About the Organization:
Village Enterprise is an innovative microenterprise development organization working in East Africa. Village Enterprise’s mission is to equip people living in extreme poverty with resources to create sustainable businesses. It provides business training, seed capital/start-up funds, and on-going mentoring to new entrepreneurs to start businesses.
About the Job:
Village Enterprise is looking for a Conservation Fellow. S/he will be responsible for designing, implementing and managing innovative pilot projects and also current special projects in a team effort with Village Enterprise staff. S/he will also support Village Enterprise’s East African staff to implement and improve the organization’s core program.
Tasks and Responsibilities:
- Manage the Budongo integrated conservation and microenterprise development project:
- Operations role:
- Assist in the implementation, monitoring, and expansion of the Budongo project;
- Provide management oversight and leadership in the Hoima office;
- Promote a strong work ethic among the regional manager and business mentors and communicate regularly with the main Ugandan Office in Soroti;
- Work as the liaison between the Uganda staff and field operations team, submit reports to the field operations team and development team in the US.
- Conservation role:
- Conservation role:
- Manage communication with all conservation partners in the field;
- Assist the regional manager when appropriate;
- Continue to improve and develop conservation training material, working closely with field partners;
- Guide the microenterprise development plan (MED) in the Budongo region and train the business mentors on the appropriate businesses for Budongo.
- Operations role:
- Support country staff to improve operations of core program:
- Assist with the implementation and evaluation of organization’s core program;
- Gain insightful experience in how a field office operates while contributing to core program developed over the last 20 years;
- Help develop an evaluation schedule and standard assessment tool for the core program;
- Assist the monitoring & evaluation coordinator with the 5 year monitoring & evaluation plan, implementing tasks specific to Budongo.
Qualifications:
- Masters degree is required with concentration in International Development, Economic Development, Environmental or Conservation Studies;
- More than 2 years of work experience;
- Experience in a management/leadership role is preferred;
- Experience living / working/traveling in a developing country or emerging economy;
- Experience in project design, business planning, product innovation or other entrepreneurial activities;
- Experience in curriculum development
- Strong IT skills preferred, including database management, network setup, and troubleshooting;
- Must be able to use Excel to analyze data, budgets and financial reports;
- Experience working as part of a diverse team and willingness to work via email, skype, and other internet based communications;
- Strong writing and oral communication skills required, as this role will involve report writing and training at times;
- Minimum commitment of 1 year;
- Fluency in English required, Swahili is not required.
Closing Date: 05 Jan 2013
How to Apply:
Interested candidates can send their resume and cover letter to Anne Olson and CC to Philip Arscott
Please mention « Conservation Fellowship Application » in the subject line.
