Practical Action

ABOUT US

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimising their impact on lives and livelihoods.

HOW WE WORK

We work on holistic solutions that change systems and have a framework to help us achieve our aims:

• Analyse the root causes of a poverty and vulnerability
• Define the change at scale we need to make
• Develop activities along three complementary paths: Demonstrate, Learn and Inspire.
• Demonstrate that our solutions are sustainable in the real world
• Learn by capturing evidence and adapting our approach
• Inspire wider support to multiply our impact.

OUR ORGANISATION

Practical Action is an unconventional, multi-disciplinary changemaking organisation

• A highly innovative community development charity operating in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Practical Action community projects use ingenious ideas to design, test, refine and prove new ways to overcome poverty and disadvantage and then ‘open-source’ knowledge of what works so that it can be implemented at a greater scale by others.
• A world-class consulting operation that helps socially responsible business, government policy makers and other development organisations. This draws on learnings from our own development work as well as the combined brainpower of a roster of over 2,000 expert consultants. Practical Action Consulting helps to extend the reach of our influence by providing the best advice to others, whose work can make a bigger difference.
• A well respected specialist development publisher. Practical Action Publishing brings together development practitioners, researchers and thought leaders to create publications that stimulate discussion, strengthen peoples’ capabilities and inspire sustainable change.

Practical Action

Our Vision

Practical Action’s vision is of a world that works better for everyone.

About the Role

Reporting to the Country Director of Bangladesh, this position is responsible for defining Practical Action’s Change Ambition on Urban Resilience for people living in urban slums and low-income communities to survive, adapt, and thrive by absorbing, recovering, and preparing for future shocks in response to chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.

The role will primarily focus on supporting the Bangladesh Country Office but will have a 20% remit in supporting the development of our cities portfolio in the Asia region – in terms of partnerships, profile and networking, proposal development, and support to teams in Nepal, India and any other countries agreed for expansion. For the remit in supporting the Asia Team, the position will be matrix managed by the Asia Regional Head of PAC.

The role will support Practical Action’s country offices in Asia to develop their plans according to their respective contexts, defining the impact they will make, and ensuring their plans are aligned to global strategies. With strong external networking and relationship building skills, they will represent the organisation at high-level forums, to build our profile and advance our change agenda. 

Linking with colleagues around the world, the incumbent will develop and coordinate global learning, evidence gathering and influence efforts.

In this exciting and influential role, the post holder will:

• Lead the continued development of Practical Action’s Cities programme including Urban Resilience – for people living in urban slums and low-income communities, which is strategic, viable and fundable, and describing the impact we want to make.
• Support Bangladesh, Nepal and India Country Offices to develop their own strategic plans in their own context, ensuring that impact is defined, and their plans are aligned to group strategies.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of specific group campaigns, and strategic fundraising efforts.
• Keep abreast of key developments in the energy sector, ensuring that we are aware of and responsive to key debates and trends in the sector.
• Oversee the operationalisation of the Practical Action Framework for Change, using our evidence of impact and learning, to advise senior management on how to use Practical Action’s resources, approaches, and capacities to achieve maximum change. 
• Lead, develop and coordinate group-wide innovation, learning, evidence and influencing efforts to contribute to the Change Ambition work across the group.
• Ensure that gender and inclusion issues are properly considered and resourced in all of our work.
• Contribute to group-wide capacity building efforts, in collaboration with the People and Culture Team.
• Develop and nurture strategic relationships with external decision-makers in government, the private sector and donors/clients in support of our change ambitions.
• Provide thematic expertise in the design and delivery of both consultancies and projects.
• Coordinate closely with all teams in the region and especially with business development, Practical Action Consulting (PAC), and programme delivery and communications.

Scope

Job Functions and Responsibilities

Strengthening Organisational Profile

1. Develop strategic business plans for achieving change ambitions considering national, regional and global context and priorities, and analysing cultural, political and economic factors - using a system thinking approach.
2. Provide thematic thought leadership to the regional programme, including country offices in the region focusing on Urban Resilience.
3. Participate and contribute to the national and regional discourse on policy and practice in the field of urban resilience for transforming the lives of the poor.
4. Represent Practical Action internally and externally on strategic matters related to the change ambition.
5. Actively contribute to the development of our brand essence and positioning
6. Provide leadership on innovation, business modelling, gender and social inclusion, community and stakeholders engagement.
7. Ensure that a transformative gender approach is integrated in all of our work.
8. Lead Advocacy and Knowledge Management strategies and initiatives to leverage change in line with Practical Action’s ambitions, linking national and global change ambitions for achieving maximum impact.
9. Drive for evidence and internal/external learning to support the change ambition, widen our impacts in line with the Practical Action Framework for Change.
10. Provide leadership for compelling storytelling that demonstrates impact.
11. Report on progress towards change ambition and our contribution / impact.
12. Develop and nurture strategic relationships and partnerships with ministries, departments and their large-scale programmes/portfolios, research and academic organisations, network/alliances/societies to advance the change ambition. Also include relevant strategic partners including UN organisations, development banks, research and academic institutes, network/alliance/cluster as relevant.

Business Development

1. Provide technical leadership to innovate technologies, business models and systems, developing strategic relationship with partners, contribute to identifying opportunities, proposal writing, review and comments aligning the Strategic Business Plan of Practical Action for the region and in the COs in the region.
2. Support the development of quality proposals by contributing relevant thematic leadership and innovation to inform programme design.
3. Manage effective strategic relationships with large scale donors, governments, and relevant groups.
4. Guide and influence marketing and business development of Country Offices and PAC in the region.
5. Support the development of quality proposals by contributing relevant thematic leadership and innovation to inform programme design.
6. Manage effective strategic relationships with large scale donors, governments, and relevant groups.
7. Guide and influence marketing and business development of Country Offices and PAC in the region.

Delivering Performance as One Practical Action

1. Provide technical assistance to the programme/ projects of the COs and Practical Action Consulting (PAC) under respective goal/ sub-goals.
2. Provide feedback to ensure quality and integration of technical approaches in delivery.
3. Design and organize capacity building training for Programme Staff in the COs in relation to urban resilience.
4. Donor relationships for large scale and/or complex projects.

Leadership, Management and People

1. Promote an organisational culture for learning and achieve change at scale, beyond our work.
2. Manage, support and lead subject matter specialists to achieve change ambitions, encouraging consolidated ways of working with other units in the COs – especially programme delivery and business development.
3. Take time to build team capacities related to systems thinking, gender and the Framework for Change.
4. Demonstrate and actively enable team Learning & Development including approaches such as coaching, mentoring, peer learning and reflection activities.
5. Proactively support the professional growth of team members/others by offering quality feedback and opportunities to progress and grow.
6. Foster a culture of collaboration and common ambition as One Practical

Organizational Policies, Safeguarding and Code of Conduct

1. Ensure that the role is delivered in compliance with organisational policies on Safeguarding, Diversity and Dignity at work and the code of conduct.
2. Responsible for gender responsive behaviour in all actions and decisions.
3. Ensure non-discriminative behavior based on gender, age, sex, race, ethnic background, culture, disability, nationality, religion and marital status.
4. Be sensitive and adaptable to gender and social inclusion.

PERSON PROFILE

To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Qualifications: Master's degree in environmental/civil engineering/ urban and Regional Planning

Application Deadline : September 1, 2024