Programme Manager

Solar Water Hubs — WASH Programme

1.  Position Purpose

ForAfrika is a leading African humanitarian and development organisation operating in eight countries, with a vision of an Africa that thrives. Under a three-year grant. ForAfrika is assuming full operational responsibility for 101 solar-powered rural water systems serving approximately 451635 people across Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, under a three-year programme. The programme runs as three concurrent layers: Core Operations and Maintenance; Food Security and Livelihoods to Social Enterprise; and Hub Economic Activation, maturing from grant-funded operations towards community-owned, self-financing utility systems.

The Programme Manager presides over the entire programme. The post-holder holds overall accountability for delivery across all layers and manages the full technical team, translating the technical proposal into a functioning, milestone-driven operation and serving as the single point of programme-delivery accountability to Philanthropies. The Programme Manager ensures the programme achieves zero service disruption during the Water supply system contractor transition, maintains technical compliance against SANS 241:2015, and delivers the funding transition set out in the sustainability architecture.

2.  Organisational Context and Reporting Lines

The Programme Manager reports to the country Head of Programme for organisational accountability. The post-holder works closely with global colleagues responsible for Social Enterprise, Finance and Compliance as well as Technical leads. 

4.  Qualifications, Experience and Competencies

4.1 Essential Qualifications and Experience

•     A master’s degree in water/environmental engineering, Civil Engineering, Development Studies, Programme Management, or a closely related field (a bachelor’s degree with substantial additional experience may be considered).

•     At least 10 years of progressive experience in WASH or rural infrastructure programme management, including senior responsibility for multi-site, multi-donor programmes.

•     Demonstrated experience managing large technical and community-mobilisation teams across dispersed geographic locations.

•     Proven track record of delivering against donor milestones, budgets and results frameworks, and of serving as the primary point of accountability to a funder.

•     Working knowledge of the South African water-services regulatory environment, including SANS 241:2015, the Free Basic Water policy, the Water Services Act, and Water Services Authority arrangements.

•     Experience with solar-powered water systems (solar pumping, storage, chlorination and distribution) and their operation and maintenance.

4.2 Desirable

•     Professional engineering registration (e.g. ECSA) or equivalent.

•     Experience with social-enterprise, market-systems, or last-mile distribution models linked to community infrastructure.

•     Familiarity with MEAL systems, remote-monitoring telemetry, and dashboard-based programme reporting.

•     Proficiency in a relevant provincial language (IsiZulu, Sepedi or Siswati).

4.3 Core Competencies

•     Strategic leadership and sound operational decision-making under transition pressure.

•     Strong people management, coaching and team-development skills.

•     Financial and grant-compliance literacy, with rigour in budget and cost tracking.

•     Excellent stakeholder engagement — with communities, government authorities, sub-contractors and donors.

•     Clear, accountable communication and high-quality donor reporting.

•     Commitment to ForAfrika's ethos of community agency, safeguarding, and gender- and disability-inclusive service delivery.

5.  Safeguarding and Equal Opportunity

ForAfrika is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the communities it serves and expects all staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to reference and background checks. ForAfrika is an equal-opportunity employer; women are strongly encouraged to apply.

3.  Key Responsibilities

3.1 Overall Programme Leadership and Delivery

•     Programme accountability. Hold overall accountability for delivery of the programme across all the sites and all three layers, against the consolidated work plan, budget and results framework.

•     Planning. Translate the technical proposal into detailed, site-level implementation schedules, cluster work plans, and quarterly milestones, and drive the programme to steady-state operations by Month 12.

•     Coordination. Chair programme coordination meetings, resolve cross-cluster dependencies, and make the operational decisions required to keep the three layers moving in parallel rather than in sequence.

3.2 Management of the Technical Team

•     Team leadership. Line-manage the full programme technical team setting objectives, managing performance, and supporting professional development.

•     Deployment. Provide staffing and any surge support to meet peak workloads and deploy field engineering and community mobilisation capacity across the three coordination clusters according to site density and governance needs.

•     Capacity building. Ensure the technician and pump-attendant career pathway is resourced, and that community-hired technicians are trained to the established standards.

•     Sub-contractor oversight. Coordinate specialised technical capacity and sub-contractors — DWS-listed solar partners, laboratory testing, and civil structural inspection — ensuring escalation and service-level obligations are met.

3.3 Layer 1 — Core Operations and Maintenance

•     Condition assessment. Direct the Year 1 condition-driven approach — the Water supply system handover, the technical condition assessment at all sites, and country-team water-quality and yield measurement — so that the status triage produced by the end of Month 3.

•     Technical compliance. Ensure water quality meets SANS 241:2015 across the portfolio, that the tiered preventive-maintenance and reactive-repair protocols are followed, and that Tier C remediation is initiated within the committed 48-hour protocol at the named liability sites.

•     Capital resilience. Oversee the Year 1 Replacement Capex Reserve drawdown for end-of-life components, and the accrual and community-reporting of the Capital Sinking Fund.

3.4 Layer 2 — FSL to Social Enterprise

•     Community systems. Oversee Water Management Committee formation, formalisation and Water Service Intermediary registration under Section 19 of the Water Services Act and drive 100% bank-account activation across the identified gap sites.

•     Livelihoods. Direct Village Savings and Loan Association activation, market-systems analysis across the coordination centres, and productive-use programming that strengthens the household and enterprise income base.

•     Government engagement. Negotiate and advance municipal cost-sharing arrangements and Service Level Agreements with Water Services Authorities in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

3.5 Layer 3 — Hub Economic Activation

•     Hub roll-out. Lead the roll-out of the Solar Water Enterprise Hub model — from viability mapping and platform development in Year 1, through the kiosk pilot, to portfolio-scale activation — working with the Social Enterprise Unit.

•     Revenue and cross-subsidy. Ensure that Hub-generated margin revenue is transparently shared between kiosk operators and Water Management Committees, and that it cross-subsidises water O&M, in line with the sustainability architecture.

3.6 Monitoring, Evaluation, Finance and Compliance

•     MEAL. Own the programme MEAL framework and the portfolio-wide dashboard, ensuring monthly cluster reporting consolidates into quarterly donor reports and that performance is tracked against the eight KPI categories.

•     Budget management. Manage the programme budget and cluster-based cost tracking, ensuring expenditure aligns with the three-layer architecture and with ForAfrika's restricted-grant and donor-compliance requirements.

•     Risk management. Maintain a live risk register and mitigation plan, with particular attention to service continuity and the Water supply system counterpart arrangement.

3.7 Transition and Long-Term Sustainability

•     Transition. Lead the pre-operational knowledge-transfer sprint and operational assumption across all sites, ensuring zero service disruption.

•     Exit and handover. Drive the structured transition from operator to technical backstop, documenting community-ownership transition at site level and securing the post-grant continuation model with Water Management Committees and Water Services Authorities.

ForAfrika is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity, safeguarding, and the protection of children and vulnerable adults. All appointments are subject to satisfactory background and reference checks and to adherence to ForAfrika's Code of Conduct, Safeguarding Policy, and PSEA commitments.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates should submit the following by clicking on this link: https://forafrika.simplify.hr/vacancy/nxpgqz

Detailed cover letter addressing key qualifications and motivation for the role

•                 Comprehensive CV highlighting relevant experience

•                 3 Professional references

•                 Salary expectations and availability date

•                 Closing date for applications is 21 August 2026.