WASH Consultant on Cholera Case-Area Targeted Interventions at UNICEF

Job no: 561055

How can you make a Difference? 

• In the conflict-affected North-East Nigeria, with the cluster approach activated since 2016, the WASH sector aims at reaching in 2023 up to 3 million individuals out of 5 million people in acute need of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• In 2022, the second successive year marked by a significant outbreak, almost 15,000 cholera cases with 500 deaths (case fatality rate of 3%) were reported in 34 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) states.
• The cholera outbreak was deeply impacted by armed clashes and sudden camps closure leading to relocation/return exercises across congested camps and hard-to-reach areas with limited security access and WASH services, aggravated by the historic floods in the country. Up to 45 organizations, including most of the 35 WASH sector partners, were challenged to respond to the cholera outbreak, officially lately declared from September to December 2022.
• From a WASH sector perspective in line with the intersectoral cholera response, prevention, and preparedness plan for the BAY states, the consultant will optimize the case-area targeted interventions (CATI) to tackle better the risk factors facing the dynamic of the cholera transmission contexts.
• According to the global task force on cholera control (GTFCC), case-area targeted interventions are based on the premise that early cluster detection can trigger a rapid, localised response in the high-risk radius around one or several households to reduce transmission sufficiently to extinguish the outbreak or reduce its spread.

The Cholera Expert, no further than before or at the start of the rainy season, will address the following deliverables:

• Analyze the cholera information gaps and bottlenecks limiting the fluidity of the communication between the health surveillance system and the WASH sector. These various lacks encompass, for instance, the sharing of the lists of the anonymized line lists of the reported cholera cases (suspected or confirmed), the main findings of the investigation reports (finalized or drafted), the health care facilities the most at risk or proved to have been a transmission context for cholera, the health system or community-based sentinel sites in place (functional and unfunctional), etc.
• Identify leverages and immediate solutions to remedy these lacks, in close collaboration with the WASH sector “Cholera & infectious diseases” technical working group (TWG) to be submitted to the strategic advisory group (SAG), after having conducted a review of the systems and coordination mechanisms in place or usually activated (e.g., cholera taskforce), of the good practices at states, LGAs, camps/settlements, and community levels, of the strengths and opportunities of the various stakeholders at states, ministries, cluster lead agencies (CLA), international non-governmental organizations (INGO), local/national non-governmental organizations (L/NNGO), private sector, community leaders and networks, etc.
• Set up and pilot a WASH sector case area targeted interventions (CATI) strategic operational framework (SOF) for rapid cholera control, to complement by incorporating or annexing the existing intersectoral plan for the BAY states. The CATI SOF will fix the data and information sharing modalities between the two sectors and a WASH sector monitoring system with new indicators to track in real-time the quality and efficiency of the interventions (response, preparedness, anticipatory actions, and risk mitigation measures), taking into consideration the local knowledge, specificities, capacities and operational presences of the sector partners.

Requirements
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

• Advanced University Degree or equivalent experience in WASH and Epidemiology, Public Health, Public Health Engineering, or similar discipline.
• Minimum of eight years of experience in emergency multi-sectoral AWD/cholera response or similar contexts.
• Expertise in AWD/cholera case-area targeted interventions (CATI), in rapid response teams (RRT) management is an asset.
• Assessment, analysis, planning, coordination, networking, and personnel management skills
• Fluency in English. Good written and spoken skills in the language of the humanitarian operation and knowledge of another UN language an asset.

For every Child, you Demonstrate:

• UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).