Program Deputy Chief of Party / Private Sector Specialist Job in Nairobi

Job Vacancy: Deputy Chief of Party / Private Sector Specialist for the Kenya – RAPID Program

Job Location: Nairobi

(MWA Kenya office) with occasional travel to the program’s focus counties.

Aqua for All seeks a Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) for a 5-year WASH &

livestock program in Kenya. In day to day activities the DCOP will take the

specific responsibility of Private Sector Specialist. 

The DCOP will be seconded by Aqua for

All to the Millennium Water Alliance who is the lead partner in this

program. 

The DCOP will need to understand the

overall program activities and progress, to be able to represent the program

and replace the Chief of Party during absence. 

S/he will work closely together with

the Chief of Party (COP), with other technical leads/specialists in the program

and with Aqua for All colleagues in the Netherlands. 

The DCOP / Private Sector Specialist

is a full time position.
 

Background: The Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for

Integrated Development (Kenya-RAPID) mobilizes financial and technical

resources from development partners, national government, county government and

the private sector to support sustainable and resilient livelihoods by

improving water availability and water service delivery to people and

livestock, and improve rangelands in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL’s).

Over the next five years (2015-2020) the Kenya RAPID program focuses on five

Northern counties with high poverty rates, chronic food and water insecurity

and low access to basic services: Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana and

Wajir. 

The Kenya RAPID program will

facilitate a process that supports the growth and capacity strengthening of

public, civil society, community and private sector institutions to increase

access to water for people and livestock and rebuild a healthy rangeland

management ecosystem. 

The Kenya RAPID program rejects the

‘business as usual’ approach to development. All five counties and every one of

the program partners is a co-investor.
 

There are three Strategic Objectives

that will guide the program toward its goal:
 

1. A responsive and accountable

governance framework in place at county level

• Supporting the establishment of a responsive
  
  and accountable governance framework is in place and operational at county
  
  level that ensures sustainable provision of WASH and pasture

2. Replicable and scalable business

models for sustainable WASH and livestock service delivery

• Strengthening replicable and scalable business
  
  models for sustainable WASH and livestock service delivery have been
  
  developed and operationalized

3. Increased access to sustainable

WASH services

• Facilitating communities to have increased
  
  access to sustainable WASH services and improved rangeland management

Aqua for All’s role in the program
 

Aqua for All, a Dutch not-for-profit

organisation, focusses on innovative, scalable, replicable public-private

partnership programs in integrated WASH. 

We stimulate and strengthen Public

Private Partnerships among businesses, funding/financing actors, governments,

NGOs and knowledge institutes while engaging private sector participation. 

Aqua for All supports innovation and

local entrepreneurship while reaching as many people as possible. 

Facilitating the financial

engineering of programs within their value chain – from innovation to full

implementation of a program – is a unique selling point of our

organization. 

For more information see

www.aquaforall.org.

Aqua for All will serve as the lead program partner in coordinating activities

under strategic objective 2. 

The public private partnership

specialist will be employed by Aqua for All and be appointed as DCOP and

private sector coordinator within the Program Coordination Unit (core team)

based in Nairobi.
 

Role of the DCOP and Private Sector

Specialist
 

Next to DCOP responsibilities

(overseeing and co-managing the program, replacing the COP when needed), the

private sector specialist will serve as the primary link between communities,

the county governments, the private sector resource partners at national level

and other value chain actors/small medium enterprises at the county level.

S/he will lead initiatives to

catalyse investment in the water and livestock sectors, identify innovative

opportunities & business models, employ market driven strategies for both

product and service upgrading, facilitate relevant linkages, align incentives

of the key partners and facilitate innovative upgrade across the WASH and

livestock sector in the 5 target counties.

Activities and responsibilities 

• Overall program management, complementary to
  
  the activities of the Chief of Party.


• Overseeing, coordinating and aligning the
  
  contribution of private sector resource partners in the Kenya RAPID and
  
  assessing their deliverables 


• Linking pin within the program’s governance
  
  structure between private sector resource partners, the Program Management
  
  Unit and the County Coordination Units (CCU’s) in each of the
  
  counties 


• Oversee and coordinate activities of
  
  consultants/(temporary) staff hired to support business development at
  
  county level


• Work with county governments to ensure strong
  
  incentives such as appropriate laws, financial incentives and reduce
  
  barriers for entrepreneurs that enter the sanitation market or public
  
  private partnerships


• Support the development of value chain
  
  analyses on WASH and livestock in the 5 ASAL Counties through effective
  
  research and designing interventions; determine the key demand and supply
  
  side constraints in the value chain and opportunities that the project can
  
  leverage on.


• Work with the private sector partners to
  
  identify information collection nodes across the demand and supply chains
  
  and development of sustainable and effective information collection and
  
  dissemination mechanisms


• Design and implement a market-driven strategy
  
  that creates incentives for commercial investment in the WASH and
  
  livestock sector resulting to private-sector led solutions to myriad
  
  market constraints (in collaboration with the private sector resource
  
  partners, MWA implementing partners, county government and local
  
  communities)


• Come up with appropriate strategies for
  
  creating economy of scale in rural areas; mobilizing private sector
  
  financing and other creative commercially oriented strategies for O&M
  
  of WASH facilities, and meeting capital costs of water and sanitation
  
  services


• Work with key stakeholders in government,
  
  civil society and private sector to develop new (PPP) models of for
  
  improved water supply and sanitation services 


• Help identify (local) entrepreneurs that can
  
  play a role in creating cost recovery mechanisms for sustainable WASH and
  
  livestock service delivery 


• Identify capacity building needs of value
  
  chain actors (e.g. small enterprises) and provide technical assistance to
  
  existing and emerging enterprises, and support the development of new
  
  innovative ones


• Coordinate linkages with financial
  
  institutions and facilitate a range of financial instruments or credit
  
  services to facilitate access to water and sanitation products and
  
  services by stimulating the necessary push-pulls between supply of
  
  hardware and credit services and community demand for the same.


• Facilitate, document and share lessons learned
  
  and best practices within the consortium. Promote learning and innovation
  
  among stakeholders. 

• At least 10 years demonstrated experience and
  
  skills in project management, planning, implementation, and monitoring and
  
  evaluation (M&E) in multi-partner and cross-sectorial development
  
  programs


• A minimum of a Master’s degree in a relevant
  
  discipline such as Development -Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness,
  
  and/or Business management / Entrepreneurship Development


• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in private
  
  sector or providing technical assistance to improve private sector
  
  performance, like regional/international value chain development, Water
  
  and Sanitation Supply Chain Advisory capacity, business development of
  
  (micro-)enterprises and/or (rural micro-) finance


• Preference will be given to candidates with
  
  considerable working experience in ASAL areas


• Entrepreneurial attitude – opportunity thinker


• Innovative and creative in solving problems,
  
  no business-as-usual attitude.


• Experienced in successful cooperation with and
  
  network in the (inter)national private sector working on development
  
  topics, either from Corporate Social Responsibility perspective or from
  
  core business perspective.


• Good understanding of and experience in
  
  working with local communities and government agencies at national,
  
  provincial, and local levels in Kenya


• Ability to work independently and with the
  
  team;


• Excellent organizing skills and interpersonal
  
  skills; facilitation, communication and negotiation skills


• Kenyans are encouraged to apply

Interested candidates are requested

to apply before 14 December 2015 by sending a cover letter, CV and a list of 3

professional references to: m.batterink@aquaforall.org. 

Only shortlisted candidates will be

contacted. 

Job interviews will be held in

Nairobi.

More information on the position and on the Kenya RAPID program can be obtained

by contacting Doris Kaberia – Chief of Party Kenya RAPID

(doris.kaberia@mwawater.org) / +251 728272279.