National WASH Sector Co-Coordinator - Syria Damascus

General Description of GOAL Organization

Established in 1977, GOAL is an international humanitarian and development agency, committed to working with communities to achieve sustainable and innovative early response in crises, and lasting solutions to poverty and vulnerability. GOAL has worked in over 60 countries and has responded to almost every major humanitarian disaster. We are currently operational in 18 countries.

GOAL began operations in Syria in 2013 responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL's areas of operations include but not limited to Aleppo, Idleb and Lattakia Governorates, and is expanding to new governorates in Syria. Programmes focus on Food and Nutrition Security, WASH, Shelter, Livelihoods/ERMS and Emergency Response with an emphasis on cash and voucher modalities. GOAL Syria implements its programmes directly, with over 500 staff based in Syria, and through Syrian NGO partners. GOAL's programme works at the household and community levels to improve community resilience and household coping strategies.

 

General Description of the Programme:

According to the Syria Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) 2026, more than 12 million people in Syria continue to face challenges accessing adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services due to the combined impacts of prolonged conflict, damaged infrastructure, limited institutional and financial capacity, and climate-related pressures.

In response, over 100 humanitarian partners, including UN agencies, international NGOs, national NGOs, and relevant government institutions, contribute to the WASH response throughout Syria. The WASH Sector coordination mechanism facilitates collaboration among partners to ensure harmonized, effective, accountable, and needs-based humanitarian interventions while minimizing duplication.

UNICEF, as the WASH Sector Lead Agency and in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, maintains a national coordination platform in Damascus and supports six sub-national coordination platforms in Damascus, Aleppo, Tartous, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, and Qamishli.

Recognizing the scale and complexity of the WASH response and the importance of meaningful NGO engagement, the Syria WASH Sector Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) approved the establishment of a National NGO Co-Coordinator position to strengthen coordination capacity, promote localization, improve partner representation, and support delivery of the WASH Sector's core functions.

 

Job purpose:

The National WASH Sector NGO Co-Coordinator will strengthen WASH Sector coordination by enhancing NGO engagement, leadership, representation, and collaboration within the humanitarian coordination system.

The role supports the National WASH Sector Coordinator in delivering the sector's core functions and serves as a bridge between NGOs, government stakeholders, UN agencies, donors, and other humanitarian actors.

 

Duties, objectives and competencies

Key Objectives:

The position aims to:

• Strengthen national WASH Sector coordination mechanisms.
• Enhance NGO participation in sector planning, decision-making, and coordination processes.
• Improve representation of NGOs in sectoral and inter-sectoral forums.
• Support strategic planning, preparedness, and emergency response activities.
• Promote Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) throughout sector operations.
• Strengthen localization efforts and increase participation of national, women-led, and disability-led organizations.
• Contribute to partner capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing.

Scope of Work and Key Responsibilities:

Coordination and Partner Engagement

• Co-chair regular National WASH Sector meetings alongside the National WASH Sector Coordinator and relevant government authorities.
• Support preparation of meeting agendas, presentations, minutes, and action tracking.
• Facilitate inclusive discussions and consensus-building among sector partners.
• Promote active participation of NGOs in sector coordination mechanisms.
• Strengthen coordination between national and sub-national platforms.
• Support communication and information flow across sector stakeholders.

Strategic Planning and Sector Development

• Contribute to development and revision of:
• Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO)
• Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP)
• Sector strategies and response plans
• Recovery and resilience frameworks
• Technical guidance documents
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Sector prioritization exercises
• Support integration of humanitarian, recovery, climate resilience, and sustainability considerations into sector planning.

Representation and Advocacy

• Represent NGO perspectives in sector discussions and decision-making forums.
• Participate in relevant WASH-related working groups, including technical, climate, social behavior change, advocacy, and other thematic platforms.
• Represent the WASH Sector in national inter-sector coordination meetings, workshops, forums, and events as agreed with the Sector Coordinator.
• Support bilateral engagement with national authorities, donors, NGOs, and other stakeholders.
• Contribute to development and implementation of the WASH Sector Advocacy Framework.
• Support preparation and dissemination of advocacy products and key sector messages.

Information Management and Accountability

• Promote timely and accurate information sharing among partners.
• Support collection, reporting, validation, and dissemination of sector information.
• Encourage partner compliance with reporting requirements and the Information Sharing Protocol.
• Facilitate sharing of assessments, operational updates, lessons learned, and good practices.
• Promote transparency and evidence-based decision-making.
• Ensure Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) is integrated into sector activities, planning, monitoring, and reporting.

Emergency Preparedness and Response

• Support development and implementation of contingency and preparedness plans.
• Contribute to emergency response planning and coordination.
• Participate in risk analysis, scenario planning, and anticipatory action initiatives.
• Support rapid coordination during acute emergencies and humanitarian surges.
• Promote response readiness across sector partners.

Capacity Building and Localization

• Support development and implementation of sector partner capacity-building initiatives.
• Design and facilitate training events, workshops, mentoring activities, and peer-learning opportunities.
• Promote leadership and participation of national NGOs, women-led organizations, and disability-led organizations.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and dissemination of best practices.
• Support strengthening of local coordination capacity and localization commitments.

Documentation and Handover

• Maintain organized records of coordination activities, decisions, and sector products.
• Ensure proper documentation of ongoing workstreams.
• Facilitate structured handover of coordination materials, contacts, and responsibilities at the end of the assignment, during renewal, or in case of early termination.

Reporting Relationships and Working Arrangements:

The Co-Coordinator reports directly to the Programme Director in GOAL or designated senior manager. Additionally, the incumbent will work closely with the Ministry of Energy, UNICEF, WASH Sector team, Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), Sub-national coordinators, UN agencies, NGOs, Donors, Relevant technical working groups.

All actions undertaken must reflect the collective interests of the WASH Sector and the needs of affected populations.

 

Required Skills and Qualifications  

Education:

• Advanced university degree in:

Category A (Preferable):

• Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Environmental Engineering.

Category B:

• Public Health, Humanitarian Affairs, Development Studies, Or another relevant field.
• A first-level university degree combined with extensive relevant experience may be considered.

Professional Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in WASH programming Humanitarian coordination or Emergency response.
• Demonstrated experience working within humanitarian coordination structures.
• Experience engaging with government authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, and donors.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian principles, humanitarian coordination architecture, cluster/sector coordination approaches, and localization agendas.
• Experience supporting strategic planning and multi-stakeholder coordination processes.
• Experience in Syria or similar humanitarian contexts is highly desirable.

Technical Competencies:

• Strong understanding of WASH programming and humanitarian response.
• Coordination and facilitation skills.
• Strategic planning and analytical abilities.
• Stakeholder engagement and partnership management.
• Advocacy and representation skills.
• Emergency preparedness and contingency planning knowledge.
• Understanding of Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP).
• Strong communication, report-writing, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work impartially and build consensus among diverse stakeholders.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Arabic, both written and spoken.

 

Core Values and Principles

The National WASH Sector NGO Co-Coordinator shall:

• Uphold humanitarian principles at all times.
• Act impartially and independently from organizational interests when performing sector functions.
• Promote accountability to affected populations.
• Support inclusive and participatory coordination processes.
• Respect confidentiality and applicable data protection requirements.
• Adhere to the WASH Sector Code of Conduct, Information Sharing Protocol, and all relevant safeguarding and PSEA requirements.

 

Commitment and Conditions

• The position requires full-time dedication to WASH Sector coordination responsibilities.
• Initial appointment is for 12 months and may be renewed once for an additional 12 months.
• The hosting organization is responsible for employment costs and administrative management of the position.
• Either party may terminate the arrangement with eight (8) weeks written notice, subject to an agreed handover process.
• The Co-Coordinator shall follow the security and duty-of-care procedures of the hosting organization when undertaking official sector duties.

Interested? Then apply for this position via clicking on the "apply now" button and fill out the application form. All applicants must send a Cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages). Both must be in English.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

The application deadline is 09 Sep 2026 however, you are encouraged to apply immediately as we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis, therefore we may withdraw the position before the advertisement’s closing date if a suitable candidate/s is identified.

Please note that GOAL does not charge a fee of any kind or any other financial obligation at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training, induction) or other fees, or request information on applicants’ bank accounts. GOAL does not work with intermediary institutions and individuals or employment agencies during the recruitment process. If any fee or payment is requested from you at the application or any stage of the recruitment process, please do not respond.  

GOAL does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy, errors or omissions of any of the information contained in translated advertisements by an independent party on other sites or through other channels.

General terms and conditions

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behavior protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated.  Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible.  This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date.  We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Thank you.