Project Officer - Business Development And MarketingUnited Purpose (UP)

• In late 2021, Self Help Africa (SHA) and United Purpose (UP) merged. The two organizations – one headquartered in Ireland and the other in Wales – implement projects to end extreme hunger and poverty.
  
• This merger doubled our size and reach – and means that in 2022 we are implementing poverty eradication projects in 17 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Collectively, we are also part of a group that includes social enterprise subsidiaries Partner Africa, TruTrade and Cumo Microfinance.
• In 2022, our work reached more than six million people and invest upwards of €45m in more than 100 development programmes designed to improve food systems, facilitate access to markets and financial services, combat climate change, and gender inequality, and improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
• This is an exciting time to join us as we unite two like-minded and entrepreneurial organisations seeking to tackle global challenges in progressive and innovative ways.
• We are looking for a dynamic, proactive and competent Project Officer who will support the project team and provide technical assistance to the implementation of the Scaling Rural Women Entrepreneurs for Community-Led Digital Adaptation & Resilience in Africa (RWE) Projectin Benue and Cross River States in Nigeria.

Job Purpose

• Rural Women Entrepreneurs (RWE) Project, which will be implemented in Nigeria, Kenya, and Malawi, combines the lessons learned in Bangladesh from the women-led social enterprise model and the collaborative development practices honed through the GIZ-funded Mobilizing Rural Women Entrepreneurs for COVID-19 Response and Recovery in Rural Bangladesh project. Via the digilab Scaling Lab sprint process, United Purpose-Self Help Africa (UP-SHA) has been working with the digilab and GIZ staff in various departments as well as across Africa over the last nine months to explore and codevelop the foundation for scaling the RWE approach in Africa.
• The 12-month pilot will take an adaptive approach to implement the model, evolving at each stage to respond to the unique contexts and demands of the three proposed pilot countries.
• Women’s Business Centres (WBCs) have been a growing platform for digital service delivery in remote regions that respond directly to chronic disconnection of the most under-resourced members of rural communities.
• As women-led organisations, WBCs offer access to skill development opportunities and aggregation services in a friendly, safe, and trusted environment which fosters community and well-being. As the network of entrepreneurs has grown, they have also created new access to digital resources and, more recently, have begun offering fee-for-service training and services to their communities by facilitating access to the growing number of mobile applications developed by both the public and private sectors.
• While the introduction of digital service delivery and eLearning is not new in many rural contexts, what is unique is the skilled facilitatory capacity of the WBC entrepreneurs as community leaders and the robust business models which support and sustain new and innovative business ideas. In order to scale this model, the pilot will seek to engage with and strengthen existing community structures, identifying key women entrepreneurs who can lead cooperative social enterprise centres in the WBC model.
• The pilot will work collaboratively with these entrepreneurs to create market-based strategies and approaches to identify and respond to contextual opportunities in food security, nutrition, WASH, family planning and beyond, integrating their existing business activities in such a way that they are able to build lasting connections and incentives as well as adaptive local structures that are increasingly resilient to disruptions in global supply chains created by the interlinked food and climate crises.
• The Project Officer (PO) for Business Development & Marketing is responsible for ensuring the project develops robust, market-driven enterprise and community-driven cooperative structures that support local investment and innovation.
• The PO will implement market assessment, business mapping, and analysis, providing recommendations and guidance to entrepreneurs as well as facilitating market linkages with public and private sector actors.

Key Responsibilities
Key responsibilities include (not limited to):

• Plan, design and ensure delivery of project activities in line with the Project Activity Implementation Plan (PAIP) and United Purpose’s Operations Guideline.
• Monitor and ensure planned activities are implemented as per PAIP and budget allocations.
• Engage directly with project stakeholders, including women’s clubs, PHCs, LGAs, private sector and health customers.
• Conduct training on business development and management for women’s club entrepreneurs.
• Support data gathering, management, and analysis to provide insight and learnings for informed programmatic decisions.
• Support PO – Gender and Community Health with health business plan development of women’s clubs and market linkages with PHCs.
• Support business plan development for digital health service delivery.
• Facilitate field teams and build networks and work with local government authorities and line departments (such as health and agricultural facilities, etc.) market actors, local community leaders, and other stakeholder counterparts to facilitate activities at the community level.
• Provide strategic and technical support to field teams in ensuring timely implementation of activities around health, nutrition, WASH, and agriculture, and strengthening the capacity of women’s clubs.
• Provide strategic and technical support to field teams in strengthening the capacity of Women Enterprise Groups.
• Provide support to the MEAL team (especially MEAL Coordinator) in tracking and monitoring progress, data collection, database administration, documentation of the project’s impacts and results, and MEAL-related coordination with counterparts, as required.
• Support the Project Manager in ensuring smooth management and implementation of the project, and team dynamic to achieve the project’s targets and purpose.
• Conduct regular visits to fields, documentation on field activities including project’s impacts and results, and submit timely reports to the line manager.
• Other duties as assigned by the line manager and UP management.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities
Support women’s clubs to produce quality health and hygiene products:

• Entrepreneur identification and women's club strengthening workshops (Vision Sessions, business development workshops etc).
• Design and implement the community-led market assessment in coordination with the project team.
• Targeted skills training on production, processing and marketing of identified products.
• Review policy regarding telemedicine service and reading glass through strategic meetings with relevant stakeholders.

Develop a health-focused social marketing strategy for women’s clubs that promotes products and services using digital tools & linked with government health programming:

• Coordinate Field Facilitator activities around courtyard session formation and customer outreach.
• Organise training of women entrepreneurs on health & wellbeing promotion.
• Planning and monitoring of demonstrations on digital health resources.
• Facilitate coordination with PHCs and women’s clubs for health outreach and market linkage.

Project Management:

• Plan, design and ensure delivery of project activities in line with the Project Activity Implementation Plan (PAIP)
• Support PO-Gender and Community Health on project implementation plan design, implementation, and review.
• Implement project activities according to individual work plans and build on project-set objectives.

Knowledge management, monitoring and reporting:

• Identify learnings from data review and analysis and make recommendations to the Project Manager regarding the PAIP.
• Develop monthly, quarterly and annual progress reports and report to Project Manager according to the set format on the progress of work plan objectives and activities.
• Conduct periodic collaborative learning and adaptation meetings with stakeholders at the LGA level.
• Document case studies/lessons learnt/change stories from beneficiaries as evidence to measure project impact
• Represent the learnings and project activities to colleagues in other RWE countries and participate in joint learning sessions.

Finance & team management:

• Oversee the activities of the Field Facilitators, providing guidance, mentorship, and direct support as required.
• Support the Field Facilitators in the realisation of their work plans through guidance, regular one-to-one meetings, joint field visits, mentoring and monitoring of their work plans.
• Participate in the establishment of a project procurement plan in compliance with the project’s requirements and provide necessary follow-up.
• In coordination with Project Manager, Country Office Coordinator and Finance and Compliance Manager, ensure appropriate budget monitoring procedures are in place and contribute to timely financial reporting.

Representation and Visibility:

• Develop/maintain strong working relationships with different relevant stakeholders at the community level.
• Communicate regularly with partners and women’s clubs
• Ensure project material, project staff and partner’s staff comply with donor’s visibility rules.
• Represent SHA/UP in external fora
• Promote positive communication about SHA/UP.

Key Relationships:

• Internal and External

Knowledge, Experience & Other Requirements
Education and other qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Economics, Business Administration or any relevant Social Science subject.
• Skills in ICT operation, and proficiency in using MS Office
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Respect for cultural diversity and gender sensitivity
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Commitment to Safeguarding.

Experience:
The successful applicant MUST have experience and skills in the following:

• At least 4 years of working experience with INGO/NGO sector in the same or equivalent role.
• Micro, small, and medium enterprise business plan development, implementation, monitoring, and analysis
• Community organising, particularly with women’s groups
• Market Systems Development (MSD) approach, market assessment design, implementation, and analysis
• Design and review of marketing materials for small businesses (social marketing is a plus)
• Working with women’s groups, savings groups and businesses
• Community mobilization, advocacy and stakeholders’ management
• Very strong interpersonal skills and experience networking in the private sector
• Budget management, monitoring, and implementation
• Be willing to travel to the field
• Openness to learning
• Self-driven and a creative problem solver
• Strong communicator with good report-writing skills
• Works well with a multicultural team
• Proficient in written and oral English
• Previous experience working with health-related enterprises, health system evaluations and/or design, digital health space and telemedicine is an added advantage

Skills:

• Excellent planning, coordination, and prioritisation skills.
• Strong facilitation, community implementation and interpersonal skills.
• Good written and verbal communication skills- listening, presenting, discussing, reporting, putting views forward and negotiating with confidence.
• Adaptable and responsive disposition relative to the demands and operations of the project.

Language Requirements:

• Written and oral proficiency in English and relevant local language (Tiv and pidgin) is a plus.