County WSP Capacity Strengthening Officer - Integrated WASH and Water Services

Purpose of the Position

• The Officer will provide hands-on technical assistance, capacity strengthening, coordination and performance monitoring to county governments, WSPs and other water and sanitation service providers.
• The Officer will work across urban, peri-urban and rural WASH systems, supporting improvements in institutional performance, infrastructure and operations, customer and revenue systems, investment planning, climate resilience and service sustainability.

Key Responsibilities

 WSP capacity strengthening

• Conduct WSP and service-provider capacity assessments
• Support preparation and implementation of performance-improvement plans.
• Strengthen governance and management systems.
• Support establishment and monitoring of WSP KPIs.
• Coach WSP management and technical teams.
• Track implementation of agreed improvement actions.

Technical and operational performance

• Support providers to improve:
• Water production and distribution;
• Network operations;
• NRW management;
• Water-quality management;
• Metering and connections;
• Preventive maintenance;
• Asset management;
• Infrastructure rehabilitation;
• Energy efficiency; and
• Service reliability and continuity.

Customer and commercial performance

• Support improvement of:
• Customer databases;
• Billing systems;
• Revenue collection;
• Meter management;
• Complaints management;
• Customer communication;
• Payment systems; and
• Commercial-performance monitoring.

Investment planning

• Support county and WSP investment planning.
• Identify priority infrastructure and service gaps.
• Develop technical inputs for investment cases.
• Link investment priorities to WSP business plans.
• Support preparation of investment-ready project concepts.
• Facilitate engagement with financing and private-sector partners.

Rural and small water providers

• Support rural and small providers to improve:
• Governance;
• O&M;
• Financial sustainability;
• Tariff and revenue systems;
• Operator capacity;
• Customer management;
• Asset management;
• Delegated management arrangements; and
• Service-level agreements.

County coordination

• The Officer will maintain regular engagement with:
• County Departments responsible for water/WASH;
• WSPs;
• Rural water providers;
• Community institutions;
• Private operators;
• Sanitation/FSM actors;
• Regulators; and
• Other relevant sector stakeholders.
• The Officer will maintain a county action tracker and follow up agreed actions to completion.

Sanitation and FSM integration

• Working with the relevant sanitation/FSM specialists, the Officer will:
• Support county-level coordination of water and sanitation interventions;
• Identify service-delivery gaps;
• Facilitate linkages with sanitation/FSM providers;
• Support integration of sanitation priorities into relevant county/WSP plans; and
• Monitor agreed county-level actions.

Climate resilience and sustainability

• Integrate:
• drought resilience;
• climate-risk assessment;
• source and infrastructure protection;
• water-resource considerations;
• energy efficiency;
• solarisation where appropriate;
• resilient O&M systems; and
• long-term financial sustainability
• Into county and WSP planning.

Capacity building and knowledge transfer

• Deliver and facilitate practical training.
• Coach county and WSP staff.
• Develop and adapt SOPs, tools and management templates.
• Facilitate peer learning.
• Document lessons and innovations.
• Promote institutional ownership of systems introduced through the programme.

Monitoring and reporting

• Maintain county implementation and performance trackers.
• Monitor agreed WSP KPIs.
• Document technical assistance and capacity-building activities.
• Track progress against county action plans.
• Identify risks and recommend corrective actions.
• Prepare periodic county progress reports.
• Provide data and evidence for Pathway 2 reporting.

Key Deliverables

• The Officer will be responsible for:
• County WSP/Service-Provider Capacity Assessment
• County WSP Performance-Improvement Plans
• County WSP Action and KPI Tracker
• Customer Management and Revenue-System Improvement Actions
• Infrastructure and Asset-Management Improvement Actions
• DMM/PPCP Development and Operationalisation Actions
• County/WSP Investment-Planning and Investment-Readiness Inputs
• Capacity-Building and Coaching Records
• County Stakeholder Coordination Records
• Climate-Resilience and Sustainability Actions
• Sanitation and FSM Coordination Actions
• Quarterly County Progress Reports
• County Institutionalisation and Handover Plan

Qualifications and Experience

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Civil/Water Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Natural Resources, Public Health, Development Studies, Social Sciences or any other relevant course with a bearing on water and sanitation;
• Postgraduate qualification is an advantage.
• Professional registration/membership where applicable is an advantage.

Experience

• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience, including:
• WASH service delivery in Kenya;
• Water sector reforms in Kenya
• Demonstrated experience in both urban/peri-urban and rural settings;
• WSP or water-service-provider strengthening;
• County government engagement;
• Water infrastructure, operations or service management;
• Institutional capacity strengthening;
• Stakeholder/community engagement; and
• Implementation of government or donor-supported WASH programmes.
• Regional experience
• Demonstrated practical experience in Northern Kenya and/or ASAL counties shall be strongly preferred.