GBLCAREERS

The Millennium Water Alliance is a consortium of leading development organizations helping to bring safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people. We work with governments, corporations, foundations, individuals, and other non-governmental organizations to advance best practices, share knowledge, build collaborations, and advocate for greater commitment to this global goal.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Ethiopia Program Director will work closely with the MWA Ethiopia team and MWA Ethiopia members to design and implement high quality programs around the MWA Global Strategy and donor strategies in Ethiopia.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

· Reports to: East Africa Regional Director (or Executive Director if regional position is vacant)

· Staff directly reporting to this post: All MEL and other Ethiopia program-specific staff

· Other vital relationships:

o Internal: key relationships with MWA Executive Director and Program Director; East Africa Regional Director and Program Coordinator; MWA Ethiopia team.

o External: Strong relationships and leadership role with MWA Ethiopia members and donors; government leadership and other WASH sector actors in Ethiopia

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

· Provide leadership of MWA collaborative programs in Ethiopia

· Promote strong coalition building across MWA members in Ethiopia and provide consistent communication, shared learning and strategizing across MWA members

· Ensure high quality, well-coordinated program implementation and knowledge management and communication documentation of program learnings and outcomes

· Provide assistance with ongoing sensitization of the MWA regional and global strategies with MWA staff, members and collaborators

· Promote and support development of an organisational culture that reflects respect and peer support, accountability, high performance, innovativeness, continuous improvement, and effective team communication

· Establish, maintain, and improve working relationships with key Ethiopia donors, government, strategic partners and other collaborators within the country

· Visit program sites periodically to learn and support implementation and new program development

· Provide high level representation and communication about program achievements to government and other key stakeholders

Programme Design and Technical Assistance

• With support from the Regional Director, ensure that MWA is implementing quality WASH programs that are government-led/supported and proactively utilising market-based approaches to attain sustainability and scale
• Oversee the design, implementation and monitoring of all longer term technical goals, objectives and activities of programs in Ethiopia
• Ensure that the different technical sectors of the program are coordinated, integrated and support each other to optimize programmes and projects
• Convene and lead regular program meetings, including steering committee, technical groups and others
• Lead the program teams in developing and submitting all necessary reports and documents to the local/country governments and to donors
• Provide grant reports to Regional Program Coordinator for review
• Stay informed about activities in the country and innovations that MWA might want to consider testing or using
• Ensure that program offices are keeping appropriate financial records and staying on budget

· Develop, in collaboration with MWA members a national supporting strategy and lead implementation of it

· Lead program relationship development activities with government officials

Knowledge Management

· Collect and share ideas from programs that should be disseminated for mutual learning

· Oversee Knowledge Management so that all program minutes, reports, proposals, documents are accurately labelled and stored in a shared MWA repository

· Share lessons learned or interesting findings with global communications director to facilitate learning and sharing

· Help to position MWA as a regional expert via sharing of tools, presentations and lessons in high level forums

• Support members in documenting and sharing research, pilots, innovations and lessons learned.
• Ensure that MWA staff have time to generate knowledge management pieces for learning and sharing
• Write and design communications documents to leverage program based evidence for advocacy and development and learning purposes, including internal documents, narrative articles, and external publications
• Coordinate workshops/meetings in collaboration program team, government or strategic partners
• Produce at least two learning documents each year for sharing among members or in the WASH sector

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Oversee development, execution and periodic review of program MEL
• Convene regular learning events to ensure that all members are getting learning value from the program
• Utilize program learnings to influence modifications to the program to increase program value
• Support MEL personnel in analysis of field data to be used in program reporting, learning and program improvements, including qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis and narrative evidence from MWA programs

Membership Value-add

· Provide and promote regular communication and transparency among MWA staff and MWA members

· Engage in frequent communication with members to ensure collaborative relationships and shared value

· Seek ways to provide and improve value for MWA members

· Continuously look for new strategic partners that may add value or collective impact to MWA programs

Additional Responsibilities

· Notice, understand and resolve any issues that develop between members or within the MWA Ethiopia programs

· Conduct performance reviews and future objective development and provide guidance, coaching, and/or remedial steps to staff

· Lead or serve on program teams as helpful to accomplish above goals or support MWA activities

· Present or facilitate sessions at national or regional events and represent MWA at events

· Engage in relevant regional networks to learn and represent MWA

· Develop thematic areas of expertise based on gaps in the country in MWA staff and utilize knowledge to support program development and implementation and knowledge management

· Additional duties as needed to support national or global objectives

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

REQUIRED

• Masters in environmental studies, development, engineering, public health, or similar field
• Minimum 7 years in design, implementing and leading programs in a development context.
• Good understanding of Ethiopian government policies and structures, particularly related to water systems
• Experience in partnership development, maintaining strong professional relationships and communicating diplomatically
• Strong ability to communicate quickly and effectively through both writing and speaking (including public speaking) in both English and Amharic
• Experience in engaging with government, civil society and donors at a high/strategic level
• Experience convening and leading meetings and leading teams towards a shared vision
• Experience/skills in implementing strategic plans, resource mobilisation plans and developing funding proposals
• Coaching and personnel management experience
• Ability and willingness to sometimes work flexible hours depending on travel or pressing needs of the organization
• Commitment to and understanding of MWA vision and mission and principles guiding the alliance
• Good understanding and knowledge of gender equity and diversity

PREFERRED

• Solid experience with developing and managing monitoring and learning systems, including Knowledge/experience/ skills in developing and using Logframes and/or Results Frameworks
• Good analytical skills
• Resource management, training, capacity building, and mentoring skills are helpful
• Ability to analyse information and transform it into both technical and non-technical written documents or presentation