THE ORGANIZATION
The Water Trust empowers rural communities in Uganda to reduce preventable death and debilitating disease by enabling access to safe water and a healthy, clean environment. Since 2008, The Water Trust has partnered with more than 500 communities in Masindi and Kiryandongo, benefitting more than 250,000 people. The Water Trust aims to increase the scale of its operations and pioneer new approaches to increasing the impact and sustainability of water, sanitation, and hygiene programs.
THE POSITION
This role reports to the Program Manager and is based in Masindi, Uganda, with frequent travel to Kiryandongo. This role collaborates closely with Senior Community Development Officers (SCDOs) and Construction and Maintenance Supervisors (CMSs), but this position does not supervise them. The Assistant Program Manager (APM) provides critical support to the Program Manager in planning and overseeing projects, and supporting the SCDOs and CMSs in addressing challenges to ensure project requirements and objectives are met.
The ideal APM candidate will have experience implementing social WASH programming, and excellent organizational and interpersonal skills. The successful APM will provide critical help to the SCDOs and CMSs to allow them to stay on top of their projects when things go wrong, or there is an unusually busy period. The successful APM will provide critical followup on behalf of the PM to conduct quality assurance spot checks of social and technical activities, and help with any other activities as needed (such as report writing, quality control for photo submissions, or acting as Program Manager in his/her absence.)
MAJOR FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
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Project monitoring: Monitor project implementation and each week flag issues for review and action by SCDOs, CMSs, and the PM.
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Project management followup: As directed by the PM, followup on implementation of planning issues to help the relevant SCDO or CMS productively resolve the issue in an agreed-upon timeline. In addition, consult regularly with the SCDOs and CMSs to understand their needs, and propose time-bound support activities for the approval of PM.
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Quality assurance: Perform regular quality assurance checks of reports and field activities. The timing and frequency of these checks will be discussed and agreed upon with the PM.
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Special projects: Monitoring and evaluation projects (such as water point or household surveys), special donor reports, and other needs will emerge at different points time. The APM’s role may be undertaking this work directly or supporting the staff member responsible and closely quality controlling their work products.
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Representation: In the absence of the PM, the APM will be expected to act on their behalf both internally and externally. This requires a strong understanding of all relevant policies and procedures as well as ensuring one understands the PM’s intent and objectives.
QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Essential
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At least 5 years experience implementing hygiene and sanitation programming with at least 2 years of supervisory or oversight experience.
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A diploma or degree in social studies, community development, public health, sanitation and hygiene or study program related to behavior change.
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Must be skilled in Microsoft Office package with at least intermediate ability in Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
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Highly organized: demonstrated ability to manage information on projects with 10+ staff and analyze and understand implementation issues (e.g., failure to meet plans, inadequately detailed or unrealistic plans, inconsistent reports, missing reports.)
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Excellent written and oral communication skills: demonstrated ability to summarize issues and communicate issues to management, as well as demonstrated ability to translate project goals and requirements for field staff implementing programs.
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Excellent interpersonal skills: able to work across functions (e.g., finance, program), offices, and cultures and able to maintain strong working relationships with staff and achieve results without line management responsibility.
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Humble: this role is not the subject matter expert in our social or technical program, and the right candidate will see their role as helping the social and technical experts be as effective as possible in reaching their project goals.
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A team player and problem solver: able to firmly grasp the intention of management and collaborate with a team (or operate independently) to address the issue.
Desirable
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Speaks the following languages: Runyoro, Swahili, Luo or Acholi.
APPLICATION PROCESS
This is a rolling application process. Last date for a complete application is March 25, 2020, at 5 p.m. EAT. Incomplete applications will not be considered. No paper copy applications will be considered. Due to the number of applications received, we are not able to respond to each application.
