WSSCC Rapid Governance Review Consultant

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is a global, multi-stakeholder membership and partnership organization that works with poor people, their organizations, governments, and small-scale entrepreneurs to improve sanitation and hygiene at scale. Founded in 1990, the Council maintains a membership of over 4,000 water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) professionals from over 80 countries.  The United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) is the legal and administrative host of WSSCC.

The mission of the Council is to ensure sustainable sanitation, better hygiene and safe drinking water for all people, with focus on the poorest and most marginalized members of society in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. In order to achieve its mission, WSSCC facilitates sector coordination at national, regional and global levels, and engages rights holders and duty bearers to adopt policy guidelines on menstrual hygiene and disability. The Council also supports national sanitation and hygiene improvement programmes through its Global Sanitation Fund, coordinates knowledge platforms, and advocates on behalf of the 2.4 billion people without access to improved sanitation.

In 2015, WSSCC commissioned a medium-term review (MTR) of its Medium Term Strategic Plan 2012-2016. The review followed basic DAC criteria to assess relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, etc, that necessarily touched on the WSSCC governance, financing and management, among other aspects. The MTR overlapped with and informed the preparation of a new Strategic Plan, a ten-month process that involved extensive consultation with staff of the Geneva Secretariat, contracted entities, National Coordinators, partners, members and the Steering Committee.

The review of the previous strategy and the finalization of the new strategy culminated at the November 2016 meeting of the Steering Committee held in Mumbai, India. The Steering Committee reviewed the MTR as well as a Management Response prepared by the Secretariat outlining the actions it would take implement the recommendations of the MTR. They concurred with the recommendation to undertake a review of the governance structure in 2017. 

The consultant will be responsible for undertaking a Rapid Governance Review of the WSSCC governance structure and its Steering Committee along the following areas:

• WSSCC Institutional Framework: analysis of information needed to develop a new framework document and by-laws that will state the organization’s purpose, principles, scope, policy, governance arrangements, financing, implementation approaches, progress monitoring, reporting, fiduciary responsibilities, hosting arrangements, etc.

• WSSCC Governance Structure: analysis of the structure, duration, location of WSSCC governing, administrative and advisory bodies, partnerships, and operations at country level; clarification of SC composition and membership; terms of reference for the SC, stating roles and functions of SC members, operations, committees, and other aspects of SC functioning; roles and responsibilities of ex-officio members (donors, UN Agencies, Executive Director, UNOPS); as well as clarification of Secretariat, roles and functions, hosting arrangements, and reporting lines to SC.

• Steering Committee Operating Procedures: based on review of frameworks/by-laws and governance structure, an analysis of anticipated requirements for SC Operating Procedures and SOPs for committees.

• WSSCC Risk Management Policy: analysis of risk management objectives, principles, processes, risk categorization, differentiation, roles and responsibilities of governance structures (e.g. SC, Secretariat, implementers, partners, etc.) in risk management, etc.

Methodology

The consultant will carry out the governance review undertaking a desk review of current documents and related secondary materials and by conducting structured interviews with representatives of different parts of the governance structure, and select external partners.

With regard to the desk review, the consultant will review the Terms of Reference for WSSCC and UNOPS Hosting Arrangements, the Steering Committee Charter, the WSSC Strategic Plan 2017-2020, the WSSCC Work Plan and Budget for the Biennium 2017-2018, and additional institutional documents. The consultant will also review the documents of other similar organizations, and other recent Governance Reviews on other similar organizations.

As for the structured interviews, the consultant will work with the Governance sub-committee, UNOPS and the Secretariat to develop an interview list with names and contact details of selected individuals.

Additional resources available to the consultant are the UNOPS Legal Counsel and the UNOPS Risk Management Team, as well as representatives from Donor governments who have expressed interest in sharing governance reviews of other organizations they fund.

The consultant will prepare an inception note based upon initial discussions with the Governance sub-committee, UNOPS and the Secretariat in order to clarify how s/he will fine-tune and implement the Rapid Governance Review.

Week One: Review of secondary materials; initial discussions with Chair, Governance Sub-committee, UNOPS and WSSCC Secretariat; development of inception report.

Week Two: Completion of structured interviews via Skype/phone based upon interview list, and comparative analysis of similar organizations and/or rapid governance reviews.

Week Three: Preparation of Draft Report on the Rapid Governance Review; discussions with Chair, Governance sub-committee, UNOPS and WSSCC;

Week Four: Completion and Submission of Final Report

• Minimum 15 years’ professional experience in international organizations, public, private, or not-for-profit, of which 5 years’ experience working with Boards, Board Committees and/or Executive Directors.
• Knowledge of WSSCC governance, history, structure and policy is an asset
• Awareness of governance trends and developments in the INGO and not-for-profit sectors is disirable.
• Knowledge / experience of leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization sustains and extends the organization's strategies and objectives is an asset.

• Demonstrated expertise in administration requirements, policy and governance of Federated structures.
• Working knowledge of membership organizations’ boards constitutions and statutory requirements.
• An understanding of consensus decision making processes and building organisational consensus.
• Demonstrable commitment to and experience working with, or in, community-based and membership organisations.
• Risk & Control mindset

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

APPLICANTS SHOULD INCLUDE A COVER LETTER WHEN SUBMITTING THEIR APPLICATIONS.

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.