Markets Specialist (Sanitation Economy)

Job Description

This role contributes to strengthening SHF’s sanitation markets across Sub-Saharan Africa by providing expertise in financing, market development, and private sector engagement. It focuses on coordinating with government counterparts and partners to enhance programme delivery, identify investment opportunities, and expand strategic collaborations.
The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF)

Operational since 2021, The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF) is dedicated to improving access to sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health (MH) through market-based approaches. SHF works with Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) to build robust and climate-resilient sanitation economies and MH markets through catalytic financing. We do this by working in partnership with governments, development partners, development financing institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector to tackle barriers to inclusive growth and accelerate sustainable markets. We put women and girls - their choice and agency - at the center of our approach, with gender responsiveness being integrated into the design and delivery of sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health products and services, thereby contributing to human, social, and economic development outcomes. By promoting circular and sustainable sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health value chains, we support climate mitigation and adaptation and minimize environmental impact.

The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF) is a project of UNOPS.

Reporting to the Technical Services Unit Manager and being briefed by the SHF Sanitation and Hygiene Markets Specialist and working closely with the SHF technical team, this role will support the coordination, oversight, and advancement of SHF’s sanitation markets work in the priority countries. Currently, these countries include Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria, but SHF is targeting to expand to further countries in 2026 in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will also require collaboration with external stakeholders, partners, and third-party service providers.

This role will add financing, market building, and private sector expertise in the SHF countries of operation and strengthen the delivery of activities and programs. It will enhance the capacity to engage with government partners and other stakeholders from a technical perspective, increase the relevant market understanding for the individual countries, and help identify opportunities to expand SHF work and partnerships in the sanitation sector.

Specifically, this role will support the timely and successful delivery of several SHF sanitation market programs and activities, including but not limited to: 

• Support with the identification and information gathering for new opportunities, partnerships, and sanitation market players, by drawing on relevant experience in the private sector, microfinancing, impact investing, and/or development finance space.
• Support the SHF’s existing grants and programs from the private sector, market building, and financing perspective
• Representation of SHF at relevant technical working groups, events, and public meetings
• The role may require official travel, which will take up about 10% of the assignment.

Through this work, the role will support SHF’s mission to catalyze the sanitation economy in a tailored and sustainable way. 

1. Market Insights and Opportunities

• Expanding insights and understanding of sanitation markets, including the work conducted by the private sector, multilateral development banks, public actors, UN organizations, NGOs, financial institutions (e.g. microfinance and banks), and other existing and new sector stakeholders.
• Engage with sanitation economy stakeholders and identify and develop mechanisms/incentives to enable new partnership opportunities for sanitation financing for example via de-risking or capacity building by leveraging financial institutions or impact investors.
• Support SHF’s work on structured market scoping and mapping of pipeline opportunities from a sanitation economy perspective (e.g., municipal financing, microfinancing);
• Support SHF’s work regarding public and private capital mobilization for large-scale sanitation investments;
• Leverage market data, trends, and stakeholder actions to identify opportunities for SHF

2. Support for Existing Programs and Grants

• Support by providing technical inputs (financing, market building, private sector) to strengthen the delivery of SHF’s existing grants/programs

3. Supporting Organizational Priorities

• Support the development and execution of the SHF sanitation roadmap from a commercial sanitation financing perspective. 
• Participate in selected technical working groups, events, and public meetings that are related to the market scoping and mapping of pipeline opportunities
• Support with the identification of risks in relation to identified pipeline opportunities
• Support with the provision of financial and economic modelling, PPP development, business development, SME support, micro-financing, consumer financing
• Provide technical expertise in support of SHF missions 

4. Documentation & Knowledge Management

• Review and contribute to SHF’s existing relevant documents and outputs
• Create a work plan and schedule with delivery milestones (agreed and monitored with the hiring manager)
• Have regular check-in meetings with the hiring manager and/or SHF team representatives
• Provide a brief monthly progress report in a written format
• Create a final written report on findings regarding sanitation markets, insight,s and opportunities that SHF could pursue (e.g., collaboration with MDBs/development partners, municipal financing opportunities, microfinancing opportunities, SMEs)
• Track meetings and pipeline opportunities in a spreadsheet format

About the Organization

United Nations Office for Project Services