-saving support to affected communities, as well as recovery and enhanced preparedness and resilience measures.

The Consultant will be required in the period from 20 September 2024 to 31 December 2025.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose and Objectives:

The Consultants will support CSDE to effectively carry out planned WASH interventions thought leading the information, coordination, implementation, monitoring and support of WASH emergency response at national and local levels in Northen Mountains provinces such as Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Cao Bang, Bắc Kan, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang and others as needed, including supply distribution planning and monitoring at provincial, district and commune levels.   

Summary of Key Functions/Accountabilities

1. Provide technical support to the MARD/NCERWASS, MOET, VIHEMA and other national counterparts and target provinces in implementation and management of emergency WASH Interventions as per agreed workplan and budget;

2. Coordinate with logistics supply to ensure timely local distribution planning, and distribution reporting. Ensure proper and timely accountability against policies and procedures, including feedback mechanisms and complaint management;

3. Collaborate effectively with national and provincial partners in implementation of a monitoring plan to follow up the UNICEF's response in WASH sector, incorporating required changes into planned activities with special attention to specific needs of women, children and people with disabilities, as well as other cross-cutting areas;

Location

The consultant is expected to work from home, preferably in Ha Noi, have meetings virtually and/or at UNICEF and partner offices, and conduct field trips to the project provinces, including the northern mountain provinces including but not limited to Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang.

For tasks, deliverables and time frame, please refer to the attached TOR  TOR for WASH emergency consultant 2024-2025.pdf.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

- Master degree or equivalent experience in Public Health, Environmental Science, Water and Sanitation Engineering, Emergency Programme Management, and other related fields;

- Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in the UN or any other international development organization, national government, or the private sector.

- Field work experience including community mobilization approaches on WASH

- Experience responding to emergencies in the WASH sector, including experience supporting the Emergency WASH Working Group and cluster approach is an advantage.

- Knowledge on the theories, principles and methods in the following areas: Sanitation and Hygiene, School WASH, water supply project management, integrated water resource management, communication for behavioural change, monitoring and evaluation. Knowledge of UNICEF policies and strategies to address WASH issues, including those relating to natural disasters, disaster risk reduction and environment is essential;

- Excellent inter-personal communication skills to be able to work closely with team members from a wide range of cultural and social context is desired;

- Experience of working in the UN or other international development organizations is most preferable;

- Good written and communication skills;

- Good computer knowledge;

- Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).   

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

Assessment criteria:

For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:

a) Technical Qualification weight 75%:

a.1. Educational background: 30 points

a.2. Relevant working experiences: 45 points

- A minimum of 15 years of relevant experience with a Bachelor's degree or 10 years of relevant experience with a Master's degree at the national and/or international levels in Public Health, Environmental Science, Water and Sanitation Engineering, Emergency Programme Management, and other related fields (20 points)

- Good understanding of GOV’s regulations and standards in rural development and the WASH sector (10 points)

- Practical experience relating to natural disasters, disaster risk reduction and environment, emergency program management in rural areas in Viet Nam. (15 points).

b) Financial Proposal weight 25%:

The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum 50 points score in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

The Contract shall be awarded to candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the verification interview if needed.

Submission of applications:

a. Letter of interest/CV

b. Three references of relevant previous assignment(s)

e. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel and any other relevant costs for this assignment.  

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.