Senior Program Specialist Full Time

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Project Background

This Opportunity:

Palladium International, LLC is implementing the $250 Million, 5-year USAID CATALYZE contract which offers a facilitated partnership model that will craft solutions to crowd in $2 Billion in blended finance (i.e., blended concessional and commercial finance) to USAID partner countries; it can work in any development sector or region. Launched in October 2019, CATALYZE is a buy-in mechanism that allows USAID Bureaus and Missions to efficiently deploy investment facilitation solutions that respond to the needs of specific sectors, issues, and geographies.

USAID CATALYZE Market Systems for Growth (MS4G) focuses on creating transformative outcomes in the food security and WASH sectors to benefit all Ethiopian people. To achieve these goals, the activity engages youth, mobilizes capital, increases access to finance, connects enterprises to markets, and supports stakeholders to self-advocate towards policy change which will promote opportunities for the private sector community. The project supports activities in Addis Ababa and secondary cities.

CATALYZE MS4G, in partnership with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE),

launched an activity to strengthen Ethiopia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by conducting research, fostering

connections, and building capacity of Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) Ethiopia.

Location: The position is based in Palladium’s Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Office

Estimated Start Date: This assignment is expected to commence December 16, 2024.

The purpose of the position

Senior Program Specialist will be responsible for the execution of ANDE programs (both grant-funded and otherwise) at the chapter, including setting and tracking budgets in consultation with the program manager, designing project schedules, and preparing reports to funders as needed.

Reporting and Supervision:

Senior Program Specialist will report to ANDE East Africa Chapter team in close collaboration with CATALYZE MS4G team.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

As part of the day-to-day implementation of projects, the Program Specialist/Sr. Program Specialist will engage with ANDE members and key local ecosystem stakeholders, plan and manage events, update the member database, and support other chapter activities as needed. Each day will be different, and this role will provide a wide variety of skills development opportunities and exposure to topic areas throughout the small and growing business space in developing countries.

Specific responsibilities of Senior Program Specialist include, but are not limited to:

• Leading and owning specific projects or initiatives, such as Learning Labs and programs from conception to implementation.
• Project managing larger initiatives that may span various departments and offices. Helping to structure programming and working with implementation staff to ensure quality delivery of programs and tracking allocations and budgets to ensure projects are within budget.
• Building relationships with members and facilitating connections between the networks.
• Scheduling of, and organizing meetings and networking events for members, as well as topic area webinars.
• Serve as program representative, facilitator, and speaker at sector-specific events.
• Support in any other role and tasks as needed.

Relationships

• This role will be closely working with the MS4G Technical team across the enterprise support, capital mobilization, WASH, Gender and youth engagement. S/he will also work closely with the CATALYZE MEL team and the Activity Management Unit at the HO. In addition, this role will liaise with ecosystem players and other stakeholders in Ethiopia as necessary.