Employer: Village Enterprise
Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship
Job Title: Value Chains & Livelihoods Lead
Position Type: Full-time.
Reports to: Programs Director.
Location: Kenya.
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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.
About the Job:
To provide technical leadership and support to the design and implementation of market-driven and climate-resilient livelihood pathways for programme participants, including strengthening market linkages, partnerships, and alignment with government and local systems, to drive income growth and sustainability within the Economic Inclusion Programme (EIP).
This is a hands-on delivery role requiring frequent travel and field engagement in ASAL counties.
The role will work closely with the Programme Director and implementation teams to ensure effective delivery of livelihoods and market systems components.
Responsibilities
Job Description
1. Livelihoods & Value Chain Development
· Support identification and prioritization of viable livelihood and value chain opportunities across project counties
· Translate market analysis into practical enterprise options for programme participants
· Provide technical guidance on household and group-based enterprise selection and development
2. Market Linkages & Private Sector Engagement
· Facilitate and strengthen market linkages, including buyers, aggregators, and input suppliers
· Support development of offtake arrangements and partnerships with private sector actors
· Contribute to strengthening cooperatives and aggregation models to improve market access
· Lead translation of assessment outputs into practical livelihood and market linkage approaches for implementation
3. Programme Implementation Support
· Work closely with field teams to ensure effective rollout of livelihoods activities
· Provide technical guidance on, Business development and enterprise management and productive use of seed capital
· Support integration of livelihoods activities within, VSLA structures and Coaching and mentorship systems
4. Climate-Resilient Livelihoods
· Promote diversified and climate-adaptive livelihood strategies suited to ASAL contexts
· Integrate practical approaches to, Risk reduction,Income diversification and Resilience building at household level
5. Partnerships & Systems Alignment
· Collaborate with key government stakeholders, involved in EIP
· Engage county governments, cooperatives, and local market actors
· Ensure alignment of livelihoods approaches with government systems, policies, and existing initiatives
6. Performance, Learning & Reporting
· Support tracking of livelihoods performance, including, Income improvement and Market participation
· Contribute to programme learning, adaptation, and reporting
· Document good practices and lessons to inform programme improvement
7.Safeguarding: "Safeguarding at VE is everyone’s responsibility."
Requirements
Qualifications & Experience
· Bachelors’s degree in Economics, Agribusiness, Development, or related field
· 5–10 years’ experience in:
o Livelihoods programming
o Value chain or market systems development
· Experience working in ASAL or similar fragile contexts
· Strong track record in market linkage development and private sector engagement
· Strong practical understanding of rural and pastoral economies
· Ability to translate strategy into field-level implementation
· Strong partnership and stakeholder engagement skills
· Problem-solving in complex, resource-constrained environments
· Strong coordination and teamwork skills
To Apply:
Interested and qualified candidates who meet the set criteria are invited to send their Cover Letter and CV (Maximum 3 pages) including 3 referees, on the online platform.
Affirmative Action:
Village Enterprise will provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Village Enterprise will be based on merit, qualifications and abilities. Village Enterprise does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status or any other characteristic protected by the law. Village Enterprise will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.
Village Enterprise is a corruption, solicitation or bribery free organization. We or any of our employees or associates do not charge money from job applicants before, during or after recruitment. Please report malpractices through our safeguarding Tollfree hotline 0800724810
Benefits
To be communicated