January 28th, 2022 at 08:39 am
Tetra Tech ARD (Tt/ARD) and its consortium partners – Born Free USA, TRAFFIC, Winrock International, re: wild, and Dalberg Associates– were awarded the USAID contract for the implementation of the West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) Program from July 2021 to July 2025.
POSITION: Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Specialist
This program is designed to strengthen the resiliency and sustainability of West African institutions, ecosystems, and communities. WABiLED consists of three core thematic objectives:
- Combating wildlife trafficking and supporting great ape conservation;
- Reducing deforestation, forest degradation, and biodiversity loss in key forests area; and
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration from land use.
To counter the threats that wildlife crime, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change pose to human and natural systems, WABiLED will assist institutions and stakeholders—regional, national, and local— in the key forested countries of Guinea, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone to develop and/or strengthen capacity by applying cross-sectoral approaches to protect and sustainably manage biodiversity, forests, and promote low emissions land use.
WABiLED will work with core regional partners including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Mano River Union (MRU), as well as national and local level government and non-governmental institutions and organizations and with local communities. WABiLED will also work through grantees to promote best practices and generate lessons learned in up to five transboundary forest landscapes.
WABiLED’s targeted learning landscapes include three transboundary forest landscapes that were subject to interventions during WA BiCC and two proposed additional transboundary forest landscapes as follows:
Landscapes continuing from WA BiCC:
- The Tai-Grebo-Krahn-Sapo (TGKS) between Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia;
- The greater Gola-Foya between Liberia and Sierra Leone; and
- The Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi (ZWW) between Guinea and Liberia
Proposed additional landscape
- The Mount Nimba between Guinea, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire; and Outamba-Kilimi-Kuru Hills/Madina-Oula + Soya-Pinselli (OKK-MOPS) between Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Position Summary
The Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Specialist position is a full-time position based in Accra, Ghana, or Monrovia, Liberia and will require travel as necessary to WABiLED’s learning landscapes, workshops, meetings, and other fora as appropriate.
The PSE Specialist will lead the design and implementation of activities and interventions that promote private sector investment in support of WABiLED objectives, and in accordance with USAID’s PSE Policy and its principles, promote market-based solutions, mobilize private capital to remove barriers, achieve and scale-up sustainable results.
The PSE Specialist will develop and broker private sector engagements that promote nature-based market solutions, supports high-impact forest-friendly enterprise/value chain development, and mobilize private capital to remove barriers to achieve scalable and sustainable results.
The PSE Specialist will work closely with financial institutions to develop and identify financial mechanisms and products to support targeted smallholders and businesses in the WABiLED landscapes.
He/She will directly support the WABiLED grants program with business development services and will be responsible for developing relationships with financial institutions that leverage bank financing, including supporting grantees and WABiLED supported entrepreneurs/businesses to pursue other sources of financing.
Main Responsibilities and Tasks:
The Private Sector Engagement Specialist will be responsible to:
- Develop a WABiLED private sector engagement strategy that internalizes nature-based solutions complemented by market-led/enterprise-led approaches and designed to achieve sustainability of supported interventions beyond the life of the project.
- Develop national, regional, and global relationships with the private sector and financial institutions, including attracting, developing, and establishing meaningful public and private partnerships with targeted WABiLED stakeholders.
- With guidance from Dalberg, consult with business accelerator programs and private and institutional investors in the region to understand investment gaps, the opportunities to leverage private and institutional capital, and the type and quantity of support needed for investors to identify a list of initial investment opportunities
- Promote private sector policies that lead to women and youth economic empowerment and eliminate disparities in access to economic opportunities.
- Work with financial institutions to develop and identify financial mechanisms and loan products to support targeted entrepreneurs and businesses.
- Work with financial institutions to identify and develop innovative financing opportunities that attract private sector financing and leverage private sector capabilities that promote nature-based, market-driven solutions across WABiLED’s 3 objectives, including combating wildlife trafficking, biodiversity conservation, and promoting green/forest-friendly low emissions development enterprises.
- On a case-by-case basis provide support to the WABiLED Grants under Contract (GUC) program, including technical and business development support for the implementation of proof of concept, challenge results-based grants.
- Coordinate PSE opportunities with the WABiLED team and serve as the main point of contact for potential private sector/finance partners.
- In collaboration with re: wild, link extractive industries (mining and logging companies) and national-level Environmental Protection Agencies with the Primate Watch Program for advice on international best practices for projects located in critical habitat.
- Work closely with the Green Enterprise and experts from Dalberg to undertake a market system review of the livelihoods opportunities in WABiLED landscapes including assessment of existing small and medium-sized enterprises near border communities.
- Work closely with the Green Enterprise and the Grants Manager to initiate a co-creation process between WABiLED and private sector partners to issue challenge grants or utilize subcontracts to facilitate private sector partnerships to operationalize these roadmaps.
- Actively participate in data collection processes and research initiatives related to PSE, and provide timely and accurate data to the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team for reporting.
- Perform any other task as assigned by the LEDs Lead, DCOP, or COP.
Required Skills or Experience
- An MBA (or equivalent advanced degree in relevant field) and a minimum of ten (10) years of regional/international experience in private sector engagement, with at least five(5) of these being in West Africa with regional and national organizations/entities.
- Significant (at least five years) experience working with stakeholders across the public, private and nonprofit sectors to draw upon with respect to public-private partnerships for development.
- Demonstrated technical qualifications in business administration, financing, and marketing.
- Excellent written and verbal communication in English is required; the ability to speak French will be an advantage.
Skills and Competencies:
- Demonstrated leadership, facilitation, and coordination skills
- Excellent communication (both oral and written) and partnership building skills with multi-dimension partners, people skill for conflict resolution and negotiation
- Computer proficiency, especially related to professional office software packages (Microsoft Office)
- Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings from related studies for the preparation of quarterly and annual progress reports
- Excellent coordination skills and result oriented collaboration with colleagues and partners
- Ability to work rapidly with multiple teams in various locations, and as required, as well as work remotely
HOW TO APPLY
Mode of Application: Submit your CV and cover letter to [email protected]
Deadline for Submission of Applications: 10th February 2022
Other Considerations:
- Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply and will be preferred at equal levels of competence with others (male candidates).
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