Regional Coordinator (Deadline: Nov 18, 2022)

ABOUT FIRST CONSULT

First Consult is a leading economic development consulting firm implementing projects in Ethiopia. Founded in 2006, First Consult (FC) has grown to design and implement projects across the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams combine a capacity to execute with clarity of the local context. As a result, we have delivered at-scale real impact in terms of jobs creation, business formation, business growth, and investment attraction and mobilization.

ABOUT THE PROJECT/PROGRAM

MESMER is a 5-year program launched in October 2022 to support 72,200 MSMEs and 410,800 jobs by creating access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME)’ to realize their growth prospects and resilience. MESMER will also work to provide support to MSMEs through business development support, psychosocial services and technical assistance to financial institutions. MESMER is a countrywide program implemented by First Consult in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation as part of the Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy and will strive to create dignified and fulfilling work for the youth, the majority of them women.

MESMER is a national scale-up of the existing MSE Resilience Facility launched in 2020 to support enterprises affected by the COVID pandemic. The project will mainly be following a four-pronged approach to meet its objectives: a) Grants and soft loans to MSMEs through a risk-sharing liquidity fund arrangement, b) Technical assistance to financial institutions, c) Business development services and life skills, d) Psychosocial support for conflict affected areas. The FDRE Ministry of Labour and Skills will be the main government counterpart for the program. Other partners include financial institutions (microfinance institutions, banks, and digital financial service providers), BDS, and psychosocial support providers.

POSITION SUMMARY  

The Regional Coordinator is responsible for acting as a First Consult (FC) branch head in various regions. The responsibility of the Regional Coordinator is coordinating, consolidating, and ensuring the smooth implementation of program and operations activities in their respective regions. At the regional/district level, the Regional Coordinator represents First Consult MESMER program to relevant stakeholders. The Regional Coordinator reports to Field Program Coordinator.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

MANAGERIAL

• Understand the MESMER project in its entirety and drive the development of guidelines and standards to further support the interventions.
• Ensure the provision of appropriate technical guidance for the implementation of the MESMER program and regularly update the design to capture new development in the MSMEs and financial ecosystem as well as emerging project priorities.
• Coordinate with local MOLS structure and/ or selected NGOs to facilitate identification and verification of informal businesses to benefit from grant payments.
• Coordinate and supervise the delivery of BDS, and PSS training in alignment with program design in all regions.
• Coordinate with other stakeholders like Health Bureaus, NGO and Civil Society Organization (CSO), service providers on Psychosocial Support Service (PSS)  delivery for MSMEs and individuals.
• Monitor and report on wider national and regional trends in innovative finance policies and financial instruments relevant to the effective positioning and efficient implementation of the project.
• Ensure that work plans and budgets conform with the project objectives;
• Ensure that all agreements with governmental and non-governmental institutions are in line with the donor and organization regulations.
• Oversee and manage Field Officers and coordinate satellite offices activities.
• Oversee and report on the delivery of interventions in the field as per the agreed work plan.
• Oversee the regional office activities and follow up on administrative and operational tasks.

TECHNICAL

• Engage in the development of strategies for discovering and securing new MSMEs and start-ups in the 5 regions.
• Detailed market size analysis of the various regions in MESMER will implement interventions.
• To ensure the implementation of work plans in accordance with the agreements signed between the stakeholders and MESMER;
• To ensure that no violation is made by the stakeholders to the signed agreement;
• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of various Intervention activities including grant disbursements, BDS, PSS, credit line, and MERL activities.
• To execute, coordinate and oversee the everyday operations.
• To review and ensure in keeping quality data in the interventions implemented by the program.
• Assess and compile feedback on the project.
• Communicate closely with the regional security officers to establish the safety of the staff and field officers.
• To carry out field visits, to various Woreda and Kebeles in the respective regions to assess the program and report these field visits in proper reporting formats on a monthly and quarterly basis.
• To carry out field visits to various, informal enterprises, MSMEs and startups.
• Organize and supervise various activities within the regional and field offices.
• Coordinate and closely work with different service providers working with MESMER.
• Facilitate meetings with the relevant stakeholders as required.
• Ensure implementation challenges and risks are flagged and mitigated ahead of time.
• Facilitate coordination and smooth flow of communication among stakeholders.
• Take additional tasks as per the dynamics of the project and the entire recruitment pipeline of the project.
• Provide support or deliver on various assignments as and when required by the project lead.

Grant Disbursements

• Ensure grant disbursement in the respective regions are conducted in line with the approved grant operation manual and procedures
• Collaborate with regional, zonal and kebele level MOLS structure for identifying, verifying and making grant disbursements to informal business enterprises in conflict affected areas
• Oversee and support activities of local partners (NGOs) selected to undertake verification of grant beneficiaries based on list provided by OSS
• Coordinate with MEMSER communication’s team to lead local level communication activities
• Provide feedback to MEMSER team on encounters challenges, identified anomalies

CREDIT LINE

• Work closely with partnering banks and MFIs in the various regions to ensure smooth implementation of loan disbursements to  MSMEs and startups.
• Work closely with partnering banks and MFIs for data collection, verifications, preparation of reports, and fulfilling necessary queries/ requests by banks and MFIs.
• Supporting partnering banks and MFIs in the appraisal of the MSMEs and facilitate disbursements.
• Coordinate with regional and Woreda administration to facilitate MSMEs development and linkage with other enterprises.
• To carry out field visits, to various regional Woreda and Kebeles to assess progress, identify challenges and propose mitigation strategies. To carry out field visits to various MSMEs and startups.

BDS & PSS

• Participate in partner selection and work closely with selected partners in identifying MSME beneficiaries and selection
• Work closely with governmental and non-governmental institutes like OSS/ TVET, Health Bureau, NGOs and CSO staff and oversee delivery of BDS and PSS services.
• Coordinate with regional and woreda administration to facilitate MSMEs development and linkage with other enterprises.
• Regular visits to BDS training centers and/ or PSS centers, lead and observe service delivery and provide feedback to BDS/PSS Manager on quality of service delivery.
• Conducting monitoring and evaluation at the centers.
• Support  selection of center locations in the regions.

MONITORING EVALUATION RESEARCH LEARNING (MERL)

• Work closely with MERL Manager to support implementation team in necessary Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation processes and preparation of needed outputs
• Ensure quality of interventions implemented and results measured (during and post intervention phase)
• Support management with information to steer interventions and assessments
• Provide necessary assistance in formulation and development of case studies, quarterly reports, annual reports, business plans, special studies and other similar documents periodically
• Assist implementation team in data analysis and aggregation
• Guide and train field staff in carrying out monitoring and assessments
• Capture, document and share lessons learned from the project implementation to larger stakeholders and community, including evidence on project stories of change and promising practices
• Identify and respond to information requirements of different stakeholders and make information accessible on timely basis
• Support knowledge management and learning by producing specific programme information resources

REPORTING

• Monitor the various interventions and collect and compile reports from partners and stakeholders working in the respective regions and field offices
• Submit regular progress updates/reports on activities performed and the overall performance of each intervention.
• Work closely with the intervention managers/ thematic leads to provide detailed progress reports on each intervention
• Working closely with the monitoring and evaluation team to capture the overall impact of MESMER.

LOCATION

Jimma, Komblocha, Dire Dawa, Hawassa.

Deadline:   Nov 18, 2022

• BA Degree in Economics, Social Science, Project Management or any other equivalent field with minimum of 5 years’ experience.
• MBA/MA Degree in Economics, Social Science, Project Management or any other equivalent field. With Minimum 3 years of experience, relevant to the above described job, in public or private sector
• Experience working in a multi-stakeholder environment of relevant work experience.
• Having the required level of confidence and assurance to engage with international partners at both senior level and operational level.
• Good communication skill, fluency in English and Amharic (reading, writing and speaking). Skill in other local languages is a plus.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills are desirable as is knowledge of gender-based issues particular as impacting on the formal employment environment
• Good management, communication, working knowledge of computer programmes including Word, Excel and Power Point, knowledge of database management, and reporting skills are required