Program Manager, Uganda

Job Description

Job Title: Program Manager, Uganda

Location: Kampala, Uganda with occasional domestic and international travel

Reporting To: Deputy Regional Director of Africa

Start Date: Immediately, Applications considered on a rolling basis

About Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

IPA is an international non-profit research organization. Based in New Haven, CT, with offices in Washington, D.C. and worldwide, IPA works with development partners and academic researchers to create and evaluate approaches to solving development problems, to communicate “what works” in development and to scale up successful projects in a variety of fields, including health, education, microfinance, governance and agriculture.

About Evidence Action

Evidence Action is a new organization working in partnership with IPA to scale proven interventions. IPA has played in important role incubating technical assistance and service delivery programs, such as the Dispensers for Safe Water program and the Deworm the World Initiative. The management and further growth of these “scale up” initiatives is transitioning to Evidence Action. IPA will continue to provide support for these programs during their transition period.

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 (DSW) 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 200,000 people in Uganda, and over 1 million in Kenya. 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 and strong team to eventually serve 9 million Ugandans with access to safe water.

As the head of DSW’s second largest country program, the Uganda Program Manager is a key member of our leadership team. DSW’s program in Uganda 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. The new Program Manager will be a strong leader and manager who can guide and build our team in Uganda, translating DSW’s innovative financing (e.g. carbon crediting) and partnership opportunities into a nationwide program with world-class operations.

Our mission in Uganda is no less than to provide safe water to the millions of Ugandans who cannot currently access it. DSW’s Uganda team has made tremendous progress by piloting operational models, building partnerships, and reaching over 200,000 people. The new Program Manager will build on the team’s experience and innovation, leveraging technology and streamlined field operations to reach 9 million people by 2018. Day to day, the Program Manager will work with the Uganda field teams to build a platform for top-tier implementation and roll-out thousands of chlorine dispensers across Uganda.

Goals and Responsibilities

Build a high-performing program serving millions of Ugandans

• Translate the goals of 3 million people served by end of 2015 and 9 million Ugandans 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 GPS-enabled circuit rider model for the chlorine supply chain);
• Responsibility for Uganda P&L of USH 2.5 billion (~$1M USD) annually (and growing), and the oversight and leadership on financial and administrative functions that entails;
• Lead performance management and professional development across the Uganda program;

• Lead the Uganda 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;
• Forge and strengthen partnerships with government and other organizations which leverage DSW’s ability to deliver high-impact programs;
• 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 3 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;
• 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 Uganda/East Africa;
• Demonstrated knowledge of working on policy and partnerships desirable;
• 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 to millions of Ugandans
• 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 Uganda and Kenya

To apply: Please email your CV and cover letter to jobs@evidenceaction.org with the subject line “Uganda Program Manager Application.”

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by the Uganda Program Manager. The statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. Please note that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant. Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization.

IPA is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE), adhering to the laws that prohibit discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment. The IPA EOE policy provides equal employment, volunteer, and service opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to race, color, national origin or ancestry, religion, creed, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, marital status, veteran status, disability (including HIV/AIDS), or any other status protected by applicable law.