Senior Program Officer-HAVIOS عودة إلى الفرص

Region: North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco & Tunisia)

Office: Tunis, Tunisia  

Hours: 36 hours per week

Apply before: August 9, 2022 

Intro 

Do you have knowledge and experience in the field of Private Sector Development in the Green Sector? Are you driven by a desire to contribute to an inclusive green transition in North Africa? Do you have a good understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem scene in our target countries? Are you familiar with the investment landscape in the region? Then Hivos is looking for you!

Job context

With its relatively young population, in addition to the changes in the job market occurring due to the green transformation process in North Africa, more and more young people each year need to find a sustainable living. 

Our vision is to empower young men and women to find a decent job in the Green Economy, which is boosting due to the efforts by local governments and the private sector to accelerate the green transition process. To this end, Hivos MENA, in collaboration with its network of local partners, designs and implements programs that ensure the economic inclusion of youth during this fast paced transformation process. The Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT) is the latest program that Hivos secured funding for under this strategy. 

The CFJT aims to create more than 10,000 decent jobs for youth in the green economy. The CFJT does this through identifying and supporting Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) that rely on a network of Micro Businesses to enable its full scaling potential. By rapidly scaling such SGBs, the CFJT also scales the network of micro businesses within its value chain (which is usually comprised of micro- suppliers & distributors, and/or micro-business clients) which will lead to the creation of new jobs, improve conditions of existing ones, and connect unemployed youth with job opportunities throughout the whole vale chain. 

Accordingly, through (1) conditional co-financing, (2) sector focused technical assistance and (3) supporting the building and strengthening of relevant Micro Clusters, the CFJT accelerates the SGBs’ scalability and ensures that all employment opportunities created in the process are green and decent based on a strong business case that enables the continuous growth of the SGB.  

The CFJT is being implemented by an alliance of 6 local and international Implementing Partners (IPs) in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, and The Netherlands. 

In addition to the 5 million Euros secured by Hivos for the CFJT’s Implementation, the programme aims to secure a further 10 million Euros over the next 3 years leveraging the funds already secured. These 10 million Euros can be secured at Hivos’ level or at the IPs level. 

The CFJT is a continuation of previous programmes Hivos has been implementing in North Africa over the past five years: Mideast Creatives from 2014 to 2016, Co-Working for Sustainable Employment from 2016 to 2018 and Boosting Bottom-Up Societal Transformation (BOOST) in 2019, and GreenWorks (2020-ongoing). This collective endeavour has successfully supported and/or established more than 25 BDSOs in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, and has helped to create more than 250 new businesses, scale more than 150 others and create and improve the working conditions of more than 9,000 job opportunities.

Your responsibilities

As a Senior Program Officer – “Green Entrepreneurship Lead”, you are responsible for overseeing the CFJT Implementing Partners’ activities under the CFJT program in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia in addition to directly coordinating the support to the SGBs in Morocco.  

Accordingly your responsibilities entails the following:

• Manage the relationships with local implementing partners in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
• Ensure that IP’s deliver the capacity building programs, sector focused technical assistant, non-commercial fundraising, and deploy the funds to the beneficiaries on time, in accordance with the contracted agreement, approved budget, and workplan of each IP
• Participate in the selection of SGBs at pitching competition panels to make sure that the awarded SGBs fulfil the selection criteria based on Green sector relevance, women’s inclusion and job creation objectives.
• Gather periodic technical and financial reports submitted by partners, assess them, and present key achievements and challenges to the programme manager
• Coordinate support efforts for the ecosystem building partners and SGBs and act as the focal point for Green SGBs-related activities
• Work close with the M&E officer to gather valuable data, making sure that the KPI targets are achieved, and aligned with those listed in the contracted agreement of each IP 
• Build linkages with angel investors, VCs and other commercial and non-commercial financing institutions in an effort to support reaching the 10 million euros leverage target 
• Coordinate other access to finance trajectory with external consultants, partners and beneficiaries.
• Build and cultivate strong collaboration among local partners, climate related organizations, BDSOs, Public institutions, private sector and youth empowerment organisations.
• Identify and develop synergies with other Hivos projects in the MENA region and Africa.
• Keep track of relevant programs, and donors contributing to the green transition efforts in the region, and highlight potential synergies to the programme manager 
• Able to represent Hivos programmatically and operationally to various stakeholders, as needed. 
• Serve as a key member of the Tunisia team, and provide support to the Tunisia set-up and operations as required. 

Your profile

• You have a Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g: climate finance, development, International Relations, Economics, and Entrepreneurship).
• You have relevant and demonstrable work experience: at least 5+ years in project management in the field of entrepreneurship development with at least 2 years of Green Sectorial focus.
• You have experience in managing project implementation and working in teams, including managing partners (subgrantees).
• You have experience and good understanding of managing project budgets, including supporting finance in monitoring partner budgets. 
• Strong knowledge with donor and program compliance. 
• You have experience in supporting project and general operations, and representing the program & organization with various stakeholders. 
• You have knowledge of the climate finance spectrum
• You have some knowledge/experience with green and sustainability reporting standards
• You have affinity with international cooperation and knowledge of societal and economic developments in the MENA region
• Work Experience or affinity with roles of business accelerators, incubators or similar BDSOs 
• Work experience in an international environment (prior experience in a non-governmental organization is a strong advantage). 
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills, and interpersonal skills.
• You are a strong team player, with positive energy and solid problem solving skills. 
• You have good time management and organizational skills.
• You are proficient in Microsoft Office.
• You have a professional knowledge of English and Arabic (French is a plus).

What we offer

We offer a stimulating work environment in a professional international organization with very dedicated staff. Employment is offered as soon as possible for the period of one year with possible extension for a longer period. Depending on your experience and skills your salary will be in accordance with the salary scale applicable to the office where you will be based. 

For more information you can contact Mr. Ahmed Sameh, Programme Manager Green Works & CFJT asameh@hivos.org

Specific Employment Conditions for this vacancy

Until the conclusion of Hivos’ registration as a foreign NGO in Tunisia, this position will be hosted at Al Bawsala, a Tunisian non-profit association, whose principal place of business is at 4, Rue Apollo XI, Cité Mahrajène Belvédère, Tunis 1082. A one year contract will be offered to the employee under Al Bawsala and accordingly, employment conditions of Al Bawsala will apply for this vacancy. 

Upon the conclusion of Hivos’ registration in Tunis (and based on the employee’s performance) Hivos intends to transfer the employee’s contract under Hivos’ umbrella where Hivos’ Tunis Office employment conditions will apply. 

The MENA program of Hivos contributes to political, societal and economic processes that aim at societal transformation to pluralist and democratic societies with respect for human rights and equal opportunities for all citizens. It collaborates citizen activists, creative entrepreneurs, coworking spaces and alternative financial mechanisms such as crowd funding and investments. 

About Hivos 

Hivos is an international organization that seeks new solutions to persistent global issues. With smart projects in the right places, we oppose discrimination, inequality, abuse of power and the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources. Counterbalance alone, however, is not enough. Our primary focus is achieving structural change. This is why we cooperate with innovative businesses, citizens and their organizations. We share a dream with them of sustainable economies and inclusive societies.