Senior Technical Advisor –
USAID Kizazi Kipya project
Location Tanzania
Department Name Program Delivery
Pact Overview
Job summary:
The Economic Strengthening Advisor will be responsible for the design, implementation and technical quality of strategies and activities to improve the economic stability of young people and households caring for OVC. The Economic Strengthening Advisor (ESA) plays a pivotal role in planning for all aspects of livelihoods and economic opportunities activities for Pact Tanzania’s USAID-funded Kizazi Kipya project. She/he will facilitate a team of staff in the development of social protection linkages and provision, savings group (VSLG) activities and the integration of enterprise expertise and market access and relationships for securing the economic wellbeing of targeted households. The Advisor will be involved in project implementation, and organizing and delivering training programs that address a wide variety of issues, including: social protection and livelihoods; savings and financial access; agriculture and food security; economic and market development; ensuring delivery of specific training, coordination and execution of activities, and overall backstopping and troubleshooting. Proficiency in dealing with math, bookkeeping, and monitoring systems is essential, as is familiarity with the way Tanzanian women think and work at the grassroots, whether in rural or urban settings. The ESA position requires a high degree of integrity, professionalism, flexibility and perseverance, as well as the ability to anticipate, identify and resolve problems in the field quickly.
Specific Duties and Responsibilities:
The ESA must develop a close working relationship with the Technical Service Coordinator. She/he needs to be a committed listener who not only is eager to know not only what is happening in all aspects of the targeted households’ economic wellbeing, but also is able to give constructive feedback and support to those she/he supervises. The Advisor is responsible to:
Technically supervise ES program activities including the design, development and implementation of technical guidance as it relates to ES, ensuring all ES activities are in line with state-of-the-art, globally-recognized best practices for addressing needs of OVC, young people, and their caregivers.
Exercising a supportive supervision approach, train and mentor technical staff and sub grantees responsible for child wellbeing.
Build awareness of key ES concepts and principles among sub grantees and institutions. This includes assisting families in earning and saving income, managing money, and allocating household resources to improving children and youth’s wellness outcomes.
Develop and instruct Technical Services Coordinators in effective methodologies for identifying appropriate ES interventions for specific households, depending on the needs and resources of those households (i.e. credit and market opportunities, group savings, income generation, micro-enterprise development training, farming-as-a-business, extensionist, other vocational training opportunities, youth employability, etc.).; train/mentor in principles and standards for good implementation of or linkages to these interventions.
Develop and ensure the implementation of strategies and interventions that promote the economic empowerment of young people.
Ensure the documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned, capture timely, high quality information and utilize data to inform decisions and foster learning and innovation;
Monitor and maintain relevant manuals, training materials and reports for economic strengthening.
Ensure all economic strengthening strategies are gender-sensitive and promote equitable programming.
Create and implement a plan to engage the private sector in economic strengthening activities for greater and sustainable impacts.
Lead the monthly, quarterly, and annual planning, monitoring, and reporting for all Economic Strengthening (ES) related activities;
Oversee pilot or demonstration projects to test and adopt specific ES activities.
Ensure global best practices shape project activities
Ensuring that books and materials used in the clusters, by either staff or groups, are delivered in time to meet program deadlines and in a manner, that maintains internal controls on inventory.
Providing substantial input to orientation and implementation training and training-of-trainers packages, including but not limited to training workshops for savings groups Management Committees, bi-monthly workshops run by Empowerment Workers, and MIS/positive deviance case study training.
Training the cluster-level Technical Services Coordinators to use these training materials so that they can conduct training for Empowerment Workers (EWs) in order to maximize their impact on the activities and behavior of women and their groups.
Overseeing the training carried out by the Technical Services Coordinators, sometimes serving as a co-trainer, to ensure that they are consistently delivering project training effectively, and conveying information and new ideas accurately and in a participatory manner that is appropriate for adult learners.
Ongoing engagement with the Technical Services Coordinators to ensure there is a smooth relationship between them and the Empowerment Workers and that the EWs’ support and capacity building with the groups is sufficient to result in their independence and self-management.
Regularly visiting groups to provide appreciative support and to ensure that a spirit of motivated teamwork and open communication is maintained throughout the project sites.
Identifying emerging areas of challenge and participating in the modification of program materials to meet those needs.
Ensuring that program information is accurately and promptly communicated from and to the field;
Qualifications:
Master's Degree or higher in economics, international development or a related field preferred; gender studies or experience an advantage.
Experience:
8+ years’ experience designing, implementing and monitoring household economic strengthening activities working on multifaceted and complex international development programs.
At least 5 years of technical management experience, including direct supervision of technical teams and implementing partners.
Skills
Solid knowledge of social protection, household economic strengthening, and microenterprise and market development instruments and frameworks.
Experience in leveraging private sector partnerships and resources for creation of business opportunities, business mentorship and skills training, market access, strategies to strengthen household resilience, etc.
Demonstrated leadership qualities, depth and breadth of technical and management expertise and experience, and strong interpersonal, writing, and oral presentation skills including such skills in English.
Experience with a USG cooperative agreement and PEPFAR programming strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to create and maintain effective working relations with host country government personnel, stakeholders, NGO partners, and international donor agencies.
Excellent training skills in working with adult learners, particularly at the community level; experience in an appreciative approach a plus.
Demonstrated leadership and team-building skills.
How to Apply:
If you believe you are the ideal person we are looking for, please submit your application letter describing why you are the right candidate for this position, a curriculum vitae detailing your experience and three (3) professional referees from previous and current place of employment. Please send the application to humanresourcesTZ@pactworld.org with the heading, Economic Strengthening Advisor Job Application.
The closing date for applications will be Wednesday 19th July 2017 (only shortlisted candidates will be contacted)
To learn more about Pact Tanzania visit: http://www.pactworld.org/country/tanzania
Qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.