Job Vacancy: Private Sector Engagement and Partnership Specialist

September 27, 2021

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, WASH, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Western Kenya Water Program:

Western Water program seeks to strengthen the water sector in Western Kenya by addressing underlying constraints in the system through data and technology, process innovation, coordination between sector stakeholders, and behavior change. The project goal is to ensure efficiency of water service delivery, better use of water resources, strengthened sector governance, and increased investment by the private sector. The project targets the rural and urban water services, and water resources management in 8 counties: Kisumu, Kakamega, Busia, Bungoma, Kisii, Migori, Homabay and Siaya. On the Western Water program, CRS is part of a consortium led by Kenya Markets Trust.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the WASH Finance and Partnerships Technical Lead, you will be responsible to support private sector engagement interventions. This includes but is not limited to; sector mapping, establishing and cultivating strategic relationships between water utilities and private sector players.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

Work with the county government and water services provider to creatively design Private Sector Engagement strategies
Support the county government to identify viable opportunities in water sector for Private sector engagement
Design and develop market-led solutions to water services delivery and identify and guide appropriate partnerships with private sector players
Participate in WASH networks, meetings, and select technical working groups as appropriate to champion Private Sector Engagement in the WASH sector
Maintain relationships with key staff of consortium partner organizations regarding private sector engagement in line with CRS partnership principles

Required Languages – English Fluency, Knowledge of a main national language preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Very good strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
Very good relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, and results-oriented.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Private Sector Engagement and Financing Lead, Chief of Party, Deputy chief of Party Donor, Western water program consortium members, Country Representative, Head of Programming, Programming staff, Finance Manager, Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, Regional Technical Advisors, HQ based Public Donor Liaison.

External: Government agencies, partner INGOs and local NGOs, peer agencies, community representatives, private sector actors, including financial institutions.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

Graduate/Master’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., finance, business administration, economics, public policy etc.) required.
Relevant professional qualifications an added advantage.
Minimum 3 years of relevant professional experience in WASH sector.
Demonstrated experience of successful management, including management of functions of complex, multi-activity projects.
Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships.
Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.
Demonstrated commitment to respect, equity, diversity and inclusion including gender equality.

Further Qualifications:

Good knowledge of gender responsive and/or transformative WASH system strengthening and governance principles, methods, and monitoring tools.
Knowledge/experience in working with finance and business development agencies to improve WASH services.
Knowledge/experience in market-based approaches to develop WASH services.
Experience working in USAID funded project.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.