The purpose of the Financial Services & IGA Officer is to implement the RFSA activities in the target communities related to finance, business, IGA and market development and expansion. She/he will be responsible for understanding market-driven approaches to entrepreneurship, business development, IGA, financial services, and marketing. S/he will be responsible for internalizing and applying the guidance, approaches, strategies and tools established by the leadership team in relation to market development, access to financial services, IGA and business development. She/he will be required to work alongside other team members to implement established tools and approaches in order to assist households to access financial services, engaged in IGAs and expand marketing opportunities.

It is also expected that the Financial Services & IGA Officer will work closely with a wide range of business associations, woreda government partners, service providers, private sector, and CBOs to facilitate market strengthening.  The incumbent will also be responsible for providing relevant technical assistance to pertinent offices working in the program intervention area. S/he will be directly working in the coordination and facilitation of financial services & IGA as related to VSLAs, VESAs, RUSACCOs, MFIs, SMEDA and other financial service providers and job creation agencies at each zonal level. S/he establishes and maintains effective working relationships with key government partners and NGOs working in the same geographic areas.

The key activities under this component are:

• Develop public-private partnerships to extend financial institutions’ services and SMEDA
• Establish innovation grant funds
• Facilitate input credit models
• Train VESA members on village savings and lending best practices
• Train vulnerable people in IGA, financial literacy and financial management
• Facilitate the development of pro-poor financial products offered by financial institutions
• Facilitate improved enabling environment for pro-poor financial services
• Catalyze women and men to start and strengthen nutrition-enhancing IGAs
• Facilitate improved technical knowledge on IGAs for women and men

RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS:

 Job Responsibility #1: Program implementation, (40%)

• Guides the implementation of field activities related to market-driven financial services and business development, promoting access to enhanced financial services; 
• Develops deep understanding of ‘market systems strengthening, including relationship building, communicating, entrepreneurialism/business understanding and innovating;
• Become intimately familiar with all aspects of the relevant market systems, including key actors (VSLAs, SACCOs, MFIs, Banks, input suppliers, producers, traders, warehouses, transporters, financiers, intermediary and terminal markets); governance frameworks (formal and informal); and all support markets and functions;
• Systematically liaise with and facilitate appropriate processes with relevant business actors and market stakeholders to support their expansion in the market, pro-poor business opportunities and expansion of pro-poor goods and services;
• Identifies and promotes innovative approaches and interventions to achieve project objectives, and suited to the particular conditions and needs of diverse target groups.
• Work with government partners, private sector actors and all other relevant stakeholders to promote IGAs;
• Identify key private sector opportunities and partners to promote viable IGA interventions;
• Provide training and technical knowledge to households to ensure success of IGA interventions.

Job Responsibility #2: Capacity building, (25%)

• Identify areas for capacity building in market strengthening, including for partners, staff, stakeholders and business actors; support identification and coordinate appropriate capacity-building measures;
• Provide systematic support to partners and staff in application of the market strengthening approach throughout program implementation, including co-implementing and co-facilitating activity implementation;
• Participate in and support trainings, assessments and other capacity-building;
• Organizes training and delivers or arranges for the delivery of training on IGAs for target HHs;
• Oversees the scheduling and delivery of training to Food Security Task Forces and Cooperative Promotion Offices to build local level capacity in service delivery and oversight and management of IGA interventions;

Job Responsibility #3: Design, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting, (15%)

• Design specific action plans for the implementation of the Financial Service & IGA strategy;
• Document and share existing experiences, practices and lessons of CARE Ethiopia and other partner programs in relation to the promotion of Financial linkage & IGAs;
• Actively participate in regular team planning, review meetings and forum; identify follow-up activities based on learning and findings from previous activities and implementation of Financial linkage and IGA;
• Contribute to the development of field-level work plans, reflecting the larger work plan and approaches, for Financial service & IGA strengthening activities;
• Ensures the program captures and responds to up-to-date information about financial service and IGA developments within respective market systems and global best practices;
• Ensure all financial service and IGA development activities are appropriately documented and that data is captured as per established monitoring and evaluation systems;
• Contribute to case studies and best-practice write-ups
• Support the process of undertaking feasibility analysis and other research in relation to the promotion of financial linkage & IGAs;
• Keeps current on Government of Ethiopia’s practices in the financial service & IGA/ livelihoods sector, and ensures an active information flow regarding best practices and applications;

Job Responsibility # 4: Coordinate, represent and networking, (15%)

• Represent CARE among all key market actors, including businesses, MFIs, other financial service providers, and IGA promoters’ government and community stakeholders;
• Coordinate and create linkages among business actors, business stakeholders and IGA promoting Agencies, including government offices, MFIs and other finance service providers and IGA promoting Agencies, in support of sound implementation of the market strengthening facilitation approach;
• Facilitate information exchange as appropriate;

Job Responsibility # 5, (5%)           

Perform any other duties as assigned

PROBLEM SOLVING (Thinking Environment)

While the incumbent will face all three levels of problem-solving, the biggest challenges belong to category number three. The incumbent must use interpersonal skills to pick and choose the right strategy to address a given problem and also has to deal with variable solutions, which need analysis, problem definition and development of alternative solutions. The incumbent must use of different tools and programming approaches for identifying, analyzing, prioritizing, implementing and evaluating markets, businesses, MFIs, and IGA other financial service providers, etc. with the highest potential for increasing the target population's financial development, IGA engagement and increasing their livelihood security in a sustainable manner.

GENDER EQUALITY

• Understanding and demonstrated commitment to the importance of gender, youth and social inclusion issues.
• Demonstrated commitment to principles of Gender Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and PSEAH (safeguarding), as evidenced in previous positions / programming

Job Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS (KNOW HOW)

Education

Required

• Bachelor's Degree in Business development, Finance, Financial Services, Livelihoods Rural Development or related fields or equivalent combination of education and work experience

Desired

• Master’s in Business, Finance, Financial Services, Livelihoods, Rural Development or related development field

 Experience

Required

• Two years for post graduates and three years for degree holder years proven technical experience in finance, financial services and marketing in rural areas 

Desired

• Experience in development oriented NGO environment
• Practical experience in the facilitation approach to financial services, business development and market expansion

Technical Skills & Knowledge

Required

• Proficiency in verbal and written English and other local languages
• Expertise in one or more of the following program areas: food security, livelihoods, income generation activities, especially with Gender focus
• Proficiency in standard office software package (Word and Excel)
• Understanding of business development, financial services and IGA in rural areas
• Operational planning, budget planning and management, monitoring and evaluation, report writing
• Strong communication and analytical skills
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills in working with multi –disciplinary team

Desired:

• Skills in organizing and facilitating workshop and training events.

 COMPETENCIES

Respect, accountability, courage, excellence, adaptability, stress tolerance, innovation, building partnership, communicating with impact, analytical ability, initiating action, interpersonal skills, developing teams, decision making, information monitoring, facilitating change, proactive problem solving, planning & organizing.

REPORTING STRUCTURE AND CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS:

The Financial Services and IGA Officer will report directly to the Program Specialist and functionally to the Financial Services and IGA Advisor. S/he maintains effective relationships with the project staff, FO Program Manager and the FO Program & Operation Coordinator and other RFSA staff working in the woreda. She/he maintains effective relationships with communities, businesses, MFIs, other financial service providers and IGA promoting Agencies, Woreda Administration, Rural Development Teams; other development organizations working in the area where CARE works (NGO, CBO and the private sector), and special meetings with Woreda and Zonal (Regional when required) government partners.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND LEVEL OF TRAVEL REQUIRED. 

The position is based in East Hararghe (Grawa Woreda)

How to Apply

CARE Ethiopia is committed to preventing all unwanted behavior at work. This includes sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and child abuse. We expect everyone who works for us to share this commitment by understanding and working within the CARE Safeguarding Policy and related framework. CARE Ethiopia has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or child by any of our staff, representatives or partners.

CARE Ethiopia reserves the right to seek information from job applicants’ current and/or previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer.

By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that s/he has no objection to CARE Ethiopia requesting the information specified above. All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks. 

If you are interested to be part of our dynamic team, exciting work environment and contribute to CARE Ethiopia’s mission and vision, please send your CV (not more than 3 pages) and cover letter (not more than one page) through CLICK HERE

Note: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Passionate and dedicated candidates who meet the requirement are strongly encouraged to apply, especially women! CARE seeks to improve the lives of the most marginalized, particularly women and girls. Our diversity is our strength. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply.