Job Detail

Forty years of war, recurrent natural disasters, chronic poverty, drought, and the COVID-19 pandemic have devastated the people of Afghanistan. The recent escalation in conflict and resulting upheaval has only exacerbated needs and have left a considerable proportion of the population in Afghanistan with limited access to safe water, adequate sanitation facilities and hygiene practices.

Recent political developments have pushed Afghanistan into economic crisis. This had immediate repercussions across an economy already facing daunting development challenges. Rapid reduction in international support, loss of access to offshore assets, and disruption to financial linkages are expected to lead to a major contraction of the economy, increasing poverty, and macroeconomic instability.

Millions of people lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Afghanistan, where access to basic WASH is the lowest in some densely populated provinces across the country.  The situation is more pronounced in rural areas where 44% of population lack basic drinking water supply, less than 45% lack access to basic sanitation and less than 40% of the population have access to handwashing at home

Poor access to basic WASH services adversely impacts the survival, health, and protection of the most vulnerable segments of the population. There is a continuous high baseline risk of water and sanitation related disease outbreak, including cholera and other water borne diseases. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene disproportionately affect women and girls who often bear the burden for water fetching and can be more vulnerable to violence when traveling far from home for water and sanitation needs.

There are early signs that existing WASH systems could collapse quickly if action is not taken to ensure WASH is adequately resourced.  Given the technical nature of operating water and sanitation services, if key technical posts in water utilities or service providers are vacated due to lack of salary payments, services can falter or fail, leaving millions in cities and towns without water and sanitation services. Similarly, if support to Community Development Councils responsible for WASH service delivery in rural areas fall short, around 70% of Afghanistan population will be affected . To support preventing sector collapse, and provide access to basic services, the client supports the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and Ministry fo Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) with recruiting, deploying and financing national/local WASH Technical Extenders (TEs) to strengthen WASH programme planning, supervision and monitoring at different level. The focus is on improving children’s access to basic human rights on water and sanitation.  

Role objectives

Task to be Performed:

• Capacity Building at national and sub-national level for better implementation of WASH programme.

• Support monthly Water Sector Group and Technical Working Group (TWG)  meetings (Hygiene, Sanitation, Water, WinS)          

• Support WASH Knowledge Management through documentation and sharing WASH best practices

• Support the Ru-WatSIP Monitoring and Information System (MIS)

• Support CLTS Mobilization teams for scaling up of sanitation                                           

• Support monitoring of CLTS activities at national and provincial levels    

• Support WASH IEC material for CLTS implementation                                         

• Support the construction and rehabilitation of community drinking water supply systems.

• Provision of operational support (administrative, logistical, and finical) to national and sub-national staff to deliver key results in WASH

• Provide on the job training to CDCs and contractors to ensure good quality construction of rural water supply systems and to ensure establishment and training of O&M committee (encouraging female participation) for water supply system                                    

• Provide technical supervision and monitoring of WASH programs                                    

• Support for water quality testing

• Support the construction and rehabilitation of WinS facilities in school      

• Support the implementation of software activities in schools including MHM

• Support to WASH in health care facilities   

• Support the implementation of Health Centre Hygiene Programme

• Support for Menstrual Hygiene Management in schools                                          

• Preparation of Contingency Plan at national and provincial levels 

• Carry out assessments/survey to determine WASH needs    

• Provide gender responsive humanitarian WASH services through temporary solutions to affected people in communities and IDP sites 

  Deliverable(s):

•  People trained on WASH related topics including gender 

• Coordination meetings held with relevant partners

• WASH related stories developed and published. Best practices are documented and captured in MIS

• WASH MIS/GIS system kept up to date and functional

• Community Led Total Sanitation implemented

• CLTS data collected and dashboards are prepared.

• IEC materials developed

• Water supply projects designed and implemented  

• Staff are supported to deliver their daily tasks.

• Mechanics are trained on Operation and Maintenance (O&M)

• O&M committees are established for water supply systems.

• WASH activities monitored.

• Water quality of systems tested

• WASH facilities constructed in schools

• Awareness raised at school about key WASH issues

• WASH facilities provided to health care facilities

• Number of health centres where HCHP implemented

• Number of schools supported with MHM facilities and messages

• Contingency plans prepared

• Number of assessments conducted

• Number of IDPs and other affected sites assisted with WASH services