Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Officer

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated.

Vietnam has experienced rapid economic growth in recent decades, and the country reached lower-middle-income status in 2010. At the same time, the country has made significant progress in terms of improved coverage of WASH services. Following the Joint Monitoring Report 2020, Viet Nam is likely on track to achieve universal basic water and sanitation services by 2030 with an increase at the annual rate of 0.8% and 1.9%, respectively. In 2020, there were 90% of the population with improved water on their premises regardless of geographical locations (urban/rural) and 89% with improved sanitation facilities.

However, issues are still there: data on safely managed water and sanitation (the end SDGs) are not available, particularly on the quality of water and on the off-site treatment of fecal sludge. In addition, there are differences in water and sanitation access between urban and rural areas. Nearly 2.5 million people in the rural areas cannot access basic water, and 10 million people still cannot access basic sanitation facilities, among which the majority live in rural areas. Furthermore, almost 13.6 million people continue to live without access to basic hygiene services (availability of a hand-washing facility with soap and water at home). More than 7.7 million students are still lacking basic WASH access. In addition, menstrual hygiene has not been sufficiently paid attention to, particularly at school in rural areas, where girls lack facilities for their period management (e.g., private room, soap, water). Following MICS data 2021, 4.5% of girls and women reported that they could not participate in social activities monthly during the period. Another data source shows that up to 30 per cent of women and girls can’t take basic hygiene measures during their menstruation because they can’t afford to use more than 1-2 sanitation pads per day. Ten per cent of them need to rely on makeshift pads made from mosquito nets due to their family’s extreme economic challenges (Vietnam News, 2020). Uninformed boys may show insensitivity to girls' challenges in managing menstruation, thereby further contributing to misconceptions, stigma, and unhealthy behaviors. Access to accurate information and materials addressing menstrual hygiene stigmas is still limited.
With the increasing national capacity to invest its own resources for the development programs, UNICEF is increasing its role in upstream advocacy and technical assistance to eliminate barriers and bottlenecks across sectors, including in the climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

UNICEF WASH program will be at both national and subnational level, while national level will focus on advocacy, policy development, sector coordination, at sub subnational level, UNICEF will prioritize service delivery, innovation demonstration and scaling up covering safely managed water and sanitation and promoting of personal hygiene at school and community. From 2025-2028, UNICEF Viet Nam will accelerate WASH in schools program, particularly enhance capacity and strengthen systems to roll out and accelerate implementation.

Under the direct supervision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Officer will undertake the following tasks :

Provide technical support for WASH team in climate-resilient and gender-responsive WASH programming for both WASH in schools and in community :

• Work with national agencies and UNICEF focus provinces to develop and implement annual and quarterly WASH work plan.
• Explore, pilot, and scale up climate-resilient WASH technology for reaching the marginalized populations, particularly for flood, drought, and salt intrusion areas.
• Contribute to evidence base on impact of WASH, by generating and sharing evidence that will provide WASH in advocates with a powerful tool to attract attention and funding to the sector.
• Support the task team in conducting workshop, meetings, and discussions forums for sharing lessons and experiences in aspects of delivering climate-resilient water and sanitation services.
• Engage with ongoing, at-scale WASH programmes and support efforts to involve multiple stakeholders to support government WASH programmes.
• Support the task team in fundraising, monitoring, documenting, and reporting for the status of the water and sanitation activities on a regular basis, and the progress towards the expected results indicators of the WASH activities.

Provide technical support in programming of empowering Women and Adolescents in Menstrual Hygiene Management in emergency response :

• Support in carrying out consumer research to understand commune’s preference, demand creation and supply side, market development for environment-friendly menstrual hygiene management products.
• Provide technical inputs in evidence-based advocacy and BCC campaign strategies and tools development and implementation for improving personal hygiene for girls and women at community and schools.
• In the event of an emergency, to coordinate and work with MARD and the sector to plan and distribute WASH kits/supplies to schools, community, and any other emergency support needed.
• Support government agencies in preparing and delivering annual training courses on WASH in emergency preparedness and response.
• Provide inputs for joint WASH in emergency working groups to coordinate, share and update response plan and implementation, results, and assessments if any.
• Contribute to development and update of SitRep, UNICEF, One UN and WASH Sector response plans, funding proposal and donor reports as required.

Other tasks

Furthermore, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Officer is required to :

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Youth Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.