Bilingual Program Management Consultant, West Africa

Bilingual Program Management Consultant - West Africa, This consultancy requires travel within multiple countries in West Africa visiting remote areas.

Grameen Foundation seeks independent contractors experienced in Program Management (“PM”) to support its work in West Africa . This consultant will provide onsite training and support to microfinance institutions (“MFI”s) on implementation of a Village Phone Program. Village Phone creates job for the rural poor, and provides rural communities with access to information, thus enabling enable individuals to pull themselves, and the community, out of poverty.

The Consultant will work closely with the Director of Village Phone and coordinate with other program staff associated with Village Phone. Following a training session, GF is seeking a consultant to start in July with work performed onsite with channel partners including MFIs and the local Telecom Company in assigned West Africa countries for a period of 6-12 months. This consultancy requires travel within multiple countries, visiting remote areas.

Contractor Obligations:

• Attend GF Village Phone workshop to master Village Phone methodology;
• Analyze the local context where Village Phone intends to expand its provision of services;
• Engage appropriate channel partners not limited to microfinance institutions that focus on rural areas where Village Phone would create opportunities for the rural poor;
• Maintain a strong mentoring relationship with partner’s staff so as to build local capacity and to help ensure programme sustainability;
• Assist channel partners, microfinance institutions and telecom companies in strategy planning, process flows and coaching as necessary
• Ensure that project activity corresponds to the projections and plans;
• Train MFI and Telecom staff on forecasting process for phone deployments;
• Create monitoring systems for channel partners and the telecom partner to manage activities and ensure that this monitoring is implemented;
• Submit weekly qualitative reports on project status;
• Review reporting regularly with the local Village Phone team, work allocation & planning, training, and problem resolution;
• Evaluate performance and take action as necessary to correct;
• Identify and work to remove barriers to successful completion of the overall project;
• Ensure best practices implementation in all fields;
• Setup policies and system ensuring outreach and success;
• Provide support in technical reporting understanding and analysis;
• Evaluate break-even point for Village Phone Operators of channel partners, and guide the organizations to train Operators to achieve financial sustainability;
• Provide training and guidance to staff when required;
• Revise training manuals as needed;
• Create audit procedures and suggest procedure improvement when required;
• Advise on marketing strategy (material, tools, platform) at a Village Phone level, as well as advise microfinance institution level;
• Provide recommendations for expansion plans to mitigate risks and to improve operations moving forward;
• Constantly monitor and analyize the operating environment, quick readjustment of the operations, advice on regulatory considerations and risk assessment;
• Knowledge building and sharing with regards to management and operations, organization of the operations staff trainings and synthesis of lessons learnt/best practices;

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Fluency in oral and written English and French is a requirement, knowledge of Portuguese a plus;
• Knowledge of microfinance procedures and methodologies;
• Self-starter with the ability to effectively manage multiple priorities;
• Excellent analytical, communication and interpersonal and negotiation skills, and marketing and presentation skills;
• Demonstrated high level interpersonal skills including the ability to build relationships internally and externally;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities under pressure;
• Pragmatic problem-solver; able to confront issues and achieve effective resolution;
• Promotes knowledge management;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to lead formulation and monitoring of management projects;
• Ability to lead business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems (business side), and affect staff behavioural/ attitudinal change;
• Solid knowledge in financial resources and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration; and,
• Political, cultural sensitivity, commitment to diversity. Communicates effectively with and relates to people of different cultures, demonstrating an ability to see issues from other perspectives.

Education and Experience:

• Minimum Masters Degree in international development or related field with 5 - 8 years of international development experience, or Bachelors Degree with a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience such as Business Process Re-engineering or Project management ;
• Microfinance experience strongly preferred; and
• Knowledge of telecom industry and experience working with USAID a plus.

To Apply:
Please respond with cover letter, salary expectations and CV/Resume with the subject title "Africa PM Consultant" in the subject line to vtech@grameenfoundation.org. If you are not fluent in French, please do not apply. No phone calls please.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE POSITION. AS A CONSULTANT YOU WILL NOT BE ENTITLED TO GRAMEEN FOUNDATION BENEFITS OR INSURANCES. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYMENT OF ALL REQUIRED FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL, SELF EMPLOYMENT TAXES AND OTHER SIMILAR TAXES AND FOR OBTAINING APPROPRIATE VISAS AND INSURANCES FOR THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH SERVICES ARE PROVIDED.

GRAMEEN FOUNDATION IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER ]