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 change making 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.

About the Role

Based in Dhaka, the Project Manager will be responsible mainly for coordination with donor, stakeholders and smooth implementation of key activities at the field level in line with the assigned project deliverables.

Key Responsibilities
A. Contracts and Award Management

• Serve as an Operation Manager to facilitate the effective delivery of contracts/awards on the ground meeting outcome and maintaining compliance from donors and organization.
• Facilitate the development of work plans including procurement, partnerships, monitoring, evaluation and learning plans.
• Guide and monitor activities of project team and partners to ensure compliance with the terms of the contracts and agreements as well as with established organizational guidelines, policies and procedures.
• Build and maintain relationship with municipalities and their key committees and departments, private companies, NGOs, cooperatives and national level actors.
• Review and respond to regular performance reports from implementing partners to ensure value for money, outcomes, impact and sustainability.
• Ensure the project is meeting environmental compliance and results from Environmental Assessments are shared and utilized.
• Review and track financial progress of the award and provide feedback for improving value for money.

B. Private Sector Engagement

• Provide technical input and suggest implementation options for ramping up private sector participation across plastic value chain.
• Support to identify potential collaboration for potential private sector players including but not limited to corporate social responsibility (CSR) opportunities in waste to energy. Plastic recycling.
• Stay abreast of latest technologies, innovations, and developments in Bangladesh and globally relevant to involvement of the private sector to capitalize on public-private partnership opportunities.

C. Technical Programme and Support

• Meeting with key stakeholders to identify plastic pollution in marine ecosystem in Bangladesh and in the region.
• Assist in providing technical, programmatic and managerial leadership services.
• Assist in conducting research, identifying trends, key issues and opportunities in the areas of ocean pollution and .
• Participate in meetings, workshops, and conferences organized by various organizations, including the Government of Bangladesh, other donors and international development organizations and share learnings from grassroots.

D. Communications and Reporting

• Assist with the preparation of reporting requirements such as the Performance Plan and Report, Operational Plan, Portfolio Reviews, site visit reports, and requested analyses.
• Work closely with programme implementation team to write, edit, and publish case studies, success stories and articles in various publications.
• Closely liaise with other projects operational in the region in Urban context.

E. Programme Development

• Provide support in development and review of strategic business plans for relevant change ambitions.
• Generate innovative ideas and ingenious technical solutions for meeting WASH needs of urban slum dwellers, informal waste and sanitation workers and refugees.
• Build and maintain relationship with donors, development banks and non-banking financial institutes to get their support for programme development.
• Support the organisation in preparing a wide range of project design including budgets, concept papers, scope of works, performance and quality control.
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with key partners, including national ministries, local governments, international development agencies, donors, non-government organizations (NGOs), and private sector firms.

Experience, Knowledge & Skills

• Master Degree on Marine science, Environment science, oceanography, geography or Graduate in civil Engineering.
• At least 10 years work experience preferably in the industry of Environment, Waste Management (preferably in plastic waste management)
• Female candidates are encouraged to apply.
• Experienced in dealing with Municipalities/City Corporations, national government (DPHE, DOL, Ministry of environment, forest and climate change) commercial companies, CBOs, youth group involved in waste and sanitation value chain.
• Excellent facilitation, coordination, team management, reporting and presentation skill;
• Ability to work and lead a multi-cultural team and meeting deadlines.
• Fluency in English language and proficiency in computer application.
• Good English writing, analytical and communication skills.
• Good ability to work with a virtual cross-functional team.
• Willing and able to travel independently outside station.
• Demonstrated ability in project budget management
• Good level of understanding of project management.

The opportunity to work for an organization that is making a positive difference to the lives of people worldwide, a friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.

Apply Procedure

Last date of submission: 20 January, 2025