Job Description

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States of America. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard of race, religion, or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding. Registered in Zimbabwe, CRS has been supporting program activities in Zimbabwe since 1989 and has long-standing relationships with Church and non-Church partners and communities throughout the country. Zimbabwe program implements projects through partner organizations in various districts in the areas of food security and agricultural livelihoods, water and sanitation and youth. CRS seeks to fill in the following position that has arisen.

The successful candidate will provide strategic advice, guidance, and support to the Zimbabwe country program in integrating the most contextually appropriate and sustainable Private Sector Engagement (PSE) & Market System Development (MSD) approaches to inform the design of new programs, while also supporting the implementation of running projects. His/her knowledge, advice, and guidance will contribute to effective, adaptive, and innovative PSE & MSD within CRS programing PSE & MSD in essential services, such as Land restoration, Livelihoods, health and nutrition, WASH, and peacebuilding.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Contributing to the development and implementation of the CP’s private sector engagement and Market Systems strategies, standards, tools, leveraging learnings and models from across the agency and best practices in PSE and market-based approaches in humanitarian and development programming.
• Helping CP teams to cultivate & manage strategic relationships with peer organizations, aligned private sector actors and business development service providers by leading or supporting assessments, mapping exercises, and relationship management.
• Supporting CP and program leadership/teams in exploring, screening and developing innovative private sector partnerships, conducting financial and business model analysis as well as appropriate due diligence in accordance with the proposed private sector engagement or partnership(s).
• Supporting programs to effectively engage private sector partners, refining partner business models (both church and private sector businesses), developing business plans, providing technical assistance directly to companies when needed as well as identifying other capacity building support needs.
• Linking private sector partners with BDS as well as internal and external sources of blended finance to support business growth and expansion.
• Supporting CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in PSE and market systems, especially by contributing to the technical design of large or complex proposals, defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators, and advising teams on integrating donor priorities as well as technical requirements into CRS’ approaches.
• Adapting and delivering trainings and workshops on PSE and market systems approaches to staff and partners, while providing ongoing mentoring & coaching to colleagues to support teams to adapt/adopt innovative market-based approaches.
• Supporting knowledge management and learning (KML) through collecting and analyzing CP program data, evaluating projects, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices. Preparing research, case studies, and internal reports.

Qualifications and Experience

• A Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, Management, Economics, or any other related field is a prerequisite, preferably with a focus on private sector and market systems development, market-based approaches and/or finance.
• A minimum of 5 years relevant work experience, ideally with an international NGO, with a minimum of four years field-based experience in private sector engagement or market-based approaches to development with a preference for experience with PSE in livelihoods, Climate Action and WASH.
• Demonstrable application of technical principles and concepts in private sector engagement, market-based approaches to development and/or impact investing.
• Demonstrated application in project design and proposal development. Experience in writing content for proposals.

How to Apply

Those who meet the above criteria are invited to submit their applications together with a cover letter and detailed Curriculum Vitae that includes names and email addresses of three traceable references. Applications should be clearly marked with the position applied for, i.e., “Private Sector Engagement (PSE) & Market System Development (MSD) Specialist” in the email subject line.

Please submit your applications by Monday 23 September 2024, to The Country Representative at the following email address: [email protected]. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

CRS does not charge application fees or processing fees to potential applicants or any fee throughout the recruitment process.

Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. CRS carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

By applying for this job, the candidate understands and acknowledges that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect. Further, s/he understands that if successful, s/he will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate the candidate’s behaviors related to safeguarding-related topics.