INTERNAL/EXTERNAL VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Advisor- Financial Inclusion
CARE Ethiopia’s mission is to work with the poor women and men, boys and girls, communities and institutions, to have a significant impact on the underlying causes of poverty in Ethiopia.
Date: August 14, 2019
Vacancy #: 068/19
Salary: USD 1,564
No of position: 1 (One)
Type of Employment: Regular
Unit: PQL
Duty base: Head Office/ Addis Ababa
Dead Line: 10 days from the date of advertisement
JOB SUMMARY:
Financial inclusion is one major strategy to ensure women’s access to and control over economic resources. The CARE economic empowerment model is based on VSLA as a means to not only provide access to valuable financial services, but to provide a pathway for formal financial inclusion. VSLAs build the financial skills and assets of households by providing access to a safe, convenient place to save as well as small timely loans. VSLAs provide members with practical financial experience that they can leverage to successfully engage with formal financial service providers (FSPs). Equipped with financial literacy to ensure that members understand the way that formal financial markets work, pilots linking VSLA which have resulted in increased financial access for VSLA members and high loan repayment rates for FSPs.
The purpose of the Financial Inclusion Advisor position is to advance, oversee, coordinate and provide overall technical and capacity building supports to CARE Ethiopia’s in the implementation of the Financial Inclusion strategy in general and VSLA initiatives in particular through the different program portfolios. Standardization, coordination and partnership building and strengthening underpins the need for this position.
In collaboration with PQL technical team, she/he develops plans for enhancing VSLA initiatives in the initiatves design and development plan and to draw lessons for increasing program impact and sustainability. She/he establishes and maintains effective working relationships with key CARE project staff , government partners and NGOs working in the area of Financial inclusion.
The Financial Inclusion Advisor will report to the PQL coordinator and provide technical support to Financial Inclusion Advisors of the different programs/projects in CARE Ethiopia to:
· Standardize VSLA methodology across all the projects/programs based on action learning and gender equality principles;
· Scale up CARE Ethiopia’s VSLA programming;
· Develop programmatic approaches that effectively link mature VSLA groups with financial service providers and mobile network operators; and
· Decrease gender gaps in access to and control over financial skills, assets and services.
S/he will also be responsible for coordinating with ongoing financial inclusion programming in the different programs/projects and supporting country offices in developing and maintaining productive partnerships with relevant government line ministries and other stakeholders in order to promote an enabling financial sector environment for target beneficiaries, financial institutions and mobile network operators in Ethiopia.
II. RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS:
1. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP and INSTITUTIONALIZATION
- Offer technical support to CARE Ethiopia, government and financial institution staff on financial inclusion of Ethiopia’s population- resource poor and not reached by banks.
- In collaboration with the country office staff (to promote their own capacity building, ownership and sustainability), define and implement a technical assistance strategy guided by CARE’s Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Financial Inclusion strategies to support the country office in implementing large-scale VSLA and financial inclusion programs.
- Design and support country office linkage structures and participate in the assessment and contracting of FSPs.
- Work closely with relevant project’s team, Access Africa and Program Managers to develop a DO NO HARM strategy for linking the resource poor to formal financial institutions and ensure adherence to VSLA, linkage, and gender equality principles and financial inclusion strategies.
- In collaboration with the coordinator and the MIS specialist and members of the program Quality and Learning Unit, develop systems to monitor the overall quality of the portfolio of VSLA groups and groups linked to financial institutions, with attention to promoting gender equality in access to and control over key financial skills, assets and services.
- Continuously monitor progress across the country office and oversee the country office’s efforts to review and tailor VSLA and linkage methodology for adoption in different local environments to accelerate its growth and replication.
- Promote a culture of creative reflection and accountability by ensuring that Organizational Learning is fully integrated in our Financial Inclusion system and in our day-to-day practice;
2. Integrating VSLA Plus approach and QUALITY ASSURANCE
Up hold the standardization of the VSLA methodology in all the VSLA projects through consistent and effective application and usage of VSLA specific systems and processes e.g. related to tools, communication, partnerships, training, institutional capacity building etc.
- Support CO, sector coordinators or technical leads to access information on and apply relevant VSLA minimum standards and to revise and adapt them when required;
- Supporting project/program teams to develop & implement projects/program quality improvement plans when required;
- Supports and coordinates CO access to relevant technical assistance
- Lead the operationalization of the Financial Inclusion strategy and in particular VSLA CO strategy at project/program level and support lead coordinators in its implementation in terms of capacity building of staff, mentoring of key staff of the different projects through training and support visits and promotion of cross project learning
- Provide technical leadership to the country office on integrating the VSLA approach with other development initiatives such as agricultural value chain programs, enterprise development, and gender mainstreaming with financial services. For example, provide technical assistance to develop financial products for the agricultural and micro-enterprise sector with select financial service providers and mobile network operators.
- Guide and support the country offices on developing and implementing strategies to engage youth in VSLA programming; lobbying/engaging the government and financial institutions in developing pro-youth products to accelerate linkage of adolescent girls and youth to formal financial institutions.
- Work with the country office teams to understand the context and regulatory frameworks in order to tailor influencing efforts.
- Identify and develop critical partnerships to support the activities above, including supporting the country office team in developing and managing successful partnerships.
- Identify critical skills and capacity gaps in the country office’s teams to develop strategies to build these skills.
- In collaboration with the PQL unit and relevant project’s M&E Specialists, document lessons learned.
3. TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING
- Ensuring all projects/program staff and partners are conversant with basic concepts and requirements of VSLA and CARE Ethiopia Financial Inclusion strategy through ongoing identification of gaps, training and capacity building of staff and partners in these areas.
- Coordinating the development of comprehensive projects/programmes Capacity Building Plans; ensuring that staff participate in the development of plans and are committed to them, ensuring that interventions specified in the Capacity Building Plans are carried out on time and to standard
- Develop a localized version of the VSLA training manual for application across all projects.
- Apply standard set of CARE Ethiopia VSLA training materials including TOT guide and CF guide. Draw on localized version.
- Conduct demand-driven training for all relevant projects on the materials.
4. NETWORK AND ALLIANCE BUILDING
- Pro-actively engage with other organizations working in similar domains in order to learn from others and exchange experiences, lessons and good practices with them.
- Reorient CARE Ethiopia’s Financial Inclusion Strategy towards market led financial linkage mechanisms and in the interim introduce sustainability conditions for LGF and multiple of lending conditions as part of contract with FSP.
- In line with the financial inclusion strategy, provide technical support to facilitate linkages between VSLA groups, financial service providers (FSPs), and mobile network service providers (MNOs).
- Support linkage needs assessments and assessments of financial institutions and the financial sector of the country.
- Establishing and developing close working relationships with strategic partners such as FSPs, and MNOs ; drawing up MOUs as appropriate
- In collaboration with financial institutions, support the country office in developing financial services and products based on needs assessments that are suitable and accessible to target beneficiaries, including women and girls.
- In complement to training already provided by the country office, support and provide capacity building training to country office staff related to linkage planning between country office staff and FSP and MNO partners.
- Participate/contribute to Regional Program Quality Group meetings and action plan and maintain close links with other PQL units and colleagues in the region;
- Organising and/or participating in VSLA/FI stakeholder coordination meetings in order to harmonise plans with others
5. Representing CARE
· Represent CARE in various public fora and events to raise awareness on CARE’s work for ensuring access to finance to the poor and mainly women and girls.
· Contribute to developing the overall CARE Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Financial Inclusion Strategy and meet donors as required to promote CARE’s financial inclusion/WEE work.
6. Supporting Learning Initiatives
· Develop learning agenda and coordinate for its exploration with relevant projects’ Financial Service Advisors, M&E Specialists, and the MIS Specialist.
7. Coordinating with Access Africa
· CARE Ethiopia collaborates with Access Africa; CARE’s signature program for financial inclusion in Africa, to take its financial inclusion agenda forward. S/he will work closely with the Access Africa team to ensure that both strategies are aligned and lessons are shared between the country office and Access Africa for wider dissemination and implementation.
IV. Qualifications and Experience
A. Education
Required:
· Master’s Degree in relevant fields: Finance, Business, International Development, Economics/Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Cooperative Development, or other relevant fields
B. Experience
Required:
· More than 5 years of experience working in the microfinance or microenterprise development sector, including VSLA approach and methodology, financial inclusion, and Women Economic Empowerment.
· Experience of staff supervision
· Collaboration and relationships building and management
Desired:
· Experience in both the public/private sector and NGO programs
C. Expertise
Required
D. Key competencies
· Strong organizational skills and ability to prioritize competing priorities in order to provide timely feedback and meet deadlines on an as-needed and/or urgent basis.
· High level of professionalism, including strict adherence to confidentiality.
· Strong customer service, negotiation, conflict resolution skills; flair for creative problem solving with ability to analyze, conceptualize, strategize individually and as part of a team.
· Results-oriented focus: keen drive and enthusiasm for delivering results.
· Keen attention to detail.
· Cultural sensitivity, empathy, ability to work under stress.
· Strong computer/word processing and spreadsheet skills, including data manipulation, as well as a willingness to learn computer software programs as required.
· An ability to work and lead a large group of diverse and committed individuals and frame them into a coordinated and cohesive team
· A willingness and ability to coach, mentor and otherwise promote the development of staff
· An ability to help others to plan and think strategically about their work and how financial inclusion integration will deepen impact of other sectors
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