Investment and Innovations Specialist – Chemonics عودة إلى الفرص

Title: Investment and Innovations Specialist 

Length of Assignment: Long-Term

Reports to: Investment and Innovations Team Lead

• BACKGROUND

The USAID-funded Visit Tunisia Activity is a 5-year project designed to enhance Tunisia’s tourism potential, with the goal of generating revenue and jobs, particularly for women and youth, and for populations in underserved regions of the country. The overall vision behind USAID’s investment in Tunisia’s tourism sector is to capitalize on Tunisia’s natural, cultural, heritage and historical sites to develop a more diversified and high-quality tourism sector that contributes to broad-based economic growth. Through this activity, USAID seeks to contribute to Tunisia’s growth and development to offset the negative economic impact of the coronavirus crisis. The project will seek to achieve the following four objectives:

• Objective 1: Enhance Tunisia’s competitiveness as a tourism destination;
• Objective 2: Increase tourism-related investments and revenue;
• Objective 3: Improve the enabling environment for sustained growth in the tourism sector; 
• Objective 4: Private sector engagement to expand the offer and quality of alternative tourism.

This project will collaborate with the relevant ministries, private sector, and donors to advance the objectives while contributing to the following high-level results: 

1. Increase in the number of tourists. 
2. Increase in the number of jobs in the tourism sector. 
3. Increase in tourism revenue. 
4. Increase in private sector-led investment and innovation in the tourism sector. 

• POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Investment and Innovations Specialist will work closely with the Investment and Innovations Team lead in implementing Visit Tunisia’s private sector engagement activities and will work across objectives to support private sector engagement and investment in Tunisia’s tourism sector. The specialist will collaborate with financial institutions, private equity, and entrepreneurship development organizations as well as Tunisia’s government partners to facilitate bank lending, non-bank finance and to implement public-private partnerships in the tourism sector. The specialist will provide training and advisory services to tourism firms, with an emphasis on digital innovations, to enhance their business management and profitability, increasing domestic and international investment in the tourism sector and improving SMEs’ management capacity and bankability.

• DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Support initiatives to promote private sector engagement and investment in the tourism sector
• Collaborate with other technical specialist to spur private sector investment initiatives that span objectives, and to ensure grant funds are deployed in support of objectives and maximize investment and impact within the targeted geographic clusters. 
• Work with financial institutions, private equity, entrepreneurship organizations, and Tunisian government partners to facilitate bank lending and non-bank finance, implement PPPs, and develop new tailored lending programs
• Identify and secure public private partnerships for the management, upkeep and commercialization of historical and cultural sites
• Develop new business models to scale private sector led solutions to accelerate business activity and investment in alternative tourism 
• Support and promote innovations in alternate tourism through digital platforms 
• Identify opportunities to assist priority tourism businesses severely impacted by COVID-19, and develop scopes of work and/or activities to address their needs, supported by the Partner Engagement Specialists and broader project team
• Provide inputs to weekly activity updates, quarterly progress reports and annual reports. 
• Supervise the grants manager and grants assistant
• Other tasks as identified by the Investment and Innovations Team Lead, as needed. 

• QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working on investment and innovation initiatives, and 3 years of management experience
• Demonstrated experience/network/knowledge of Tunisia’s investment environment, available investment incentives, opportunities and the institutions that provide them 
• Ability to introduce and support innovative business development and investment opportunities, including spurring startups and entrepreneurship, supporting early stage and mature organizations, including large scale companies 
• Demonstrated experience in digital innovation, supporting IT start ups, SME development, debt-restructuring, investment facilitation, and access to finance 
• Background in finance, real estate development, SME development, and/or project management 
• Procurement and grants management experience preferred

• REPORTING: 

The Investment and Innovations Specialist will report to the Investment and Innovations Team Lead.

• LEVEL OF EFFORT AND PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

This position is long-term, on a full-time basis.

• LOCATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT 

This assignment will be based in Tunis, Tunisia with potential travel to regional locations pending project needs. The office maintains a five-day work week. Overtime is not authorized.