Livelihoods Promotion Manager (Anchor)

The Virtual Livelihood School of Africa (VLSA) is a partnership initiative of Livelihood and Market Development Stakeholders in East and South Africa with financial support from the Ford foundation.

It is being piloted in four countries – Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa. The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) on behalf of partners is recruiting a Livelihoods Promotion Manager (Anchor) to spearhead the development of the school.

Background information

The Virtual Livelihoods School of Africa initiative is a four-country co-operative effort to create a learning facility that will generate knowledge resources and learning tools towards measurable achievement of sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction. The four pilot countries are Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and Mozambique.

Following a scoping study by faculty of the Livelihoods School in India in April 2011, initial stakeholders from all four countries agreed to work towards country level facilities which would converge through a virtual regional livelihoods school. Stakeholders agreed to work through country-level and regional task teams.

Each country team is required to expand the working/learning group of stakeholders that will devise plans to secure initial funding and conduct initial activities towards establishing the school.

This would include contracting an anchor, identifying organizations to incubate the school in the early years, building relationships for collaboration and exchange, establishing country local Advisory board and generating strategies to establish the school at country level.

Organization

The Virtual Livelihood School of Africa Kenya Chapter (VLSA – Kenya) Company Profile VLSA - Kenya is a partnership initiative of Livelihood and Market Development Stakeholders in East and South Africa.

It is being piloted in four countries – Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Mozambique. In Kenya the partners are KREP Development Agency, IIRR Kenya, Practical Action, Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Labor, Cooperative College, KARI, SNV and CASCADE International.

VLSA-Kenya will provide training and technical support services in livelihood promotion, market development, rural development, Micro Finace Development and social sectors to existing and aspiring development practitioners.

Job description

1. Spearhead the development of the virtual livelihood school-Kenya under the guidance and supervision of the local advisory board (LAB) and the IIRR management team – IIRR is the “Nester” organization
2. Develop strong partnership and collaboration mechanisms amongst partners that will develop the Virtual livelihood school as a reference hub on livelihoods and Market Development
   
3. Organize and coordinate meetings of the Country working group
4. Develop proposals and coordinate with LAB and IIRR to raise resources from funding/donor agencies for capacity building funds in livelihood promotion and market development initiatives
5. Coordinate livelihood related research initiatives by the school, support documentation, publication and dissemination
6. To spearhead development/updating of joint training manuals and other relevant documents and coordinate implementation
7. Responsible for organizing training programs - liaison with resource persons and other service providers, agents, staff at training venues, identification and registration of candidates, obtaining any fees, budgets for the course, payments to faculty and service providers, accounting, conducting examinations, linkages with NGOs, corporate and others.
8. Design a sustainable model for the systematic collection, storage and retrieval of existing and new information for easy access and use by practitioners, students and researchers
9. Develop necessary financial & market linkages for the promotion of selected approaches
10. Provide technical support to the LAB, working groups and monitor implementation progress.
11. Participate in cross-country and regional learning platforms to contribute to south – south learning12. Development and management of a team to support the VLSA-Kenya Secretariat

Profile of desired candidate:

Professional and Education: Master’s Degree in social sciences, agriculture economics or business.

Work experience: 7 years working experience in Government, NGO, learning institution or private sector implementation livelihood promotion/ enhancement projects including facilitation, fund raising and management.

Summary of Key competencies:

• A mature person able to coordinate the different agencies and deal with the conflicting interest of the partner agencies
• Experience or a fair sense of the functioning of the government system
• Ability to remain transparent and participative – not judgmental: able to take views rather than imposing personal views to facilitate ownership by partners
• Good understanding of the state of affairs and Livelihood Scenario in Kenya and in East Africa. Exposure to the experiences that has been successful elsewhere would be important
• Excellent communication, presentation and documentation skills in English and Swahili
• Concern for poor and Gender equality
• Good understanding of policy and policy processes to advice government departments or work with agencies to influence the state
• Good financial literacy: able to prepare budgets and interpret financial reports
• Experienced in adult learning processes
• Able to develop educational curriculum and facilitate partners to appreciate the need for participatory training techniques
• A commitment to promote human and social development
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to develop public relations and networking
• Be proficient in computing skills

Work Location / Station

The selected candidate will be recruited by VLSA Board and IIRR on contract basis and his/her services will be carried out in its nester organization – IIRR Kenya in Nairobi, Kenya.

If you are interested in the position, send us your application and resume (Ref VLSA-Kenya as the subject line) stating your current remuneration package by 31st January 2012 to:

Regional Human Resources Manager,
International Institute of Rural Reconstruction,
Africa Regional Center, P. O. Box 66873-00800, Nairobi,
Email: recruitment@iirr.org