The Enterprise Development Manager position contributes to the organization’s strategic priority of scaling up the impact of our work through the development of strong and sustainable farmer business organizations.
Reporting to the Country Director the Enterprise Development Manager will be responsible for ensuring that project staff, farmer groups, cooperatives, and associations have the knowledge and skills to develop and run successful enterprises and cooperatives.
In close collaboration and coordination with the Project Coordinators and cooperatives committees, He/she will ensure successful, innovative, efficient, and effective functioning of all enterprise hubs and cooperatives in the Kenya Country Program through effective business planning, business training and developing private sector linkages in collaboration with other departments towards achieving the common goal.
Responsibilities
To be responsible for providing thee strategic inputs into all the Cooperative Business Development Work ( 40%)
Review the Cooperative Business Development work and within the first 6 months develop the strategic goals and outputs for the Business Development in the cooperatives.
Annually update and track the progress towards the business goals and plans for the Cooperatives
Coordinate and document all the economic analysis and value chain studies for the various projects allocated and cooperatives.
Develop and ensure an appropriate training package for business training for the Cooperatives and Agriculture Project that includes 4 modules in business planning, business skills, strategic planning and entrepreneurship training modules for use in training farmer groups.
Undertake with the support of the Project coordinators a biannual review of the training materials and delivery processes to ensure the effectiveness of the Cooperative business model.
Develop and annually update a list of partnerships with business organizations, academic institutions and experts and trainers to be employed in the capacity building of partners, cooperatives and farmers.
Support in the growth and sustainability of the Cooperative model for business implementation and contribute to the establishment of functional market structures for all projects (Collection Centers, Processing Units, and Bulking Centers) as appropriate to the commodities the projects promote.
Support the operationalization and tracking of business and marketing plans for cooperatives through joint planning, monitoring, and collaboration with the Project Coordinators.
To contribute to improved governance and management of farmer producer organizations and cooperatives(30%).
Facilitate and develop a coherent Program and process for engaging with self- help groups, clusters and pre-cooperative associations to develop strong farmer producer organizations.
Design, operationalize and annually review the capacity assessment process to be employed by the Program in engaging groups, associations and cooperatives.
Develop an institutional framework for cooperatives and cooperative associations and other apex entities with clear linkages with the individual cooperatives.
Design Program guidelines for the formation, management and governance of self-help groups, cooperatives and associations.
Design and develop a Capacity Building Program to deliver governance, strategic planning, financial management, conflict management and human resource management training to boards, management and staff for groups, associations and cooperatives
Monitor and provide a semi-annual tracking report of the growth and development in governance, management and overall development of all self-help groups, cooperatives and associations for the organization.
Develop amongst groups, association and cooperatives strong cooperative Values and Principles ( 20%).
Facilitate the development of a cooperative/producer association values and principles orientation kit that incorporates the organization’s Cornerstones.
Develop linkages with the relevant national and county governments to support the registration, training and compliance with cooperative and groups operation guideline for all Organization producer groups, cooperatives and associations.
Support and guide all the cooperatives under the current projects to conduct quarterly reports reinforcing values and tracking overall cooperative growth and development.
Collaboration towards a common goal (10%)
Work as an integral part of the Organization’s team in close coordination with the Project Coordinators, and Country Director to contribute to the achievement of Overal business goals.
Participate in new project designs and in the implementation of all Organization’s enterprise development related Training of Trainers activities.
Work in close coordination with the Project Coordinators and on quality assurance and control for all produce for processing, packaging, marketing, and distribution.
Develop increased knowledge and understanding of Overall Organizations programs through participation in cross learning and biannual co-mentoring activities to exchange experiences with other counties and programs on the issues of poverty minimization
Proficiencies
Knowledge of and experience in agro-enterprise, commodity value-chain and cooperative development.
Knowledge of and experience with community organizations
Knowledge of the non-profit sector and the context in which non-profit organizations operate
Fluent in Kiswahili and English, both spoken and written
Good leadership qualities
Good communication skills
Excellent organizational skills including strong attention to detail
Qualifications
A Bachelor’s Degree in Agribusiness or Agricultural Economics with at least (5) years proven experience in setting up and running an Agribusiness Enterprise(s), specifically, livestock enterprises and cooperative developments.
At least five (5) years’ experience in fields related to agro-enterprise development (specifically livestock enterprises) and cooperative development.
Significant experience in building public/private partnerships, preferably in the dairy sector.
Demonstrated experience in conducting business, investment analyses, and capital budgeting and sufficient evidence on how the results were used to develop potentially viable business ideas and subsequently tangible businesses.
Demonstrated experience in project management including in donor project budgets management, proposal development and monitoring and evaluation.
Demonstrated project reporting and donor reporting experience
