Country Director

Country Director, Nepal

Fixed Term Contract – 3 years, Full Time
Kathmandu, Nepal

About WaterAid:
Want to use your skills in steering the direction of the Country Programme to play a vital role in making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone everywhere?
We need passionate, creative and dedicated people. In return, you will be encouraged and empowered to be yourself at your very best. Together, we will make a bigger difference.
Join WaterAid as Country Director, Nepal to change normal for millions of people so they can unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good. On top of that you’ll be joining a 2020 Great Place to Work® award-winning organisation.

About the Role:
As our inspiring and innovative Country Director (CD) you will provide leadership to the Country Programme (CP) and contribute to the regional and global leadership of WaterAid. The CD achieves this by steering the direction of the CP, empowering, and developing staff and partners and influencing public and private institutions on the impact that improvements in safe water and improved sanitation and hygiene can make to the poorest and most excluded – therefore contributing to wider poverty reduction and human development.

You’ll also be responsible for:

Development, Implementation and Monitoring of Country Strategy and Associated Programmes (50%)

• Development and implementation of the Country Strategy, based on Global Strategy
• Design and implementation of programmes and associated projects ensuring the adherence and alignment with WaterAid’s core approaches.
• Ensure continuous learning and knowledge management that supports the generation of evidence to improve programme design and inform advocacy
• Ensure local, national and global representation for advocacy and policy engagement
• Development of partnerships, engagement with external stakeholders and external communication activities in country to further strategic aims and maximize impact and sustainability
• Monitoring and measurement of strategic and programmatic indicators

Resource Mobilisation and Management (20%)

• Shared accountability for the mobilisation of funds through engagement with external donors and consortia partners, development of funding proposals and negotiation and management of contracts in collaboration with WA UK and other federation member fundraising teams
• Effective financial management, including development and monitoring of organisational budget and adherence to core financial assurance procedures
• Design and implement organisational structure and ways of working required for effective programme implementation.
• Recruit, engage and manage staff f in country in line with organisational policies and local employment laws. Develop talent for the future.
• Define CP support needs, timely request and manage the support through Shared Service Model and other appropriate mechanisms

Compliance and Quality Assurance (15%)

• Ensuring adherence to all internal processes relating to planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting (PMER)
• Ensuring adherence to programme quality standards as well as adaptation and implementation of programmatic approaches, frameworks, tools and guidelines agreed at organisational level
• Responsible for adherence to all other standard operating procedures in line with organisational policy in areas such as financial management, funding, procurement, security, safeguarding and human resource management
• Ensuring organisational compliance with donors and meeting national standards

Risk Management (10%)

• Development, monitoring and regular updating of country risk register, encompassing all significant internal and external risks
• Management and mitigation of associated risks, with particular attention paid to risks relating to organisational reputation, security of staff and partners as well as issues of safeguarding.
• Request and manage any required support for risk mitigation from wider organisation via Regional Team

Contribution to Global Initiatives and Support Services (5%)

• Use evidence and learning generated from programmes to contribute to global research, learning and influencing agendas.
• Provide support on areas where Country Programme has comparative advantage or has developed a specialist skillset to other Countries/Teams.
• Representation in and contribution to WA’s Global initiatives.

About You:
To be successful, you’ll need:

• Master’s degree qualification in a relevant field (Development Studies, Environmental or Social Sciences, Climate Change, Public Health, Water Resources, Civil Engineering or any other field relevant to WASH.
• Extensive proven experience of working at a senior level with strategic leadership, management, and financial accountabilities.
• Track record of leading and managing diverse & multi-disciplinary professional teams (preferably WASH sector).
• Proven leadership and empowering management style building trust and diverse inspiring high performance.
• Ability to develop and implement long term strategic country plans, translate into time bound operational plans.
• Track record of developing strategic and operational partnerships with national and international NGOs, leading, or working as a member in a consortium, and government authorities for programme, policy and advocacy interventions.
• Successful engagement with national governments, bilateral and multi-lateral agencies on policy influencing with a track record of successful advocacy.
• Proven record of raising funds from government and/or international agencies (bilateral/multilateral), managing large budgets with diverse international donor base.
• A sound understanding of international development (policy and programme), systems approaches and human rights especially around WASH in developing countries.
• A strong commitment to equity and inclusion, diversity, and pro-poor development.
• High compatibility to WaterAid Global Code of Conduct and ways of working.
• Ability to plan own work, setting priorities and completing it under pressure or when faced with competing demands.
• Demonstrating resilience and adaptability in personal leadership style.
• We also prefer you to have:
• Track record of leading a country office in an international development organisation.
• Demonstrated expertise or familiar with the national sector actors on Public Health.
• Proven experience in managing organisational growth and change and institutional development especially within the development sector.
• Experience of leading on participatory monitoring and impact assessment missions.
• Significant experience of WASH in communities in urban and rural settings.
• A good understanding of participative hygiene promotion approaches and methodologies.
• Ability to communicate clearly in a relevant local language.
• Understanding and managing relationship with the relevant Government offices related to operations of INGO.
• Experience of working in Nepal will be strongly preferred.

How to Apply and Closing Date: To see the full job pack, please click ‘Apply‘. P

Please apply by submitting your CV and a cover letter into one document in either Word Document or PDF format to CDrecruitmentNepal@wateraid.org by 17th December 2023.

Our Commitment:

Our People Promise:
We will work with passion and focus to ensure safe and sustainable water, toilets and hygiene are available to everyone, everywhere. WaterAid is a place of purpose – where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to put the wellbeing of our people first, to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.

Equal opportunities:
We are an equal opportunity, disability-confident employer and are dedicated to achieving the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions and ways of life. This includes, but is not limited to, race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, national or social origin, health status, and economic or social situation.

Safeguarding:
We are also committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. As a safeguarding measure, WaterAid carries out background checks on all potential employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.