World Vision Ethiopia began its first intervention in Ethiopia in 1971 with relief and opened the Ethiopia office in 1975. Relief, rehabilitation and small community development projects dominated the decade that followed. During the 1984/85 drought, World Vision Ethiopia participated in a massive relief operation that saved the lives of millions of people.

Location of work: SPIR II Zonal Office (West Hararge, Habro)

Summary

Strengthen PSNP Institutions and Resilience (SPIR II) is a 5-year USAID/BHA funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) led by World Vision and including consortium partners CARE, ORDA and IFPRI. World Vision and its partners will create a strong, shock responsive ecosystem of public, private, and community level actors to support PSNP households to graduate from poverty and sustain income and food security gains in 17 targeted woredas in Amhara and Oromia regions. Building from key formative and research studies during an initial refinement period, SPIR II will use continuous learning to drive program level reflection, analysis, and adaptation.

Purpose of the position:

The Microfinance and IGA Officer for the SPIRII/RFSA project is to provide technical support to the woredas in the areas of Village Economic and Social Associations (VESA), financial inclusion, development of pro-poor financial products, Islamic financing, microfinance, financial services for farmers, resilience, food security and income and net asset building activities of the project. To improve the enabling environment, the position holder will network, share and coordinate with all stakeholders of PSNP 5 program in West Haraghe Zone including MFIs, cooperative banks, commercial banks, RuSACCOs (Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives) and other government units. S/he will ensure that the SPIR II-RFSA micro-finance and IGA related interventions in the target Woredas (Daro Lebu, Boke and Habro) are performed as per approved Detail Implementation Plan (DIP).

Major Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation of approaches, systems and products/services as advised by the Financial Inclusion Specialist to ensure the access of financial services to PSNP 5 program participants and other rural households in target Woredas
• Develops capacity of SPIR II implementing partner staffs including Community Facilitators (CFs) on supporting increasing and sustainable linkages between program participants (VESA groups and PMG) and local financial institutions (MFIs, RuSACCOs, and banks).
• Work closely with MFIs to create better functioning and sustainable institutional linkages between VESA and PMGs, MFIs, RuSACCOs, and banks
• Defines and executes VESA monitoring systems, MIS SAVIX, and monthly reports, and strengthens them across operation Woreda
• Works with MFI partners to systematize information flows and share reporting and portfolio effectiveness as it relates to SPIR-support PSNP clients
• Train VESA members and other program targets on village savings, IGA, literacy and financial management
• Promote the development of pro-poor financial products offered by financial institutions
• Work with health and nutrition officers and CFs to galvanize women and men to engage in nutrition-enhancing IGAs
• Make micro-assessments to identify key private sector opportunities and partners to promote viable IGA interventions that perfectly suits and fits with the local markets and livelihoods

Job Requirements

Required Professional Experience:

• 5 years’ related work experience for BA and 3 years’ related work experience for MA/ MSc in supporting designing and implementation of Agriculture or value chain development projects
• Experience in private and NGO sector

Desired: Experience with local MFI

Qualification required: B.A. or M.A. Degree in relevant fields: Finance, Business, International Development, Economics/Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Cooperative Development, or other relevant fields

Preferred Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Experience should include that on needs assessments, baseline surveys, field program design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience in loan product design, designing interventions with MFIs, capacity building, extension service, and innovation in financial inclusion for the poor
• Effective in written and verbal communication in Oromiffa and Amharic
• Effective in written and verbal communication in English
• Experience using Savix MIS and VSLA / VESA methodology
• Strong network among the organizations relevant for microfinance and financial inclusion

Working Environment / Conditions: · The position requires ability and willingness to travel within the Zone and woredas for up to 40% of the time