I. About TechnoServe
TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. Founded in 1968, we are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. In East Africa, we operate in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Across the region, we implement a range of large-scale value chain interventions, agribusiness programs and entrepreneurship/economic empowerment projects. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.
Ethiopia, a country where 70 million people make their livelihoods through farming, has seen the fastest growth in the irrigation infrastructure of any African country. These systems significantly boost productivity and income for smallholder farmers. However, despite this high demand, only five percent of arable land is equipped for irrigation – a disparity that has spurred the Ethiopian government to prioritize irrigation expansion, especially by using conventional fuel pumps.
The Smallholder Solar Pump Alliance will capitalize upon this market by providing a commercially viable, financially sustainable and scalable system for providing solar-powered pumps as an accessible alternative. Solar pumps are less expensive and more water-efficient than conventional diesel ones – making them attractive for smallholder farmers. However, while a proven solution exists in other countries, solar pumps have been unavailable in Ethiopia due to limited, unaffordable rural financing options and a lack of agribusiness investment from local solar companies. Thus, while components for a solution exist, there is not yet a system intact to make it work.
Supported by Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G), the Smallholder Solar Pump Alliance plans to address these challenges through the development of a strong business and financing model for smallholder solar pumps, which will be piloted and scaled in local markets. Ultimately, the partnership will reduce the environmental strain of sourcing clean water while improving water access and affordability for smallholder farmers. https://p4gpartnerships.org/partnership/smallholder-solar-pump-alliance
The Senior Project Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring the overall on-time delivery of project deliverables, according to cost and quality specifications and effectively managing relationships and coordinating with SSPA partners as well as counterparts, including government counterparts. For a limited duration, the Senior Project Coordinator will work closely together with one TechnoServe Fellow. The project is structured into three sub-goals:
1. Develop and refine smallholder solar pump business and financing model, specific to Ethiopia’s financial context;
2. Pilot and demonstrate commercially viable smallholder solar pump distribution in the market;
3. Support the emergence of an effective solar agribusiness ecosystem, specifically partnerships with agribusinesses and effective aftersales support services established.
The duties and responsibilities of the Senior Project Coordinator are structured into the following four categories:
Lead/Support Technical Work and deliverables
· Deliverable: project work plan
· Deliverable: review of multiple iterations of financial model
· Deliverable: assessment report summarizing farmers’ needs vs. appropriateness of pump technology
· Deliverable: farmer training module(s)
· Deliverable: after-sale support model/business plan, including recommended service providers
· Analyze the potential for scaling solar pumps in Ethiopia by sizing the market for pumps and consulting with potential partners. Identify and facilitate partnerships with other farms and agribusinesses, including cooperatives in order to support and accelerate scale-up of solar water pump distribution to other areas in Ethiopia; Develop a practical scale-up plan, identifying high potential geographies and prospective partner companies, and assessing other sources of support for scaling.
· Deliverable: scale-up plan
· Deliverable: technology options evaluation report
Lead Alliance and manage relationships with SSPA partners
· Cultivate strong relationships with partner organizations, based on open communication and transparency
· Manage relationships according to existing signed partnership MOU; update the MOU as needed
· Convene partnership meetings regularly; set agenda and keep minutes
· Regularly communicate with partners, with updates and joint troubleshooting
Manage relationship with P4G, GOE, and other stakeholders; represent project
Learning and Reporting
· Monitor pump performance and benefit to farmers: develop and deploy metrics to monitor pump productivity, for example, assessing farmer earnings from the pump and payment plan. Test and measure other benefits of the pump product, such as using pumps for household purposes, such as fetching water, and solar-powered lighting within the household as well as the potential of smallholder households to use the pumps, once paid off, as collateral for other loans.
· Deliverable: together with Project Coordinator and SSPA partners, design the roll-out monitoring and evaluation program for monitoring the performance of the pumps and its benefits to smallholder households