The Client
Water Witness International supports communities living at the sharp end of the global water crisis.
They enable them to secure their water rights and to demand action and accountability from those responsible for equitable allocation of water, pollution control, flood and drought management, water and sanitation services and conflict resolution. Over the past 5 years, they have enabled 563,639 people to improve their water security through social accountability.
Key Objectives
Oxford HR has worked with Water Witness International to place their leaders that help them continue to be the world leading NGO they are. The brief for this particular role in the words of Nick Hepworth, Director at WWI was;
“For this position of Deputy Director we needed a stand-out individual – an unflappable, rock-steady senior manager with experience of leading dispersed teams in difficult and complex tasks, someone who could nurture our local partner organisations and hand them ownership of delivery, someone who had the presence, political nous and technical know-how to represent the organisation at the highest level”.
Services
- Executive Search
The search went well and we found a strong list of candidates for the role, but Dorcas’s suitability for the role really stood out. Her experience and skills were exactly what WWI were looking for and her confidence in her ability to deliver on the organisations needs shone through.
Dorcas herself was attracted to WWI as a small, dynamic organisation that punches well above its weight.
”(WWI) is nimble, always looking for fresh tactics and stronger evidence of what works. Working in water, so fundamental to us all, WWI stays true to what I believe an NGO should be doing, building resilience and acting as a catalyst for change through advocacy grounded in sound research.
Dorcas PrattDeputy Director, Water Witness International
Dorcas is looking forward to bringing her skills and experience to the organisation to manage, co-ordinate and lead Water Witness International’s day-to-day operations, ensuring that they work cohesively as a team both locally and internationally to make a real change to people’s lives in terms of water security.
As for the future for Dorcas within WWI, she has joined the organisation at a very exciting time when they are designing their new strategy and embarking on many innovative programmes around water stewardship and social accountability in water. For example, collaborative research on water security to understand what makes citizens and communities engage to demand accountability and claim their rights and what makes governments, government agencies and the private sector respond constructively to these demands to bring about equitable and sustainable change. An important piece given our current climate.
”The positive impact that Dorcas has made in her few months with us is testament to the quality of Oxford HR’s work. The team took time to develop a detailed understanding of our recruitment needs. Their questions about the role were particularly useful in helping us to deepen our own understanding about the person and profile we were looking for. What was most impressive was their laser-beam like ability to scan the market to quickly come up with a set of individuals for final interview. Throughout, it felt like having a world-class HR team working inhouse and I anticipate that we’ll be using Oxford HR in the very near future to help us identify our next knock out senior hires.
Nick HepworthDirector, Water Witness International
