Chief of Party, Western Kenya WASH at Winrock International

UNIT: Agriculture, Resilience and Water

REPORTS TO: Director, Water Unit

PROGRAM SUMMARY:

Winrock is seeking Chief of Party (COP) candidates for an anticipated USAID-funded Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)project in Western Kenya. The project will apply a facilitative approach, working across government, private sector, and civil society, to strengthen availability, accessibility and reliability of WASH services. The project will foster close alliances with county governments and build their capacity for service delivery and regulation, while applying a market-driven lens to support private sector WASH service and equipment providers to deliver services to communities in Western Kenya. The goal of the project is to 1) build a robust sanitation and hygiene market and 2) ensure country-wide sustainable drinking water services to households in Western Kenya. This position is contingent on receipt of donor funding.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide overall technical leadership to strengthen sanitation and hygiene markets in Western Kenya and scale sustainable models of water service delivery.
• Facilitate and strengthen alliances with and between water governance institutions and organizations at the county, provincial and national levels.
• Foster innovation and investment in water service delivery models and mutually accountable partnerships between private sector, county-level institutions and communities.
• Establish and oversee a framework of building the service delivery and governance capacity of key water institutions.
• Apply adaptive management and learning approach to iteratively evaluate program results and impact. Institute adjustments to replicate and scale successful activities and course correct activities that are not yielding desired results.
• Provide technical and administrative direction to project staff, consultants and partners, including identifying and responding to training and mentorship needs.
• Work in close partnership with donor to ensure alignment of project with donor’s strategic goals and objectives, and application of program-wide learning and collaboration.
• Coordinate and collaborate with host government programs and other donor projects to leverage resources and maximize results.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Represent Winrock at meetings and events as required and keep Winrock Home Office informed regarding new opportunities in the country and region.
• Champion Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) policies and Winrock’s Core Values for staff and overall project management. Coordinate regularly with GESI Specialist.

QUALIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND:

Education:

• Master’s degree required in relevant fields of study related to the sector of the project, including but not limited to business, international development, public administration/policy, water resources management, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), value chain development.

Work Experience:

• At least 15 years of experience in donor-funded project management of which at least 7 years' overseas experience with technical and/or operational issues related to a mix of WASH, sustainable water management, community and alternative livelihood development, governance and capacity building, value chain development.
• Minimum 7 years of COP-level experience for complex ($20M USD and above) USAID-funded projects. Preferably as COP and on projects developing and strengthening markets and/or utilities.
• An understanding of policy, economics, and market issues in the water and sanitation sectors, preferably in the Kenya and/or East Africa context.
• Proven ability to develop and communicate a common vision among diverse public and private partners and the ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience integrating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) into water security and livelihoods programming.

Skills:

• Technical understanding of water resource management and sanitation.
• Knowledge of USAID policies and procedures as related to project management required.
• Knowledge of the political, social, cultural, environmental, and development context of Kenya strongly preferred.
• Ability to supervise staff and coordinate programs with partners from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.
• Ability to build coalitions and networks that can provide synergies and sustainable solutions for the project.
• Must be comfortable in high-level representational role as well as interacting with beneficiaries.
• Strong communication skills, both interpersonal and written, to fulfill the diverse technical and managerial requirements of the initiative and to effectively coordinate with a wide range of regional stakeholders.
• Fluency in written and oral English is required.