Job Vacancy-BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST – SKY - AVSI Foundation

JOB VACANCY

DESIGNATION: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST – SKY - (2 POSITIONS) 

DUTY STATION: 1 BASED IN MBALE AND 1 BASED IN MBARARA

ORGANISATIONAL DESCRIPTION:

AVSI Foundation is an International NGO which has been operating in Uganda since 1984, implementing various programmes in several districts in the country in the sectors of Health, HIV/AIDS, Disability, Education, Food Security, Agriculture, Livelihoods and Nutrition.

PROGRAMME BACKGROUND:

AVSI is implementing a 5 year project titled “Skilling Youths for Employment in Agribusiness. The Goal of the proposed action is to enhance sustainable creation of employment of youths. The programme will achieve the goal through four main objectives:

Objective 1: Strengthen the capacities of the agri-skills providers in a sustainable way to provide 

Objective 2: Provide pre and post-employment support to the skilled youths

Objective 3: Strategic linkages of agribusiness for enhanced capacity building through skilling and 

Objective 4: Facilitate Skilling Uganda Authority to be supportive to agri-skilling in the targeted areas.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of Chief of Party (CoP) and Deputy CoP, the Business Development Specialist (BDS) based in Mbale or Mbarara respectively, will be responsible for implementation of all the 4 objectives in his/her area of operation (Eastern or Western Uganda) and shall carry out the following duties and responsibilities.

Western Uganda and shall carry out the following duties and responsibilities.

Key Functions:

• Provide training and coaching to youths on agro-enterprise development and building 
• Provide training and support to youths in planning and developing micro-enterprises
• Mentoring and coaching of youths, agro-institutions, learning firms and other 
• Engage in collecting and promoting information resources on employability and entrepreneurship of youths;
• Support fundraising efforts of AVSI foundation;
• Training, mentoring youth in accessing skilled trade and employment
• Support/strengthen learning firms, agribusinesses and agro institution for better management as required by the project objectives;
• Develop of youth agribusiness models (including financial model and market channels) for facilitation of youth agribusiness and agro-institution growth;
• Development and ensuring smooth delivery of youth agribusiness development support services package to youths;
• Designing the set of indicators and monitoring system for assessment of sustainability of youth agribusinesses;
• Designing of a set of indicators for monitoring and assessment of quality of the BDS services and their regular monitoring.
• Support youths in developing agribusiness development plans;
• Provide technical support to learning firms in the skills provision;
• Support in the identification of leaning firms and manage the relationships with the learning firms as required by the organisation;
• Provide support in quality control of project activities, including assessing impact and effectiveness, tracking outputs and results, and ensure timely and efficient delivery of project through a client-satisfaction approach;
• Provide a strong leadership for the team in Western Uganda;
• Take leadership in managing and maintaining healthy relationships with partners in Western Uganda.
• Proactively engage in strategic thinking on how to make the program succeed.

COMPETENCIES.

Experience:

• At least 8 years of professional experience in agribusiness, and/or value chain and market access related consultancy, and/or analysis/research of agribusiness and/or regional socio-economic development projects;
• Experience in working with public sector, private sector and donor organizations on institutional development or similar projects will be an asset;
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of performance of business units and/or regional/local or community socio-economic development projects is desirable.
• Experience in training, teaching or mentoring role
• Experience in marketing, market research and management
• Resourcefulness, strategic thinking, creative problem solving and basic financial management skills.

Corporate and Functional Competencies:

• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.
• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.
• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of program, managing data, reporting;
• Focuses on result for the client and responses positively to feedback.

Education:

• University Degree in AgriBusiness, Economics, Marketing, Small Business Management or related field and experience working in an entrepreneurial environment or as owner/manager of a small business
• Proven ability to follow through on objectives and produce timely results with little supervision
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written

Desirable

• Experience of work in farming zones, social entrepreneurship, small business and/or private sector engagement.
• Experience in innovative product development
• Knowledge or experience in value chain development
• Knowledge of the local context and language is an asset

Application:

A convincing cover letter, accompanied with updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) indicating 3 work related referees, plus copies of relevant certificates, should be addressed to:

The Human Resource Manager, AVSI Foundation, P.O.Box 6785, Kampala, Uganda and sent to hr.kampala@avsi.org, indicating the e-mail subject as ‘Application for Business Development Specialist – Mbale or Mbarara’, respectively.

THE CLOSING DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS IS 5.00 P.M, 11TH MARCH 2016.

Note: Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

AVSI Foundation, Plot 1119, Ggaba Road, P.O. Box 6785 Kampala – Uganda. Tel: +256-414-501604/393-50160. http://uganda.avsi.org/.

NB:
Agasha Group Limited/Agribusiness Platform has been authorised to distribute the Job description. To get the original pdf job document, email: agribusinessplatform@gmail.com.