Deadline to respond to the consultancy: June 05th, 2023.

Start Date: ASAP

End Date: 2 months – possibility to extend.

Location: Syria Mission (North-East Syria)

About us

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL (SI) is an international humanitarian aid association which, since more than 40 years, has been providing assistance to populations affected by armed conflicts and natural disasters by meeting their basic needs for food, water and shelter. Particularly committed to the fight against diseases linked to unsafe water, the leading cause of death in the world, SI’s interventions provide expertise in the field of access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, but also in the essential area of food security and livelihoods. Present in some twenty countries, the SI teams – 2500 people in total, made up of expatriates, national staff, permanent staff at HQ, and a few volunteers – intervene with professionalism and commitment while respecting cultural norms.

About the mission

Considering the absence of Cluster system in NES, the area is experimenting a unique inter-partner coordination system that is steered by INGOs, within the Whole of Syria UN-led coordination system. SI is leading the WaSH Working Group in this system and hosting the position of the Coordinator and Information Manager. The NES Wash Working Group is based in Hassake in NES, according to security conditions. The NES WASH Working Group is part of coordination system under the umbrella of the NES Forum and in link with the Whole of Syria mechanism based in Amman.

About the consultancy

To provide short term support and act as WASH Working Group Coordinator for 2 months, and more specifically being responsible for supporting sector coordination of WASH actors in Northeast Syria in collaboration with the Whole of Syria (WoS) WASH Cluster and the Northeast Syria NGO Forum. The purpose of this position is to provide leadership and facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by WASH actors in NES.

The WASH Working Group in NES is one of the three hubs that is part of the Whole of Syria WASH Cluster.

Main objectives:

Lead WASH Sector coordination within NES in order to respond to emergency situations effectively and improve the delivery of WASH services in affected areas.
Develop and support implementation of a service continuity planning strategy.

Key Priorities and Deliverables :

Inclusion of key humanitarian partners with specific attention to local actors, NGOs, UN agencies based in NES.
Establishment and maintenance of appropriate humanitarian coordination mechanisms. This includes organizing regular multi-lateral and bilateral meetings, developing meeting agendas, sending minutes and following up/supporting the progress on action points.
Actively coordinate with national/local authorities, state institutions, local civil society, and stabilization actors.
Ensuring adapted information management monitoring functions to maintain 4Ws planning, reporting and information sharing as required, in collaboration with the WoS WASH Cluster and NES NGO Forum.
Contributing to advocacy and resource mobilization which includes draft reports and briefing notes on the situation and developments in the context and needs, in collaboration with the WoS WASH Cluster and NES NGO Forum.
Ensuring needs assessment and analysis which includes relevant contributions to multi-sector assessments, in collaboration with the WoS WASH Cluster and NES NGO Forum.
Ensuring the application of appropriate standards. In collaboration with relevant technical leads in the sector to discuss, share relevant technical standards and guidelines for best practice. This includes working with the WoS WASH cluster to develop and promote common or rationalised approaches between coordination hubs.
Undertaking the planning and strategy development including an active leadership on the continuity of services planning for Northeast Syria. With support of the WWG IM, updating service mapping of activities with Damascus based partners as appropriate, develop and agree with Damascus based partners on critical activities).
Ensuring participatory and community-based approaches, in order to ensure relevance and appropriateness of WASH response in Northeast Syria.
Ensuring appropriate attention to priority cross-cutting issues such as Protection, Age, Gender, Disability and Environment in the WASH response in Northeast Syria.
Ensuring the WASH emergency preparedness and that response plans are updated, and that operational capacity of NES cross borders partners is regularly updated and compiled with Damascus based partner’s capacity mapping.
Undertaking training and capacity building in collaboration with the WoS WASH Cluster and relevant technical leads in the sector to facilitate technical training and capacity building.
Actively contributing to Inter-Sector coordination. The position-holder will be responsible for actively participating in other relevant coordination mechanisms in Northeast Syria. The position-holder will work in collaboration with the WoS Sector Coordinators and NES INGO Forum Coordinator to ensure adequate and appropriate liaison and coordination with the other WG/Sector and Coordination fora in Northeast Syria to ensure/facilitate contextual analysis, needs assessments and access to beneficiaries and sites/structures.

More on the position:

The WWG Coordinator is pivotal in strengthening and sustaining the coordination effort of WASH Sector within NES in order to respond to emergency situations effectively and improve the delivery of WASH services in the region.
The purpose of this position is to provide leadership and facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by WASH actors in NES, with liaison to coordinate with humanitarian operations operating from Damascus.
The position-holder will be SI staff and will report directly to SI DCD program (see below). However, the position-holder will be accountable to WASH partners in Northeast Syria, the WoS WASH Cluster and the NES Forum. The position-holder will not be directly involved in the delivery of SI projects.

Your profile

Be technically competent in the WASH sector with minimum 3 years of experience of project coordination in humanitarian WASH response including water distribution, construction and rehabilitation of WASH facilities, Waste management and hygiene promotion.
Be technically competent in the cluster approach and standards, ideally previous experience in cluster coordination.
Demonstrate personal and professional integrity in all interactions.
Be able to work with diverse stakeholders to develop consensus.
Know how to present ideas effectively and clearly while listening and acknowledging others’ perspectives and views.
Demonstrate an understanding of the international humanitarian response and coordination mechanisms, and humanitarian reform.
Have an understanding of humanitarian funding mechanisms (HPF, CERF, CHF and Flash Appeals processes).
Have a strong command of humanitarian principles and how to apply these.
Able to develop a cluster strategy and to clarify complex strategies for operational implementation.
Able to lead of technical standards and ensure minimum humanitarian intervention with consideration to incorporation of other thematic issues such as health, protection and gender.
Understand the links between emergency response, recovery, and the transition to development/stabilization.
Handling insecure environments.
Strong level of autonomy.
Fluency in English, both written and verbal is mandatory.

Application process

Interest applicants are required to submit their proposal, using the following guidelines:

Cover letter – one-page maximum
CV
Financial proposal. Includes breakdown of costs
Reference

Applications must be submitted to deputy.log.coo@solidarites-syria.org, & HR.coo@solidarites-syria.org with “Consultancy – WWG Coordinator – Short Term Support” as the subject of the email. Applications with other subjects will not be considered.

Deadline to apply: June 05th, 2023.

Criteria of evaluation of the offers will be:

Price: 40%
Quality of methodology of the consultancy: 30%
Capacity/reference: 30%

An offer not including at least 1 reference for consultancy will be not considered.