Senior Water and Sanitation Governance Expert job at IRC||Deadline 29th October 2021

The vacancy:

To support our mission we are recruiting an experienced and ambitious Senior Water and Sanitation Governance Expert for the Rwanda team of IRC’s Africa Regional Programme. The position is full-time for one year, with the possibility to be extended until end of the USAID THRIVE WASH Isoko y’Ubuzima Project.

Isoko y’Ubuzima is a five-year (2021-2026) programme being implemented nationally and in ten selected districts in Rwanda. The project is carried out by a consortium, led by Water For People Rwanda, implemented with IRC, VEI, CARE, and African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC), and district authorities including health and education departments. The goal is to improve safe drinking water and sanitation services through strengthening national and decentralised WASH governance and improving rural sanitation and handwashing services and products.  

Main responsibility

You will be joining the Isoko y’Ubuzima consortium as the technical lead for its work package: Improving decentralised water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) governance through national systems strengthening. This entails supporting the Government of Rwanda in developing a WASH system strengthening agenda, contributing to the implementation of specific parts of it, particularly around governance and finance, and monitoring its progress.

You will represent IRC in Rwanda and internationally. As the partnership is core to IRC’s strategy, this includes helping to build IRC’s network, reputation, and legitimacy through informal and formal engagements with government, donors, NGOs, private sector companies and civil society organisations. This includes sharing an office and participating in regular Isoko y’Ubuzima team meetings with Water For People and the wider consortium.

Together with the two governance experts you will, as the senior member, be representing IRC in Rwanda.

You will report to IRC’s international lead for the Isoko y’Ubuzima project.

Specific responsibilities

• Lead a comprehensive national and decentralised WASH sector system assessment by adapting and applying IRC’s WASH systems analysis methodology with specific emphasis on governance and finance
• Develop a strategy to analyse and mainstream gender, equity, and social inclusion across the WASH systems focused programme
• Support MININFRA to develop a national WASH system strengthening agenda, and contribute to implementing specific parts of that agenda
• Collaborate with MININFRA to strengthen the WASH Finance thematic sub-group under the WASH Sector Working Group; support implementation of a national WASH finance strategy
• Participate proactively in coordination and collaboration with other sector stakeholders and Isoko y’Ubuzima consortium members
• Actively engage with and be a part of IRC’s global team, including periodic coordination and strategic meetings—mostly virtual with the possibility of travel
• Help manage the annual project budget and plans, enabling timely and responsible administrative reporting.

Core competencies

• Passionate and pro-active approach to improving water and sanitation governance in line with the Government of Rwanda’s strategy
• Systems thinking and its application in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors
• Ability to combine technical skills with interpersonal ‘soft’ skills in order to guide a group of stakeholders to pursue a common vision
• Water and sanitation sector expertise, knowledge of service delivery models, Sustainable Development Goal standards and targets, governance, institutional arrangements and monitoring approaches
• Experience in strategy development, multi-year vision-led planning
• Leadership, multi-stakeholder engagement, group process facilitation, diplomacy, intercultural communication
• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and remotely (virtually) with colleagues located in other offices or countries.

Skills and experience

• At least ten years of experience in water, sanitation, public health, or related sectors on governance, including addressing systemic factors such as policy and legislation, institutions and coordination, costing and finance, planning, monitoring, regulation, equity and inclusion
• At least a master’s degree in public policy and administration, governance, water, environmental or sanitation policy, public health, engineering, or a related field
• Experience working with the government at national and/or district level is an advantage
• Experience working with international organisations or collaborations, experience in USAID funded projects is an advantage
• Strong interpersonal skills, excellent oral and written communications skills: English required, Kinyarwanda and French are an advantage.

Details of the position

You will initially be offered a one-year full-time contract, with the possibility of an extension based on performance. At IRC a fulltime working week exists of 40 hours whereby we will be following the local working hours and national holidays as observed by Water For People Rwanda. The contract will be based on an IRC Associate (freelance) contract, with monthly invoicing billed by hours in correspondence to the production of agreed deliverables.  

The position is in line with IRC’s Senior Programme Officer level. The remuneration rate will be determined in accordance with the experience and qualifications of the applicant, using competitive local rates.

Start date as soon as possible and in consultation.

Candidates are kindly requested to respond with a short motivation letter (maximum 1 page) explaining:

• Your motivation for the position
• Your vision of how water and sanitation governance can be improved in Rwanda

In addition please share a concise curriculum vitae before 29 October 2021 to IRC, attn. Marion Giese at recruitment@ircwash.org or P.O. Box 82327, 2508 EH, The Hague, the Netherlands. Job interviews will be scheduled online in Kigali (or virtually if required), in the first week of November. For additional information please visit our website at www.ircwash.org or contact Angela Huston, IRC Project Manager for Isoko y’Ubuzima huston@ircwash.org.