The access to market and financial Inclusion Specialist will facilitate access to market and inclusive finance for smallholder farmers (SHFs) by organizing them into village saving and loan association (VSLAs), cooperatives and unions, facilitating  market linkages and forums between SHFs, market actors, aggregators, inputs providers and financial service providers such as micro finances, banks,  conducting market assessments such as market functionality, VSLAs’ operational and capacity gaps,  needs assessment etc, and building relationships with key market actors like private sectors and government institutions. The Specialist will also be involved in designing Intervention Concept Notes (ICN), Activities Concept Notes (ACN), Term of references (TORs) and Memorandum of understanding (MoUs) regarding access to market, financial inclusion, market linkages, forums and assessments etc, helping to ensure robust M&E and working with our MEL team. S/he will also play a role in representing Mercy Corps’ access to market and financial inclusion work externally, through building relationships with key partners and participating in relevant coordination and learning events.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Coordination and Collaboration

•  Enhance strategic partnership with stakeholders and partners to advocate, promote and advance organizational issues, priorities, interests and competencies for a successful program and program delivery.
•  Collaborate with clients, partners, and stakeholders to link and harmonize approaches and to promote common interests and achievement of results.

Program Management

• Support the development of work plan, activities, targets, budget, standards for measuring progress and results and determine the processes, tools, and methodologies to be used to ensure effective and efficient program implementation and operations.
• Design interventions Concept notes for MSD programs, using tools such as Results Chains and ‘Who Does, Who Pays?’ matrices.
• Lead the establishment, strengthening, and digitization of Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs), cooperatives, unions under ISRLS project, and upgrading of such groups into micro and intermediary aggregators
• Facilitate and technically support market linkages between smallholder farmers and other key actors to access agriculture inputs and output markets
• Facilitate and organize forums for/between market actors such as smallholder farmers, producers, processors, collectors, traders, aggregators, financial institutions to enhance access to market and finances.
• Facilitate and provide capacity building trainings to VSLA groups, their members, cooperatives, unions and other key market actors
• Provide technical support to integrate access to market, DFS & financial inclusion into the ISRLS project.
• Facilitate and engage in conducting various assessments like market functionality assessment, VSLAs operation and capacity gaps assessment, providing the foundation for program design.
• Facilitate and/or provide technical support for market actors and aggregators in developing financial proposals to access finances from financial institutions like microfinance, banks etc.
• Develop standard operating procedures (SoP) on business to business in collaboration with related government institutions
• Support and strengthen the formation of agriculture market coordination platforms by and in collaboration with concerned government bureaus
• Facilitate and technically support the formulation of long-term trading agreement between key market actors and SHFs covering the supported value chains
• Facilitate learning and experience sharing visits for key actors within and across regions
• Undertake Comprehensive mapping and profiling of market actors and market channels
• Ensure gender integration and mainstreaming are incorporated into financial inclusions interventions.
• Monitor progress and identify risks for timely action and early resolution.
•  Responsible for the full compliance with Mercy Corps rules and regulations and policies on financial activities, financial recording/reporting system and follow-up on audit recommendations.
• Actively support knowledge building, sharing, and applying in the program.
•  Submission of high-quality reports for financial inclusion programming to the Program Manager and other relevant Mercy Corps Ethiopia team members.
• Closely work with key stakeholders such as smallholder farmers, financial service providers (MFIs, Banks, cooperatives, unions, VSLA groups), government, etc. by establishing partnership and managing relationship on regular basis.
• Perform other duties assigned to by other team members

Teamwork

•  Ability to plan own work, manage conflicting priorities and work under pressure of tight and conflicting deadlines.
•  Work closely with team members and partners, to support capacity-building and gender integration into the programs.
•  Very good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations.
•  Very strong leadership capacities to guide a multi-cultural team in difficult circumstances.
•  Support the identification of program issues, challenges and risks, appropriate recommendations and implements them.

Organizational Learning

•  As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

• Accountability to Beneficiaries

  • Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field programs.

  Security

  •  Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
  •  Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

  Knowledge and Experience

  •  A degree in Cooperatives/Business/marketing management, Argo-business, Value chain management, Argo-economics, Economics, rural development and agricultural extension or other related fields of studies.
  •  At least 5 years’ work experience in project and program management and coordination, preferably in access to market, market linkages, and financial inclusion, agricultural cooperative and union management, digital financial services (DFS), product & strategy development; financial literacy programs, and community awareness campaigns.
  •  Previous work experience in livelihood and financial sectors in international non-governmental organizations is an advantage.
  • Familiar with all aspects of the relevant market systems, access to market, cooperatives formation and management, financial inclusion, and working with smallholder farmers, aggregators, micro-financial institutions (MFIs), banks, etc.
  •  Good understanding of Markets Systems Development (MSD) approach.
  •  Familiarity with Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) methodology, cooperatives and unions formation, development and practices is advantageous.
  •  Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.
  •  Fluency in English, Amharic and knowledge of local languages (Anywaa and Nuer) is required.

  Success Factors

  A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. S/he will have a proven ability to learn quickly, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, work within a complex security and political situation and to follow strict security protocols. A willingness to relocate for short-term as necessary within coverage regions, based on programmatic needs, work independently and as part of a team are essential Computer literate especially in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and SharePoint).