Field Associate – (3) Vacancies 219 views0 applications

Organization Description:

Village Enterprise is an innovative microenterprise development organization working in East Africa to reduce poverty with the mission – “*To end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation.”* Village Enterprise provides business training, seed capital/start-up funds and mentoring to entrepreneurs annually to start new businesses each year.

Project Overview:

Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems (DREAMS) for refugees provides an innovative solution that will drive refugee self-reliance. Working in Uganda and Ethiopia–home to 10% of the world’s refugee population–DREAMS will provide 150,000 of the most vulnerable refugees with the security and dignity that comes from providing for one’s family. The program will integrate two proven models –poverty graduation and Market Systems Development –layering these approaches in a new way that will ensure that the poorest refugee households are able to improve their income and well-being significantly. Graduation will provide the capital and skills to support refugees as they establish their businesses, and Market Systems Development will help build market access pathways to ensure those businesses can be successful. Through rigorous evaluation, we will generate evidence that DREAMS’ approach to self-reliance is not only possible, but also more cost effective than long-term food assistance.

Position Overview:

Full-time staff member who coordinates program implementation in remote communities and contribute to the growth and success of the organization. The Field Associate is a self-driven, self-sufficient staff member, who excels at training others and coordinating activities, while also critically analyzing the program and providing feedback to senior management.

Job Description

Key Result Areas

1. Business Mentor Activities
2. Bi-weekly meetings and Induction Training for BMs
3. Program Reporting
4. Managing Partnerships
5. Internal activity coordination
6. Vision trip and Donor Visits
7. Business Mentor Performance Reviews, Capacity building and professional development
8. Communication and Management
9. Logistics
10. Administration
11. Safeguarding

Business Mentor Activities:

· Manage all Business Mentors (BMs) in your region, ensuring high-quality Program implementation

· Ensure that BMs efficiently and effectively integrate Private Sector Actors (PSAs) activities in the VE program implementation.

· Regular field visits (3-4 days a week) including at least 6 business spot checks per week to assess training and mentoring by the Business Mentors and overall performance of businesses.

· Spearhead the Village opening process in all the sub-counties

· Guide Business mentor on SBs and PRs grant applications for viable businesses and approve prior to submitting them to the Regional Manager for review

· Ensure BMs work plans are developed and followed and timely shared via google document

Bi-weekly meetings and Induction Training for BMs

· Prepare bi-weekly meeting and agendas, and ensure they are always updated and shared

· Train BMs on new forms that need to be collected, constantly reinforcing the importance and value of the data we collect and helping BMs troubleshoot issues as needed.

· Work with M&E during each Biweekly to confirm that the BMs have collected the proper forms and uploaded them to the database

· Lead and conduct Induction Training/onboarding for new BMs. This includes working closely with Country Staff to prepare agenda, schedule Field Visits, prepare materials

· Work with F/A to ensure that all, induction and bi-weekly materials are printed or made available in a timely manner

Program Reporting

· Work with the RM to collect, develop, validate, consolidate, revise and submit BM work plans in a timely manner.

· Monitor the collection of the Mentoring Checklist and activity reports

· Submit reports and minutes of any meeting attended on behalf of Village Enterprise.

· Ensure updated reports on attendance is tracked and entered in relevant filing system

Managing partnerships

· Help establish a relationship with Local Government officials, community leaders and other stakeholders.

· The Field Associate represents the organization at district and Sub County/ County level including general meetings with Local government leadership, humanitarian actors, local authorities, protocol meetings, security meetings, as well as sector program meetings in consultation with the RM.

· Provide management with reports and feedback from government and partnership meetings as needed

· Support the BMs to register all Business Savings groups with relevant Government authorities

· Develop and implement the district and sub county entry and expansion strategy in collaboration with the RM.

· The Field Associate provides general support, guidance, and serves as focal point during program planning and reporting.

Internal activity coordination

· Participate in planned meetings and bring a positive field perspective to these fora

· Ensure BMs Collect and submit success Stories with photos as needed

· Support BMs in the implementation of pilots, studies and data collection as needed

· Provide feedback and support to overall program, pilots and strategic expansion

· Work with the innovations team to train other partners or organizations

· Roll out pilots as well as act as focal persons for capturing ideas, learnings from the Business mentors and communities and share with the innovations team.

· Work with M&E to deliver quality BM refresher activities

· Support in BMs in phone troubleshooting and in guiding BMs through quality data collection protocols

Vision trip and Donor Visits

· Represent Village Enterprise values and program to donors, Vision Trips and visiting staff

· Work with management to arrange field scheduling for visitors

· Coordinate all preparations at the field level

· In some cases, work on the weekends to accommodate donor and staff visits

Business Mentor Performance Reviews, Capacity Building and professional development

· Submit quarterly reports to the RM, Human Resource Coordinator on Business mentor performance

· Work with the HRC and RM to identify professional development opportunities for BMs and implement them

· Work with the HRC to conduct performance reviews for BMs

· Assist with the improvement and development of monitoring activities and materials for business mentors

Communication and Management

· Attending and active participation in regular weekly meetings with supervisors and other forums as convened (MMMs, FA Calls, One on ones etc)

· Ensure BMs Collect and submit success Stories with photos and bring to the attention of the Communications associate eye catching programmatic scenarios for follow up.

· The Field Associate ensures that VE procedures and donor regulations applicable to a project implemented in the area of operation concerning program, logistics, fraud control, protection of vulnerable groups and special interest groups in collaboration with the HRC and RM.

Logistics:

· Field Associate is in charge of overseeing and reporting on the logistics the field team including enforcement of field safety guidelines and adherence.

· Responsible for monitoring and reporting equipment usage and storage, planning, and maintenance of equipment and the functioning of the means of communication appropriate for the respective field staff.

Administration:

· The Field Associate is responsible for overseeing the management of day-to-day field operations including monitoring and reporting on staff attendance, staff leave and authorization of minor emergency field expenses in consultation with the HRC/RM.

· Timely filing and safekeeping of necessary program documents i.e attendance, work plans

· Regular and accurately updating of web based documents like google sheets, google documents with relevant programmatic information.

Safeguarding: “Safeguarding at VE is everyone’s responsibility”

· Continuously sensitize program participants about possible risks of child abuse, sexual/financial exploitation, prevention and response mechanisms.

· Ensure compliance with VE’s safeguarding policies and Code of Conduct in all programs, operations and practices.

· Report any incident of child or adult safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action and follow up.

Living Our Values

Ubuntu: We serve people living in extreme poverty with respect, empathy, and dignity regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, or education level, and value our common humanity.

Passion: We believe passionately in our mission and the ability of people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives.

Integrity: We operate with the highest levels of integrity and trustworthiness.

Innovation: We value innovation as a means to reduce poverty and treat new ideas, new technologies, and new partners as opportunities to grow our impact.

Sustainability: We are committed to ensuring that our businesses and our organization are sustainable in the long-term.

Qualifications.

· University degree or equivalent in development, program management, international development or other relevant field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

· Minimum experience of 2 years working in antipoverty, VSLA, financial inclusion programs.

Key competencies

· Providing detailed and timely feedback where necessary

· The Field Associate provides detailed, relevant feedback when requested

· He/she should think of how to improve synergies of the team and improve workflow as a team

· Should have IT and computer Skills especially in MS Office, google docs and email

· Great quality of work output

· Ability to build and lead a team, resolve conflicts

· Ability to enhance capacities of team members

· Outstanding communication skills both in writing and spoken, and via other forms. Fluency in Lugbara and/or Arabic is an added advantage