Position Description:

TechnoServe is working to support the livelihoods of small holder farmers and connect them with leadership and business skills. The initiative is to support enterprising rural people to transform their roles in their households and farming businesses, and to strengthen the agribusiness for their local communities by taking on leadership roles in local farmer producer organizations. The incumbent will be placed at our Solapur location.

The programs will support farmers through their institutions, addressing four key areas for growth:

i) Strong women farmer producer organizations and their federation,

ii) Improved market access for women farmers,

iii) Inclusive access to financial services for farmer producer organizations and

iv) Empowered women leaders with entrepreneur skills.

The Manager – IS&WE will be responsible for anchoring the following for the program:

1. The incumbent will be the focal point for implementing women empowerment activities under the project, focusing on women empowerment & entrepreneurship development.
2. Responsible for mobilizing Women’s Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to come together and form women women-owned FPC Federation by establishing transparent governance system & process.

• Building the capacity of directors and office bearers on Federation structure & function, Operation & Management and Compliances system & process, Capacity building and Training

1. Building capacity of member FPCs on backward & forward linkages, aggregation process & system and Standard Operating Business Procedure, primary value addition & supply chain management etc.
2. Federation is legally registered and governance structures, revenue model, and grievance redressal mechanisms of Federation are successfully established, will be her roles and responsibility.
3. Responsible for motivating the program women to move towards a gender transformative approach through institutional innovation and income diversification.

• Establishing sustainable entrepreneurship model with women leaders linking to the business portfolio of FPCS and their federation.
• Liaison with resource institutions, agencies, SRLM, Govt. schemes & programs and mobilizing the resources for Federation Infrastructure development, value addition & processing.

1. Working closely with the program team, stakeholders, and in coordination with program leaders & managers throughout the implementation,

Requirements:

1. Post Graduate in Rural Development/ Management, Agri- Business Management, Social Studies with at least 4 years’ specific work experience in women empowerment program/ FPC operation & management/ Women IGA/ women in Agriculture program/ SHGs & their Federation and having knowledge of ongoing government schemes and program for women.
2. Minimum 9-12 years of experience in development sector with specific experience in implementation of women focused projects, conducting women empowerment activities in rural context with proven results in relation to capacity building, adoption, income enhancement, and experience of introducing new activities to women farmers in line with agriculture and expertise to capture and document technical practices, processes and results from field scale interventions.
3. Experience of managing operations team in large scale projects, people management experience, training and capacity building, institutional building of women enterprises
4. Sound knowledge M/S Word/ Excel/ PPT, Regular reporting mechanisms on weekly/monthly/ quarterly/Annual basis as and when required
5. Should be familiar with creating Data centric stakeholder reports, Dashboards, Proficient in MS-Excel (Intermediate to Advanced level)
6. Demonstrated ability to drive project activities independently, create and maintain relationships with external stakeholders, institutional buyers, senior project leadership team.

Applicants should be open to relocate to any project location

Preferred Requisites:

• Work experience in remote/rural communities on enterprise development
• Experience in delivering and managing capacity-building activities
• Demonstrated experience in handling a field team to build the capacities of women farmers
• Analytical documentation, preparation of training modules and learning briefs, publications
• Willingness to learn from and replicate best practices from elsewhere.
• Prior experience working with diverse teams
• Native / Bilingual Proficiency Marathi (Preferred)
• Proficiency in Hindi
• Proficiency in English (Mandatory)
• Women candidates are only preferred for this role

Application Instructions:

Qualified and interested applicants should submit a Word-formatted single document consisting of cover letter, resume (in MS Word format) and salary history to sshankar@tns.org / hetalb@tns.org Please identify the position for which you are applying in the subject line.

TechnoServe is an Equal Opportunity Employer