Innovations and Investments Fund Manager

Youth Impact Labs East Africa; KwaZulu-Natal; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading development organization is seeking an Innovations and Investment Manager to oversee a $9 million fund aimed at enhancing the resilience of vulnerable households in South Africa. The ideal candidate will manage partnerships and ensure compliance with USAID regulations while developing processes and guidelines for effective fund management. A master's degree in a relevant field and 5-7 years experience in investment management are essential. This role offers an opportunity to drive impactful initiatives within the community.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5-7 years of experience in enterprise development and investment management.
• Good understanding of market systems development approach.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and management of the Innovations and Investment fund.
• Create processes for successful management of investment funds.
• Coordinate with teams to support the selection of investment ideas.

Skills

Strategic planning

Investment management

Communication

Relationship building

Project management

Education

Master's degree in Finance, Economics, or Business Administration

Job description

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have a long‑term impact.

Mercy Corps has been present in Ethiopia since 2004 working to drive bold and transformative ideas, working closely with government, the private sector, and civil society actors to build a more resilient country, ensuring that programs are responsive to and influenced by participants and stakeholders. Our vision is to enhance the resilience of climate and conflict‑affected communities through market systems development for improved livelihoods, access to food, and safe and clean water to thrive in the face of crises. Our strategy focuses on the four outcome areas:

1. Economically marginalized populations have improved and diversified livelihoods, income, and assets.
2. Pastoralists, farmers, and households have access to sustainably produced, safe, nutritious food.
3. Social cohesion and inclusive governance processes are built in crisis‑affected communities.
4. People have equitable, sustained access to clean water and sanitation for domestic and productive use.

We currently operate in the regional states of Afar, Amhara, Gambella, Oromia, Somali, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia, Tigray, and Addis Ababa city administration working with a diverse base of donors that includes the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union, GAC, Hilton Foundation, United Nations (UN), JOA, Sweden, EKN, and other foundations.

The USAID‑funded Highland Resilience Activity (HRA) will contribute to the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) 5’s “Big Push” initiative and has the overarching goal of strengthening resilience among vulnerable households in Ethiopia’s Highlands, resulting in 120,000 PSNP households reaching the graduation threshold. HRA will support these households in moving above the graduation threshold and to where they no longer require social safety net programming for household food security and have the capabilities and assets to withstand regular and predictable shocks. The Activity will achieve this goal by directly supporting households in increasing their on‑farm, off‑farm, and employment incomes while facilitating improvements in the market systems required to increase demand for goods and services in PSNP communities. HRA is a five‑year program that starts in October 2023.

General Position Summary

The Innovations and Investment Manager is a key member of the HRA Technical Leadership team with a focus on designing and facilitating key partnerships with critical actors that will create access to essential and affordable services and products for PSNP households. Specifically, the role requires the Innovations and Investment Manager to oversee a USD 9 million fund to ensure it is catalytic to meet the objectives of the Activity while attracting critical investments from the private and public sectors that benefit PSNP households in the activity areas. The Innovations and Investment Manager will lead the management processes that shall enable the Highlands Resilience Activity to partner with appropriate private and civil society organizations to implement innovative ideas to address underlying key constraints in serving PSNP households. The Innovations and Investment Manager is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the facility including developing procedures, and best practices for the establishment of the fund mechanism in line with Mercy Corps policies and, USAID rules and regulations. He/she shall be responsible for coordinating with the project team in designing a Notice for Funding Opportunity (NOFO)/Annual program statements, requests for applications (RFAs), and selection of the most viable investment ideas, and their execution. Working closely with the Mercy Corps HRA Finance team, the Innovations and Investment Fund Manager will be responsible for ensuring compliance with USAID regulations. They will monitor performance and provide timely reports to ensure that financial resources are used effectively and efficiently. The Innovations and Investments Manager will be guided by the principles of transparent and competitive allocation of funds that offer opportunity to all qualifying private and civil society actors.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Take the overall technical lead and direction on the management of the Innovations and investment fund to meet the intended project goal and catalyze private and public investment in target areas.
• Lead the design and development of processes, guidelines, and manuals for successful management of investment funds based on Mercy Corp’s global best practices and in compliance with USAID rules and regulations.
• Understand the key elements of a successful investment and develop tactical and strategic plans for the fund to leverage co‑investments.
• Ensure that the Innovations and Investment fund supports activities across the key result areas that the project is targeting and does not create unfair competition among the market actors.
• Participate in the development of the overall project implementation plans.
• Design and support the development of processes leading to innovations in close coordination with program technical leads.
• With HRA Technical Leads, participate and lead in the design of NOFOs, Annual program statements, EOIs, and NOFOs. Shall manage all processes leading to awards.
• Responsible for the review of fund applicants’ budgets and budget narratives for completeness, cost realism, and compliance with budget requirements.
• Responsible for pre‑award financial review and other due diligence of apparently successful applicants in coordination with the finance and compliance teams.
• Coordinate selection of sub‑award agreement type, draft sub‑award, and negotiate sub‑award agreements with selected sub‑recipients.
• Draft modifications to sub‑awards, as needed to work closely with the project team to conduct research and assessment to identify potential private sector, public, and community‑managed entities for partnership.
• Organize and conduct multi‑stakeholder platforms to disseminate Highland Resilience Activity’s Innovations and Investment Fund opportunities to potential partners.
• Develop tracking systems to ensure all documentation is appropriately disseminated and managed.
• Liaison with the project and finance team to provide support on strengthening partner skills in financial management, program reporting, and other administration processes.
• Responsible for all administrative issues related to the Innovation and investment fund including monitoring and tracking financial and program reports.
• Propose strategies for building resilience and improving market system performance, including making business strategies more inclusive and beneficial to enterprise productivity, and specifically reaching PSNP households through the Innovations and Investment fund.
• Support the development of a learning platform related to innovation and investment to be utilized throughout the life of the program.

Compliance

• Ensure that HRA’s Innovations and Investment Fund is executed in alignment with the prime award agreement and the applicable USAID regulations, staying abreast of changes in the regulatory environment related to USAID grants; update HRA’s Innovations and Investment fund procedures where necessary.
• Identify and communicate compliance risks associated with program implementation. Work with program teams to ensure that program activities are designed to be compliant while facilitating the achievement of the program objectives.
• Prepare prior approval, waiver, and other compliance requests to the USAID. Assist subrecipients, as needed, with subrecipient compliance requests to Mercy Corps and USAID.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Chief of Party and direct working lines to HRA Technical and Implementation Director. Works directly with HRA Technical teams, regional teams, and finance and compliance teams.

Job Requirements

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Finance, Economics, or Business Administration, or Bachelor’s degree with significant additional experience.
• Minimum 5‑7 years of experience in enterprise development; investment management; and working in partnership with private sector actors in on‑farm, off‑farm, wage and employment, nutrition, governance, and increasing commercialization and ensuring greater sustainability of partnerships.
• Good understanding of market systems Development approach and facilitation including coaching, relationship building, communicating, open and willing to work on new initiatives.
• Good understanding of the innovations and investment process is essential.
• Proven skills in strategic planning, assessment, and business development, as well as a proven practical and theoretical understanding of the project cycle related to private sector investments.
• Excellent communicator and able to engage private sector actors by socializing key interests and objectives of the program and be able to attract private sector investments.
• Demonstrated ability to develop proposals for new projects and programs from conception to submission.
• Demonstrated experience and ability to professionally and appropriately represent the organization and negotiate and defend Mercy Corps’ interests with a diverse range of international and local organizations, private sectors, and other groups.
• Demonstrated understanding of complex developmental and transitional contexts, particularly in a resilience context, preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, organizational and prioritization skills and the ability to multi‑task and support and/or fill multiple positions at one time.
• Demonstrated attention to detail and ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines, and work both independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Experience of working on USAID programs preferred.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required and knowledge of the local languages in Ethiopia.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally and respect local laws, customs, and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in‑country venues.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Application Instructions

All qualified individuals are invited to apply for the advertised position. All applications, including a CV, three references, and all applicable official papers, must be sent electronically. Only candidates that are short‑listed will be acknowledged and called for interviews.

DEADLINE FOR ALL APPLICATIONS: 29 June 2024 / 4:00 PM

Equal Opportunity Statement

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer promoting gender, equity and diversity. Qualified female and young candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We are committed to empower women and youth.