Project WISE Stakeholder Engagement Manager 55 views0 applications

The Organization

Splash is an international development organization founded in 2007 and headquartered in Seattle, WA. Our mission is simple: we clean water for kids. To date, we have reached over 600,000 children in cities around the world. In 2019, we embarked on an exciting, five-year initiative, Project WISE (WASH in Schools for Everyone), to reach every government school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Kolkata, India with improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, WASH behavior-change programs, and strengthened school-based menstrual health programs. This multi-donor, $45M Project will benefit one million children by 2023 in India and Ethiopia. Splash is pursuing funding to reach 100% of government schools in Addis Ababa with full WASH coverage by the end of 2022.

Our core values guide everything we do including every hiring decision we make.  They are:

• People – People first. People second. People third.
• Quality – Beautiful products that function and last.
• Honesty – No drama, no surprises, no BS.
• Joy – Kids at heart, seeing potential everywhere.
• Mistakes – Make them, don’t repeat them.
• To learn more, please visit www.splash.org.

The Job 

This full-time position is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and will report to the Ethiopia Country Director.

Position Overview:

 This role will develop and implement Splash’s city government relations strategy with key stakeholders within the city of Addis Ababa with a specific focus on the implementation of Project WISE.   They will strengthen and expand Splash’s relationships with key city government stakeholders.  The position requires strong engagement skills and excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to represent Splash Ethiopia locally in meetings that are conducted with Government Officials, NGOs, local donor representatives, and the private sector. The successful candidate has the opportunity to break new grounds in the nonprofit water sector by forming a model for true long-term government ownership and sustainability of Splash’s WASH in Schools program in all government schools in Addis Ababa.

Responsibilities:

• Represent Splash at government meetings, coalition meetings, partner meetings, and briefings of relevance to Project WISE.
• Ensure meetings of Project WISE Steering and Technical Committees take place on a regular schedule including the facilitation, coordination, and organization of the meetings.
• Continue to build on the successful relationships with legislative bodies, elected officials, and city bureaus to ensure coordination of school WASH programs in Addis Ababa, with a particular focus on Addis Ababa Bureau of Education, Addis Ababa sub-city leadership, Addis Ababa Bureau of Finance, Addis Ababa Construction Bureau, and Addis Ababa Sewerage and Water Authority, Addis Ababa Bureau of Health. and Addis Ababa sub-city offices.
• Continue to build on the existing partnership with sub city government bodies like offices of Education, Construction, and Health to position Project WISE for success.
• Build a map of the government ecosystem as it relates to school WASH in Addis Ababa; including key stakeholders
• Develop an understanding of city government funding mechanisms, fund availability, budget processes and timelines, and approval processes and leverage this knowledge to ensure timely financial support for Project WISE
• Work to build long-term financial support for school WASH programming at BoE, BoH, and other city government bureaus
• Contribute to the development of metrics and indicators to measure the success of Splash’s government advocacy work and ensure the metrics and the indicators will be used effectively for advocacy, Splash model promotion, and visibility.
• In close collaboration with the Country Director and other senior staff of the country office, ensure and/or facilitate constant monitoring and analysis of targeted partners’ drivers, modalities, policies, priorities and collaboration opportunities
• Develop, constantly update and ensure the timely implementation of innovative approaches and partnership strategies, and work towards developing solutions to any potential bottle necks, sustainability, local ownership, disability inclusiveness and child friendly services concerning Project WISE (a good case in point is liaising with AAWSA and other concerned/relevant government and non-government bodies to resolve the critical water supply shortage problem at schools)
• Collaborate with relevant local partners to promote the adoption of the Splash model (partnership, behavior change integration, sustainability, local ownership, disability inclusiveness and child friendly services into the interventions of hardware facilities, menstrual health management, O & M) model by other NGOs, Government offices (including the building of behavior change models and school based menstrual health management into school curriculums) and by actors in the private sector.
• Conduct and review the stakeholder analysis matrix and update/design a stakeholder engagement plan accordingly to create space for enhanced engagement and partnership building.
• With the aim of creating handwashing with soap among school kids, influence BoE to adopt Splash’s unique soap drive initiative for sustainable supply of soap.
• In collaboration with the Country Director and other senior staff, develop a targeted communications plan in support of the strategic positioning of Project WISE with city government offices
• Develop appropriate tools and systems to enhance coordination, track commitments and opportunities with stakeholders, and strengthen coherence and cohesion of Splash’s overall positioning in local partnership framework
• Enhance Splash’s visibility among key stakeholders by organizing workshops; experience sharing events and by preparing and sharing of annual organizational bulletin to concerned bodies.
• Function as a liaison to positively influence government bodies in sharing their experience and best practices to regional counterparts in relation to expansion to secondary cities.
• Map out different actors in urban school WASH to avoid duplication of resources and efforts and for better synergy.

Qualifications 

• MA or MSc in related fields such as Public Health, Global Health, Education, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, International Development or Project Management is required.
• At least 10 years of work experience, including 5 -7 years working with Addis Ababa or national level government entities or with international NGOs in Ethiopia on matters related to education, infrastructure, partnership strategy, communications.
• Strong written and oral communication skills including professional level of written and verbal fluency in Amharic and English
• Knowledge of state and/or federal legislative, funding, and regulatory processes. Ability to analyze legislation and government policies.
• Experience related to the Education sector in Ethiopia strongly preferred; WASH experience helpful
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office

Characteristics 

• You exhibit absolute integrity, honesty, openness and sound judgment
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills
• Ability to work and collaborate in team environment, including with remote team members
• You enjoy collaboration and have a genuine interest in learning from and developing others
• Innovative and creative: you constantly seek better ways to accomplish objectives
• You think critically and have demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills
• You have a deep belief in and passion for Splash’s work and the children we serve