USAID CATALYZE MS4G: WASH Advisor – Palladium MS4G Vacancy Announcement

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Project Background

This Opportunity:

Palladium International, LLC is implementing the $250 Million, 5-year USAID CATALYZE contract which offers a facilitated partnership model that will craft solutions to crowd in $2 Billion in blended finance (i.e., blended concessional and commercial finance) to USAID partner countries; it can work in any development sector or region. Launched in October 2019, CATALYZE is a buy-in mechanism that allows USAID Bureaus and Missions to efficiently deploy investment facilitation solutions that respond to the needs of specific sectors, issues, and geographies.

USAID CATALYZE Market Systems for Growth (MS4G) focuses on creating transformative outcomes in the food security and WASH sectors to benefit all Ethiopian people. To achieve these goals, the activity engages youth, mobilizes capital, increases access to finance, connects enterprises to markets, and supports stakeholders to self-advocate towards policy change which will promote opportunities for the private sector community. The project supports activities in Addis Ababa and secondary cities.

To strengthen the private sector in the food security and WASH sectors, MS4G uses a market-based approach to enhance enterprises’ performance, product/service delivery, and inclusion. The activities are designed to build institutional capacity, enhance knowledge and skill transfers through workforce development initiatives, advance the business enabling environment, accelerate digital transformations and scale best practices to increase productivity and quality.

Estimated Start Date:

This assignment is expected to commence on May 01, 2024.

You and Your Career:

• If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in supervising program activities, we are interested in hearing from you.
• We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start.  We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• The CATALYZE MS4G, WASH Advisor will report to CATALYZE MS4G Deputy Country Director-Technical. The role is comprised of specific activities addressing two components:  support for the Water and Energy Sector Working Group (WESWG) Secretariat activities and  support for core MS4G WASH activities.

WESWG Secretariat support

• Support the secretariat establishment of GOE, policies strategies, guidelines, laws and regulations and lessons from the past and on-going programming from WASH, WRM, and Energy.
• Provide support to the WASH / WRM / Energy subgroup in their needs of training and information support.
• Provide support for information gathering, analysis, and sharing through undertaking knowledge events and showcasing best practice and lesson learnt.

MS4G Program Planning and Implementation

• Contribute to MS4G Annual workplan.
• Collaborate with MS4G technical team to assess evidence of existing WASH financing modalities.
• Review and analyse MS4G partner data on WASH MSME digitization to assess impact and propose activity adaptations as needed.
• Confer with research-based institutions to understand the latest developments affecting sustainability approaches to private sector contributions to WASH outcomes.
• Propose initiatives that can contribute to an improved supportive and vibrant environment for women entrepreneurs in the WASH sector.
• Design gender-specific interventions by assessing:
• The role of gender in access to business opportunities in the WASH sector
• Women and girls’ access to WASH products and services
• Identify opportunities for WASH MSMEs to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change.

Partnership and Networking

• Closely follow up and facilitate stakeholder networking.
• Develop partners mapping and ensure engagement.

Learning and Capacity Building

• Contribute to information on the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Ethiopia
• Provide training and tools to BASPs serving WASH MSMEs
• Coordinate meetings, briefing sessions and develop evidence-based documents on WASH Implementation lesson learned.

Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting

• Contribute to MS4G annual and quarterly reports.
• Contribute WASH impact in regular MS4G reporting to USAID.
• Provide regular monitoring of APS and report generation.
• Identify key evidence-based lessons on supporting private sector contributions to WASH outcomes.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion:

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success, and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Qualification

• Relevant experience in private sector engagement in relation to water supply, hygiene, and sanitation in Ethiopia,
• Solid experience on Market-based sanitation (MBS) and working with formal and informal financial institutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree, in Public Health with Environmental Health Background, or WASH-related, natural resource/development economics, environmental engineering, or other related field of study.
• Previous experience/knowledge of USAID and private sector engagement projects, approaches, and policy.
• Previous experience with the Water and Energy Sector Working Group.

Key Competencies Required 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Amharic
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to use the computer and Microsoft Office efficiently.
• Ability to work independently and in a team.
•  Previous experience of coordination, management, and project planning