Senior Program Officer, CityWide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Job Title: Senior Program Officer, CityWide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS)

Job Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Job Type: Full time

What You’ll Do

• Make and manage a broad and inter-connected portfolio of grants, investments and relationships.
• Build, develop and cultivate relationships with key Africa regional platforms, public sector officials, private service operators, technical and financial partners, and community and civil society organizations.
• Support grantee and partner efforts to work with governments to mainstream and institutionalize key sanitation approaches and frameworks within municipal, sub-national and national service systems.
• Design new investments and forge new partnerships to fill gaps within the portfolio, including investments focused on integrating sanitation with urban resilience and climate resilience agendas.
• Collaborate to advance the overarching WSH strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa, including contributions to the market adoption of transformative technologies as a key lever to accelerate safely managed sanitation.
• Work at the interface between service delivery, policy and financing for urban inclusive sanitation, working with a range of financial and technical partners to support government-led systems change.
• As a senior member of the Africa Regional Office and WSH teams, support the shaping and execution of the WSH regional strategy, whilst integrating WSH within regional engagement plans.
• Take part in the broader global WSH strategy, working within an inter-connected team where strong coordination is essential.
• Further linkages, cross-learning opportunities and peer exchange across regions and countries in order to disseminate useful urban sanitation service delivery lessons.
• Engage in frequent communications and build relationships with government officials at various levels, with a focus on service delivery authorities.
• Commitment to foundation Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals, and demonstrated track record of furthering DEI objectives in previous work experience.
• Travel up to 25% of time.

Your Experience

• Master’s degree in WSH science, engineering, economics, business, government, urban planning, social science or closely related field or Bachelor’s degree with substantial relevant work experience.
• 10+ years of experience with increased senior leadership responsibilities in planning and managing urban basic service delivery systems, systems change and data systems strengthening, utility management, and/or economic regulation, ideally including sanitation.
• Experience working with or for the public sector in a municipal government, utility, regulatory agency or ministry responsible for urban service delivery and/or WASH services.
• Strong working understanding of financing modalities for urban basic services, including investment planning, tariff setting, etc. within complex and fragmented/decentralized institutional and regulatory environments
• Experience working with and facilitating a broad range of stakeholders and development partnerships on the African continent; comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Proven track record in driving public sector systems change, including strengthening required data systems to set benchmarks, targets and service improvement plans.
• Strong analytical skills; Creative problem solver with a tenacious focus on achieving results.
• Data driven, partner focused, naturally curious, and willingness to span from strategy development to execution
• Comfortable with role ambiguity, working in a fast-paced environment, frequent travel and navigating large complex organizations.
• Effective communicator who can passionately articulate the vision and inspire collaboration.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; strong ability to coordinate complex projects; ability to collaborate across functions and geographies and transition projects to other colleagues successfully.
• Excellent relationship management, facilitation and conflict resolution skills; confident and comfortable working with senior government officials, private sector service providers, international development partners and community organization.
• Excellent technical writing, communication and presentation skills in both French and English.

Other Attributes

• Experience in policy implementation at a national/ministerial level
• Experience working within a development finance institution
• Experience working within a philanthropic or grant-making organization
• Subject matter expertise on urban resilience and climate change
• Experience working with gender equity initiatives

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