Regional Technical Advisor - West Africa at WaterAid

About the role

• The RTA will lead on ensuring that the technical quality of delivery of our programmes (in terms of hardware and software) is consistent with national and global best practice in the sector as well as with WA global programme frameworks and standards. The RTA will be responsible for ensuring that technical competence in country programmes is at the right level.

In this role, you will:

Technical and Advisory Support:

• Review Country Programme approaches and technologies for water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion in the light of national and global good practice with guidance from the Regional Team and PSK.
• Support country programme technical staff to raise standards of service delivery carried out through Country Programme partners.
• Based on the WaterAid Quality Programme Standards, support country programmes and partner staff in the quality assurance of project design, implementation and monitoring to achieve technical excellence and long-term sustainability of water and sanitation services. Support the understanding and embedding of the standards in CPs (QPS Project focal point in the Region)
• As part of WaterAid's global technical support function, use WaterAid's thematic frameworks - Sustainability, Water Security, Urban, Sanitation, Hygiene, Equity and Inclusion, Disaster Management - in supporting country programmes to adapt these to their respective contexts. Contribute to future developments of these and related guidance documents
• Ensure all WASH facilities constructed by WaterAid and partners in the region are resilient to climate change effects with strong focus on solar powered WASH systems.

Capacity development:

• Identify key areas where capacity gaps exist in WaterAid country offices and among partners and provide support to address these gaps in coordination with the Regional Team and PSK.
• Identify key resources / organisations within the region and at the global level, which can provide support to country programme and partner staff.
• Monitor effectiveness of capacity development inputs to ensure they address the challenges identified.
• Support the design of robust proposals for financial resource mobilisation specifically climate funds.

Quality Assurance, monitoring and evaluation:

• Ensure that adequate monitoring mechanisms are in place that can offer a high level of quality assurance to the Country Directors, Regional Programme Director and Regional Director in coordination with the Regional Team, PSK and the Programme Operations team.
• Support implementation of the Quality Programme Standards plans for assuring consistent adherence to global standards of quality and technical excellence.
• Review periodically the quality of technical delivery, advise senior managers at country and regional levels and propose remedial actions with guidance from PSK and follow up on these actions and on recommendations of country programme evaluations and technical assessments.
• Participate in country programme and other evaluations.
• Regularly revise the construction protocols to ensure security and safety at any time.

Learning, Innovation and knowledge management:

• Identify and promote good practices in the region that enable us to achieve high levels of technical excellence.
• Undertake systematic documentation of our experiences for sharing.
• Host, co-ordinate, anchor discussions and seminars on technical issues to promote our knowledge and understanding.
• Write papers with other RTAs and PSK to disseminate our experience more widely, especially at key regional and global events like AfricaSan, WEDC, Stockholm Water Week, AfWASA and IWA events ...
• Actively encourage innovation in the technical spheres of our work and explore possibilities of these being scaled up and replicated.
• Initiate research and scoping studies on emerging themes such as circular economy, optimisation of solar powered water schemes.

Regional collaboration and representation:

• Identify key opportunities for the region to be represented to promote and enhance our understanding and experience of technical issues on areas of particular interest to the region.
• Lead in developing joint proposals for technical research and take part in advocacy actions which promote our work, knowledge and experience.
• Influence other stakeholders through focused advocacy in promoting practices that, based on our experience and that of our partners, are effective in ensuring sustainable access to and use of water and sanitation services.
• Be the key spokesperson in the region on technical matters related to service delivery practices.
• Be a member of the Extended Regional Leadership Team and contribute to the effectiveness of the region in promoting WaterAid's mission.
• Be a leading member of WaterAid's Programme, working closely with the Programme Support and Knowledge as well as with the Country Programmes in the designated region.
• Actively participate to relevant CoPs and working groups as appropriate and required for RTAs

Requirements

To be successful you will need:

• Master's degree with specialisation in water, sanitation, environment or other WASH-related area,
• Knowledge of international WASH development and programme delivery,
• Minimum 10 years' experience in national, regional and / or international WASH sector development,
• Experience of managing consultants,
• Experience of operational and participatory planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation
• Experience of working in an advisory or management capacity,
• Experience on CR-WASH and solar powered water schemes design, implementation and management,
• Experience on rural/urban WASH management models,
• Technical knowledge of the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors, specialising in at least one of these,
• Fluent spoken, written and read French and or English,
• Good communication skills including proposal preparation and presentation,
• Excellent word-processing and spreadsheet skills,
• Networking, establishing and maintaining relations with other organisations,
• Strong team player.

Desirable skills:

• Research qualification in WASH-related subject,
• Familiarity with WaterAid's mission, values and aims,
• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution,
• Organisational representation at forums or discussion meetings,
• Experience of operating in a global organisation,
• Familiarity with a WaterAid or similar country programme in Africa,
• Demonstrable skills in research and innovation on technical issues,
• Representational skills,
• Advanced knowledge of specific technical fields appropriate to WaterAid's work.