Senior Associate – Livestock Intervention Mgt and Business Development - Abuja - Ikore International Development Limited

Description

If you are passionate about making a difference, leading and contributing to livestock innovation and market development, then this is for you. We have an exciting but challenging job requiring commitment and flexibility, and a range of intellectual skills. If you have a strong commitment to improving the lives of poor rural women and men, are physically and emotionally robust, have a business attitude, and an ability to work in a multi-disciplinary and multi-national team, then we would like to hear from you.

Location: Abuja

Responsibilities

With oversight from the Programme Manager, you will lead and manage 2-3 project interventions. This involves - identifying opportunities; designing strategies; planning and implementing projects; communicating, control, monitoring and report. You will develop and maintain close relationships with project partners (mostly businesses) and state actors while overseeing and coordinating the implementation of project interventions.

Specifically, you will be responsible for the following:

Business Development

o Develop and maintain a pipeline of opportunities that align with Ikore's priorities

o Participate in market engagement meetings and identify opportunities for developing new businesses in livestock.

o Work with the Growth and Partnership team to facilitate strategic alliances that can scale Ikore's impact

o Mobilise team of experts to respond to new business opportunities through proposal development, pitch events and concept development and submissions.

Research

o Conduct research into relevant market systems and trends to identify opportunities for interventions

o Assist in stakeholder analysis of selected value chains, and identify and establish contact with potential agents of change

o Liaise with the MERL team on the development of tailored research tools and methods for collection, analysis and reporting.

o Assist in establishing baselines, indicators and other market intelligence systems to track results and market expansion.

Intervention Management

o Formulate strategies to develop product and service markets in these commodity chains/rural markets and seek opportunities to work as per sector strategy.

o Identify intervention activities and ensure the appropriate communication of clear intervention guidelines, expected outcomes, timeframe and workplan to all relevant parties

o Develop intervention strategies and implementation procedures in a participatory manner with key stakeholders

o Help identify market failures and pressure points for addressing them; help identify ways to render a given market more functional and efficient, in a manner that will benefit the poor.

o Identify priority areas for interventions that will change as opportunities pass or are realized, and new ones emerge.

o Conduct field visits and provide weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports on project interventions – including impact assessment reports.

o Assist the Programme Manager in the development of relevant partnership agreements, MoUs, ToRs and any other administrative requirement for the interventions

o Maintain network and connections to be abreast of developments in the relevant sectors/markets/commodity chains.

o Work with the MERL team to design appropriate tools for monitoring the progress of interventions.

Stakeholder Management

o Represent Ikore in selected markets and events, displaying courtesy, tact, consideration and discretion in all interactions with partners, other members of the project, and with public.

o Understand how the political economy impacts markets, and how changes in the functioning of markets may impact the political economy.

o Help supervise/facilitate the identification and development of networks among key stakeholders, helping identify common interests between the networks and Ikore

o Assist in establishing contacts with national and regional institutions, stakeholders and participants that would contribute to the successful implementation of market activities.

Monitoring

Support the Communications staff and MERL team in establishing and managing livestock Project MERL systems, particularly as it pertains to the markets, systemic change, and gender disaggregated impacts on the poor, as well as other social development issues.

Working Relationships

The Senior Associate will report to the Senior Programme Manager. S/he will also be expected to work closely with the MERL and Growth and Partnership team. S/he will work closely with all market partners ensuring that all interests are adequately protected and all interventions have the potential for sustained improvements of the standards of the poor as well as sustained business viability and impact.

Competencies

Communication: Confidently delivers tailored messages to various audiences using various media and tools. Asks insightful questions, validates the speaker's feelings and points, and encourages the speaker; leaves the speaker feeling 'heard'. Reports concisely and proactively with observations, analysis, and implications for project work and communicating concisely to stakeholders.

Relationship Builder: Develops trusting relationships; proactively assesses and manages trust with others. Maintains industry, government and corporate networks and consistently forges new business relationships to fit strategic priorities. Identifies shared goals and develops effective strategies around those goals; follows-up on connections to catalyze positive relationships. Maintain neutrality and helps parties come to creative agreements while keeping ownership with the parties.

Business Person: Understands the idea of the marketing mix (the 5 'P's); can gather market info and give advice on marketing strategy; Advises on building and keeping good customer relations. Keeps records in more complex business environments; Advises on basic finances; and considers the financial risks of decisions; considers the economic value for the markets before making financial decisions. Delivers trainings, advise on recruitment and the importance of incentives for performance

Coach: Regularly engages with market actors and stakeholders to uncover and identify specific needs; builds desire in the coachee to address the needs. Offers specific, constructive feedback to others; leaves the coachee feeling empowered to improve; actively seeks out feedback to improve; uses feedback in reviewing intervention strategies. Creates buy-in from the coachee to improve; helps develop action plans; provides support, while ensure coachee ownership over the process

Innovator: Tests out new ideas on an ongoing basis; failure encourages greater future effort; often demonstrates creative thinking; uses innovative approaches in the execution of work; actively searches for solutions beyond traditional boundaries. Makes time to reflect and codify learning; seeks out sources of learning; regularly adjusts actions based on comparing expected results against actual results; makes informed decisions based on lessons learnt from other interventions within the sector. Proactively shares both successful and unsuccessful endeavors; actively identifies issues that may hinder effective collaborations and devises means of minimizing these; takes a leadership role in a team

Political Economist: Critically analyses institutions using a visual model, objectively allocating roles and functions. Can prescribe an agenda to improve the institutional arrangements for the benefit of poor people. Rigorously analyses the way power and politics affects markets and poverty; can model the power relations; and can prescribe improvements for the benefit of poor people. Collects and arranges complex evidence within an Excel workbook; cost-benefit analysis of economic options; prescription and argument for pro-poor improvements in markets.

Essential Qualifications

o A degree in veterinary medicine or animal health and production. A master's degree in business, Economics or Development Studies will be an added advantage.

o Minimum of 3 years' work experience in sales, veterinary pharmaceutical marketing or marketing of other agricultural commodities in rural markets.

o Experience in developing simple business plans.

o Experience writing reports

o Ability to influence a range of people including businesses, client organizations, government agencies and other key stakeholders by building constructive relationships through clear communication and generating effective discussion and mutual support for plans and ideas.

o Strong project management expertise, exposure to implementing technical assistance projects, and ability to bring together sector stakeholders would be advantageous

o Ability to speak Hausa is desirable

Location of post

The post is domiciled in Abuja but will be require frequent travels within Nigeria and particularly to the Northern part of Nigeria.

Qualified candidates can send in their CV and Cover letter to

Job Type: Full-time

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Abuja: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Experience:

• data analysis and visualization: 5 years (Required)
• research: 4 years (Required)