Technical Advisor III – Value Chains, Market systems and Private Sector Engagement Job at Catholic Relief Services

Job Summary:
As technical advisor for value chains, market systems and PSE you will provide leadership in improving business activities and support in upgrading strategies and interventions. You will work with county programs to identify, incubate, and accelerate business opportunities for value chain actors and in particular underserved SMEs with appropriate technical assistance and where appropriate linking to capital investment, while also generating a positive impact on livelihoods, rural employment, and land restoration in East Africa. Your leadership, management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality design for programming, support value chain upgrading strategies, and identify opportunities for investing in candidate SMEs, to drive forward EARO’s overall food systems strengthening.
These activities being in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices for Technical Advisors and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your expertise, advice and influence will significantly contribute to determining how effective, adaptive, and innovative CRS’ value chain, markets, PSE programming and innovation in financing is across the EARO region.

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General Roles and Responsibilities:
• Best practices: Contribute to the design, advocate for, and ensure implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in value chains, market systems and PSE that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Ensure a cross-sectoral approach that integrates gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions for regional and CP teams for strategic planning and how to best apply and adapt program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and business-related performance monitoring in value chains, market systems and PSE, particularly for value chain upgrading activities and the identification of innovative mechanisms that enable SMEs to access finance (in collaboration with the HQ Impact Investing and PSE team).
• Growth: Contribute to HQ, regional, and country program staff efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities in value chains, market systems and PSE. Provide technical guidance in proposal development and project design with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence. Support CPs to appropriately staff project teams.
• Capacity strengthening: Oversee and lead the delivery of capacity strengthening initiatives to enable staff and partners to identify new business opportunities and foster more effective business relationships for value chain actors that enable them to access improved services to engage with private sector in more efficient and remunerative of value chains and markets.
• Develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums; organizing and/or facilitating trainings, workshops, and conferences; and mentoring and coaching staff in innovative CRS approaches and tools. Provide mentoring and coaching to other TAs, as well as CP and regional staff.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, and complete performance assessment for direct reports.
• Knowledge Management: Oversee and lead innovation in agency knowledge management and learning agendas in value chains, market systems and PSE, through helping implement conditions for collective learning that ensure the capturing, documenting, and sharing of key successes, promising practices, lessons learned, and evidence-based implementation research, internally and externally, including publications in peer reviewed journals.
• Represent CRS in targeted regional or global forums to develop opportunities and better ensure collaboration and shared learning in value chains, market systems and PSE to influence technical partner approaches, future funding opportunities, and policies. Network with relevant organizations to increase CRS’ profile in value chains, market systems and PSE, influence in the regional or global value chains, market systems and PSE community, and support donor diversification.

Specific roles
• Support EARO’s development and contributions to an integral CRS approach to food systems and market systems development, enterprise development/private sector engagement, and financial service provision (MF, SME finance, digital finance).
• Support the development of market-based approaches and specifically strengthen private sector engagement activities within the growing resilience and food and market systems project portfolio for target countries in EARO.
• Assess the investment landscape within target value chains, for EARO activities and provide technical assistance to CP teams to foster value chain upgrading and both engage and leverage private sector innovation, management, and investment within activities.
• Lead ongoing improvements to EARO’s private sector engagement.
• In coordination with the Isidro team, work with CPs to identify opportunities for linkages with impact investment funds based in East Africa to support scaling of agricultural enterprises.
• Explore options for Isidro expansion into EARO, aligned with existing and future agricultural value chain programming.
• In partnership with CRS’s Isidro team, coordinate with country programs and partners to identify promising SME clients who are a good fit for the fund.
• Develop new relationships, and cultivate existing relationships, with strategic partners in the agricultural impact investment space for pipeline sourcing.
• Support value chain mapping, and follow up with enterprise screening, capacity assessments, in collaboration with financial institutions and service providers, as required.
• At the field level, act as a point of contact for value chains, markets, and coordination between EARO country programs and the HQ team on market systems development, enterprise development, and the provision of innovative financial services.

Technical Support
• Lead the development, roll-out and continual adaptation of market-based approaches, and private sector engagement.
• In coordination with the Regional Technical Advisors and CPs, build a roster of internal and external technical service providers and private sector partners.
• Provide capacity strengthening and accompaniment to country teams related to the roll out of market-based approaches and private sector engagement
• Provide capacity strengthening for the adaption and roll out of evaluation tools, such as the agro-enterprise capacity assessment.

Representation & Business Development
• Develop a fundraising strategy and identify potential sources of philanthropic, catalytic, and investment capital for the expansion of technical services and investment activities in interested and affiliated countries while also supporting CRS’ related business development processes.
• Represent EARO at international / regional value chain events, impact investing and agricultural finance fora as well as relevant trade and agribusiness fairs and conferences.
• As required, support Isidro’s marketing and communication goals in EARO by representing Isidro in regional conferences and events, and by drafting and developing communication materials.
• Represent EARO, and coordinate site visits for investment partners and other stakeholders.
• Contribute to country program staff efforts to pre-position CRS for strategic growth opportunities. Provide technical guidance in proposal development and project design with a focus on complex projects to ensure innovative programming solutions and technical excellence. Support CPs to appropriately staff project teams.

MEAL
• Ensure implementation of a MEAL system for market-based approaches and private sector engagement, with tailored tools, systems, and digital platforms to capture intermediate and impact level results as well as learning.
• Identify opportunities for learning, research and publications and implementation of MEAL policy. Facilitate the dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned to contribute to the agency knowledge management agenda and the large, impact investment and agricultural finance ecosystems. Ensure integration of innovations and best practices.

Basic Qualifications
• Highly qualified professional with 7 years’ experience leading market-based agro-enterprise initiatives in resource-challenged contexts.
• Master’s degree in relevant field: Agriculture Economics, Master of Business Administration.
• History of contributing significantly to successful fundraising efforts (business development), capturing funding from public and/or private donors.
• Experience monitoring and evaluating initiatives, and then analyzing and presenting the data/evidence/information in a convincing fashion to achieve clear advocacy outcomes.
• Demonstrable experience representing an organization at the highest levels in meetings with donors, government, international NGOs, local partners, ecclesial and civil society.
• Experience managing and/or preparing budgets and basic understanding of finance.
• Mastery of MS Office packages (Excel, Word, Power Point), Online Conference applications and solid understanding of information systems and budget management and knowledge sharing networks.

Preferred Qualifications
• Significant experience working with farmer organizations, rural enterprises, and leading value chain work in diverse agroecological contexts.
• Ten years of work experience in development, including technical advisory roles, project and budget management, proven track record in grants management and the facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• Innovative, visionary, and an ability to think at scale.
• Persuasive communicator with the ability to influence and secure agreements from partners and people in the public and private sector who are not under your direct supervision within a cross-cultural context.
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Very strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Very strong written and oral communication skills
• Very strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented
• Excellent strategic, analytical, organizational, and systemic thinking skills that can be mobilized to take correct decisions.
• Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including research publications.
• Excellent presentation, facilitation, training, and negotiation skills.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified? Go to Catholic Relief on eipn.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com to apply