Action Against Hunger-USA is a global humanitarian organization that takes decisive action against the causes and effects of hunger. We save the lives of malnourished children and we enable entire communities to be free from hunger. With more than 8,000 staff in over 50 countries, our programs reached 17 million people in 2019. 

About the Country Program in Ethiopia

Action Against Hunger has been operational in Ethiopia since 1984 responding to both chronic and acute needs through a multi-sectoral strategy where nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods, WASH, and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support activities are integrated to have a meaningful impact on people’s resilience. Action Against Hunger currently operates in 5 different regions (Oromia, Somali, Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, and Gambella) with a portfolio of 20m USD/year of emergency, resilience building, research, and innovation programs. We have a country team of around 600 staff in 17 regional and satellite offices. Our main donors in Ethiopia in 2020/2021 are BHA, ECHO, Europaid, UNHCR, UNICEF, GFFO, BPRM, SIDA, EHF, WFP, CIAA, and others. 

The Senior Environmental Health Officer (SEHO) is responsible for leading the design, technical oversight, and quality assurance of environmental health interventions within the WASH program. This includes conducting comprehensive needs assessments, identifying and prioritizing critical environmental health gaps within communities, and reporting the proposed technical WASH response to the WASH Project Coordinator. The SEHO will monitor the implementation of environmental health activities, ensuring adherence to technical standards, national guidelines, donor requirements, and quality benchmarks. A key responsibility is to integrate and advocate for innovative and evidence-based WASH approaches such as Baby WASH, WASH FIT, WASH Social and Behavior Change (SBC), and WASH in Emergencies (WASH-EM) into both programming and implementation. The SEHO will also lead the development and contextualization of SBC strategies and hygiene promotion materials. Furthermore, the SEHO will facilitate and organize targeted capacity-building for community members, volunteers, and government environmental health workers, engaging with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation, ownership, and sustainability of WASH responses. This role also involves representing Action Against Hunger in local level WASH coordination forums as required to foster strong integration within intervention areas and ensure alignment with public health priorities.

Purpose of the Position

The Senior Environmental Health Officer (SEHO) is responsible for integrating environmental health and public health principles into WASH programming to ensure sustainable, safe, and health-focused interventions. This role bridges technical environmental health aspects (water safety, sanitation infrastructure, waste management, environmental risk reduction) with public health-oriented WASH (hygiene promotion, disease prevention, and social behavior change). The SEHO ensures that WASH interventions are contextually appropriate, technically sound, and aligned with health and environmental sustainability principles, while also addressing public health risks, outbreak prevention, and community engagement.

Engagement

Internal:

• Works closely with the WASH Program Coordinator to ensure the effective integration of environmental health strategies into overall WASH programming.

• Collaborates with the Construction Supervisor to ensure seamless coordination between software (hygiene promotion, behavior change) and hardware (infrastructure, sanitation) components.

• Engages with the capital WASH team, particularly the Environmental Health Advisor, to align field interventions with broader organizational strategies and best practices in public health WASH and environmental risk management.

• Coordinates with MEAL, Logistics, Finance, and HR to ensure environmental health activities are well-supported, monitored, and documented.

External:

• Represents Action Against Hunger in local WASH cluster meetings, government coordination forums, and technical working groups as required, advocating for integrated environmental and public health-focused WASH interventions.

• Collaborates with local authorities, community representatives, and partner organizations to implement sustainable, community-led WASH interventions that address public health risks.

• Strengthens engagement with community-based structures (WASH committees, health extension workers, women’s groups, volunteers) to enhance hygiene promotion, behavior change, and environmental risk mitigation

Delivery (key performance indicators)

• Timely and high-quality implementation of environmental health interventions, including hygiene promotion, sanitation improvements, and behavior change initiatives.

• Effective monitoring and reporting on key environmental health and public health WASH indicators, ensuring compliance with donor and organizational standards and reporting requirements

• Strengthened coordination and community engagement, demonstrated by increased participation, improved local partnerships, and the sustainability of WASH initiatives.

• Integration of environmental health approaches within nutrition, health, and food security programs, promoting a holistic response to public health risks.

• Capacity building of project staff, community health workers, and WASH committees to enhance local ownership and sustainability of interventions.

Key responsibilities and objectives

 Implementation & technical oversight

• Lead hygiene promotion, environmental health and risk assessments, and community mobilization to reduce public health risks

• Develop and implement behavior change strategies tailored to local contexts, addressing hygiene practices, sanitation, and disease prevention.

• Oversee the distribution, proper use, and impact monitoring of WASH NFIs 

• Ensure the integration of gender-sensitive and inclusive WASH programming, prioritizing the needs of women, children, and vulnerable groups.

• Conduct water quality testing, sanitation assessments, and environmental health risk mapping, water safety planning to inform programming and policy recommendations.

Monitoring, reporting, accountability & learning

• Conduct regular field monitoring visits to assess effective intervention, identify gaps, and document best practices.

• Ensure timely collection, analysis, avoid duplications, and reporting of environmental health and hygiene data in collaboration with MEAL teams.

• Lead KAP surveys, post-distribution monitoring, and hygiene behavior impact assessments to measure program success.

• Document and share lessons learned, case studies, and success stories to enhance program effectiveness and inform future interventions.

Coordination & stakeholder engagement

• Actively participate in WASH cluster coordination meetings at woreda, zonal, and regional levels as required 

• Strengthen cross-sector collaboration with health, nutrition, agriculture and education actors to maximize WASH impact on public health outcomes

• Support local authorities, institutions and community-based structures (WASH committees, HEWs, health facilities schools) in developing and implementing sanitation improvement plans including WASH FIT 

Capacity building & team support

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to the community engagement facilitators and other WASH staff.

• Organize and facilitate training sessions on hygiene promotion, behavior change communication, and environmental health for community health workers and volunteers.

• Support local governance structures to improve sanitation, water management, disease outbreak and environmental health monitoring at the community level

Required qualifications & experience

• BSc/MSc in Environmental Health, Public Health, Water Resource Management, or a related field.

• Minimum 5 years of experience in environmental health, public health WASH, or hygiene promotion.

• At least 2 years in a supervisory or coordination role, preferably in humanitarian or development settings.

• Experience working in community-driven behavior change interventions

Required skills & competencies

• Strong technical expertise in hygiene promotion, environmental health risk assessment, water safety planning, and sanitation improvement

• Experience in designing and implementing behavior change strategies using participatory and community-led approaches

• Knowledge of water quality testing, vector control, environmental sanitation, and emergency WASH responses

• Proven ability to coordinate with government, humanitarian actors, and local stakeholders

• Proficiency in data collection, analysis, and reporting tools relevant to WASH programming

• Fluency in English; knowledge of local languages is an advantage.

 Gender & equality commitments

• Promote equal participation of men and women in environmental health and WASH programming.

• Ensure that interventions are inclusive and address the needs of vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities and marginalized communities.

• Uphold Action Against Hunger’s policies on gender equality, safeguarding, and protection from exploitation and abuse.

Safeguarding Commitments

• Action Against Hunger has a zero tolerance to child safeguarding violation and SEA. Our selection process includes rigorous reference and background checks. Successful applicants will be expected to sign up and carry out their duties in accordance with our Child Safeguarding and PSEA policies.

Working conditions, travel, and environment

• Field-based role with frequent travel to project sites, community meetings, and coordination forums.

• May involve working in remote and insecure locations, requiring flexibility and resilience.

• Expected to deploy rapidly in response to emerging public health WASH needs during humanitarian crises.

Job Requirements

Required Qualifications and Professional Experience

• Required master’s degree from an accredited college or university in a major health science field of study, preferably public health, nursing, or nutrition, epidemiology with at least five (5) years of experience in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of research projects, C/IMAM programs (including OTP and TSFP), SBC activities in humanitarian and development contexts

• Or a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in a major health science field of study, preferably in public health, nursing, or nutrition, with at least seven (7) years of experience in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of research projects, C/IMAM programs (including OTP and TSFP) and SBC activities in humanitarian and development contexts

• Significant experience and knowledge about current national and global nutrition and health agendas, policies and strategies. Good knowledge and practical experience of national and sub-national nutrition and health coordination platforms and various Technical Working Groups (TWGs)

• Experience of working with research organizations, operational research implementation and ability to effectively work with various stakeholders

• Practical experience of working in INGOs is preferable

 Required Skills 

• We are seeking an individual who has good judgement and problem-solving skills, along with strong communication skills and documentation habits.

• This person needs to have excellent interpersonal skills (to develop a good rapport with staff, HEWs and other in-country stakeholders), and the ability to work both independently and as a member of a team.

• Experience in global and national supply procurement and logistics, including developing project procurement plans, raising procurement requests, and multi-level stock management

• Experience in designing and leading technical training related to acute malnutrition treatment programming (C/IMAM), community engagement and SBC

• Knowledge of MS Office Suite required and comfortable working with computers with minimal IT support

• Fluent in written and spoken in English and Amharic; other local languages desirable

• Willingness to commit to >50% travel to sub-offices

• Possess strong organizational skills and attention to detail

• Ability to take initiative and prioritize multiple tasks with minimum supervision

• Genuine interest in and commitment to the mission and principles of Action Against Hunger

How To Apply

If you are interested, please send your application composed of nonreturnable CV, a Covering Letter with “Senior Environmental Officer–Sekota” written in the subject line, and three references, applicants to the following addresses:

Through THIS LINK or jobs@et-actionagainsthunger.org

Deadline: Thursday 24 – July - 2025

Action Against Hunger-USA provides all staff with an _attractive salary & benefits package. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees & qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, ancestry, national origin, age, handicap, disability, the marital status, or status as a veteran. Action Against Hunger-USA complies with all applicable laws governing nondiscrimination in employment