Save the Children
Vacancy: WASH Field Officer
Position Code: WASH/MERU/0215
Team / Programme: Programmes
Grade: 4
Post Type: National
(12 months)
Child Safeguarding: Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may
require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or
young people.
Role Purpose: The Field Trainer will be responsible for introducing the intervention to government and healthcare staff.
The Field Trainer will identify and
train clinic based healthcare workers and field based healthcare workers on
hand washing promotion using a standard SBCC package developed by the project
staff.
After training, the Field Trainer
will monitor healthcare workers’ delivery of the intervention while also providing
financial and logistical support to participating health workers.
Scope of Role: The intervention area is Igembe North and Igembe
Central sub-counties in Meru County, Kenya. This is a rural area about 250 km
northeast of Nairobi, Kenya.
The intervention will take place at
all government funded (public) antenatal care facilities in these areas. Travel
distances and associated costs may guide our selection of clinics to include in
this intervention.
The study will include the following
arms:
- Clinic staff and health extension workers
receive no intervention (control group)
- Intervention arm 1 - Clinic staff will be
encouraged to use the handwashing promotion tools/materials on mothers
when they come to the clinic for care
- Intervention arm 2 – Clinic staff and
associated health extension workers will be encouraged to use the
handwashing promotion tools/materials when mothers come to the clinic for
care and during ANC visits to the home
- Intervention arm 3 – Clinic staff and
associated health extension workers will be encouraged to use the
handwashing promotion tools/materials when mothers come to the clinic for
care and during ANC visits to the home.
During the ANC visit, households will
receive a hand washing station and soap for the home.
The project will meet with the
Supervising Administrator for each antenatal care facility to describe the
intervention and to request participation in the study.
In addition, the project will request
the Administrator to allow antenatal care clinic staff to be trained to promote
handwashing using a pre-specified set of tools, and to encourage staff to carry
out the handwashing promotion to pregnant women.
Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners.
Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners.
Current programming focuses on child
protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods,
nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save
the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to
create a single operation in Kenya.
In Feb 2014, we completed a second
transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge
their health and nutrition programmes with our own.
Save the Children now has an
operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana
and Wajir and we work through partners in many other parts of the country.
We employ nearly 300 staff and will
have an operating annual budget in 2015 of approximately US$20-25 million
Reports to: Field Coordinator
Reports to: Field Coordinator
Key Areas of Accountability:
1. Hand Washing Study / Trainings
- Participate in the design/adaptation of appropriate
handwashing education and promotion methods and tools, and pre- testing
them with the team and community members.
- Liaise with the health education department at
the Ministry of health to adapt and produce appropriate education
materials
- Participate fully in reviewing the community
training guides and counselling cards
- Participate in the development of teaching
aids and also in the training of the use of the teaching aids
- Participate in the development of training
materials and tools to facilitate all hand washing research
- Provide technical, logistical and any other
support for the trainings in the various divisions.
- Liaise with relevant ministries and partner
agencies in selecting participants for trainings while ensuring that
priority is given to the staff working in the key agreed areas
- Liaise with the ministry and other partners in
ensuring that hand washing education is comprehensively done following set
guidelines
- Maintain a data base of the trained and active
handwashing educators in the community
- Identify healthcare workers to receive
intervention training for each intervention arm
- Participate in evaluation of the outcomes of
the trainings
2. Monitoring and Evaluation
- Participate in the design, development and
implementation of an M&E framework for all handwashing related
activities.
- Write reports to document the process of
implementation, lessons learnt and good practice and ensure information is
widely disseminated
- Collation and analysis of other existing
survey data
- Participate in the design and execution of the
surveys according to national guidelines
- Prepare monthly activity reports as well as
quarterly donor reports.
3. Supervision
- Develop a comprehensive plan for supervision
of all the field hand washing activities
- Assist the community health workers
implementing the study activities to develop monthly work plans.
- At program level supervise the quality of
surveillance, support to MoH and handwashig education promotion and
counselling by the trained healthcare workers and community health workers.
- Mentor the workers to ensure that they support
and supervise the community health workers in their areas of coverage as
required
- Ensure regular meetings with the community and
the health workers
- Document and share lessons learnt in a
comprehensive and detailed manner to enable track trends on changes on a
timely basis
4. Network and coordinate with the
relevant sectors and agencies in implementing activities at national and
community level
- Identify areas of synergy in the field with
the Ministry of education and other implementing agencies working with
communities.
- Come up with a comprehensive plan of
activities within the identified areas of synergy with the actors named
above.
Skills and Behaviours (our Values in
Practice)
Accountability:
- Holds self-accountable for making decisions,
managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the
Children values
- Holds the team and partners accountable to
deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in
the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve
performance and applying appropriate remedial actions when results are not
achieved
Ambition:
- Sets ambitious and challenging goals for
themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal
development and encourages others to do the same
- Widely shares their personal vision for Save
the Children, engages and motivates others
- Future orientated, thinks strategically
Collaboration:
- Builds and maintains effective relationships,
with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
- Values diversity, sees it as a source of
competitive strength
- Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to
Creativity:
- Develops and encourages new and innovative
solutions
- Willing to take disciplined risks
Integrity:
- Honest, encourages openness and transparency;
demonstrates the highest levels of integrity
Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in public
health/community health, communications or social sciences;
- 3-5 year’s work experience in public health,
research, communications, or social sciences
- Proficiency in English and Kiswahili with
strong written and oral communication skills in each
- Technical expertise and experience in
hygiene/handwashing promotion, behavior change communication, and health
systems strengthening in developing countries.
- Experience conducting trainings for health
care staff
- Familiar with the Kenyan community strategy
approach
- Experience in training and working with
Community health extension (CHEWs) workers and the community health
volunteers (CHVs)
- Demonstrated effectiveness in maintaining
supply and equipment inventories across a decentralized environment
- Well-developed inter-personal and
communication skills with an ability to: communicate effectively with
others from different social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, adapt to
different cultures and be a supportive member of a team
- Demonstrated experience of working effectively
with a team of international staff
- Must be willing to relocate in Igembe, Meru
County for the duration of the position (15 months)
- Willingness to travel frequently (locally)
Desirable:
- Work experience in Kenya
- Experience working on a randomized controlled
trial or other type of research study
- Sensitivity to and ability to act
appropriately in the local culture
- Flexibility, responsiveness, discipline and
patience
- Experience working with a multinational and
geographically separated team
Vacancy: WASH Field Coordinator
Position Code: WASH/MERU/0015
Team / Programme: Programmes
Location: Meru
Grade: 3
Post Type: National
(12 Months)
Child Safeguarding: Level
3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have
regular contact with or access to children or young people.
Role Purpose: The Field Coordinator will be responsible for
overseeing day-to-day intervention operations, to include; management of two
field trainers, stipend payments for healthcare workers, logistics support,
data collection and intervention monitoring and quality control.
The Field Coordinator will ensure
that local government and healthcare staff are introduced to the study and
agree to participate.
The Field Coordinator will manage the
identification of participating clinics and health extension staff and the
training of those staff. Following training, the Field Coordinator will monitor
healthcare workers’ delivery of the intervention while also providing financial
and logistical support to participating health workers. The field coordinator
will supervise two WASH Officers (both based in Igembe).
Scope of Role: The intervention area is Igembe North and Igembe
Central sub-counties in Meru County, Kenya. This is a rural area about 250 km
northeast of Nairobi, Kenya. The intervention will take place at all government
funded (public) antenatal care facilities in these areas. Travel distances and
associated costs may guide our selection of clinics to include in this
intervention.
The study will include the following arms:
- Clinic staff and health extension workers
receive no intervention (control group)
- Intervention arm 1 - Clinic staff will be
encouraged to use the handwashing promotion tools/materials on mothers
when they come to the clinic for care
- Intervention arm 2 – Clinic staff and
associated community health extension workers will be encouraged to use
the handwashing promotion tools/materials when mothers come to the clinic
for care and during ANC visits to the home
- Intervention arm 3 – Clinic staff and
associated community health extension workers will be encouraged to use
the handwashing promotion tools/materials when mothers come to the clinic
for care and during ANC visits to the home. During the ANC visit,
households will receive a handwashing station and soap for the home.
- The project will meet with the Supervising
Administrator for each antenatal care facility to describe the
intervention and to request participation in the study. In addition, the
project will request the Administrator to allow antenatal care clinic
staff to be trained to promote handwashing using a pre-specified set of
tools, and to encourage staff to carry out the handwashing promotion to
pregnant women.
Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya
since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and
humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local
partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights
governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH.
In 2012, as part of a global
reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC
Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we
completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO,
Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own.
Save the Children now has an
operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana
and Wajir and we work through partners in many other parts of the country. We
employ nearly 300 staff and will have an operating annual budget in 2015 of
approximately US$20-25 million.
Background: Handwashing is difficult for mothers of newborns to carry out, as indicated by several qualitative studies undertaken in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Kenya (http://www.mchip.net/node/3115).
In a rural area in western Kenya and
an urban area in Nairobi, mothers of newborns reported barriers to handwashing
such as her perception of being too busy due to lack of assistance for
housework and childcare, the lack of soap and water where she needs them
(especially at night), a disabling environment created when decision makers of
a household (e.g. husbands) do not prioritize handwashing, and a lack of
information about how to wash hands to prevent illness in the neonate from health
care workers (Kaimenyi, Mulindi et al 2014).
Facilitators and motivators for
handwashing included perceived vulnerability of newborn to infection and a
benefit of handwashing to prevent illness (http://www.mchip.net/node/2986). A
study among mothers of children less than five years old in Kenya found habit
and a desire for cleanliness were associated with handwashing practices, but it
is unclear how well these drivers may influence maternal handwashing behavior
during the neonatal period (Aunger, Schmidt et al. 2010).
Prior studies have demonstrated that, among mothers and other primary caregivers of young children, handwashing at times of possible pathogen transmission needs improvement.
A 2010 publication by Aunger and
colleagues reports that caregivers were observed to wash hands with soap at 31%
of toileting events, and 13% of events of serving food to or feeding a child.
(Aunger, Schmidt et al. 2010) Fixed locations for handwashing with soap
are uncommon in many Kenyan homes, thereby potentially decreasing the
convenience of handwashing behavior. (Kamm, Feikin et al. 2014)
Development of a scalable, cost-effective intervention to promote handwashing with soap among mothers and caregivers of newborns has the potential to decrease neonatal mortality in Kenya. Addressing key motivators and barriers identified by Kenyan mothers and families can guide development of an acceptable, effective handwashing promotion intervention.
Reports to: WASH
Technical
Staff directly reporting to this
post: 2 WASH officers
Key Areas of Accountability:
Quality Programme, Implementation,
Management and Reporting Programme
- Provide technical support to SCI staff,
partners and government authorities on the planning, implementation and
management of the MCSP HW study programmes and information gathering and
compilation services
- Provide technical support in the development
and implementation of annual work plans, procurement plans and spending
plans in line with donor regulations.
- Provide technical support in the design and
implementation of key intervention areas, namely but not limited to: ARMS
1 - 4, community aspects
- Ensuring that a coherent and consistent
implementation strategy is developed, and that activities are implemented
in accordance with this.
- Ensure that the implementation of the
programme conforms to internationally accepted standards and national
guidelines
- Provide guidance to field staff on the
implementing MCSP Programmes on the integration of the HW component into
the overall primary health care Programmes and curative services, starting
with the identification of health care workers to receive hand washing
promotion training and equipment’s.
- Key in the management of the study materials
and equipment’s in liaison with the MoH, SCI, Consultants and other key
partners
- In collaboration with the partners support the
project assistants to introduce the hand washing promotion intervention to
the county ministry of health and healthcare facility management and also
field sites organization of logistics and staff movements.
- Together with Project Health Coordinators and
CHTs, ensure proper communication, coordination and harmonization of tools
with the different stakeholders involved in the study activities
- Provide technical leadership and support for
conducting the surveys and the level of coverage and monitoring /
assessments in all the project sites
- Support the Sub- county team in the roll out
of the study in collaboration with the national and county health
authorities.
Staff Management
- Ensure that appropriate qualified staffing
levels are in place and provide regular support, supervision and
implementation of other staff management processes including staff
performance management.
- Manage all human resources within SCI’s work
in nutrition through a consultative and transparent team approach.
- Provide technical support and
supervision of the field staff and promote learning based on study
programme objectives and activities and ensure documentation and sharing
of learning with other sectors and Programmes
- Ensure that staff responsibilities are clearly
defined and understood with performance objectives set against work plans
and regularly monitored.
- Ensure that staff requirements are identified
and that staff are given every opportunity to increase their competencies,
capacities and own personnel development
- Provide key intervention responsibilities and
support to staff based on the implementation agenda
- Ensure effective involvement of staff in
running the programme through participatory approach to planning, implementation,
monitoring, evaluation and decision-making.
- Ensure that staff perform well and they are
monitored in monthly basis to fulfil the indicators of the program
- Enforce SCI’s code of conduct in management of
staff including human resources and accountability related issues.
- Be innovative in enhancing the study program
quality.
Monitoring and Evaluation
- Provide technical lead in the implementation
and follow up of the study routine monitoring and supervision plan in
liaison with the sub county health team; including joint monitoring plans.
- On a quarterly basis organize for review and
update progress of the study program against set targets with key program
staff.
- Support the conduction of surveys and train
staff accordingly
- Take lead in guidance and documentation of
best practices in the program; including case studies
- Coordinate the compilation of timely reports
of the program.
- Routinely monitor study commodities like soap
stock levels and provide commodity requisition support
- Together with health information officer
maintain MCSP information data base
- Monitor the program expenditure against
budgets and follow up on all pending payments
- Ensure the timely transmission of quality data
from the health workers and health centres
- Work with WASH specialist to compile internal
and external reports for submission.
Coordination and Representation
- To advocate with all partners on improving
access to quality hand washing with soap for vulnerable populations
through multi-sectorial and interagency coordination.
- To maintain and strengthen established links
with NGOs, and other agencies including government ministries and
agencies.
- Within delegated authority represent SCI and
maintain working relationship with relevant host government ministries, UN
agencies, International and local non-governmental health
organizations with a mandate to promote the hand washing agenda
and influence policies of Government, UN agencies and other
humanitarian actors with regards to WASH.
- Represent SCI professionally by attending MCSP
in WASH meetings/forums with partners, other NGOs and other agencies as
required
Security
- Full adherence to SCI Kenya security
procedures.
- Full adherence to SCI Kenya field
communication protocols and standard operating procedures, informing
fellow team members and the Program Coordinator immediately of any
security incident.
- To behave at all times in a manner which
positively promotes SCI and its work and actively maintaining SCI’s
acceptance strategy in SCI operational areas.
Skills and Behaviours (our Values in
Practice)
Accountability:
- Holds self-accountable for making decisions,
managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the
Children values
- Holds the team and partners accountable to
deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in
the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve
performance and applying appropriate remedial actions when results are not
achieved
Ambition:
- Sets ambitious and challenging goals for
themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal
development and encourages others to do the same
- Widely shares their personal vision for Save
the Children, engages and motivates others
- Future orientated, thinks strategically
Collaboration:
- Builds and maintains effective relationships,
with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
- Values diversity, sees it as a source of
competitive strength
- Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to
Creativity:
- Develops and encourages new and innovative
solutions
- Willing to take disciplined risks
Integrity:
- Honest, encourages openness and transparency;
demonstrates the highest levels of integrity
Experience
- A University degree or higher in Public
health, communications or social sciences.
- 7 years’ work experience in Public Health,
communications, or social sciences.
- 3 years’ experience managing a program budget.
Qualifications:
- Experience working on a randomized controlled
trial or other research study
- Proficiency in English and Kiswahili with
strong written and oral communication skills in each
- Technical expertise and experience in
hygiene/hand washing promotion, behavior change communication, and health
systems strengthening in developing countries.
- Experience conducting training of trainers for
health care staff
- Experience in working with relevant GOK
departments and especially the Ministry of health
- Familiar with the Kenyan community strategy
approach
- Demonstrated effectiveness in managing and
maintaining supply and equipment inventories across a decentralized
environment
- Well-developed inter-personal and
communication skills with an ability to: communicate effectively with
others from different social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, adapt to
different cultures and be a supportive member of a team
- Demonstrated experience of working effectively
with a team of international staff to adapt to a variety of institutional
structures and cultures
- Demonstrated experience managing staff
remotely
- Must be willing to relocate in Igembe, Meru
County for the duration of the position (12 months)
- Willingness to travel frequently (locally)
Desirable:
- Work experience in Kenya
- Sensitivity to and ability to act
appropriately in the local culture
- Flexibility, responsiveness, discipline and
patience
- Experience working with a multinational and
geographically separated team
How to Apply
Interested candidates are required to submit a CV and mandatory Cover letter to Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org indicating the Position Code on the subject line by 27th May 2015.
Interested candidates are required to submit a CV and mandatory Cover letter to Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org indicating the Position Code on the subject line by 27th May 2015.
Only shortlisted candidates will be
contacted.