Head of WASH and Schools Programmes (Madagascar)

Position Overview

This is a superb opportunity for a development professional to work alongside national and international staff, leading on the grant writing, reporting, and evaluation of SEED’s WASH and Schools programmes.  Our WASH and Schools programmes use community-led, participatory approaches, working with local communities to identify and implement projects that meet their needs and priorities. SEED’s WASH programme focuses on delivering interventions in rural schools and health clinics, WASH infrastructure is complemented by facilitated approaches to sustainable management and behaviour change. SEED’s education infrastructure programme focuses on building school infrastructure such as classrooms, toilet blocks, handwashing stations, rainwater harvesting systems, and menstrual hygiene management facilities to support learning. This is an exciting position for someone who has existing field experience to work alongside national and international staff, coordinating the development, grant writing, reporting and evaluation of our WASH and Schools programmes.  You will be responsible for generating funds across the programmes and expanding our network of partners in-country and internationally to maximise impact.  This post will partner our national implementation teams, managing donor compliance, ensuring proposals and reports are to a high standard and budgets are appropriately managed.  It is essential that the post holder has grant writing experience, WASH knowledge and is able to work in English to a high standard and have at least basic French.  Candidates who do not meet these criteria will not be considered.About the organisationSEED Madagascar is a British Charity working in partnership with communities in the south east of Madagascar. We integrate high quality community health, sustainable livelihoods, education infrastructure and conservation programmes to support long term, sustainable change and add to international best practice through research and publication across all of our programmatic areas.  
More information on the work of SEED can be found at www.madagascar.co.uk  

Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar
Timeframe: 18 months extendable
Contract Minimum duration: 2 years (probationary period 3 months)
Terms and conditions: Local salary plus contributions of up to £1000 to a return flight to post and £600 to insurance
Reporting to: Director of Programmes & Operations 

Duties and responsibilities

Programme Development

1. Work with national and international staff to design WASH and Schools projects that fulfil local needs and align with SEED’s strategic aim, taking into account past learning, international best practice, contextual constraints and government objectives;
2. Oversee the development of project frameworks (e.g., Log Frames and Theory of Change models) and proposals to ensure they are representative of the community needs while also being attractive to donors;
3. Support the WASH and Schools team to conduct research into international and national best practice for the WASH and Schools programmes;
4. Ensure the high standard of all project documents submitted to donors to secure the ongoing funding of SEED’s projects – currently at around £150,000 per annum across all active interventions;
5. Identify partners and build networks and collaborations across the WASH and schools programmes to increase the impact of SEEDs work in these areas;
6. Use evidence-based advocacy from research and project findings in briefing papers for staff, local and regional stakeholders and government departments to inform regional and national development strategy.

Programme Management 

1. Provide timely updates to the Programme Funding Coordinator of project activities and support them to communicate any changes in project activities to donors when necessary;
2. Oversee effective systems for monitoring project progress against activity plans, working with project teams to ensure objectives are met and using learning from ongoing evaluation to inform the development of projects;
3. Conduct fieldwork and monitoring visits to project sites when appropriate and ensure observations are fed back into ongoing project design.

People Management

1. Recruit, support, manage, review and provide professional development to a team of Programme Interns, Officers and Specialists, delegating to and managing their work to achieve departmental objectives and support organisational ethos and strategy;
2. Foster essential cross-cultural collaboration and learning, providing support to both the national and international teams to bridge gaps in understanding and priorities for project development and implementation;
3. Provide pastoral care, guidance and act as a role model, both professionally and personally, for a team of early career professionals living in country.

Budget Management

1. Oversee the development of budgets, including full cost allocation with consideration of the organisational strategy and priorities over the coming years;
2. Provide monthly overview of financial reports, ensuring project spending is on track and identifying trends in expenditure, and management of exchange rate gains.

General

1. Provide core support to the Director of Programmes & Operations in management and ensuring the support and security of all international staff, including acting as an intermediary of organisational priorities to the wider team;
2. Work flexibly, including changing work priorities at short notice and working unsociable hours when necessary to meet a short deadline, for example the submission of project funding documents within the timeframe set by donors;
3. Ensure all of SEEDs policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing and anti-corruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times;
4. Represent SEED Madagascar in external meetings with other agencies, donors and partners on the ground in Madagascar and in the UK;
5. Act as a temporary stand-in for the Director of Programmes & Operations and/or other Programme Heads when required during a period of leave and absences.

Person specification

Essential

• At least a first degree-level qualification or equivalent experience in WASH, international development, or related discipline;
• Sound knowledge of international development frameworks and contemporary global issues facing least developed countries;
• Sound knowledge of and interest in WASH issues and approaches in least developed countries;
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience of WASH projects in a developing context;
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in grant writing and proven record of success;
• Minimum of 2 years’ professional experience in line management and/or project management;
• Familiarity with the use of project management tools including Logical Frameworks, Theory of Change models, Budgets Activity Plans and Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks;
• Fluency in English (written and spoken) with excellent written communication skills, to the level of editing English documents for publication;
• At least intermediate French and be able to hold meetings and write reports in French;
• Excellent listening and verbal communication skills, and a flexible and patient attitude;
• Excellent proposal and report writing and editing skills, with previous experience compiling project proposals and reports and the ability to tailor written information to various audiences;
• Cross-cultural negotiation skills and a curiosity in effective work practices in a cross-cultural setting. Ability and desire to build capacity both within international and national teams;
• Ability and desire to develop, support and manage a team of volunteers and staff, and to oversee the Project Development internship programme;
• Ability to demonstrate and support staff to develop appropriate professional and social attitudes required for living in another country, and to manage these aspects of volunteers’ behaviour when required;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills, with demonstrable ability in gathering and assimilating facts and data from various sources;
• Experience of living and working in a developing country with the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers;

Desirable

• Sound knowledge of participatory and community-led approaches to development;
• Knowledge of and interest in education issues and approaches in least developed countries.

Practicalities

The successful candidate will need to be equipped with their own laptop computer (non-tablet).Application procedureInterested applicants should send a CV and covering letter in English outlining how their skills and experience match the requirements in the job description criteria to SEED’s Director of Programmes and Operations, Lisa Bass, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Applications deadline: 06th January 2023, 23:59 GMT. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis throughout this period. Long-listed applicants will have an initial informal online chat with Madagascar-based staff. Short-listed applicants will then be offered a formal interview with the London team.  SEED Madagascar actively encourages equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and aims to create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimisation, and unlawful discrimination, where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued.