WASH & Construction Coordinator

Oxfam Novib

The Humanitarian & Resilience team works with partners and communities before, during, and after crises to enhance resilience to climate and fragility, save lives, and tackle the root causes of conflict and disasters.

JOB PURPOSE: The WASH & Construction Coordinator will provide strategic and technical leadership across Oxfam's WASH and construction programs. This role focuses on both infrastructure (water supply systems, sanitation, buildings, etc.) while providing supervision to public health promotion and community engagement. The WASH & Construction Coordinator collaborates with sectoral leads (e.g., Food and Economic Security, Protection, Gender), Program Managers, local partners, thematic leads (e.g., Gender Justice, Inclusive Governance), and support units (e.g., Business Development, Program Quality, Logistics, Finance) to ensure an integrated humanitarian response and resilience-building that aligns with Oxfam s country strategy and standards.

Key responsibilities

Sector Strategy and Program Development

• Lead the development of strategies and context-specific plans for WASH & Construction programming, ensuring alignment with Oxfam s quality standards and operational context.
• Conduct strategic analyses, integrating field and national assessments, conflict analysis, protection and gender considerations to guide effective program strategies and contribute to advocacy and policy initiatives.
• Design and develop high-quality needs assessment and analyses, project proposals, budgets, and concept notes and internal and external reports.
• Contribute to the broader strategic planning process - contingency planning, preparedness, anticipatory and early action and multi-sector response planning and programme design initiatives by providing technical guidance and support on Protection in the planning and design phase.
• Support cross-departmental integration with food and economic security, Gender, and advocacy teams to ensure cohesive, multisectoral responses.
• Facilitate a balanced focus on both hardware (infrastructure) and software (behaviour change and hygiene promotion and community engagement) components. Collaborate with WASH colleagues in confederation (e.g., OiA, GHT etc.) to incorporate best practices and quality assurance standards.
• Advocate for and develop partnerships with local and international stakeholders, representing Oxfam s WASH and construction agenda in clusters, consortia, and coordination meetings.

Technical support, oversight and coordination

• Oversee design, construction, and quality assurance of all WASH infrastructure, ensuring compliance with international standards, Oxfam policies, and applicable national guidelines and other sector-specific guidelines.
• Support teams in the development of Bill of Quantities (BoQs), technical specifications, drawings, and procurement requirements for WASH-related contracts.
• Lead and supervise project management for WASH and construction initiatives, coordinating resources, budgets, and timelines to ensure timely completion.
• Develop technical standard operating procedures and quality benchmarks, guidelines, tools, etc. in close coordination with the Oxfam in Africa/Global WASH Advisers and support team and partners to adopt, implement it.
• Conduct regular site visits to assess progress, review implementation plans, quality, and impact, providing feedback for adjustments and provide technical support as necessary.
• Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including government entities, the WASH Cluster, technical working groups, and local partners, representing Oxfam s WASH & Construction interests in relevant forums.
• Identify and address learning needs for WASH and construction staff and partners, enhancing technical skills and project management capabilities to build a cohesive, effective team focused on quality program delivery.
• Support partners in strengthening their technical and organizational capacities, in line with Oxfam s localization objectives and the Grand Bargain commitments.
• Contribute to MEAL processes for WASH & Construction programming, including the design of logical frameworks, indicators, and data collection methods to measure program impact effectively.
• Document and share key learnings from WASH & Construction projects with internal teams and external stakeholders, feeding insights back into program improvement and policy advocacy efforts.
• Engage in national and regional advocacy efforts to influence WASH & Construction related policies, contributing to WASH Cluster and other coordination mechanisms.
• Promote Oxfam s values and visibility by representing the organization in forums, partnerships, and collaborations that support Oxfam s vision for humanitarian preparedness, resilience, and gender-sensitive and transformative programming.