Value Chains and Markets Manager, Sudan 119 views0 applications

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

World Vision Sudan has been awarded a 10.5M Euros grant to implement a Livelihoods and Agricultural Infrastructure Development Project in South Darfur State of Sudan. This three-year project is expected to contribute to the stability of the Darfur region by improving agricultural infrastructure and supporting existing and alternative livelihoods. In this regard, World Vision is seeking a qualified and experienced Value Chains and Markets Manager to manage the delivery of the economic sub-component of this project.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Programme Delivery:

• To provide technical support on the economic and markets sub-component of the project by providing trainings and technical oversights on value chains and markets to smallholder farmers and airy producers to increase productivity of selected value chains and markets for their products.
• Support the project team to prepare and adhere to scope of work, detailed work plans and work schedules; and work with the Chief of Party and the Finance Director to avail resources required for activity implementation in a timely and efficient manner.
• Oversee community mobilisation, group formations and trainings for savings for transformation among project beneficiaries.
• Support the dairy and honey producers and develop the producers associations to establish legally registered viable and sustainable business associations.
• Directly oversee documentation of lessons learnt and iteratively use these lessons to improve programme performance in subsequent years.
• Pro-actively identify programme delivery issues, challenges and risks in a timely manner and – in collaboration with the Chief of Party, implement appropriate mitigation adjustments.
• Work with dairy sector stakeholders to develop sustainable dairy intervention strategy to enhance productivity among smallholder dairy farmers in selected localities in South Darfur.
• Work with the project team to ensure equitable targeting and particularly inclusion of women in all phases of the project.
• Develop operation and maintenance mechanism for milk collection and dairy processing centres in line with approved project documents and state of south Darfur and government dairy requirements and industry best practice.
• Develop strategy for enhancing honey production with selected target communities and review existing markets and link honey and dairy producers to markets.
• Lead collaboration with private sector partnerships, private enterprises, CBOs and government agents in the marketing of selected value chains.
• Oversee the installation and operationalization of dairy processing centres and conducting business management training for the staff of the processing centres.
• Develop long term sustainable financing strategy to ensure linkages of dairy and honey producers to financial institution.
• Work with the M&E team to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the project in line with World Vision and donor guidelines.
• Collaborate with other stakeholders in the dairy sector to ensure establishment of processing centres with appropriate and affordable technology.
• Deliver / coordinate with relevant stakeholders to deliver trainings as outlined in the project documentation.

Financial Management:

• Work with the Finance Manager to prepare cash flows, payment requests and budget versus actuals (BVAs) reports for the economic sub-component of the project.
• Directly oversee project expenditure for the economic sub-component of the project; ensuring compliance with donor and World Vision policies and taking proactive steps to improve financial performance.
• Foster a culture of accountability and financial responsibility ensuring zero tolerance towards fraud and corruption and ensuring project resources are used only for the intended purposes and in line with World Vision and donor policies.

Procurement, Capacity Development and Programme Development:

• Develop capacity of project staff / farmers associations / business owners in a demand-driven production approach and commercialisation of their farm produce.
• Work closely with the procurement department to ensure timely procurement of equipment, assets and materials for the economic sub-component of this project. This will include providing technical specifications and participating in procurement committees.

Representation, External Collaboration and Reporting:

• Represent this programme and World Vision’s economic development initiatives through attendance and participation in appropriate forums including the UN Cluster System; national and international forums and publications.
• Oversee coordination and integration of this project with other World Vision Sudan initiatives, other UN and NGOs interventions in South Darfur and other programmes funded by the same donor within Sudan.
• Directly responsible for timely and quality reporting on economic sub-component of this project.

Other Roles and Responsibilities:

• As allocated and agreed upon with Chief of Party and / or his representative.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Masters of Science, Food Science and Technology with specialization in Dairy or Honey processing, Master of Science in Agricultural Engineering with Specialization in Dairy processing equipment, Master of Arts in Development studies, or Rural Economics with postgraduate diploma in project planning and management, Social Sciences or a related field from accredited university. Bachelor’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience in dairy and honey value chain may also be considered.
• Demonstrated expertise in value chain analysis, dairy and honey processing, agribusiness undertaking, markets linkages. Training and protection sector, particularly of children in conflict environment.
• Must be an excellent team player with good interpersonal skills.
• A good communicator with sense humour and respect for divergent opinion and professional maturity to take negative feedbacks and criticism.
• Knowledge and awareness of Sudan or a similar fragile context.
• Resilience and willingness to live and travel in harsh conditions with basic social amenities.
• Concern for gender, youth and children.
• Highly analytical, result oriented personality with an eye for accuracy.
• Diplomatic and tactful in handling coordination and networking issues.
• Experience managing diverse teams in harsh environments.
• At least 10 years of hands-on management experience of large (over USD 5M) economic development projects in a fragile environment.
• Negotiation and representation experience at high levels.
• Knowledge and awareness of Sudan or a similar fragile context.
• Willingness to live and travel in harsh conditions.
• Experience in working in a cross-cultural environment.
• Training value chains and markets is desirable.
• Training and experience in the protection sector, particularly of children in conflict environments; is highly desirable.
• Some Arabic and Germans language skills.
• Excellent English Language communication skills (oral and written).
• In-depth application of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (note that this will be tested).
• Outstanding analytical/problem-solving skills.
• Cross-cultural sensitivity, flexible worldview, emotional maturity and physical stamina.
• Ability to maintain performance expectations in diverse cultural contexts, psychologically stressful environments, and physical hardship conditions with limited resources.
• Ability to exhibit exemplary lifestyle as interpreted in specific local cultural context.
• Adept in expressing ideas thoughts and concepts clearly and effectively.

Work Environment/Travel:

• The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically up to 90% of the time.