Overview
Provide overall technical and strategic leadership for the Enterprise Challenge 2.0 project, ensuring alignment with WVZ livelihoods, youth, and economic empowerment strategies. Lead the operationalization of the challenge fund model.
Tasks Summary
- Provide overall technical and strategic leadership for the Enterprise Challenge 2.0 project.
- Lead the operationalization of the challenge fund model, including competitive calls, selection processes, milestone-based disbursements, and performance management of supported enterprises.
- Ensuring enterprise support approaches integrate market systems development, financial inclusion, innovation, climate resilience, and gender/youth inclusion.
- Oversee the development and application of enterprise selection criteria, due diligence tools, grant agreements, and risk mitigation frameworks.
- Ensure safeguarding, accountability to affected populations, and Do No Harm principles are embedded across all enterprise and partner engagements.
- Provide full fiduciary oversight of challenge funds, enterprise grants, and operational budgets.
- Lead budget development, revisions, forecasting, and expenditure tracking.
- Approve disbursements linked to verified milestones, outputs, and performance indicators.
- Work closely with Finance, GAM, and Internal Audit to ensure compliance, timely liquidations, and clean audit outcomes.
- Identify and proactively manage financial, operational, and reputational risks associated with enterprise financing.
- Lead the development and implementation of annual, quarterly, and monthly work plans.
- Ensure timely, high-quality narrative and financial reporting to donors, WV support offices, and internal governance structures.
- Track progress against results frameworks, enterprise KPIs, and disbursement conditions.
- Ensure strong documentation of decisions, approvals, contracts, and learning.
- Support Agriculture & Marketing specialist to ensure awareness creation & Smallholder farmers uptake of CSA technologies.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for donors, investors, private sector partners, enterprise grantees, and government stakeholders.
- Lead contracting, onboarding, capacity assessment, and performance management of enterprise grantees and technical partners.
- Facilitate collaboration with government ministries (Agriculture & SMEs), financial institutions, innovation hubs, and private sector actors.
- Represent WVZ in national-level platforms related to enterprise development, youth employment, and innovative financing.
- Ensure a robust MEAL framework is implemented.
- Oversee data quality assurance, enterprise performance monitoring, and outcome evaluations.
- Promote learning by documenting best practices, success stories, challenges, and innovations.
- Use evidence and learning to inform programme adjustments and future enterprise financing initiatives.
- Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, and performance management for project staff.
- Build the capacity of staff, partners, and grantees in enterprise management, financial accountability, results-based financing, and compliance.
- Foster a high-performing, collaborative, and values-driven team culture.
Experience Requirements
- 75 years of experience
- Experience in livelihoods, youth, and economic empowerment strategies.
- Experience in operationalization of challenge fund model.
- Experience in market systems development, financial inclusion, innovation, climate resilience, and gender/youth inclusion.
- Experience in enterprise selection criteria, due diligence tools, grant agreements, and risk mitigation frameworks.
- Experience in fiduciary oversight of challenge funds, enterprise grants, and operational budgets.
- Experience in budget development, revisions, forecasting, and expenditure tracking.
- Experience in financial, operational, and reputational risk management.
- Experience in developing and implementing work plans.
- Experience in narrative and financial reporting.
- Experience in tracking progress against results frameworks and KPIs.
- Experience in documentation of decisions, approvals, contracts, and learning.
- Experience in partner, grantee and stakeholder management.
- Experience in contracting, onboarding, capacity assessment, and performance management of enterprise grantees and technical partners.
- Experience in facilitating collaboration with government ministries, financial institutions, innovation hubs, and private sector actors.
- Experience in representing organisation in national-level platforms.
- Experience in MEAL framework implementation.
- Experience in data quality assurance, enterprise performance monitoring, and outcome evaluations.
- Experience in leading, coaching, and performance management for project staff.
- Experience in building capacity of staff, partners, and grantees.
Qualification Requirements
