Operations Officer

Operations Officer (Hand Washing Behavior Change) - Tanzania Job Vacancy: The World Bank


Job #: 091229

Job Title: Operations Officer (Hand Washing Behavior Change) - Tanzania

Job Family: Water and Sanitation

Location: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Appointment: Local Hire

Closing Date: 31-Jul-2009

Language Requirements: English [Essential]

Appointment Type: Term (Duration: 1 yrs)

Background / General description

The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) is an international partnership to help the poor gain sustained access to water supply and sanitation services.

Administered by the World Bank with financial support from several bi- and multi-lateral donors, WSP is a decentralized partnership and operates through offices in Africa, East Asia, Latin America and South Asia.

A major thrust of the Program is to help its clients prepare for and implement actions towards meeting the water supply and sanitation (WSS) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In pursuing their mission, WSP staff provides advisory support to projects and policies, help identify and disseminate best practices and lessons from experience across countries, assist clients in the implementation of pilot projects to test out new ideas and facilitate informal networks of practitioners and sector stakeholders.

Additional information about WSP can be found on the program website (www.wsp.org).

Background for the Operations Officer Post – Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The Water and Sanitation Program is implementing a project entitled “Scaling Up Handwashing Behavior Change to Protect the Health of Poor Families and Children”.

The Handwashing (HW) project seeks to improve and protect the health of poor rural and urban families (especially children under five) living in developing countries by effectively promoting handwashing behavior change at large scale within four countries, Peru, Senegal, Tanzania and Vietnam.

Research has shown that HW with soap, particularly after contact with feces (post defecation and after handling a child’s stools), can reduce diarrheal incidence by 42–47%.

The project will test the power of innovative marketing approaches to generate widespread and sustained increases in handwashing with soap at critical times among the poor and vulnerable.

To promote HW behavior change, the country HW programs will employ a combination of interpersonal and mass communication activities which have been tested and proven in commercial and social marketing.

Message development, communication strategy, and media mix are guided by detailed research on consumer HW habits, barriers, drivers of behavior change, and communication practices.

The HW programs will draw extensively on the expertise of professional marketing and communications agencies and private sector partners in the design and implementation of HW campaigns.

To enhance impact and sustainability, the country Handwashing programs will be carried out in partnership with key public and private partners.

The global project will carry out a structured learning and dissemination process to develop evidence, practical knowledge and tools for effective replication and scaling-up of future handwashing programs.

Lessons learned from the Handwashing Initiative in the selected countries will play an essential role in the development of this knowledge base.

The Water and Sanitation Program plans to hire an Operations Officer to lead the coordination and implementation of this activity in Tanzania.

The Operations Officer will be reporting to the WSP-AF regional team leader and work in close collaboration with the WSP-AF Regional Sanitation and Hygiene Team Leader, the WSP Country Coordinator for Tanzania, and the WSP global Task Manager in Washington DC, as well as teams in the other countries in which similar projects are being implemented.

Duties and Accountabilities

The candidate selected for the position will:

a) Lead the development and implementation, of the Scaling Up Handwashing with Soap Project of the project in Tanzania, including:
Ensuring that all project components are delivered according to schedule and in compliance with World Bank procurement and fiduciary policies and standards
Apply program models developed in collaboration with private sector marketing expertise
Develop Terms of References and lead the procurement effort for the Handwashing Initiative at country level; manage consultants and supervise progress on and quality of consultant deliverables.
Supervise and provide technical input and quality assurance to the development of concepts, approaches, and communications plans for the mass media, direct consumer, interpersonal, and advocacy communication components of the national Handwashing Initiative. The concepts, approaches, and communications plans will be developed by contracted consultant firms. The HW Coordinator will provide management and technical guidance to the contracted consultants throughout the process.
Supervise and ensure satisfactory of communication materials.
Manage negotiation of price for airtime on television, radio and newspapers.
Supervise planning and implementation of mass media and community level (interpersonal) activities, ensuring that above the line and below the line activities are coordinated.
Work with public sector to develop district/provincial/regional level activities as needed.
Monitor implementation of project activities.
Lead the supporting partnership building process, including identifying potential partners and gain their commitment to participate in the projects,, promote effective partnership relations between the private, public, NGO and external agencies on the handwashing initiative, with a special focus on establishing credibility and maintaining and increasing the scope of technical input from the private sector, and liaising with private and public sector partners to negotiate and define technical, financial, and other inputs to the Handwashing Initiative.
b) Backstop and support coordination of WSP-AF Tanzania office, and participate in national sanitation and hygiene dialogue with country clients and partners.

c) Prepare key strategic and planning documents including updated project implementation plans, mid-year and end year reports, annual business plans, and budgets.

d) Monitor and document progress of country level contracting, disbursements, and activities.

e) Report regularly to WSP regional management, the global project management team, and, as required, the Donor. Prepare and submit bi-monthly progress reports, attend regularly schedules video/teleconferences, and in other ways ensure that the regional and global management are permanently kept informed of the programmatic and financial status of the program.

f) Conduct information, advocacy, and outreach activities for the Tanzania Handwashing Initiative, including but not limited to, presenting the Initiative at national and international events and liaising with national and international media outlets for coverage.

g) Participate and contribute to the WSP global and regional knowledge initiatives, activities and events on sanitation and hygiene (e.g. HW Secretariat, WSP Sanitation and Hygiene Global Practice Team, Gates Foundation Sanitation Program, WSP-AF Hygiene Promotion Network, AfricaSan, etc.)

h) Fundraising: develop proposals and making presentations to potential funding institutions.

Selection Criteria

The position requires a person with experience in marketing in developing countries in the water supply and sanitation or related sectors (such as public health).

Specific requirements include:

a) Masters in business, marketing and/or communications, behavioral sciences or other relevant field;

b) Minimum of five (5) years of experience in consumer or social marketing, working with communication and market research agencies in developing countries;

c) Proven expertise in developing marketing plans and communication strategies aimed at behavior change;

d) Experience developing appropriate, acceptable, and comprehensible messages for specific target audiences;

e) Experience supervising and/or conducting qualitative and quantitative research;

f) Prior experience in and detailed knowledge of the sanitation and hygiene sector highly desirable;

g) Strong conceptual and research/analytical skills with the ability to think strategically and rapidly analyze and integrate diverse information from varied sources into conclusion and recommendations;

h) Ability to work with partners and successfully chair meetings involving a variety of stakeholders, to influence without taking over, and to deal sensitively with others in a multi-cultural environment;

i) Excellent verbal and written communication in English. Proven ability to write reports, articles and research guides;

j) Willingness to spend significant amounts of time outside of the office, including periodic travel to districts and provinces throughout the country;

k) Knowledge of or ability to quickly learn about World Bank administrative management and procurement policies and standards.

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