Mastercard Foundation: Lead, MSME Job 2019
Salary range: Confidential | Contract type: Fixed term
Closing Date: 15 October 2019
Job Summary
Reporting to the Country Representative, the Lead, MSME will be responsible for a portfolio of existing Rural and Agricultural Finance programs and partnerships. They will work collaboratively with the program team and other Foundation staff.
They will be expected to provide expertise to identify constraints that prevent agricultural systems from functioning effectively at the country level, including, those that prevent youth from developing skills relevant for work in the sector; agribusinesses from accessing the finance; capacity and markets needed to grow; the development and design of programs in the agricultural sector and incorporating the agricultural sector’s needs into country strategies.
This individual will be expected to interact effectively with senior levels of partner organizations to advance the current work of the Foundation, while concurrently contributing to the Foundation’s country strategy development and new programs.
Responsibilities
- Identify challenges and opportunities facing MSMEs, including those in the Agricultural sector that can be unlocked through education, labour and financial systems to drive job growth.
- Provide expertise on MSMEs to support Foundation colleagues’ design and management of programs to scale country-level inclusive education, financial and labour systems in Africa.
- Work closely with the MSME Technical Expertise Group Lead and other team members to achieve team goals.
- Provide perspective and expertise on emerging issues and trends in the FI field, the MSME sector and entrepreneurship growth in Africa.
- Manage current and future programs as appropriate; including programs in the rural and agricultural finance initiative and distill learnings for Foundation staff.
- Lead and supervise small teams of colleagues and/or junior experts by providing coaching and support necessary for success and growth.
- Communicate progress and learnings from projects to colleagues and the wider development community.
- Work closely with program and country teams to leverage synergies across programs and geographies.
- Build relationships with partner organizations, communities of practice, and global stakeholders.
- Represent the Foundation and collaborate with key internal and external audiences.
- Participate in governance activities related to programs, such as investment committees, advisory committees or other stakeholders to provide oversight or elevate and leverage learnings.
- Identify and overcome barriers to team effectiveness by sharing knowledge and learnings while offering insights and possible solutions to issues and/or program challenges.
- Contribute insights to the Foundation’s thought leadership on youth employment in Africa.
Job Requirements
Required education: Post-graduate education
Required relevant work experience: 10 years
Required languages: English (Spoken: fluent | Written: fluent)