East Africa Investment Associate at Palladium International

Outline of Position

• The Investment Associate is a valued member of the team and will be responsible for successful implementation of returnable grant and technical assistance activities for the Rebuild Facility in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. S/he works with the Rebuild Facility team internally and subgrantees, recipients of Technical Assistance grant, and other stakeholders externally.  

Key Responsibilities, Duties and Tasks

Pipeline Development and Projects Management

• Drive pipeline development in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia for returnable grants and TA projects
• Coordinate for convening Investment Committees to decide applications entering proposal stage
• Lead proposal development and manage the approval process for both returnable grants and TA projects with internal and external Steering Committees.
• Maintain relationships with in-country stakeholders including coffee regulators and government agencies
• Ensure that all the approved returnable grant and TA projects complete activities outlined in the implementation plan and deliver committed outcomes
• Manage all the approved projects, implemented to timely deliver outcomes and impact targets set by the Client
• Support on monitoring and evaluation data collection
• Support in forecasting and updating the Outcomes for companies they are supporting, both in the pipeline and portfolio stages
• Support in client and internal reporting.
• Support in gathering data for case studies and story maps
• Conduct research on supply and commodity prices as well as identifying potential risks in project countries and coffee value chain
• Develop forward looking market intelligence by conducting research on challenges, opportunities and immerging trends in tropical commodities especially in East Africa

Reporting

• Oversee Project Closure and Impact Verification process
• QC that all the dashboards and databases are updated
• Prepare status update to management, and avail information on BMUV/IKI reporting

Relationship Management

• Develop, manage and maintain strong working relationships with project stakeholders.
• Develop strong working relationships and a regular dialogue on project progress and challenges with the Regeneration team working on the project
• Training, Supervision and Leadership
• Provide necessary training, capacity building and information to grantees to enable compliance with the financial accounting, reporting and procurement requirements of their funding agreements

Required Qualifications:

Education and professional experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Accounting or Agricultural Economics.
• Relevant experience working in the agricultural supply chain development, financial services, and/or agricultural market systems development.

Required skills and abilities:

• Commitment to fighting climate change and deforestation with the ability to convincingly articulate this commitment.
• Passion for environmental issues, international development, private sector-led development, forestry / nature-based solutions, sustainability or supply chain management
• Demonstratable experience of successfully contributing to a team in a similar early career, donor funded grant management role.
• Experience of creating and maintaining financial systems and working knowledge of financial practices, for e.g. budgets, forecast, progress tracking
• Experience of completing due diligence assessments and a good understanding of best practices in contracting.
• Able to work with limited supervision, be flexible and comfortable in a multi-cultural work force.
• Good communication skills: ability to build good working relationship with project team and partners at a range of levels and in different locations
• Fluency in spoken and written English
• Advanced computer skills in Word and Excel.
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure to meet specific deadlines