Access to Finance Lead Full Time NEW

Position: Access to Finance Lead

DESCRIPTION:

Heifer International is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with some form of disability.

THE ORGANIZATION:

Since 1944, Heifer International has empowered over 46 million smallholder farmer families globally to overcome hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. Our new goal is to close the Sustainable Living Income gap for 10 million more households by 2030.

Heifer Ethiopia’s contribution to the Global 10 million households target is to help 1 million of Heifer Africa’s 6.745 million households achieve sustainable living income by 2030 through effective implementation its signature program (RESTORE+ 2021-2030). Heifer Ethiopia’s signature program focuses on dairy, poultry, small ruminants, horticulture, and Apiculture (honey and beekeeping) as priority value chains.

FUNCTION:

The Access to Finance Lead reports to the Signature Program Technical Lead of Heifer Ethiopia and serves as the technical lead for all access to finance and financial inclusion interventions under the USDA Ethiopia Partnership for Productivity (P4P) Project. The position holder will work closely with the Deputy Chief of Party of the project under Global Communities.

Access to finance lead is responsible for providing overall leadership, direction, technical oversight, and coordination of the project’s financial inclusion agenda to ensure sustainable economic empowerment and market participation of target smallholder farmers, producer organizations, cooperatives, youth, and women. The position holder plays a critical leadership role in strengthening the technical, organizational, and managerial capacity of livestock producers, producer groups, traders and cooperatives to improve access to finance to sustainably adopt improved livestock practices, access services, and participate in markets.

He/she is also responsible to ensure the project’s market-based approach includes the establishment of a flexible Catalytic Fund to incentivize market actors to make investments towards project activities.

The role requires high-level engagement and collaboration with financial institutions (commercial banks and microfinances), producer groups and/or cooperatives, insurance providers, public and private sector actors, and development partners to strengthen sustainable financial service delivery mechanisms and unlock financing opportunities for project participants. The Lead also ensures integration of financial literacy, business development, producer groups and/or cooperatives strengthening, savings mobilization, enterprise financing, and risk mitigation approaches across project implementation.

The position holder provides technical guidance and supervision to project staff working on financial inclusion interventions and ensures quality implementation, effective monitoring, knowledge management, learning, and reporting of all access to finance activities in compliance with donor and Heifer International standards.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES:

Access to Finance and Financial Inclusion Management (40%)

Provide overall leadership, technical direction, and oversight of access to finance interventions to ensure achievement of project objectives, outputs, and outcomes, including but not limited to:

• Coordinate and ensure the development, implementation, and continuous refinement of the project’s access to finance and financial inclusion strategy.
• Provide technical leadership in designing innovative financing mechanisms and inclusive financial models tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers, producer organizations, cooperatives, youth, and women.
• Coordinate and ensure comprehensive financial ecosystem assessments, market analyses, and identification of financing gaps, opportunities, and barriers affecting project participants.
• Coordinate and ensure in consultations with interested commercial banks to design risk sharing structures that consider banks’ risk exposure and enable lower interest rates
• Facilitate development and rollout of tailored financial products and services, including credit facilities, savings products, insurance schemes, and other market-responsive financing solutions.
• Coordinate and lead initiatives aimed at improving financial literacy, business management capacity, savings culture, financial planning, and responsible borrowing practices among project participants.
• Provide technical support and advisory services to producer groups/organizations, and project participants on financial management, enterprise growth, investment readiness, and business sustainability.
• Strengthen governance, operational sustainability, and financial management systems of producer organizations and cooperatives.
• Promote innovative and scalable financial inclusion approaches that contribute to sustainable livelihoods, resilience building, market participation, and enterprise development.
• Ensure integration of Heifer’s Value Based Holistic Community Development (VBHCD) Approach and relevant cooperative development principles into all financial inclusion interventions.
• Lead and supervise Access to Finance Analysts and other relevant project staff to ensure quality implementation and achievement of results.

Project Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (30%)

• Lead preparation of annual, quarterly, and monthly access to finance work plans, budgets, implementation schedules, and operational strategies aligned with overall project objectives.
• Oversee implementation and performance of all financial inclusion interventions and ensure timely achievement of project deliverables and targets.
• Analyze financial inclusion performance indicators, project data, and market trends to assess effectiveness, impact, challenges, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Ensure high-quality documentation of lessons learned, success stories, innovations, best practices, and case studies related to access to finance interventions.
• Provide technical input to donor reports, project reports, presentations, briefs, and organizational learning products in line with donor and Heifer International requirements.
• Support and collaborate with the MEAL team to strengthen monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning systems related to financial inclusion and economic empowerment interventions.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Management (25%)

• Serve as the primary focal point and technical representative for all access to finance and financial inclusion matters under the project.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with government institutions, financial institutions, insurance providers, cooperatives, NGOs, development partners, and other stakeholders.
• Lead coordination and engagement platforms, technical working groups, stakeholder forums, and partnership meetings related to rural finance and financial inclusion.
• Represent the project and Heifer International in meetings, forums, and sector platforms related to financial inclusion, agricultural finance, enterprise development, and rural economic growth.
• Lead consultations with Commercial Banks, MFIs, SACCOs, DFI and other financial actors to structure financing and risk sharing arrangements aligned with livestock value chain financing needs.
• Identify opportunities for blended finance, guarantee facilities, concessional capital and co-investment models that support sustainable livestock sector development.
• Facilitate collaboration and alignment among stakeholders to strengthen sustainability, scale, and institutionalization of project interventions.

Any Other Assigned Functions (5%)

Perform any other job-related tasks assigned by the Project Team Leader that are consistent with the objectives and scope of the project.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, Finance, Development Finance, Business Administration, Economics, Rural Development, or other related disciplines.
• Minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in agricultural finance, rural finance, financial inclusion, enterprise development, or access to finance programming.
• Demonstrated experience in managing donor-funded projects and coordinating multi-stakeholder financial inclusion initiatives.
• Proven experience in building partnerships with financial institutions, cooperatives, and development actors.

Most Critical Proficiencies:

• Strong understanding of rural finance systems, agricultural financing mechanisms, value chain financing models and inclusive financial market development.
• Familiarity with livestock insurance, index-based insurance, climate risk financing, or agricultural risk management tools
• Demonstrated leadership and team management capabilities.
• Strong partnership development, negotiation, stakeholder engagement, and coordination skills.
• Excellent analytical, planning, facilitation, coaching, documentation, and reporting skills.
• Ability to design and lead innovative, scalable, and market-driven financial inclusion interventions.
• Strong communication and influencing skills in English and relevant local languages.

Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands:

• Ability to lead stakeholder engagements, training, workshops, and coordination platforms in rural and semi-urban settings.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, teams, and deadlines in a fast-paced environment with minimal supervision.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with the ability to work effectively across diverse stakeholders and multicultural teams.
• Ability to handle sensitive financial and organizational information with confidentiality and professionalism.

Travel Requirements:

The position holder should allocate up to 50% of his/her time to travel to project regions to support regional, district, and community-level activities.