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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, dignity

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

Watch a video about making daily clean water a reality in Ethiopia here.

To see our year in review, please click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx_DayHVFVA

How can you make a difference?

Programme development and planning

• Draft the WASH inputs for the situation analysis. Provide timely, comprehensive, and current data to inform WASH policy and programme development, planning, management, and implementation. Keep abreast of WASH sector development trends for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in programme design, management, and implementation.
• Participate in strategic WASH programme planning discussions. Prepare WASH donor proposals, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, UNICEF’s global WASH strategy and the Country programme, as well as government plans and priorities, and the role of other external support agencies.
• Assist in the formulation of the WASH outcome and output results, related indicators, baselines, targets, and means of verification. Prepare required documentation for programme reviews.
• Work with colleagues and partners to discuss strategies and methodologies for the achievement of WASH output results in the country programme.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes and ensure integration, coherence, and harmonization of WASH with other UNICEF sectors for the achievement of the WASH output results.
• Draft assigned sections of the annual work plan in close cooperation with the government and other counterparts.

Programme management, monitoring, and delivery of results

• • With other external support agencies, strengthen national government WASH sector monitoring systems, with a focus on WASH outcomes (behaviors), using bottleneck analysis tools available in the sector (WASH-BAT, CSOs, SDAs).
  • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews, and annual sectoral reviews with government and other counterparts and prepare reports on results for required action/interventions at the higher level of programme management.
  • Prepare/assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths/weaknesses in programmes and management, and identify and document lessons learned.
  • Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative, and other assets) verify compliance with approved allocations, organizational rules, regulations/procedures, and donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity. Report on issues identified to enable timely resolution by management/stakeholders.
  • Prepare sectoral progress reports for management, donors, and partners.

Technical and operational support for programme implementation

Networking and partnership building

• • Build and sustain close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve WASH output results.
  • Prepare materials for WASH programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support fund- raising.
  • Participate in inter-agency discussions, ensuring that UNICEF’s position, interests, and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNDAF development planning and agenda setting.

Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

• • Prepare learning/knowledge products covering innovative approaches and good practices, to support overall WASH sector development.
  • Contribute to the systematic assessment of WASH sector capacity gap analysis in collaboration with government and other stakeholders, and support the design of initiatives to strengthen capacities systematically.
  • Support building capacity of UNICEF partners in related technical and administrative issues, including preparing FACE forms, programmatic assurance, reporting, supply management, and response according to relevant minimum standards.

To qualify as an advocate for every child, you will have…

• An Advanced University Degree, preferably in Civil Engineering, Public Health, or a related field.
• A minimum of five years (5 years) experience in WASH and/or a related field with significant experience at the field level.
• The candidate should have experience in Cholera response, Programme management, and coordination.
• Experience in water chlorination and testing is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values:

• • Care
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Trust
  • Accountability
  • Sustainability

CRITAS underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
  • Works Collaboratively with others (1)
  • Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
  • Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
  • Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
  • Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
  • Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.