Ethiopia: Country Lead-VCD Advisor - ICCO MasterCard Foundation STARS program - Ethiopia

Background

ICCO is an international development cooperation (www.icco-cooperation.org), with 335 people working in 44 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We operate from 5 regional offices and 15 national offices to work towards a world without poverty and injustice. We do this together with civil society organizations, private sector and governments, while strongly believing in the enterprising power of people. We aim to implement a systemic change and successful, sustainable and equitable development in low and middle income countries.

The ICCO MasterCard Foundation STARS program aims to address barriers to increase food security and income (access to financial services , insufficient farming inputs, integration into markets,) through a two-pronged approach: Development and implementation of financial products for agriculture with MFIs; and Value Chain Development and linking with financial services. The five-year program aims to increase income and food security for at least 210,000 low-income, smallholder farmers (50% women) and their families. The program is implemented in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Rwanda. It is foreseen to have a Country lead/VCD advisor in each of the project offices.

ICCO is looking for a qualified, experienced and self-motivated Country Lead-VCD Advisor for Rwanda and Ethiopia project offices.

Job title: Country Lead/Value Chain Development (VCD) Advisor

Type of contract Two year contract renewable depending on performance

Location: Any of the 2 countries: Ethiopia and Rwanda

Start date: 1^st March 2016

Job purpose:

The Country Lead/VCD Advisor will coordinate the implementation of the STARS program in country and develop and coordinate the Value Chain Development Activities and link these to financial services.

He/she will be responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the VCD activities using a Market for the Poor approach. Identifying, rating and strengthening producer organizations are part of the responsibility.

The Country lead/VCD advisor represents the STARS program in country and is as such the main contact for all internal and external stakeholders

Responsibilities:

Core activities- 70%

· Program strategy:

o Assess and map the value chains in country, and develop interventions in a M4P way (non-financial service market; embedded services development etc.)

o Mainstream gender sensitivity in VC specific approaches

o Contribute to the development of selection criteria within the consortia for the producer organizations;

o Determine the Capacity Building trajectory and exit strategy per Producer Organisation;

o Determine how progress per producer organization will be measured towards VCD;

· Program management:

o Responsible for the implementation of the Value Chain Development (VCD) program

o Mentor key value chain actors and partner organizations with special focus on business plan development, innovative project proposal development, agri-business promotion;

o Data collection, management ( organizational scans, partner profiles etc.) and analysis;

o Conducting capacity development training for partner organizations and key VC actors in areas needed to promote agribusiness development;

o Monitoring the performance progress of PO’s and other VC actors in testing and upscaling M4P mechanisms

o Monitors the sub consortium of value chains to ensure that all consortia members execute their activities as planned

· Linking and learning:

o Organize learning, exchange and knowledge-sharing within the two selected VCs;

o Contribute and participate in joint planning, implementation, monitoring and learning of the regional STARS programme

o Development and dissemination of case studies and other relevant learning documentation, in order to contribute to the scaling up of methods and approaches that have proven to be effective

Administrative/Overall Management -30% :

· Joint planning of program development, implementation and monitoring of the STARS program in country

· Provide oversight of all program activities and operations within the project office;

· Coordinate the project office including: office set up, purchase and installation of ICT infrastructure and physical space where necessary;

· Recruit and manage staff as per the staffing plan, including performance monitoring, and possibly mentoring and training.

Minimum requirements –must have:

· 5 years of experience working in supporting POs in value chain development;

· Strong knowledge of agribusiness, market information systems, market linkages and value chain development analysis and financing;

· Proven experience with the Market for the Poor approach.

· Proven experience with business development and development of strategic partnerships;

· Strong experience in agribusiness setting with social entrepreneurship approach;

· Good working knowledge of value chain financing;

· Computer skills and knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint);

· Good interpersonal & communication skills, including intercultural communication;

· Good networking and facilitation skills;

· Analytical and problem solving skills;

· Fluent in English and French (Rwanda).

Core competences:

· External awareness

· Results oriented and enterprising

· Ability to work independently while being a team player;

· Self-motivated, pro-active and result driven;

· Being an open and reliable person with high standard of integrity;

· Ability to connect with people of different backgrounds and culture

· Ability to transfer skills;

· Gender sensitive.