Volunteer
Opportunity description
New Market
Fellowship Summer 2015
Job Description
Position
Title:
Potential Energy Fellow, New Markets Duration:
2 – 3 months, flexible start & end date depending on academic schedule.
Some pre-summer and post summer prep and follow-up may be required. Location:
Multiple Countries in Africa Type:
Full-Time Compensation:
Psychic Income (this is an unpaid fellowship). Unfortunately, Potential Energy
is not able to support trav
el or living expenses, but we are willing to provide
any support we can to help Fellows obtain outside funding from their academic
programs.
The Company: Half the world – over 3
billion people – cook their daily meals over an open fire. Smoke from cooking
fires kills 4 million people each year…that’s more than AIDS, Malaria and
Tuberculosis combined. Potential Energy, Inc. (www.potentialenergy.org) is a
non-profit social enterprise based in Berkeley, CA working to solve this
problem. We support the development of local stove and fuel enterprises that
deploy best-in-class stoves, fuel and home energy systems to meet the needs of
customers with a range of income levels. In Sudan, we have co-created a stove
enterprise that has serves over 40,000 customers. In Uganda and in Burkina
Faso, we are in the early stages of building stove and fuel business in
conjunction with local partners. These businesses aim to eliminate the use of
dirty fuels and cooking methods through deployment of gasifying stoves paired
with locally produced pelletized fuel.
The
Opportunity:
We’ve accomplished great things in Sudan, and we’re aiming to replicate this
success in other markets, with technologies that are appropriate for the local
market. We’ve completed early trials of advanced stoves and pelletized fuel in
Uganda, and we’re now looking to expand the scale of our trials in order to
better understand our customers, develop a range of offerings based on customer
feedback, and develop the tracking and monitoring mechanisms needed to bring
this enterprise to scale. During the Summer of 2015, we’ll welcome our 2nd
Fellowship Class, which will include 1-2 New Market Scouts as well as 1-2
Fellows in Uganda. Our Fellows are dynamic, smart and creative individuals who
will help us expand our impact and better understand our customers. The size of
the class will depend on the quality of the applicants; we care first and
foremost about making sure we get the right people on-board.
Main
Responsibilities:
As a New Market Fellow, you will be responsible for:
- Conducting
desk research on new markets for Potential Energy in order to understand
cooking and energy consumption patterns, as well as to pre-identify
potential partners - Visit a
selection of countries in Africa (1-2 weeks for each country) in order to
evaluate market potential - Representing
Potential Energy in an official capacity to industry professionals - In each
country, meeting with players (companies, NGOs, government actors, market
aggregators, consumer advocacy groups) in the clean cooking and energy
space to understand the market landscape and evaluate the potential for
business development - Summarize
your findings on each country in New Market Briefs that include
information on: - Country
Context - Cooking,
cooking fuel and energy consumption patterns - Competitive
Landscape - Recommendations
of Potential Partners to collaborate with
In order to do this,
you will:
- Become
an expert on cookstoves, fuel & cooking patterns in your target
countries - Become
an expert on topics relating to smoke emissions & smoke inhalation - Research
and gather knowledge regarding legal, social or other concerns related to
manufacture, distribution, sales or import of cookstoves in country or
countries of placement - Coordinate
and conduct meetings with in-country actors - Visit
potential customers and conduct needs assessments
Who Should
Apply
You are:
- A
talented, smart, motivated individual looking to gain experience working
in the field with an innovative and smart social enterprise - You may
be an MBA student, in between your first and second year of school
(non-MBA applicants are accepted) - You
believe in the power of small organizations to use innovative
solutions-based-thinking and program design to solve large global
problems.
In addition, you
are:
- The
kind of person that thinks on your feet, recognizing opportunities and
acting on them - Someone
that has already proven, through past life and work experience, that you
can be adaptable to multiple cultures and contexts - Not
afraid to get your hands dirty - Highly
self-motivated – you care deeply about creating positive change in the
world - Analytical
– you’re great at working with spreadsheets, data and numbers (you love
excel!), but you’re even better at translating data into real-world
applications - The
kind of person that can follow directions, but that also pushes beyond
your workplan as you identify issues or discover opportunities - An
international person – you’ve traveled or worked in a developing country,
ideally in Africa - Ready
to take ownership of your own work and view your Fellowship as an opportunity
to experience a real position in the development field
How
to apply
To apply
please send a cover letter and resume to info@potentialenergy.org with ”
[Your Name] – New Market Summer Fellow Search” in the subject line.
