VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Position Title: PRIVATE SECTOR ENGAGEMENT & INVESTMENT OFFICER (PSEI) – RLP

Duty Station:  Hargeisa (Covering Tog-Wajaale trade corridor coverage areas)

Position Category:  Full-time    

Current Employee: New Position

ABOUT MERCY CORPS

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future. Mercy Corps has been present in Somalia since 2005, with current programming in Somaliland, Puntland, Hirshabelle, Galmudug, Jubaland, Southwest State and Banadir. Our programming spans multiple sectors and is framed by a high-level strategy for advancing resilience and peace. Seeing ability in vulnerability, we work with and through local communities, including IDPs and returning refugees, to address immediate needs of crisis-affected populations while supporting and strengthening systems that facilitate collective advancement towards long-term and inclusive socio-economic growth, peace, and prosperity. Grounded in core resilience principles of systems thinking, partnership and facilitation, and adaptive management, Mercy Corps’ approach encourages crisis-affected populations, the private sector, government, and civil society to work together towards meaningful and lasting change.

Program/ Department

Mercy Corps has a significant depth of experience throughout the Horn of Africa, including an operational presence in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Somaliland. Within the Horn of Africa, Mercy Corps’ strategic focus is on dryland communities and programming in these areas include governance, social cohesion, market systems development, climate change adaptation interventions, among others. Through our work across a diversity of program activities, Mercy Corps supports the establishment and cultivation of resilient livelihoods. Mercy Corps is starting-up the Regional Livestock Program. Implemented largely in the ASAL areas of Kenya, Ethiopia Somalia and Somaliland, RLP works to ensure pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the target trade corridors have more climate resilient, inclusive and sustainable livelihoods.

General Position Summary

The PSE and Investment officer, working under the supervision of Somalia/Somaliland RLP Program Manager (PM) and in conjunction with Senior Program officer (SPO) and other RLP program team. He/She will be responsible for leading and improving access to financial services for producers, agribusinesses and enterprises in the Tog Wajaale corridor. He/She will be responsible to assess the existing capacity of agribusinesses and enterprises in the target areas including their training needs and propose actions to build their management capacities. Under the guidance of the inclusive market lead, the Officer will conduct assessments and research regarding service delivery, product appropriateness, institutional arrangements, markets for financial services, accessibility of services and new opportunities and models, among other responsibilities, across the financial sector in the project area. 

He/she will be the primary relationship holder with all private sector partners within the corridor and lead the establishment of Corridor Working Groups that partner with regional leaders to co-develop Corridor Upgrading and Investment Plans.  He/she will also identify or facilitate the formation of relevant industry associations that increase the voice and participation by livestock relevant MSMEs. He/She will also coordinate with RLP Program Managers, Corridor coordinator, Officers and Advisors to organize training events, identify learnings and successes for documentation and sharing MSD/PSE best practices, support development or adaptation of tools and guidance documents, identify and support markets-related research activities, lead stakeholder and technical knowledge sharing events, and liaising with relevant stakeholder networks, and local partners/institutions. 

Essential Job Responsibilities STRATEGY AND VISION

·         Assist in the co-development and implementation of the Tog-Wajaale Trade Corridor development strategy, providing guidance and support as necessary to other team members in implementing the RLP’s strategy for leveraging private sector involvement within the corridor.

·         Provide strategic leadership and direction on the Corridor’s strategy to improve private sector development.

·         Drive the creation of partnerships between private sector actors, including attracting and incentivizing the public and private sector to invest in RLP initiatives and interventions.

·         Coordinate with the RLP Inclusive Markets Technical Lead, Women’s Economic Empowerment Advisor and Inclusive Finance and Investment Advisor to design and lead access to finance and market interventions that reach or benefit target populations.

·         Coordinate with RLP Corridor Coordinators leading other corridors to expand B2B networks and create opportunities for joint learning.

·         Facilitate research into relevant private sector-facing opportunities and trends to identify opportunities for interventions that grow the private sector in the livestock value chain.

·         Liaise with the Results Measurement (RM) team on the development of appropriately tailored research tools and methods for the collection and collation of relevant intervention information from the field.

INTERVENTION MANAGEMENT WITHIN THE TOG-WAJAALE CORRIDOR

·         Formulate strategies to develop private sector actors within the Tog-Wajaale Corridor and seek opportunities to work as per the RLP sector strategy. Develop intervention strategies and implementation procedures in a participatory manner with key stakeholders.

·         Support development of operational plans and budgets, ensuring sequencing, layering and integration of interventions on both sides of national borders.

·         Assist in updating and supervising Results Measurement aspects of the intervention activities,

·         Develop products and campaigns to promote private sector-led investments in the RLP interventions.

·         Assist the implementation and results measurement teams in developing relevant grant agreements, MoUs, ToRs and any other administrative requirements for the interventions.

·         Identify opportunities for cross-border learning and conduct regular field visits to ensure proper implementation of activities.

·         Remain up to date of developments in the relevant sectors/markets/commodity and livestock value chains.

·         Work with the RLP Monitoring Results Measurement (RM) senior officer/specialist to design appropriate tools for monitoring the progress of interventions within the various market sectors. Also liaise with the RM on the conduct of impact assessments for ongoing program interventions

·         Lead implementation team to refine and adapt the intervention strategies in light of participant and stakeholder requests and changing needs and opportunities, within the overall program.

·         Help identify private sector failures and pressure points for addressing these; help identify ways to render a given market more functional and efficient, in a manner that will benefit the program targets.

·         Identify priority areas for interventions that will change as opportunities pass or are realized and new ones emerge.

POLICY AND REPRESENTATION WORK

·         Coordinate with local partners and stakeholders to develop and implement a Corridor influence and advocacy agenda, engaging with local and national institutions, as well as private sector actors, to drive livestock market systems discussions, development, and implementation.

·         Manage and update stakeholder management plan.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT

·         Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members. 

·         Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

MONITORING & EVALUATION (M&E) AND REPORTING

·         Work closely with the program MEL team members to ensure that RLP teams working within the Corridor feed into M&E systems and processes and that data is collected, analyzed, and used to inform ongoing adaptation of program strategies and delivery approaches.

·         Work with country-level Program managers to assess and analyze impact and adaptively manage the program to meet results.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO BENEFICIARIES AND PARTNERS

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and partners and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Supervisory Responsibility

·         Not applicable

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Somalia/Somaliland Program Manager for the Regional Livestock Programme

Works Directly with: MEL/MRM team members, RLP Compliance & Finance team members, Regional TSU technical advisors and RLP Ethiopia program team.

Knowledge and Experience

·         Bachelor’s degree in business, management, economics, or finance is preferredonomics or Agri-business or another related field preferred.  

·         A minimum of 3 years of experience implementing entrepreneurship, private sector engagement, market systems development, or investment/incubation interventions. Experience required with either banks, microfinance institutions, or private business.

·         Demonstrated experience working, partnering with, and brokering PPPs or B2B partnerships with private businesses of diverse sizes including national and multi-national firms. Experience with business planning and analysis is a plus.

·         Report writing; ability to analyze institutions and needs, training skills, ability to identify problems and alert other staff is required.

·         Experience coordinating multiple activities, developing synergies and creating opportunities for collaboration.

·         The position requires a candidate with excellent communication skills, a relationship builder, Innovator, a coach and a political economist.

·         Demonstrated proficiency with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) required.

·         Persuasive written and oral communication in English, including report writing, competency in a relevant local language beneficial.

·         Experience of working in Somaliland preferred.

Success Factors

The PSEI will have exceptional business engagement and partnership skills, as well as the ability to strengthen the capacity of other staff members and sector leaders. In addition to technical agribusiness expertise, He/She will also have proven experience with cross-cultural teams, capacity building of partner institutions and of individual staff, with strong mentoring skills. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and strategic vision are essential.  He/She will be conversant in a diversity of cross-cutting technical themes, including market system development, WASH, governance, climate change, social cohesion and female empowerment, among others. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written / verbal communication a priority in all situations

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This position will be based in Hargeisa but cover all the trade corridor coverage areas. Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Ongoing Learning

This project will be adaptive based on learning and evidence emerging from program interventions and research.

Additionally, in support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis

All interested candidates are encouraged to apply for this position and submit their applications (cover letter, updated CV and contacts of 3 professional referees) through https://www.mercycorps.org/careers/national   only shortlisted candidates will be contacted

Deadline for Applications: December 17, 2023