Job description
The eco.business Fund aims at promoting sustainable businesses that contribute to biodiversity conservation, to the sustainable use of natural resources and to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. The Fund provides funding to farmers and businesses active in four sectors – agriculture, forestry, fishery/aquaculture and tourism both directly as well as indirectly through financial institutions and other intermediaries in the value chain. The eco.business Fund was launched in December 2014 in Latin America and currently has USD 240m assets under management as of Q4/2018. The expansion of the Fund to sub-Saharan Africa is currently underway, with plans for it to be operational by mid-2019. The Fund’s Development Facility aims to enhance the impact of the eco.business Fund by complementing its investment activities with grant-based technical assistance. Specific focus areas include:
Supporting financial institutions in further developing lending to sustainable business as a viable portfolio segment.
Supporting local businesses in their conversion or deepening of sustainable business practices.
Supporting regional and multinational companies in strengthening sustainable practices in their supply chains.
Key responsibilities:
Develop technical assistance strategy to support key focus areas such as sustainable agriculture and deforestation-free value chains
Develop and support the implementation of a visibility plan of the Development Facility and its contributing donor agencies
In close collaboration with Investment Management, structure capacity building projects for financial institutions, companies, farmer associations, and other key stakeholders in the sub-Saharan region
Prepare and defend TA project proposals submitted to the Development Facility Committee (governing structure)
Develop roaster of individual consultants and consultant companies
Manage selection, contracting and oversight of external service providers / consultants, including drafting terms of reference for technical assistance projects and reviewing deliverables and final reports submitted by third party experts
Responsible for internal reporting systems and project-related accounting systems, including reports to donor agencies providing financial support to the Development Facility
Provide assistance for KPI and impact monitoring and evaluation
What we expect:
Sufficient, relevant professional experience in a similar field and with previous sub-Saharan Africa experience
Good knowledge of agricultural finance and/or value chain finance
Good knowledge of monitoring and evaluation related to development projects
Ideally, experience in structuring and implementing capacity building projects for large multinationals and/or financial institutions and their clients
University degree, preferably in economics, business administration, development finance, environmental studies, agriculture or social sciences
Excellent project management and organizational skills
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, knowledge of French would be an asset
Strong writing skills
Willingness to travel
What you can expect:
An agile, widely diverse international working environment with over 40 nationalities who strive to uphold our start-up spirit and profit from the opportunities of a growing company
A job with a great degree of autonomy that achieves real impact through cooperation and joint responsibility
A purpose-driven, performance-oriented company culture that rewards above-average results
An organization dedicated to providing effective training and upskilling to its employees
