Position Title: WASH Specialist
Receiving Agency: UNICEF
P Level: P3
Location: Luanda, Angola
Duration: Until Oct 31st, 2025
Language: English and (Portuguese. Spanish, or Italian)

Background:

Cholera was last reported in Angola in 2018. The country lost some of the historical memory to respond to it. A new outbreak was declared on January 7th , 2025 starting from the capital city Luanda which has about 10-12 million people, living with limited access to water and sanitation. The outbreak has now spread to 18 of the 21 provinces. As of 8th April 2025, 11,307 cases have been reported and 421 deaths.

The alarming situation of Angola in this cholera response compared to other countries facing cholera outbreaks is the very high Case Fatality Rate that has never come below 3% since the onset. This highlights the weaknesses of the response to provide timely and adequate prevention messages and support to symptomatic people in order to save their lives. Also, the very high plateau of daily cases (above 100 since February) could turn in an explosive increase in cases as the rains intensify.

UNICEF’s response to the ongoing Cholera outbreak is aligned with the National Multi-sectoral Cholera Prevention and Control Plan developed by the Government of Angola with the overall goal to contain the outbreak and reduce transmission of the epidemic in communities and vulnerable groups. These objectives will be achieved by implementing an integrated range of cholera response activities, focusing primarily on affected municipalities/provinces, and prioritizing provinces with the highest disease burden. UNICEF and its partners, in collaboration with the authorities, continue to provide multi-sectoral support to the populations most at risk, in the areas of WASH, health and Social Behaviour Change, Child Protection and integrated analysis and communication.

The skills and knowledge are insufficient among the responding teams leading to high case fatality rates. The quality of the response needs to be urgently improved via “on the job” training. There is a need to support ongoing rapid response teams of the government to shift towards the CATI/CLUSTI approach which requires showing the example through field deployed WASH and SBC/RCCE teams in hotspot provinces. UNICEF Angola has only 2 WASH staff that are implementing the field response and cannot cover all the outbreak provinces and cannot do “on the job” training beyond Luanda province.

WASH-Cholera specialists are needed at provincial level to provide technical assistance and training to actors at provincial and municipal level to improve the timely and quality WASH response in very close coordination with the SBC/RCCE and health teams of UNICEF and WHO.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The main purpose of the position is to join and complement a multisectoral team of Health and Social and Behaviour Change specialists at provincial and municipal levels to support the government and actors responding to the cholera outbreak. This will be mainly done through “on the job” training to the Cholera response teams to improve the quality of the response, reduce the Case Fatality Rate and reduce overall the number of cases in the Provinces of intervention.

Scope of Work:

The WASH-Cholera specialist will be based at provincial level within a multisectoral team and will travel very frequently with the team to the hotspots and future hotspots within the provinces. The WASH-Cholera specialist can be requested to move to other provinces during his/her mission depending on the overall situation. The WASH-Cholera specialist will be working under the supervision of the UNICEF chief of WASH. Specifically, the WASH-Cholera specialist is expected to perform the following roles and responsibilities.

i.   Join the multisectoral field teams of UNICEF and WHO to ensure, as much as possible, joint work between health, Social and Behavior Change (SBC) and WASH as per the Case Area Targeted Intervention (CATI) and Cluster Targeted Intervention (CLUSTI) modalities.
ii.   Assess the ongoing WASH response in the Province of deployment and report to supervisor and health and SBC UNICEF/WHO colleagues before presenting findings and recommendations to the Provincial and Municipal authorities for WASH.
iii.   Lead the coordination of the CATI teams (funded by UNICEF) within the province of deployment. This includes the initial and potential refresher trainings, the daily oversight during the first days/weeks of field response by the CATI teams, and daily monitoring and validation of the CATI teams’ activity online survey forms.
iv.   Participate in the Provincial and Municipal Government-led multisectoral coordination meetings (in Portuguese), contribute to decision-making processes and inform UNICEF of the cholera response progress of the Government and other actors in the province of deployment. Analyse the promptness and completeness of actions/approach and recommend/follow up on corrective actions to the Government and actors and adjust as per needs the support UNICEF is providing. Participate in the Provincial and municipal multisectoral coordination meetings together with UNICEF-WHO health and SBC colleagues to reinforce the message of a necessary multisectoral response.
v. Provide on the job training (in CTCs, at ORPs, at water truck filling stations and at bucket chlorination
points, etc.) through an empowering lens (versus top-down training) to the WASH and IPC actors at provincial and municipal levels to rapidly improve on the quality of the response and contribute to the reduction of the CFR.
vi. In coordination with health and SBC, support government ongoing Rapid Response Teams to gradually transition towards a CATI/CLUSTI approach with interventions at household or community level within less than 24-48Hours.
vii. Implement and scale up the “bucket chlorination” approach and its real time reporting mechanism (through Water/Solstice) in most concurred water points in the hotspots’ neighborhoods and in the most at risk communities that were hotspots in previous outbreaks.
viii. Implement and scale up the “water truck” approach and its real time monitoring mechanism (through Water/Solstice).
ix. Report daily to the provincial coordination mechanism and supervisor. Priorities should be in line with the government’s cholera planning and UNICEF/WHO guidance.
x.   Conduct end-user monitoring of UNICEF cholera WASH supplies in coordination with UNICEF WASH, supply and operations staff. Assess supplies’ gaps in the active/expected hotspot areas and coordinate the replenishment and eventually pre-positioning of cholera WASH supplies in coordination with health and SBC colleagues in the province.
xi.   Mobilize the WASH actors in the province and municipalities and the private sector to rally the authorities in the response.
xii. Provide technical support to the WASH actors (Government and CSOs/NGOs, private sector),
including the sharing of protocols, guidelines, and training materials for the establishment of cholera treatment facilities (CTCs and ORPs) and community-based interventions including “on the job” trainings.
xiii. Provide a monthly brief report of activities with using visuals from mWater/Solstice platform and
concise conclusions and pragmatic recommendations for immediate action.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Academic Qualifications
• Advanced university degree (Masters) in Public Health, Health, WASH, Environmental Health Engineering, Public health project management or Science, Behaviour Change or another relevant field or a Bachelor’s degree with at least 7 years of experience in lieu of an Advanced degree.

Work experience
•   A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience at the national or international level in the areas of outbreak responses, public health and other health, WASH and other development/humanitarian programmes in WASH related programmes.
• Relevant experience in either WASH coordination in emergencies or/and WASH sector coordination and/or CATI response is an asset.
•   At least one three-month deployment mission in a humanitarian situation (with UN- Govt-INGO) is desirable.
•   Ability to express ideas and concepts clearly and concisely in written and oral form and produce reports in a timely manner.
•   Demonstrated experience in leading multidisciplinary teams and playing facilitating/coordination roles in a complex/multi-cultural context.
• Familiarity with the UN system and international response to cholera outbreak (Global Task Force to Control Cholera) is an asset.
• Knowledge of different aspects of the cholera outbreak preparedness and response.
•   Excellent writing skills and demonstrable experience in qualitative and quantitative epidemiological data analysis, program monitoring and reporting
• Excellent analytical skills.

Language:
•   Fluency (verbal and written) in Portuguese or in any latin-based languages (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.). Working level of English an asset.
•   Excellent report-writing skills, and ability to use web-based and mobile information management Apps.



CANADEM and its partners have a no-tolerance policy for inaction to prevent, respond to and follow up on alleged cases of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (SEAH). For this reason, we adhere to all policies, procedures and training of the United Nations on The Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (PSEAH). CANADEM mandates all deployees successfully complete the PSEA online course. This e-learning course is composed of a set of lessons designed to raise awareness about SEAH, become familiar with a range of measures to combat SEAH, understand the impact on victims and the consequences for UN Personnel who commit Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment.

P3

Other Openings