Vacancy Announcement: WASH Behavior Change Assistant 

Job Title: WASH Behavior, Change Assistant  

Reports To: WASH Behavior Change Officer

Duty station: TBD, in one of EF Districts

Supervisor Duties: NA

Background 

Water For People is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with people and partners to develop innovative and long-lasting solutions to the water, sanitation, and hygiene problems in developing countries.  The organization strives to continually improve, experiment with promising new ideas, and leverage resources to multiply its impact. Water For People is currently operating in 9 countries including Rwanda where the organization is supporting WASH in the districts of Rulindo, Kicukiro, Gicumbi, Karongi and Gisagara. Ten more districts are supported under the USAID-funded Isoko y’Ubuzima Project.

Health and WASH are closely interlinked everywhere and in Rwanda in particular. The sustainable good health of the population depends mainly on the availability of safe water, proper sanitation services and hygiene behaviors. While the Government of Rwanda has committed to ensuring its population’s high standards of health by 2030 and 2050 it is working hard to ensure safe water is available to everybody with no one left behind by 2030.

POSITION OBJECTIVE:

The WASH Behavior Change Assistant is responsible for engaging and empowering communities to take ownership of their water, sanitation, and hygiene needs. The WASH Behavior Change Assistant works with community members to identify their needs, develop solutions, and implement sustainable WASH interventions.

SPECIFIC TASKS

• The WASH behavior Change Assistant position will be field based.
• S/he will focus primarily on behavioral change communication, hygiene promotion, beneficiary inclusion, and survey teams.
• Assist the WASH behavior Change Officer in setting up a database of tools for use across all WASH behavior change related activities including Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials and messages.
• Implement behavior change campaigns, community to community, house to house visits in targeted intervention areas.
• Assist the WASH behavior Change Officer in carrying out training of Hygiene Promotors and clubs in communities and public institutions.
• In collaboration with WASH Behavior Change Officer, ensure messages are chosen in line with the health and WASH guidelines on appropriate messaging.
• In collaboration with the with WASH Behavior Change Officer, find and creative ways to communicate and promote behavior change approaches and messages based on culture and context of Rwanda.
• Implement Barrier Analysis (or other formative research) in communities and public institutions (schools) to better understand key barriers to positive behavior change and develop targeted strategies for promoting improved social and behavioral care practices.
• When required support the MEAL team to ensure that regular monitoring and evaluation assessments are conducted in the field in terms of the quality of Water For People
• In collaboration with WASH behavior Change Officer facilitate WASH relevant awareness sessions and trainings activities.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting of activities to the WASH behavior Change Officer, 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES: 

1. Participation to Strategic and Operational planning

• The WASH Behavior Change Assistant will engage with community members, schools and health care facilities, to understand their water, sanitation, and hygiene needs.
• She/He will work with the community to develop a shared vision for WASH interventions that are appropriate and sustainable.
• Work with Country Program staff to develop a related strategy and operation plan in line with Water For People’s overall strategy and policy objectives
• Contribute to Water For People’s overall program and policy discussions

2. Capacity development

• Work with districts to identify gaps in hygiene and WASH behavior change, as well as challenges met as they strive to improve hygiene and sanitation;
• Develop capacity development of local officials and relevant stakeholders in charge of hygiene and sanitation in communities and schools to document their experience, especially in the fields of water management, sanitation and hygiene promotion approaches;
• Lead the capacity development of district officials and schools on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and proper, hygiene and sanitation and maintenance of school WASH infrastructures
• Build the capacity of community members, schools to take ownership of their WASH needs. This includes training on hygiene practices, water management, and sanitation infrastructure maintenance.

• Working with districts WASH Board to train CHCs and WUCs, School Hygiene Clubs operators and local government authorities on the management of water supply systems and promotion of
• Implementation of the CBEHPP in the village, coordinated by the head of the village and supported by the community health workers (CHW) and the Community Environmental Health Officers (CEHO) through existing structures/channels.
• Establishing and training of water users’ committees and ensure that members know their roles and responsibilities

3. Advocacy and learning

• In cooperation with partners, develop program work that contributes to Water For People’s learning and advocacy agendas;

• Promote a learning environment among Water For People’s partners and staff, and ensure that lessons and good practices are timely shared between Water For People and partners;

• Contribute to organizational learning by preparing and disseminating data, lessons learned, good practices, and statistical and qualitative data to Water For People staff, partners and other stakeholders, and organize periodic organizational learning events to share best practices.
• Support proper documentation of the WASH interventions to inform future planning and learning.

4. Monitoring and Evaluation

• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team officer to analyze data collected under the monitoring framework for assessment of progress, social impact on beneficiaries, and areas for improvement.
• Based on monitoring results, work with partners to design strategies to improve hygiene and sanitation conditions in the communities and public institutions.
• Initiate specific assessment (s) of the country program undertakings, and/or stakeholders’ performance, i.e district WASH Boards and their decentralized entities, WUCs, Hygiene Clubs, etc. for appropriate decision making;
• Ensure a regular monitoring of work progress against plan, evaluate its impact and use this information to act towards any deviation or delays.

COMPETENCIES

• Connects to the Mission – Embraces the mission of Water For People and is passionate about advancing the dynamic role it plays leading social impact in international development.
• Demonstrates Ethics and Integrity – Understands ethical behavior and business practices, and ensures that own behavior is consistent with these standards and aligns with the values of the organization.
• Manages through Ambiguity – Demonstrates flexibility and adaptability in responding to change and ambiguity.
• Demonstrates Cultural Awareness – Able to engage the wide range of stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
• Action-oriented – Maintains an attitude of open, curious and proactive learning, continually expanding own area of understanding and expertise.
• Connects with Others – Listens and fosters open communication through questioning, dialogue, and information sharing.
• Self-confident – Demonstrates humility, mature confidence and courage to innovate, risk, and lead in own role.

QUALIFICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS REQUIRED:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health, Social Sciences, Development studies, and Public Health with academic top performance.
• At least one (1) year of professional experience in the environmental health, Social Sciences, Development studies, and Public Health areas;
• Interested in working with communities in WASH projects;
• Strong interpersonal communication skills and excellent written and analytic skills, report writing, networking, and representation.
• Be a risks taker, and have a nose for entrepreneurial opportunities.
• Good analytical skills and the ability to extrapolate lessons to other situations.
• Comfort and talent in communicating with diverse and international constituents.
• Ability to analyze and organize data and communicate results effectively.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects with multiple priorities.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a collaborative team effort.
• Well-developed written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills
• Understanding of issues of gender, Equity, Diversity and inclusion in the Rwanda context, particularly as it relates to WASH
• Understanding of issues related to climate change resilience
• Fluent in English and Kinyarwanda(both written and spoken)
• Flexible, innovative, proactive, to work under tight deadlines and have excellent follow-through skills.
• Maintain sound ethical principles, integrity, and transparency of the due process
• Be a self-starter and work with limited supervision. 

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

This role will require traveling to the areas of Water For People’s operations and other parts of the country to execute their responsibilities.

EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS: 

• Position will be based on one of the Everyone Forever Districts
• Regular travel to program sites.

Note:   This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications associated with the job.

Salary Range:

Rwanda’s expected annual gross salary range is RWF 5,527,661   to RWF 9,915,818.

The actual salary will be determined based on experience and other job-related factors.

Benefits:

Benefits are one of the ways we encourage healthy living for you and your family. Our generous package includes medical and life insurance, annual leave allocation equal to one month of salary, and other benefits in accordance with the Rwanda labour law.