General Position Summary

The WASH Coordinator will oversee the implementation of all support water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities throughout Herat Province. This position with supervisory and managerial responsibilities, including direct project management responsibilities for the WASH activities in Herat province. Reporting to the Multisectoral Program Manager, s/he will oversee and develop the high-quality design and implementation of emergency response activities to effectively address the humanitarian gaps and needs while building a base for later activities of early recovery. S/he is responsible for ensuring that activities run smoothly by providing technical leadership, supervising, training, and mentoring the WASH team members, and coordinating the implementation of WASH activities with other activities under same project.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

Program Management

• Manage implementation of the WASH activities in Herat province;
• Manage and update WASH project management monitoring trackers and tools as part of the master trackers and tools.
• Oversee the successful implementation of WASH project activities, ensuring that teams are following work plans, that activities are on schedule, and those project deliverables are completed according to the grant agreement.
• Conduct technical assessments and feasibility studies for WASH infrastructure projects, such as water supply systems, sanitation facilities, waste management, and hygiene promotion.
• Prepare and oversee the implementation of WASH infrastructure projects, including budgeting, procurement, contracting, supervision, reporting, and evaluation.
• Develop and maintain WASH infrastructure documentation, such as designs, drawings, specifications, manuals, and records.
• Create and manage procurement requests for WASH activities, follow-up with support functions including finance and payment requests.
• Manage contractors and suppliers to ensure compliance and project success.
• Identify priorities in terms of assessments, designing and overseeing Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) and other surveys;
• When security permits, conduct field assessments, make recommendations about the needs and vulnerabilities of the target populations in regard to water, sanitation, and hygiene issues, and develop and implements feasible yet sound technical solutions.
• Work closely with Cash and NFI Coordinator and WASH specialists.
• Conduct regular monitoring of project activities and project impact, per Mercy Corps Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning and in accordance with existing related guidelines; (HAP, SPHERE and donor regulations)
• Actively participates in the preparation of tender and contracts, including technical specifications of works to be performed by contractors;
• Write monthly reports and other donor-based reports or organizational-based notes for the WASH activities;
• Work closely with vendors and contractors for WASH activities, as well as participate in vendor assessment and selection;
• Assist in proposal/concept note development and report writing as necessary;
• WASH Budget management;
• Ensure that communities are informed about our projects and what we do, are aware of their entitlements, are comfortable giving feedback and that feedback is used to improve the quality of our projects;
• Engage community members and local partners in the verification of beneficiary households that promote accountability;
• In coordination with Cash and NFI Coordinator identify the locations for hygiene kits and other WASH kits for the distribution.
• Lead teams for WASH assessments prior to the interventions and ensure MOUs are developed and signed prior to any intervention,
• Liaising with local authorities and relevant sectorial departments to clarify project details and roles and responsibilities, 
• Ensure all records including meeting minutes, field visit reports, trackers, donor correspondence, project pictures, BOQs and other project documents are uploaded on the share drive.
• Adhere to all Mercy Corps areas of operations and transport/logistics information related to programming.
• Carry out any other task as requested by the supervisor.

Team Management

• Ensure staff are provided with timely and constructive feedback to improve their performance and enable them for future growth,
• In coordination with WASH Specialist provide support and technical oversight to the field teams and mentor field staff in the planning and implementation of WASH activities.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence;
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews;
• Hire, Supervise, train, and mentor the new team members as necessary;
• Provide team members with information, tools, and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives;
• In coordination with WASH Specialist provide technical direction and advice in emergency response in an insecure environment, and develop work plans in collaboration with the team;

Finance and Compliance Management

• Ensure WASH forecast sheet is timely updated,
• Updating procurement plan at the inception of the award and on a quarterly basis,
• Ensure procurement plan and forecast sheet are in line against approved budget,
• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming;
• Ensure internal and donor compliance through strong knowledge of rules within grant agreements;
• Ensure all necessary purchase requests are accurately prepared and submitted on time;
• Ensure documentation and filing of project activities in compliance with Mercy Corps policies and procedures.

Influence, Representation & Coordination

• Represent Mercy Corps at local coordination meetings, WASH cluster meetings, and other relevant meetings.
• Ensuring activity info and FTS are fully updated,
• Representing Mercy Corps in WASH technical workings groups.
• Develop and maintain working relationships and coordinate with relevant international and local agencies active in the water and sanitation sector of emergency response, and, other humanitarian and human rights organizations, local authorities and local partners,
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met
• Liaise with local officials including the Local and the Directorate of water, Municipality, Directorate of Health, local NGOs and project partners, community leaders and other community members to ensure support for and acceptance of Mercy Corps projects in the AOR;

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership;
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies;
• Stay informed of incidents as they arise through the field and are raised through the program coordination mechanism.
• Liaising with operations and liaison teams for access letters and relevant approvals,

ccountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards, guiding relief and development work, whilst actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: Community Mobilization and Hygiene Promotion Officers, WASH Officer and Assistants.

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Multisectoral Program Manager.

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Cash and NFI coordinator, WASH specialist, CARM, MEL, Operations, Finance Teams, Security, and other sectorial leads.