Field Coordinator for Adama 

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND:

FC/DAI is contracted to provide management and technical support services to Mastercard Foundation to support the creation of close to 600,000 youth jobs (80% women) and 15,000 MSMEs, with 300,000 unemployed youth trained through supporting IP job creation initiative and market linkage between IPs and MSMEs.

The BRIDGES Programme will address two fundamental, immediate and complementary challenges to unlock the potential for job creation within IPs and their surrounding ecosystem. (1) Making the industrial workforce markets work, which through the Enterprise Partners Programme, First Consult/DAI have successfully piloted in a few industrial parks and is now ripe for scale-up. (2) Making the IP business linkages (MSME) markets work to enhance domestic manufacturing value-added (MVA) for every given dollar of export. This will be done by substituting the currently-heavy import-dependent operations – itself a constraint on the factories - via local suppliers (MSMEs) in a number of ways.

The BRIDGES programme is designed to create and or support jobs in two pathways namely the wage employment and self-employment in which the programme is designed to have four pillars addressing the intended results namely: Employment Linkage BRIDGE; Enterprise Development BRIDGE; Enterprise Competitiveness BRIDGE and Access to Finance BRIDGE in which the first one is solely dedicated to the wage employment path and the later three are mainly focused on the self-employment pathway.

Background specific to this assignment

It is envisaged that employment in the AIP could be up to 30,000 workers including the private parks within three years. It is anticipated that there will be high demand for labour in the AIP but currently the capacity and infrastructure hasn’t been created in the city of Adama and its surrounding areas to supply or support such demand. Extensive consultations have been held with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), and regional governments and others to develop the BRIDGES employment linkage project.

A framework has now been established for collaboration among EIC, regional government and BRIDGS that sets forth the parties’ intent to work together to establish employment linkage, a programme to source, screen, register, allocate and train in soft skills a total of 30,000 potential workers over a period of three and a half years.

In addition, to the wage employment linkages, extensive effort and support will be provided to the self-employment pathways by creating, supporting, capacitating and linking MSMEs to an indirect export market to engage in product and service delivery to the Anchor Enterprises that are in and around Adama Industrial Park.

Therefore, it is inevitable to have a field personnel to coordinate the ground works for all the activities to be carried out by all the four BRIDGES as required in stakeholder engagement, data collection and analysis, coordination with the Regional, Zonal and Woreda level Government and private players for the successful implementation of the programme.

OBJECTIVE:

The general objective of the employment and MSME linkages is to develop a market-based and inclusive labour registration and preliminary training system to facilitate employment opportunities for unemployed youth. In addition to employment linkage, BRIDGES engagement in self-employment path with the objective of creating an aspiring entrepreneur to provide products and services along the value chain will result in local value addition creating jobs and hence resulting in indirect export.

The project has the following specific objectives:

·         Development of a system of matching AIP labour demand with the supply of job seekers.

·         Development of sourcing, screening, and allocation mechanisms.

·         Imparting to job seekers basic soft skills that improve AIP performance, worker engagement, motivation and personal growth.

·         Oversee the training and development of MSMEs providing services to the Adama Industry Park

·         Engage with AIP management and investors to understand additional needs for products and services that MSMEs can potentially engage in

·         Engage with Adama woreda offices to respond to needs of the demand from the investors and park administration  

SPECIFIC TASK:

The Field Coordinator is responsible for coordinating, consolidating, and ensuring smooth implementation of program and operations’ activities and adherence to human resource, administration, database and recruitment procedures. At the regional/district level, the Field Coordinator represents BRIDGES to relevant stakeholders.

1.       To ensure implementation of work plans in accordance to the agreements signed between the investors and BRIDGS;

2.       To ensure that no violation is made by the stakeholders to the signed agreement;

3.       Monitor and report on various Intervention activities;

4.       To oversee the everyday operations at the site;

5.       Oversee monitoring frameworks for measuring the progresses of various interventions at Adama Industrial Park implemented by BRIDGS program;

6.       To review and ensure in keeping quality data in the interventions implemented by the program;

7.       Assess and compile factories feedback on the project;

8.       Work closely with the Industrial Relation unit and EIC/OSS staff of the Industrial Park;

9.       Engage closely with MSMEs providing products and services to the AIP investors and park administration

10.   Engage with AIP management and investors in soliciting additional demands for MSMEs to be engaged in

11.   Coordinate with AIP management and woreda administration to facilitate MSMEs development and linkage with the parks

12.   To carryout field visits, to various Woreda and Kebeles to assess the sourcing and screening activity of the program and report these field visits in proper reporting formats on monthly and quarterly basis;

13.   Organize and supervise various activities within the interventions and the head office staff;

14.   Closely work with different service provider working with BRIDGS;

15.   Closely work with the selected financial institutions for the different interventions in mobilising savings and lending facilities

16.   Facilitate meetings with the relevant stakeholders as required

17.   Ensure implementation challenges and risk are flagged and mitigated ahead of time;

18.   Facilitate coordination and smooth flow of communication among stakeholders

19.   Take additional tasks as per the dynamics of project and the entire recruitment pipeline of the project.

20.   Take any other assignment as required.

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME:

The work will take place in a period of 12 month starting from March, 2020 – February, 2021. 

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

·         BA Degree in Economics, Social Science, Project Management or any other equivalent field with minimum of 5 years’ experience.

·         MA/MBA Degree in Economics, Social Science, Project Management or any other equivalent field. With Minimum 3 years of experience, relevant to the above described job, in public or private sector;

·         Experience working in a multi-stakeholder environment of relevant work experience.

·         Having the required level of confidence and assurance to engage with international partners at both senior level and operational level.

·         Good communication skill, fluency in English, Amharic and Afan Oromo (reading, writing and speaking). Skill in other local languages is a plus.

·         Strong analytical and problem-solving skills are desirable as is knowledge of gender-based issues particular as impacting on the formal employment environment

·         Good management, communication, working knowledge of computer programmes including Word, Excel and Power Point, knowledge of database management, and reporting skills are required.  

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS:

The field coordinator will be working in Adama. This could however change periodically depending on the need of the project.  The assignment will also require frequent travel to the field.