Current Opportunities at ACDI/VOCA

Responsibilities

• Provide overall strategic leadership and programmatic direction for the activity.
• Oversee all administrative and financial aspects of the activity.
• Supervise annual results reports, resource requests, quarterly reports, and pipeline analyses.
• Establish work plans and annual performance goals for team members, ensuring timely and quality execution of group deliverables.
• Analyze budgets, review and approve financial reports (with correct funding stream), and ensure all required regular and ad hoc reports are completed accurately and on time.
• Develop strategies to respond to changes affecting the activity’s successful completion.
• Ensure that expected results are achieved on time, within budget, and in compliance with USAID’s and ACDI/VOCA’s policies and regulations.
• Ensure transparency of bidding processes and selection of consultants and sub awardees.
• Provide input on program selection and implementation.
• Monitor and evaluate all work, ensuring a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities. Oversee activities that relate to program evaluations.
• Serve as the key liaison with ACDI/VOCA HQ, government officials, local and international NGOs, implementing partners, community members, private sector, and USAID.
• Deliver conference presentations on behalf of ACDI/VOCA.
• Maintain clear lines of communications in the field and with headquarters.
• Comply with all applicable donor, ACDI/VOCA, and government rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and schedules.
• Foster strong relationships with the following USAID divisions: Kenya, East Africa, Somalia, USAID bureau for humanitarian assistance and the Center for Resilience.
• Foster relationships with other ACDI/VOCA operating units and programs (which are under PREG), and partner implementing organizations, in addition to host and local government institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and other non-USAID donors.
• Undertake area assessments to identify needs and future direction. Develop existing and new program opportunities.
• Foster a work environment that is non-discriminatory and promotes open dialogue on gender-related issues.
• Travel to site offices as needed to provide technical assistance and troubleshoot.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise and experience as a Chief-of-Party in managing (at least $5 million), complex development activities, with demonstrated experience working within an African context and focused on learning and adaptive management.
• Demonstrated ability to be collaborative across activities and partners, preferably with a good understanding of best practice private sector-led market system implementation, analysis and knowledge management, and communications.
• Demonstrated experience and commitment to local solutions and local organization capacity building.
• Masters’ degree in economics, business, agriculture, development studies, international relations, or related field.
• Proven commitment to local solutions and local organization capacity building.
• Demonstrated commitment to gender streamlining and women’s empowerment activities.
• Strong understanding of Knowledge Management and Communications, including technology for high level remote presentation with multiple stakeholders.
• Superb interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, and ability to foster collaboration with local governments and implementing partners.
• Ability to travel within Kenya and East Africa region.
• Fluency in English required, proficiency in Swahili is highly desired.

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• The Director of MEL and CLA will co-develop and facilitate learning workshops with MEL and technical leads, engaging partners in identifying evidence-based ways to adapt and scale interventions. They will design and manage the CLA and MEL plan and learning agenda on technical and management processes. They will supervise the MEL, KM, and reporting functions to systematically generate, synthesize, share, and apply learning, effective, and adaptive management. The program is anticipated to start in 2023 and this position is envisioned to be based in Kenya.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for MEL learning and knowledge exchange
• Create, share, and manage relevant knowledge assets that support program outcomes
• Ensure that programmatic learning and results are fully documented, shared, and used to drive adaptive management processes
• Lead the collection, analysis, documentation, dissemination, and use of best practices and lessons learned
• Design and implement internal and external knowledge exchange and learning events to improve peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing and application
• Develop and/or maintain strategic relationships with relevant stakeholders to promote effective coordination, collaboration, and dissemination of program learning
• Support the design of and manage the MEL framework and plan that incorporates CLA principles and components
• Lead the baseline data collection process, develop the MEL plan, and perform other related monitoring and evaluation efforts for the Activity, including leading the MEL team
• Ensure effective reporting, data collection, and monitoring systems are in place
• Provide technical assistance to ACDI/VOCA staff members and partner organization staff in the utilization and management of monitoring and impact assessment tools
• Develop and test instruments for data collection; collect, analyze, and summarize field visit reports from program technical staff and implementing partners
• Evaluate the integration of project design with the program strategy and the impact of business and technical processes to the program
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative program impact surveys to ensure that project goals are met and that the team constantly improves program implementation quality
• Conduct data quality reviews to ensure that all information required for submission to donor is collected in a valid, reliable, and timely manner
• Complete impact assessment, baseline, midline, and end line surveys to assess the impact of the project on livelihoods
• Design learning approaches that enable analysis of data, context, and emerging experience, as well as iterative adaptive management for the Activity's technical approaches

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in evaluation, development studies, economics, statistics, or relevant field is required; master’s degree is desired.
• Minimum 7 years of experience managing the M&E component of a donor-funded project, USAID preferred.
• Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, survey design and implementation, and statistical data analysis is required.
• Familiarity with applying the CLA approach to management is desired.
• Experience working in Kenya preferred.
• Fluency in English required.

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• The Technical Deputy Chief of Party will support the Chief of Party in attaining project goals and objectives by providing technical advice and direction when appropriate. They will oversee day-to-day planning, design, and operations of project and technical teams to ensure effective project implementation. The program is anticipated to start in 2023 and this position is envisioned to be based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Responsibilities

• Serve as principal point of contact for procedural and substantive matters in the absence of the Chief of Party
• Support the development of strategic plans, annual and quarterly work plans, and other deliverables in line with USAID guidelines to achieve objectives
• Support the development of strong M&E mechanisms, program monitoring tools, and efficient systems to ensure high quality implementation
• Prepare and/or assist in the preparation of reports and documents to USAID, national governments, ACDI/VOCA headquarters, and other partner organizations
• Work closely with subcontractors and private sector associations in the region to provide technical and organizational assistance
• Oversee and provide technical guidance for market and food systems enterprise development, finance, and investment, with integration of gender and nutrition considerations
• Ensure project staff implement market facilitation and value chain development concepts and approaches in a sustainable manner and are committed to value chain upgrading strategies
• Provide technical assistance to program beneficiaries in market identification and development, market systems development, agricultural supply chain management, private sector development, business development, and promotion of investments
• Identify and effectively manage all key risks related to the program, including compliance with donor transparency and due diligence requirements
• Ensure that synergies among Activity elements and grantees are capitalized upon
• Represent ACDI/VOCA with partners and key stakeholders, maintain positive relationships with USAID, local authorities, and the country office team
• Provide input into the performance monitoring plan to measure success and validate causal model assumptions

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, economics, business administration, or relevant field is required; master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant, progressively responsible management experience.
• Proven track record of implementing and/or managing market systems or agribusiness development activities.
• Experience implementing donor-funded programs is required; USAID experience is preferred.
• Possess a combination of technical familiarity and management skills that span the subject areas covered by the activities.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical assistance and advisory services to a range of financial service providers.
• Experience working in Kenya preferred.
• Fluency in English required.

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• The Nutrition Advisor will lead the development, implementation, and monitoring of nutrition-sensitive interventions and activities across the entirety of the program. The program is anticipated to start in 2023 and this position is envisioned to be based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Responsibilities

• Support, manage, and advocate for the integration of high quality and responsive approaches across the entirety of the program to increase availability, affordability, access to and consumption of safe, nutritious foods, particularly for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups
• Oversee the implementation of field research to identify key opportunities for increasing food availability, affordability, accessibility, for the consumption of safe, nutritious food
• Co-create the design and implementation of interventions that increase household production, access to, purchase, and consumption of nutrient-rich foods, particularly for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups, applying nutrition-sensitive best practices and support and input from ACDI/VOCA Home Office Technical Experts
• Provide technical guidance on the development of tools, resources, and models to facilitate the integration of nutrition into agriculture and market systems development interventions
• Design and conduct participatory workshops on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and/or food systems for program participants, including households, private sectors actors, and government
• Facilitate the increased capacity of all staff members in nutrition
• Implement Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) best practices to inform and scale-up nutrition and food systems interventions
• Manage and direct implementation teams to carry out project activities as needed

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in nutrition, public health, or relevant field required; master’s degree preferred
• 5 years of experience integrating nutrition into agriculture and/or market systems development projects
• Experience working with food systems actors, including rural producers, farmers’ associations, agribusinesses, private sector agricultural production, private sector food processors, or governments desired
• Understanding of gender- and youth-integrated agriculture concepts and ability to integrate gender into nutrition-sensitive approaches
• Strong analytical skills, including ability to gather and analyze a variety of information pertaining to issues and to develop appropriate recommendations for action
• Excellent written communication skills required, with a demonstrated ability to write reports in a clear, concise manner
• Experience working in Kenya preferred
• Fluency in English required