• CARE International Rwanda, Bank and Financial Services Linkage Specialist Jobs in Rwanda

CARE
Canada Job Description – Overseas
Job
Title: BANK AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LINKAGE SPECIALIST
Project:POWER-PROFIR
Africa
Position
Classification and Band:Senior Technical Specialist
Country
Office: CARE Rwanda
Work
location:Kigali, Rwanda with travel to other countries
Deadline
for submission: June 20th, 2016

Date:
To start – July 1, 2016
Supervisor:POWER-PROFIR
Chief of Party
Overview
CARE
International is one of the world’s leading non-governmental relief and
development organizations and is currently the world’s leading organization in
the promotion of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) in Africa,
reaching more than 4.5 million people in 26 countries.
VSLAs
are informal groups of 10-25 members that provide the rural poor with a safe
place to save and store money. Groups build a small fund from which members
take out flexible loans. VSLAs are effective in providing basic savings and
credit services for populations that financial institutions currently do not
reach.
Through
all of its work, CARE promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and
girls, and engages with men and boys, to transform unequal power relations and
address gender inequality as an effective strategy for reducing poverty and
tackling social injustice. Specific to CARE’s Women’s Economic Empowerment
work, CARE’s 2020 Program Strategy commits that, by 2020, 30 million women will
have greater access to and control over economic resources by decreasing gender
gaps in access to and control over key financial skills, assets and services.
CARE
Canada, in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, is implementing the
multi-country “Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment in
Rural Africa” (POWER) Africa financial inclusion project in Burundi, Ethiopia,
Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda (“Promoting Opportunities for Financial Inclusion in
Rwanda” – PROFIR). The project aims to increase financial inclusion for the
poor and their households through forming savings groups, financial education,
and “linking” mature groups to formal financial institutions while also sharing
lessons learned within and between the four target countries.
POWER
is structured according to a progressive model for financial inclusion: each
POWER country’s activities revolve around different steps of the ladder—from
identifying financially excluded populations, to providing financial literacy
training, to “linking” VSLAs and members to financial institutions. CARE works
with financial institutions to design financial services and products that are
appropriate to the needs of the target population.
The
project’s ultimate goal is to increase financial inclusion for 480,000
individuals and their families in the four target countries. Depending on the
country and context, this will be achieved through: 1) extending VSLA outreach
to 300,000 new clients; and 2) providing opportunities for 205,000[1] people to
access formal financial services through linkages to various service providers
including through the introduction and expansion of technology-enabled
financial services. Gender strategies in each country specifically focus on
increasing women’s and adolescent girls’ access to financial education and
assets, and control over the benefits, products, and outcomes of financial inclusion.
While
financial inclusion levels vary across the four countries, the poorest
households in rural areas are still significantly excluded from financial
services. The CARE model is based on VSLA as a means to not only provide access
to valuable financial services, but to provide a pathway for formal financial
inclusion. VSLAs build the financial skills and assets of households by
providing access to a safe, convenient place to save as well as small timely
loans. VSLAs provide members with practical financial experience that they can
leverage to successfully engage with formal financial service providers (FSPs).
Equipped with financial literacy to ensure that members understand the way that
formal financial markets work, pilots linking VSLA with have resulted in
increased financial access for VSLA members and high loan repayment rates for
FSPs.
Position
summary
The
Linkage Specialist, to be based in Rwanda with travel to other project
countries, will provide technical support to local Linkage staff in project
countries to:
  • Adapt
    VSLA methodology based on action learning and gender equality principles;
  • Scale
    up CARE’s VSLA programming;
  • Develop
    programmatic approaches that effectively link mature VSLA groups with
    financial service providers and mobile network operators; and
  • Decrease
    gender gaps in access to and control over financial skills, assets and
    services.
S/he
will also be responsible for coordinating with ongoing financial inclusion
programming in project countries and supporting country offices in developing
and maintaining productive partnerships with relevant government line
ministries and other stakeholders in order to promote an enabling financial
sector environment for target beneficiaries, financial institutions and mobile
network operators in Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire and Burundi.
Responsibilities
and Tasks
1.
Facilitating Linkages with Financial Service Providers
(50%)

In
line with financial inclusion strategies in respective country offices, provide
technical support to facilitate linkages between VSLA groups, financial service
providers (FSPs), and mobile network service providers (MNOs).
·
Support linkage needs assessments and assessments of financial institutions and
the financial sector of different countries.
·
Support country offices in identifying and selecting FSP and MNO partners, and
developing and maintaining relationships with these partners.
·
Support country offices in developing Memoranda of Understanding between CARE
and financial institutions.
·
In collaboration with financial institutions, support country offices in
developing financial services and products based on needs assessments that are
suitable and accessible to target beneficiaries, including women and girls.
·
In complement to training already provided by country offices, support and
provide capacity building training to country office staff related to linkage
planning between country office staff and FSP and MNO partners.
2.
Providing Technical Leadership
(20%)
·
Offer technical support to CARE, government and financial institution staff on
financial inclusion of Africa’s poor and “un-banked” populations.
·
In collaboration with country office staff (to promote their own capacity
building, ownership and sustainability), define and implement a technical
assistance strategy guided by CARE’s Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) and
Financial Inclusion strategies to support country offices in implementing
large-scale VSLA and financial inclusion programs.
·
Design and support country office linkage structures and participate in the
assessment and contracting of FSPs.
·
Work closely with the project’s Regional team, Access Africa and country office
Program Managers to develop a DO NO HARM strategy for linking the poor to
formal financial institutions and ensure adherence to VSLA, linkage, and gender
equality principles and financial inclusion strategies.
·
In collaboration with program Quality and Learning Departments of different
country offices, develop systems to monitor the overall quality of the
portfolio of VSLA groups and groups linked to financial institutions, with
attention to promoting gender equality in access to and control over key
financial skills, assets and services.
·
Continuously monitor progress across all country offices and oversee country
office efforts to review and tailor VSLA and linkage methodology for adoption
in different local environments to accelerate its growth and replication in
country offices.
3.
Integrating VSLA “Plus” approaches** (10%)
·
Provide technical leadership to country offices on integrating the VSLA
approach with other development initiatives such as agricultural value chain
programs, enterprise development, and gender mainstreaming with financial
services. For example, provide technical assistance to develop financial
products for the agricultural and micro-enterprise sector with select financial
service providers and mobile network operators.
·
Guide and support relevant country offices on developing and implementing
strategies to engage youth in VSLA programming; lobbying/engaging the
government and financial institutions in developing pro-youth products to
accelerate linkage of adolescent girls and youth to formal financial
institutions.
·
Work with country office teams to understand local context and regulatory
frameworks in order to tailor advocacy efforts.
·
Identify and develop critical partnerships to support the activities above,
including supporting country teams in developing and managing successful
partnerships.
·
Identify critical skills and capacity gaps in CARE country office teams to
develop strategies to build these skills.
·
In collaboration with country offices and M&E Specialist, document lessons
learned.
4.
Representing CARE

(10%)
·
Represent CARE in various public fora and events to raise awareness of the
POWER-PROFIR project, CARE’s work, and especially the linkage agenda.
·
Contribute to developing the overall CARE Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE)
Financial Inclusion Strategy and meet donors as required to promote CARE’s
financial inclusion/WEE work and the POWER-PROFIR Africa project.
5.
Supporting Learning Initiatives
(5%)
·
The POWER-PROFIR Africa program has a strong learning agenda. In addition to
overarching program-level learning themes, each participating country office has
a specific learning agenda. The Linkage Specialist will support country offices
in reaching learning objectives through this project, and in documenting and
sharing these lessons.
·
Coordinate the learning agenda with the project’s M&E Specialist and Access
Africa.
6.
Coordinating with Access Africa
(5%)
·
The POWER-PROFIR Africa project is being implemented in alignment with CARE’s
“Access Africa” signature program for financial inclusion in Africa. S/he will
work closely with the Access Africa team to ensure that both strategies are
aligned and lessons are shared between the project and Access Africa for wider
dissemination and implementation.
Qualifications
To
be successful in this role, one would ideally have experience working both
in/with the financial services industry (bank, MNO, etc) and non-government
organization (NGO) sector in order to understand and, bring together, and
advocate for the perspectives and interests of these parties.
Expertise
in brokering and managing strategic partnerships, experience engaging with
senior executives in NGOs, private sector and government are clear assets.
Required
  • Significant
    knowledge and experience in microfinance, financial inclusion, women’s
    economic empowerment and/or banking or NGO-private sector partnership
    development
  • Knowledge
    of, and preferably experience working with, Savings Group methodologies
    and linkage of savings groups to formal financial institutions
  • Strong
    relationship-building and communication skills for leadership,
    team-building and being an effective member of a remote/virtual and
    diverse team
  • Strong
    analytical skills and ability to make recommendations/decisions based on
    analysis
  • Proven
    track record managing or contributing to large-scale rural development
    projects
  • Understanding
    of gender equality challenges within financial inclusion and linkage,
    particularly gender gaps in access to and control over financial skills,
    assets and services
  • Experience
    working with M&E and Management Information Systems (MIS)
  • Languages:
    Strong verbal and written communication in English, French a strong asset
Assets
  • Experience
    working in an international NGO in Africa
  • Experience
    supporting multi-country projects, preferably in Africa
  • Strong
    verbal and written communication French and relevant local languages
Key
competencies
  • Strong
    organizational skills and ability to prioritize competing priorities in
    order to provide timely feedback and meet deadlines on an as-needed and/or
    urgent basis
  • High
    level of professionalism, including strict adherence to confidentiality
  • Strong
    customer service, negotiation, conflict resolution skills; flair for
    creative problem solving with ability to analyze, conceptualize,
    strategize individually and as part of a team
  • Results-oriented
    focus: keen drive and enthusiasm for delivering results
  • Keen
    attention to detail
  • Cultural
    sensitivity, empathy, ability to work under stress – Superior
    interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a remote/virtual team
    with a diverse group of individuals
Strong
computer/word processing and spreadsheet skills, including data manipulation,
as well as a willingness to learn computer software programs as required.
Education
and training
Required: Master’s Degree in
relevant fields: finance, business, international development.
WORKING
AND LIVING CONDITIONS:
Location: Rwanda
Expected
percentage of time traveling (in country and/or internationally)
Up to 40% travel to project sites in Rwanda, Burundi and Côte d’Ivoire.
Conditions
40
hours/week – Supervised by project Chief of Party and CARE Canada Program
Manager (oversight)
Based
in Kigali, Rwanda and working as part of a remote team with up to 40% travel to
project sites in Rwanda, Burundi and Côte d’Ivoire.
Rwanda’s
security situation is stable, with low crime rates.
School
and medical facilities are adequate, major medical conditions will require
evacuation.
[1]
25,000 of the linked people will be new VSLA members reached during the term of
the project. For 180,000 people, their only program intervention will be
linkages, resulting in a total of 480,000 people reached through the project
(205,000 linkages + 300,000 new clients – 25,000 who are both new clients and
will be linked = 480,000 beneficiaries total).
How
to apply:

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