Summary
Date Posted: Tuesday, July 09, 2019 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Project/ Consultancy Title: AFA In-Country Support Consultant – Zambia
Project Locations: Lusaka
Proposed Consultant: TBD
From: July 2019
To : August 2019
ABOUT MERCY CORPS
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.
GENERAL PROGRAM SUMMARY
Mercy Corps’ AgriFin Program seeks to address the inclusion gap for smallholder farmers who lack access to affordable, accessible, demand-driven products and services that drive higher productivity and income for farm families. The AgriFin program utilizes a market ecosystem approach, working with carefully selected partners to build sustainable models, where farm and crop management tools and financial services are “bundled” in affordable, unified platforms leveraging digital channels to promote mass uptake commercially. The program involves three interrelated components that seek to address low farmer productivity and capability, and improve institutional ability to deliver appropriate products and build ecosystems to drive scale. We work with farmers, banks, mobile network operators, MFIs, research institutes and other ecosystem players in well-defined partnerships to sustainably bundle services, leveraging the offer and outreach of all partners, while increasing the range of services, access points and value for farmers. The program works with partners to identify, prototype, test and scale successful digitally enabled services for smallholders, with a key focus on expanding access to financial services, using a rapid iteration approach to product development and client-centric design techniques.
Our project goal is for smallholder farmers to gain full access to impactful, demand-driven, technology-enabled financial products, tools, channels and knowledge that significantly increase farm productivity and family income, delivered by vibrant ecosystems of diverse service providers. Program operations are taking place five countries anchored around a central “Hub” office in Kenya, expanding to serve Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, with potential to expand to other Mercy Corps countries, globally.
GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:
The AgriFin Accelerate (AFA) program is closing operations in Zambia at the end of June 2019. However, engagements with partners are still ongoing through to the end of 2019. AFA is seeking to engage a consultant based in Zambia to support with program management activities with AFA partners during this period. The Consultant will work closely with AFA Hub based in Kenya to manage existing partnerships, support in-country logistics when needed, and support in developing learning materials as the program shifts to a greater focus on Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) activities.
The Consultant will work under the guidance of the Task Manager and a designated member of the MC AFA technical team, the MEL team. and receive additional support from identified technical team members. The consultant will also work with the Zambia Program Assistant to onboard them onto AFA Zambia program and MEL activities & partners. .

CONSULTANT ACTIVITIES:
The consultant will work with the AFA team to:
Activity 1: Overall AFA in-Country Support
• Operational support as necessary or as needed by AFA Kenya office.
• Weekly presence at partner offices; e.g. Mondays stationed at ZANACO offices, etc.
• Participation in meetings with donors, private sector partners, contractors, and any ecosystem members, e.g. the National Technical Working Group on Rural and Agricultural Financing.
• Onboarding & mentoring the consultant who will work as a Program Assistant to offer AFA partner logistics support between July-December 2019
• Including the program assistant in all relevant partner meetings to gain better understanding of working partnerships and potential support roles.
• Provide opportunities for program assistant role to assist in project delivery; while overseeing quality of final deliverables; e.g. development of roll-out plans/schedules with partners, overseeing budget support to CAZ as field sales force for ZANACO Farmer Account
• Offer guidance on field-level support; especially as partners begin to scale with ZANACO through booster teams and agency structures.
Activity 2: Specific Project Support
1. ZANACO: Support to ZANACO in capacity of Project Manager for roll-out of ZANACO Farmer Account (ZFA):
• Weekly presence at ZANACO office to support with troubleshooting, development and any other issues related to the roll-out; twice a week.
• Support to scale-up of ZANACO Farmers’ Account (ZFA) to existing and additional partners and areas; DAZ, iDE, Vitalite, WFP, etc.
• Engagement with existing partners alongside/on behalf of ZFA team.
• Development of detailed rollout timelines in line with ZFA internal team capacity and partner needs.
• Support to ZFA internal team in follow-up actions necessary to drive partnerships forward; e.g. customer acquisition schedules for various partners and agency banking onboarding models.
• Support to Mobicom Africa as they onboard partners as booster team agents; participate in trainings, field-level oversight during onboarding.
• Support to development of new partner agreements for further scale; WFP and Alliance Ginneries.
• Support to marketing team in finalizing name for ZANACO Farmers’ Account.
• Where possible attend field onboarding activities for both customers and booster teams; if unable to, the Program Assistant should attend.
• Support to development for Phase II and III of ZFA;
• Ensure learning content finalized and uploaded on ZFA platform.
• Support to development, roll-out and monitoring of savings product; including support to customer education efforts by the Cotton Association of Zambia.
• Initial support to data analytics to be run by Arifu on learning, and by ZANACO internal team on savings behavior in preparation for credit-phase of ZFA.
Support to MEL agenda and plan for ZFA.
2. FINCA: Mobile-based savings product (light support role):
• Weekly presence at FINCA office to support incorporation of findings from fieldwork regarding both the individual and group savings product; once a week or bi-weekly as deemed necessary.
• Partnership facilitation with CRS or other partners as part of the GTM strategy.
• Support to MEL agenda and plan.
3. Zoona: Scale-up of Zoona plus specifically targeting SHF (light support role):
• Weekly presence at Zoona office to support recruitment and training of agrodealers for farmer engagement with Zoona plus product; once a week or bi-weekly as deemed necessary.
• MEL support.
• To fulfill the above activities; consultant will be stationed weekly at partner offices to ensure continued AFA visibility and relevance to partners
• Monday – ZANACO
• Tuesday – Zoona
• Wednesday – ZANACO
• Thursday – CAZ
• Friday – Musika/Hotdesk
Activity 3: MEL Support
• Work closely with PRS as they conduct research and analysis over the next year, driving the MEL agenda for Zambia; specifically review baseline results and begin framing of follow-up data collection exercise.
• Case study development in follow-up to initial white paper on Zambian market and DFS implementation for AG.
• Desk review of existing “state of the industry” reports from various working partners including UNCDF and FSDZ.
• Incorporation of initial findings from PRS baseline evaluation.
• Incorporation of lessons learned from delivering DFS with partners over two-year implementation period (ZANACO/Zoona focus).
• Support general publication and dissemination pipeline for key lessons emerging from Zambia AFA implementation.
• Support to structuring close-out event with partners in September:
• Work closely with Program Assistant for in-country prep logistics; invite list, agenda, Kenya support team presence, partner goodwill gifts/memoirs.
• Provide input for the MEL team for the final report from Zambia close-out with updates on project implementation thus far and lessons learned.
DELIVERABLES:
• Final deliverables for this engagement will be:
• Weekly TOR report following partner engagements, including a summary of project status, potential project risks, and any other updates from partner meetings with AFA partners, existing donors, contractors, and other ecosystem members.
• Weekly check-ins with the Task Managers – this is outside of the standing TT & MEL meetings.
• Provide input into MEL activities and deliverables.
• Final/handover report on activities with partners and future prospects for developments in digital finance with working partners.
• Together with the Zambia program assistant, and tech team, organize AFA Zambia September close-out event.
• 3-5-page state of the industry report as a follow-up to the AFA Zambia White Paper; to be developed in partnership with TT lead for Zambia.
• Successful onboarding of the Zambia Program Assistant.

Job Skills: Not Specified

Job Qualifications: Not Specified

Job Education Requirements: Not Specified

Job Experience Requirements: Not Specified

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Job application procedure
Application Method:
Interested Candidates should share their detailed CV’S and cover letter explaining why you feel you are perfect match for the position before COB on Thursday 11th July 2019 Kenyan time to mnzaumi@mercycorps.org.

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