Field Associate _ Dadaab (6 months Fixed Term)

Employer: Village Enterprise.

Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship.

Function: Develop Micro- Enterprises and provide Mentoring activities to Business Owners.

Job Title: Field Associate.

Position Type: Full time.

Reports to: County Lead.

Contract: Six Months Fixed Term.

 Location: Dadaab

Organization Overview: Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. Village Enterprise targets the poor, provides business training, seed capital/startup funds and on-going mentoring to over 10,000 new entrepreneurs to start 3,000 enterprises each year. Since its inception in 1987, Village Enterprise has started over 40,000 micro-enterprises.

Position Overview: This is a full-time staff member, 40 hours per week. The individual might be required to work on some weekends and occasionally holidays depending on the magnitude of work. A Village Enterprise Field Associate is passionate about alleviating poverty in their region and dedicated to their roles as trainer, mentor and community leader

Job Description:

Business Mentor Activities:

·      Manage all Business Mentors (BMs) in your region, ensuring high-quality Core Program implementation

·      Regular field visits (3-4 days a week) to assess training and mentoring by the Business Mentors and overall performance of businesses and carry out at least 6 business spot-checks per week.

·      Spearhead the Village opening process in all the sub-counties

·      Guide Business mentor on SBs and PRs grant applications for viable businesses and approve prior to submitting them to the County Lead for review.

·      Ensure BMs work plans are developed, followed and timely shared through a google sheet

Bi-weekly meetings and Induction Training for BMs

·      Prepare bi-weekly meeting and agendas, and ensure they are timely update and sharing through a goggle sheet.

·      Train BMs on new forms that need to be collected, constantly reinforcing the importance and value of the data we collect and helping BMs troubleshoot issues as needed.

·      Work with Monitoring and Evaluation during each biweekly meeting to confirm that the BMs have collected the proper forms and confirm their upload to the database.

·      Lead and conduct Induction Training/onboarding for new BMs. This includes working closely with departments to prepare agenda, schedule Field Visits, prepare materials 

·      Work with Finance & Admin to ensure that all, induction and bi-weekly materials are printed or made available in a timely manner

Reporting Program Reporting

·      Work with the County Lead to Collect, Develop, validate, consolidate, revise and submit BM work plans in a timely fashion.       

·      Monitor the collection of Mentoring logs and activity reports on behalf of the organization.

·      Submit reports and minutes of any meeting attended on behalf of Village Enterprise.

·      Ensure updated reports on attendance is tracked.

Managing Partnerships

·      Help establish a relationship with Local Government officials, community leaders and other stakeholders.

·      The Field Associate represents the organization at district and sub county level including general meetings with Local government leadership, humanitarian actors, partners, protocol meetings, security meetings, as well as sector program meetings in consultation with the County Lead.

·      Provide Management with reports and feedback from government and partnership meetings as needed within three days after the meeting.

·      Support the BMs to register all Business Savings Groups with relevant government authorities at various levels.

·      Develop and implement County and sub county entry and Facilitate expansion strategy to new areas of operation in collaboration with the County Lead.

·      The Field Associate provides general support, guidance, and serves as focal point during program planning and reporting.

Internal activity coordination

·      Participate in Innovation Team meetings, actively participating and bring a positive field perspective to the team

·      Support BMs in the implementation of pilots, studies and data collection as needed

·      Provide feedback and support to overall program, pilots and strategic expansion

·      Work with the innovations team to train other partners or organizations

·      Act as focal persons for capturing ideas, learnings from the Business mentors and communities and submit to the innovations team.

·      Work with M&E to deliver quality BM refresher activities

·      Support BMs in phone/Tablet troubleshooting and in guiding BMs through quality data collection protocols

Vision trip and Donor Visits

·      Represent Village Enterprises’ values and program to donors, Guests and visiting staff

·      Work with Management to arrange field scheduling for visitors, donors and guests

·      Coordinate all preparations at the field level

·      In some cases, work on the weekends to accommodate donor and staff visits

Business Mentor performance appraisal and Professional development.

·      Submit quarterly reports to the County Lead, People and Culture Coordinator on Business mentor performance.

·      Work with the County Lead and People and Culture Coordinator to identify professional development opportunities for BMs and implement them.

·      Work with the People and Culture Coordinator to conduct performance reviews for BMs

·      Assist with the improvement and development of monitoring activities and materials for business mentors.

Management and Administration:

·      The Field Associate ensures that Village Enterprise procedures and donor regulations applicable to a project implemented in the area of operation concerning program, logistics, fraud control, protection of vulnerable groups and special interest groups in collaboration with the People and Culture Coordinator and County Lead.

·      The Field Associate is responsible for overseeing the management of day-to-day field operations including monitoring and reporting on staff attendance, staff leave and authorization of minor emergency field expenses in consultation with the People and Culture Coordinator and County Lead.

Logistics:

·      Field Associate is in charge of overseeing and reporting on the logistics the field team including enforcement of field safety guidelines and adherence.

·      Responsible for monitoring and reporting equipment usage and storage, planning, and maintenance of equipment and the functioning of the means of communication appropriate for the respective field staff.

·      Assist in Computation of Field stipends for Field Staff

Communication

·      Communicate field challenges, opportunities and constraints

·      Provide feedback to supervisors and other line managers through Email, phone,

·      Participate in Monday Morning Meetings (MMMs) and Partnership meetings by providing field updates and responses to field questions

·      Participate and provide content to Field Associates calls.

Ensure BMs Collect and submit success Stories with photos as needed

Safeguarding

• Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility at Village Enterprise, and it begins with me
• Continuously sensitize program participants on safeguarding.
• Ensure compliance with Village Enterprise’s safeguarding policies
• Report any incident of safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action/follow up.