JOB TITLE: Malawi Program DirectorLOCATION: Lilongwe, Malawi with domestic & international travel
REPORTING TO: Deputy Regional Director of Africa
START DATE: Immediately
About Evidence Action
Evidence Action scales proven interventions that improve the lives of millions. We implement cost-effective interventions whose efficacy is backed by substantial rigorous evidence.
Evidence Action identifies innovative, appropriate financing mechanisms and builds best practice operational models. We voraciously self -evaluate, learn, and improve our models for scaling with a commitment to transparency on progress, impact, and value for money.
Our current flagship programs include:
- Dispensers for Safe Water is an entrepreneurial program scaling the chlorine dispenser system –a proven innovation that dramatically expands access to water treatment at an extremely low cost.
- Deworm the World Initiative actively supports the scale-up of school-based dewormingprograms worldwide to improve children’s health, education, and long-term development.
About the Dispensers for Safe Water Program
Each year, over 1.8 million children under the age of five die from diarrhea, a leading cause of which is unsafe drinking water. Dispensers for Safe Water is an entrepreneurial team tasked with scaling chlorine dispensers – a proven innovation that dramatically expands access to water treatment at an extremely low cost. The dispensers program is growing rapidly: we currently serve over 2 million in Kenya Uganda and Malawi. Our goal is to provide 25 million people in multiple countries with on-going access to safe water to reduce the disease burden by 2018.
About the Position
We are looking for a motivated individual who is passionate about using operational and people management experience to build a high-performing rural service delivery program, a strong team, and government and NGO partnerships to eventually serve more than 5 million Malawians with access to safe water and other evidence-based programs.
As Evidence Action’s leader in Malawi, the Malawi Program Director will lead the Dispensers for Safe Water program growth in Malawi and be a key member of our regional leadership team. Dispensers for Safe Water Malawi will continue to grow rapidly over the next years, breaking new ground in scale and operations while serving as a model and resource for new country programs. New Evidence Action Beta programs may also enter Malawi, and will require the Program Director’s support and guidance in forging new domestic partnerships. The Program Director will be a strong leader and manager who can guide and build our team in Malawi, translating Dispensers for Safe Water’s innovative financing (e.g. carbon crediting) and partnership opportunities into a nationwide program with world- class operations.
Our current focus in Malawi is no less than to provide safe water to the millions of Malawians who cannot currently access it. Our Malawi team has made tremendous progress by piloting operational models, building partnerships, and reaching over 200,000 people by the end of this year. The Program Director will build on the team’s experience and innovation, leveraging technology and streamlined field operations to reach at least 2 million people by 2016. Day to day, the Program Director will work with the Malawi field teams to build a platform for top-tier implementation and roll-out thousands of chlorine dispensers across Malawi.
Goals and Responsibilities
- Build a high-performing program serving millions of Malawians
- Translate the goals of 2 million people served by end of 2016 and 5 million people served by 2018 into a concrete strategic vision and plan;
- Create and strengthen program delivery systems to ensure high-quality implementation and service delivery (e.g. a Community Health Worker government partnership for chlorine supply chain);
- Responsibility for Malawi P&L of MK 235 million (~$500K USD) annually (and growing), and the oversight and leadership on financial and administrative functions that entails;
- Lead performance management and professional development across the Malawi program;?
- Lead the Malawi team and oversee team growth and development essential for successful nationwide chlorine dispenser service delivery
- Develop program operations strategy and lead activities between field operations, research/evaluation, information systems and support functions;
- Provide supervision, guidance and support to the program management team, developing team members into future leaders of our initiative;
- Generate, manage and share knowledge for continuous program improvement;
- Responsible for managing partnerships with the government and other organizations as Evidence Action’s lead in Malawi
- Support new Evidence Action Beta projects in Malawi
- Contribute to setting program-wide research and development priorities.
Qualifications, Experience and Skills
- Track record of inspiring and empowering teams with the right level of structure and direction (at least 5 years of senior management experience);
- Experience leading scale-focused work with a major operations component – building systems, bringing together organizational functions, and developing teams with the ability to reach millions of people;
- Experience working with partners and nuanced understanding of the opportunities and challenges of government and partner relationships
- High level of comfort with information technology and databases;
- Experience working in the water sector desirable;
- Work experience in managing a cross-cultural team, ideally in East Africa/Southern Africa;
- Demonstrated success forging relationships with senior government officials and engaging in policy decisions and partnership building;
- A critical, analytical, and process-oriented thinker with a willingness to form and adjust opinions based on evidence;
- Inspired by our mission of cost-effectively bringing safe water and other evidence-based programs to millions of Malawians
- Track record of being a good steward of program funding and responsibly managing resources; alignment with our philosophy of building cost-effective program
- A strong commitment to evidence-based practice and policy in the development field;
- An entrepreneurial spirit – the ability to lead in a fast-moving start-up environment;
- A sense of humor
- Willingness to spend ~50% of the time in the field in rural Malawi and Kenya
To apply: Please submit your CV and cover letter tohttps://evidenceaction.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=1 with the subject line “Malawi Program Manger Application”
