About Mercy Corps
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General Position Summary
The Trade Corridor Coordinator, working under the supervision of Ethiopia RLP Program Manager and in conjunction with other relevant stakeholders, is responsible for leading activities within the target trade corridor. The Trade Corridor Coordinator will work with program Advisors and Officers to develop and maintain partnerships with government departments, civil society, and private sector to strengthen trade to the benefit of small and medium-scale livestock producers and business operators. S/he 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. S/He will also identify or facilitate the formation of relevant industry associations that increase the voice and participation by livestock-relevant MSMEs. S/He will also coordinate with RLP Program Managers, Officers and Advisors to organise training events, identify learnings and successes for documention 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.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Co-develop and lead implementation of the Togwajale Trade Corridor development strategy, providing guidance and support as necessary to program officers 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
- Lead coordination of RLP local and regional partners within the Trade Corridor, i.e. on both sides of national borders, to prevent divergent strategies and conflicting messaging to stakeholders, encourage harmonized approaches and seek active partnership on corridor-wide issues.
- Formulate strategies to develop private sector actors within the 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, including establishing baselines, indicators, and results.
- Assist in collecting baseline, midline and endline data related to interventions targeted for study or implementation by the project.
- Lead stakeholder mapping, stakeholder capacity measurement and stakeholder analysis within the Trade Corridor and identify and establish contact with potential firms or other market actors
- Develop representative working group and support development of Corridor Upgrading & Investment plans.
- Develop products and campaigns to promote private sector-led investments in the RLP interventions.
- Within target corridor, ensure the appropriate communication of clear intervention guidelines, expected outcomes, timeframe and workplan to all relevant parties.
- 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 Results Measurement (RM) 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.
- 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.
- Represent the programme in key forums within the Trade Corridor.
- Manage and update stakeholder management plan.
- Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.
- 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.
- Work closely with the programme 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 programme strategies and delivery approaches.
- Work with country-level Program managers to assess and analyze impact and adaptively manage the programme to meet results.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, such as Business, Economics, Entrepreneurship or similar; master’s degree in business, Economics or Agri-business or another related field preferred.
Experience
- A minimum of 3 years of experience implementing entrepreneurship, private sector engagement, market systems development, or investment/incubation interventions. If having a bachelor’s degree, ideal candidate will have minimum of 5 years’ experience implementing PSE/MSD interventions.
Knowledge and Skills
- Demonstrated experience working, partnering with, and brokering PPPs or B2B partnerships with private businesses of diverse sizes including national and mulit-national firms.
- Preference for candidates with experience working in or owning businesses or social enterprises.
- Experience coordinating multiple activities, developing synergies and creating opportunities for collaboration.
- Demonstrated experience in stakeholder relationship cultivation and management, driving partnership agreements, and strengthening B2B coordination for achieving program goals.
- Demonstrated commitment to local capacity building and the ability to engage local stakeholders in project design and implementation.
- 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 (Somali) is beneficial.
- Experience in Somali region, Ethiopia and specifically in the Trade Corridor preferred.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified applicants can send their applications and a copy of non returnable CV with the necessary documents to the following link below
