TechnoServe Senior Business Advisor Job Vacancy - Connected Farmer Alliance Program

Senior Business Advisor (SBA) – Mobile Technology Commercialization  
 

Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA)

Technoserve Background: TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. 

We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. 

Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. 

With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

Program Overview: TechnoServe is implementing a $10 million Global Development Alliance (GDA) funded by USAID and Africa’s leading Mobile Network Operator (MNO). 

The three-year Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA) will develop and launch business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) mobile solutions that will create market opportunities for smallholder farmers and improve return on investment for the agribusinesses that source from them, while unlocking new market opportunities for MNOs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. 
 

The CFA will facilitate access to output and financial markets for 500,000 rural smallholders, nearly 150,000 of who will be women. 

The program will ensure development of sustainable business models that serve the interests of a broad range of private sector stakeholders to prove the commercial viability of rural mobile solutions. 

By profitably serving rural markets across a representative cross-section of African information and communication technology (ICT) industries, CFA will pave the way for widespread replication of developed mobile solutions across the sub-continent.The program’s technical approach is built on three pillars:-

Pillar I will create supply chain efficiencies that improve agribusiness ROI on smallholder sourcing, while linking rural women and men farmers to commercial markets. 

Pillar II will link those smallholders to financial markets, empowering them to invest their revenues in productivity enhancements and human capital. 

Pillar III will develop mobile services that complement the Vodafone solutions developed under Pillars I and II and address unmet needs identified during the first 2 years of the program, with a focus on solutions that benefit women.

Position: The Senior Business Advisor (SBA) will be the technical lead of all CFA solution development, customization, up scaling and commercialization activities. 

In collaboration with the Program Manager and CFA partners, he/she will: 

1) provide technical support in developing and customizing the CFA solution and will act as the day to day CFA contact person between the developers and clients, 

2) drive the CFA solution commercialization process including developing the value proposition, customer acquisition plan and marketing plan 

3) drive CFA Pillar II financial services processes and activities, including up scaling selected Vodafone/Safaricom financial products 

4) oversee the roll-out of the solution pilot to clients and  

5) deputize the CFA Program Manager .

Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Project Management

• Deputize the Program Manager on  the launch of country-specific CFA program activities and ensure excellence in execution;
• Enable accurate and timely reporting to all stakeholders and partners as well as meet TechnoServe internal processes
• Monitor program results and achievements and identify lessons learned and areas of improvement for the CFA and future programming.
• Carry out country-specific mobile solution impact analysis including business cases to better understand the impact of the developed and scaled solution to our target clients and beneficiaries
• Maintain project work plan and activity budget on the areas of jurisdiction
• Ensure timeliness and quality of activity implementation
• Actively participate in regular team meetings to track implementation progress and share relevant program and administrative data
• Support the production of narrative and M&E reports by collecting relevant data for monitoring and evaluation purposes
• Ensure excellence in execution of all program activities and events
• In liaison with the Program Manager, represent CFA and TNS at internal and external functions;
• Understand, respect and promote TechnoServe’s values, vision, and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.

2. Mobile supply chain solutions for rural smallholder farmers

• Support the Program Manager and be the driver in development of business requirements for the mobile solution development and customization, incorporating input from agribusiness partners and farmers and iterating with key stakeholders as necessary
• Participate in solution development and customization technical meeting with developers, Safaricom and Vodafone
• Support the Program Manager in identifying, selecting and engaging agribusiness partners in-country and sign to MOUs
• Establish and manage day-to-day relationships, on matters of solutions development and customization, with Developers and Kenyan agribusiness partners during all phases of the program
• Support the Program Manager and drive all Kenya marketing and customer acquisition activities. In specific drive all mobile supply chain solution commercialization processes and activities.
• Constantly collect data on the set of KPIs and report the team on progress

3. Mobile financial services for rural smallholder farmers

• In liaison with the Program Manager develop and drive CFA financial services intervention strategy
• Support the Program Manager in establish and manage day-to-day relationships with Safaricom and the Kenyan financial institutions during all phases of the program
• In liaison with the Program Manager drive the identification, selection and engagement of the financial institution partner’s in-country and sign to MOUs.
• Provide technical support in the development and commercialization of the DigiFarm solution
• Provide technical support in scaling-up selected Safaricom existing Mobile financial solution
• Support the Program Manager and drive all Kenya marketing and customer acquisition activities. In specific drive all mobile financial services solution commercialization processes and activities.
• Ensure constant monitoring and evaluation of the solution impact.

4. VAS business support for new services to smallholders

• Backstop the Program Manager in managing the day-to-day relationship with @iLabAfrica / @iBizAfrica
• Support the Program Manager in establishing and managing day-to-day relationship with Safaricom, ensuring their involvement in business selection and support of the accelerator as a corporate sponsor due to their key contributing role to ICT incubation success.
• Support the Program Manager and drive activities to create visibility and stimulate applications for the Accelerator in Kenya
• Ensure constant monitoring and evaluation of the VAS impact.

5. Capacity Building and Gender integration into overall project management system and approach

• Support the Business Advisor – Capacity building in designing and delivering of training to Kenyan clients on the use and management of relevant mobile solutions.
• Support Kenyan team members in implementing all aspects of the program gender integration plan

6. Learning, M&E system operational

• Support the Regional and Country M&E team in the design and implementation of M&E activities.

7. Any other duties that might be allocated as per the terms of this contract

Additional Requirement

• The prospective candidate will be a degree holder in a business related/Information Technology or Agribusiness field
• At least 3 years of experience in marketing mobile technology products (application/software’s etc)  to Agribusinesses will be an added advantage

Reports to: Program Manager 

Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya 

Application Instructions

Qualified and interested applicants should submit a Word-formatted single document consisting of cover letter and resume to ke-recruit@tns.org. 

Please identify the position for which you are applying in the subject line. 

Only applicants meeting minimum qualifications will be considered or contacted. No phone calls please. 

Deadline for applications is 1700h Thursday 23rd January 2014.

TechnoServe is an Equal Opportunity Employer