Water Quality Specialist Job Vacancies – Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)
Job Title: Water Quality Specialist
Organisation: Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: Deputy Executive Director/Head of the Basin-Wide Program and Water Resources Management
About US:
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a partnership of the 10 Nile Basin riparian states with a shared vision objective to promote sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of and benefit from the shared Nile Basin water resources. NBI has three programs, namely, the Basin-Wide Program implemented by the NBI Secretariat (NILE-SEC) located in Entebbe, Uganda, the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program (ENSAP) implemented by the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP) implemented by NELSAP Coordination Unit located in Kigali, Rwanda.
Job Summary: The Water Quality Specialist will support implementation of the water quality programme in a dual role of technical expert and project management. The specialist shall ensure that water quality project is delivered to the standards of NBI. The specialist shall be responsible for ensuring that the project satisfies NBI’s obligations as implementing agency.
The Water Quality Specialist shall report to the Nile-SEC Deputy Executive Director/Head of the Basin-Wide Program and Water Resources Management or his designate for all of the Project’s substantive and administrative issues. The Water Quality Specialist will perform a liaison role with stakeholders including national governments, regional agencies, NGOs, CSOs and project partners, including NELSAP, ENTRO, and LVBC.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Technical execution of the project related duties
- Provide technical expertise and oversight in the execution of the project components related to water quality
- Coordinate the implementation of improvements to national water quality monitoring systems including installation of station water quality sensors, improvement of national water quality laboratories and standards as well as supplying them with field data kits. Support capacity building for national staff for sustainability of the investments.
- Provide technical support (advisory and backstopping support) to project partners (NELSAP, ENTRO, LVBC and NBD) in the implementation of their water quality components of the NCCR project
- Liaise with national point institutions in participating countries to source water quality data. Lead the development of a regional water quality database and its integration into the Nile Basin Integrated Knowledge Portal (IKP), a platform that provides a single, uniform and consistent access to all NBI knowledge resources with the aim of having ease of access to all NBI knowledge resources and thereby enhancing user experiences in finding data/information easily, avoiding problems of fragmented databases and enhancing streamlined workflow for data quality control, processing and posting, easy searching as well as providing data services (from external data sources). Working with consultant/s and country counterparts to feed data generated from new equipment into the database.
- Take leadership in implementation of the Nile Basin water quality capacity building program. The programe will be aimed at strengthening the ability to manage water quality and general water resources conservation activities at both the national and regional levels. This will address different stakeholders (decision makers, technicians, academics, and local authorities) and assist with sector-specific training for policy makers, researchers, and private sector. This component will cut across the whole Nile Basin water quality program and will aid the post-project sustainability of the work to support the water quality management and pollution control endeavors of countries
- Coordinate activities aimed at raising awareness the importance, values and benefits from investing in water quality monitoring/ management to protect the environment and support livelihood development in Nile Basin countries. The implementation of this task shall be an important aid to the overall implementation of national and regional action plans relating to water quality management and to guide the sub-regional policy development on water quality monitoring and pollution control.
Project management related duties
- Supervise and coordinate the work of staff, consultants and sub-contractors ensuring timing and quality of outputs.
- Plan the activities of the project and monitor progress against the approved work-plan.
- Develop terms of reference for and lead the procurement of consultants and service providers
- Coordinate all project inputs and ensure that they are adhere to World Bank procedures including safeguard requirements.
- Coordinate the recruitment and selection of consultants and sub-contracts, including drafting terms of reference and work specifications and overseeing all contractors’ work.
- Prepare, revise and submit project work and financial plans and make sure they are embedded in NBI Annual Work Plans.
- Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports, submitted on a quarterly basis.
- Manage and monitor the project risks initially identified and submit new risks to the project board for consideration and decision on possible actions if required; update the status of these risks by maintaining the project risks log.
- Liaise with relevant government agencies, and all project stakeholders for effective coordination of all project activities.
- Disseminate project reports and respond to queries from concerned stakeholders.
- Carry regular, inspections of all sites where activities will be implemented.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant must hold an advanced university degree (Masters or PhD) in water quality management, water quality engineering, environmental management, natural resources management or closely related fields.
- At least 10 years of experience (7 of which are post Masters) in water quality monitoring, water quality management, pollution control, or closely related fields;
- At least 5 years of demonstrable project/programme management experience.
- Experience in planning, design, and installation of water quality monitoring equipment (field equipment and laboratory equipment)
- Experience implementing regional or transboundary projects shall be added advantage.
- Strong leadership, managerial and coordination skills, with a demonstrated ability to effectively coordinate the implementation of large multi-stakeholder projects, including financial and technical aspects.
- Ability to effectively manage technical and administrative teams, work with a wide range of stakeholders across various sectors and at all levels, to develop durable partnerships with collaborating agencies.
- Ability to administer budgets, train and work effectively with counterpart staff at all levels and with all groups involved in the project.
- Ability to coordinate and supervise multiple Project Implementation partners in their implementation of technical activities in partnership with a variety of subnational stakeholder groups, including community and government.
- Strong drafting, presentation and reporting skills.
- Strong communication skills, especially in timely and accurate responses to emails.
- Strong computer skills, in particular mastery of all applications of the MS Office package and internet search.
- Strong knowledge about the political and socio-economic context related to the Nile Basin.
- Excellent command of English and local languages
How to Apply:
All Interested and Suitably qualified individuals should submit their applications electronically to the Executive Director at: recruitment@nilebasin.org. Application/cover letters clearly indicating the title of the position and accompanied by detailed curriculum vitae should reach the Executive Director. Please do not attach copies of your Academic & professional certificates and testimonials- these will be required during the interview period.
Your CV should and must clearly indicate full contacts of Three (3) referees and two (2) former employers excluding the current employer. Only short listed candidates will be contacted and women candidates are encouraged to apply.
Deadline: 17th September 2021 at 8.00 pm
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