3 Market Development Facility Partnership Manager Job Vacancies – Technoserve

Job Title:    Market Development Facility Partnership Manager (3 Jobs) 

Organization:  Technoserve

Duty Station: Kampala, Kabale and Mbale, Uganda

Funding Source: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

About US: TechnoServe helps people lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the power of the private sector. A leading nonprofit organization operating in almost 30 countries, we work with hardworking women and men in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. By linking people to information, capital, and markets, we have helped millions to create lasting prosperity for their families and communities.

About Dutch Embassy Program: Through the four-year Hortimap program funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Technoserve and partners BID Network and Impact Capital Africa will transform the fruit and vegetable horticulture industry in Uganda. The program combines catalytic funding through a Market Development Facility and Technical Assistance fund to leverage private sector and local resources and expertise to strengthen SMEs and local supply chains, while delivering world-class entrepreneurship training to farmers and retailers to realize their potential. These interventions are expected to increase incomes for more than 31,000 horticulture farmers, create 11,000 jobs, and improve access to healthy, safe food for 250,000 Ugandan consumers.

Job Summary:  The Market Development Facility Partnership Managers will provide direct advisory support to producer organizations, business development service providers, agro-industry/agribusiness firms, and work with Government of Uganda institutions and agencies and other market actors in the FFV horticulture sector to catalyze inclusive growth. The MDF-PMs will assist client agribusinesses to diagnose constraints and opportunities and apply bespoke technical assistance and financial solutions that address firm-specific constraints while demonstrating new models for replication and scale by other businesses. In particular, the MDF Lead will support SME clients to pilot and scale more inclusive business models that prioritize economic opportunity for women and youth, and adoption of climate smart technologies. The position will coordinate closely with partners BiD Network and Impact Capital Africa to recruit clients and provide them with world-class consultancy services and leverage an additional €3M in mobilized private capital to compliment the MDF.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: Principal Responsibilities:

• Design and execute partnership roadmaps with selected clients
• Leverage HortiMAP networks to link MDF clients with buyers
• Support and facilitate relationships between commercial finance providers and clients to leverage additional finance that complements catalytic grants
• Work with partners in targeted region to facilitate innovation and pilots that promote inclusive business models (e.g. establish/strengthen smallholder sourcing networks) and enhance linkages among horticulture market actors.
• Support and document private sector match commitments
• Contribute local data and insights to help develop and regularly update program strategies to strengthen support across full set of program interventions;

MDF Finance and Investment Mechanism:

• Sourcing Clients: Support the MDF Lead and partners BID Network and ICA to develop criteria and recruit via events, execute a communications strategy, and networking to recruit qualified applicants to the MDF facility, with particular emphasis on women-owned or managed businesses and those with a large number of women in their employ or supply chain.
• Partnership co-design: The MDF Partnership Manager will develop Partnership Road Maps – concise opportunity diagnostics and support plans, easily accessible to businesses and financial partners
• SME Client Partnership Implementation: Ensures implementation of each agribusiness partnership roadmap (PRM) agreed upon activities, outputs, and deliverables to reach specific commercial and inclusive objectives (e.g. revenues, sales, jobs created, etc.), guided by a budget, and an M&E section.

Technical Assistance Mechanism:

• Assist in the identification of local business development service providers that can continue relationships with MDF clients beyond the life of project
• Support and monitor execution of technical assistance to ensure quality of delivery and alignment with Partnership Roadmaps

Partnership & Client Management:

• Close coordination with pre-identified providers of specialty horticulture expertise such as Wageningen University Research & PUM Netherlands.
• Coordinate with the Horticulture Value Chain team to integrate program participants in client value chains and vice-versa;
• Under guidance from the MDF Lead and M&E team, track MDF client performance and compliance with the obligations under the partnership roadmaps signed
• Make regular visits to the partners & clients to track their performance and provide regular updates/reports on their progress

Program Coordination and Implementation:

• Actively participate in regular team meetings to track implementation progress and share relevant program and administrative data
• Ensure the delivery of technical training packages is of high quality, is appropriate to the local context and is effectively reaching participants
• Share best practices and lessons learned with team members

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant must hold Degree qualifications in business-related studies required
• Bachelors or better in Business Economics or related field.
• Experience working with food aggregation and processing, supply chain development, out-grower networks, and knowledge of Market Systems Development approach preferred
• Minimum of three years’ field and technical experience with agribusiness development, agribusiness experience in Uganda is required
• Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships
• Strong project management and some financial analysis skills
• Minimum of three years’ field and technical experience with agribusiness development, agribusiness experience in Uganda is required
• Experience working with food aggregation and processing, supply chain development, out-grower networks, and knowledge of Market Systems Development approach preferred
• Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills a must
• Ability to develop well-written, cohesive analyses and reports
• Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations
• Proven ability and experience working with teams will be an added advantage
• Fluency in English required

Core Competencies include:

• Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
• Team Work/ Relationships: Works co-operatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve a common goal. Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.
• Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.
• Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.
• Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates open exchange of ideas and information; uses appropriate non-verbal communication.
• Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyse situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution. Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.
• Results Oriented/ High Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.
• Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.
• Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.

Job Specific/Technical Competencies include:

• Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.
• Donor/Partnership Management: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
• Analysis, Research, Report Writing: Experience in business planning and analysis, modeling for feasibility and execution. Able to analyze and express oneself clearly in business writing.
• Innovative Mindset: Curious inquiries, asks questions and seeks out information from multiple sources, learns from mistakes, sees change as an opportunity.

Managerial Competencies:

• Emotional Intelligence: The act of knowing, understanding, and responding to emotions, overcoming stress in the moment, and being aware of how your words and actions affect others. Emotional intelligence consists of 4 attributes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
• Strategic Thinking: Managers should recognize key actions, underlying problems, make connection and patterns, see consequences and implications. Anticipates obstacles realistically and plans ways to deal with them.
• Staff Development: managers are required to work with employees to plan on the development of skills and abilities so that they can fulfil current or future job/role responsibilities more effectively.
• Trust to Delegate: managers should have trust and willingness to assign responsibilities to direct reports and give them discretion and authority to carry them out.
• Feedback/Coaching (mentoring): managers should give instructions, suggestions, explanations, and feedback to subordinates. (SPI+R)

Career Pathways: The position that may be a next career opportunity for employees in this job title include Program Manager   How to Apply: All candidates should apply online at the link below. Please Identify the location for which you are applying in your cover letter Click Here