Background:
WaterSHED is an NGO headquartered in Cambodia. We engage local enterprises and government in the development of sustainable market-based approaches that empower households to be active and informed consumers of water, sanitation and hygiene products and services. WaterSHED pioneered the Hands-Off model of private sector engagement, enabling the sale of more than 100,000 unsubsidized household latrines to rural consumers. We also developed a cutting-edge leadership program for local government officials, designed and launched the world’s first handwashing device manufactured for Base-of-Pyramid consumers, and incubated two leading social enterprises in household water treatment. We are ambitious about our objectives and believe in the power of leadership. Our breakthrough programs have been featured in the Huffington Post and The Economist, and replicated in more than a dozen countries.
To support our strategy vision in which everyone is enabled to adopt appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related behaviours, WaterSHED is recruiting a Women’s Empowerment Program Lead. The successful candidate will help us grow our impact and change the landscape of development WASH.
Women’s Empowerment
WaterSHED’s Women’s Empowerment program seeks to create greater opportunities for women to succeed in the rural markets for water, sanitation and hygiene in rural Cambodia.
While market-based approaches in WASH can offer exciting opportunities for entrepreneurial women to earn a good income, increase their self-confidence, and grow their expertise in sanitation and hygiene, WaterSHED has become aware that women are not seizing this opportunity at the same rates as men. Women comprise a smaller portion (about 40%) of WaterSHED’s field staff, and are not earning monthly incentives at the same rates as male field staff. They also comprise only a quarter of the sales agents with whom WaterSHED works in rural areas.
Our research suggests that women face challenges inherent in working in rural businesses, but that there are also exciting potential benefits. WaterSHED’s Women’s Empowerment program aims to find ways to mitigate the challenges through action research in the field so that women can participate fully in the market for WASH products and services, and benefit at the same rates as men.
Additionally, WaterSHED seeks to grow the capacity of the women we work with by establishing mentorship groups. Mentoring groups will meet monthly in each province for peer coaching sessions, with all groups coming together quarterly for conferences bringing mentees into contact with professional mentors to support, guide and inspire participants.
Philosophically, all components of WaterSHED’s Women’s Empowerment program begin and end with the input and guidance of the women it seeks to serve. The program aims to be participatory and empowering at all levels, encouraging participants to take the lead in planning events, leading meetings and peer coaching. The content of mentoring sessions is determined based on participants’ identified needs and requests, and aims to take an assets-based approach that focuses not on gaps in skills, but on the assets already existing within the group that can be leveraged for personal and community change.
Job Title: Women’s Empowerment Program Lead
Location: Phnom Penh, with travel as required
Deadline: 15-May-2015
Job Description
The Women’s Empowerment Program Lead oversees and coordinates the various threads of this program. This includes but is not limited to:
- Designing and implementing action research in the field to enhance women’s performance by trialing different sales techniques and strategies
- Creating strategies for the recruitment of more women to work in rural businesses active in water, sanitation, and hygiene products and services
- Working with WaterSHED management for the successful implementation of guidelines and policies to promote women’s safety and improved performance
- Undertaking action research to determine other factors that would improve the experience and appeal to women of working in rural businesses, and translating those findings into actionable steps or procedures
- Managing the logistics of the mentorship program, from recruiting expert mentors to designing the content and structure of mentorship meetings, to recruitment and support of participants and on-boarding of new women to the program
- Working with WaterSHED’s Business Intelligence Unit to improve field data collection to enable improved gender analysis of WaterSHED’s programs
- Building and maintaining relationships with other organizations working in women’s empowerment in Cambodia
- Ensure that new tools, approaches, mechanisms, etc. designed to improve the participation of women can be sustainabled within rural businesses
- Leading the WaterSHED team, including the Action Researcher, in all of the above
Key Qualifications:
- Experience in designing programs from the ground up, including background research, testing of ideas and implementation
- Experience designing and undertaking field research in the developing country context
- Ability to listen, and to think creatively to meet expressed needs of program beneficiaries
- Ability to plan and facilitate group sessions and/or training events, especially for non-native English speaking audiences
- Strong cross-cultural communication skills
- Familiarity with gender issues, especially in Cambodia
- Awareness of mentorship models and methods, and curricula/activities
- Strong relationship building and networking ability
- Ability to prioritize and follow through on multiple parallel program elements
WaterSHED
WaterSHED engages local enterprises and government in the development of sustainable market-based approaches that empower households to be active and informed consumers of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) products and services. We operate in Southeast Asia and provide business development services including training and marketing support, research and design of new products and offerings, and research services related to social, behavioral, and financial aspects of the adoption of WASH products and services. Combining the best practices from the commercial sector and the development world, WaterSHED is building sustainable business systems to improve the health and livelihoods of rural households. WaterSHED has been featured in The Economist and the Huffington Post, and is a two-time winner of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures competition, a winner of Canada Grand Challenges Stars in Global Public Health, and 1st prize winner of the Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge.
Who are you?
Working with us will give you the chance to use your creativity and deploy your ideas every day. We have a dynamic, highly collaborative culture that sets high standards for our work. If you learn quickly, are down to earth, have a sense of humor and want to help those around you grow, you will be welcome at WaterSHED. See our values at www.watershedasia.org/about-us. We are looking for people who appreciate the objectives and values of WaterSHED, have excellent communication skills, are entrepreneurial and creative, take initiative, and are enthusiastic. Good problem-solving, critical-thinking skills, honesty and trustworthiness are essential.
APPLY:
Interested applicants please send your application including:
- Cover letter
- your C.V or Resume
- 3) a recent writing sample (authored only by you)
to cambodia@watershedasia.org with the subject “Women’s Empowerment Program Lead”.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview. For further information about the organization: http://www.watershedasia.org or Follow us @WaterSHEDAsia or @HappyTap_TM.