Market Development Officer

Full Job Description

iDE is an international NGO with over 40 years of experience in designing and delivering market-based anti-poverty programs in 11 countries. We are a world leader in making markets work for the poor as well as the longest-established market development specialist NGO in Bangladesh. iDE believes that markets can be a powerful force for improving smallholder prosperity by creating income and livelihood opportunities for poor rural households. iDE Bangladesh currently has eight projects in Agricultural Markets, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Access to Finance with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and climate-smart technologies.

iDE Bangladesh is looking for a qualified Market Development Officer who has a strong background in WASH, Agriculture, and Nutrition projects in Bangladesh or any of the two sectors. The incumbent in this position is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders of the assigned work area. In this role, they will help to form linkages with farmers, local entrepreneurs, agents, and other local stakeholders. Using these linkages, they will implement different capacity development activities to enhance the scope of these stakeholders' ability to serve communities with improved products and services. The incumbent will also carry out market activation engagements, leveraging necessary support from local stakeholders. In this role, it is also imperative to maintain relationships with market actors in the private and public sectors in order to continue capacity development, activation, and advocacy activities.

Number of Vacancies: 10 (Ten)

Job Location: Anywhere in Bangladesh

Reporting Line: Field Team Leader

Contract Duration: One year Initially, possible extension depending on performance and fund availability

Key Roles and Responsibilities: The responsibilities of the Market Development Officer include but are not limited to the descriptions below-

General Responsibilities:

●        Thorough understanding of Market WASH, Agriculture, and Nutrition activities in a manner that enables the transformation of these with different stakeholder engagements.

●        Must be able to identify all the business challenges and opportunities of the Local Service Providers beyond production in generating retail sales

●        Works with FTL in acquiring institutional orders and bridging these with relevant LSPs for institutional sales with relevant stakeholders.

●        Actively work with the FTL to acquire relevant resources and support as per the requirement to ensure that they are able to acquire these resources

●        Prepare the self-work plan, prescribing intervention, and perform accordingly to achieve the specific project targets

●        Carry out responsibilities in financial management and administration at the local level and ensure the efficient use and maintenance of the project resources in consultation with the supervisor

Programmatic Responsibilities

●       Assess and improve skills and competencies of LSPs/Agents on a diverse range of technical skills, business skills such as problem and opportunity identification, potential customer segment identification, and target marketing to increase sales and technical capacity.

●        Build rapport and trust with sanitation entrepreneurs

●        Facilitate sanitation demand creation activities with potential customers

●        Facilitate sanitation entrepreneurs for product introduction and commercialization

● Work with FTL to ensure the necessary support to entrepreneurs to build up linkage with institutional actors in LGI and NGOs for a larger institutional order of improved products

●        Develop a business plan with LSPs for increasing sales of their products

●        Capacity to understand, review, and ensure the successful delivery of tasks by temporary resources hired by the Project

●        Motivate LSPs and ensure the preservation of sales records at LSP center utilizing the relevant Enterprise development tools and tactics available to the incumbent

●     Extend necessary support during any kind of assessment survey, piloting, design development, etc.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

●        Complete event reports in a timely manner for all project activities and uploads to the relevant monitoring system as supported by the Field Team Leader

●        Complete relevant stakeholder check-ins in a timely manner for all project activities and upload to the relevant monitoring system as supported by the MERL Focal

●        Document at least two case studies, learning briefs working with the MERL Focal and Field Team Leader quarterly

●        Submit monthly program reports based on program implementation, achievement, challenges, and way forward

●        Work with technical specialists in soliciting guidance, support, and feedback regarding technical areas of implementation through formal communication channel

●        Field Management Coordination: Work under the guidance of FTL to ensure timely, effective delivery of tasks

●        Finance and Admin Coordination: Work with Finance and Admin for all support functions of Finance, Procurement, Admin, and HR as required

●        Work with FTL to support advocacy with relevant stakeholders to ensure smart subsidies for poor and extremely poor rural households

Rapport Building

●   Engage actively with LSP to establish strong rapport and play a leading role in their enterprise development

●        Identify local-level supply chain actors and help establish supply linkage with LSPs

●        Coordinate with development, private, and public sector partners at the regional level for possible collaborations that support field implementation

●        Coordinate and report to supervisor on a regular basis, updating them on their progress, sharing useful, relevant programmatic insights, and also recommending approaches to improve implementation of activities for better results

●        Visit 10 Community Households monthly for feedback collection

Other Responsibilities

●   Actively learn and develop skills related to online platforms used by iDE, including but not limited to Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google Slides and MS Office Suite

●      Maintain use of online platforms for sharing reports, documents, and data

●        Represent iDE at external events and meetings as agreed with the supervisor

●        Participate in all relevant meetings and workshops

●        Undertake tasks such as photography, audio-visual, cross-project training and evaluations

Skills and Experience : A successful Market Development Officer will have the following skills and experience and will be comfortable with the following conditions.

Education

•  Bachelor degree in any      subject, Business Administration/ Economics/ Development Studies/Agriculture is preferable    

Work Experience

●        At least 3-4 years of experience working on market system development in WASH, Agriculture, and Nutrition or any two of these sectors

●        Work experience in local private and Government sectors would be essential

●        Familiarity and experience with project management concepts such as Logical Frameworks, Impact Logic, or Results Chains

●        Considerable understanding and knowledge of rural markets, trading relationships, and rural service provision

●        Previous experience in sales and marketing is preferable

●        Experience in business planning with sanitation and hygiene service

●        Strong financial skills (e.g. profit & loss statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets)

●        Must understand the technical, social, and other constraints in the development field.

Programmatic Skills

●        Ability to responsibly manage district-level funds, monitoring, and team progress

●        Ability to plan and implement iterative field-level activities for market systems change

●        Ability to explore and recommend interventions to the Field Team Leader as necessary, considering market context and adopting the market development approach

●        Understands the facilitative role of the market development approach

●     Good analytical and problem-solving skills

Personal Skills

●        Energetic and focused approach to sales coaching and mentoring

●        Excellent interpersonal, facilitation, and leadership skills

●        Self-motivated, energetic, and team player

●        Ability to work with various national and international team members and flexibility to adapt to different work conditions

●        Has the capacity to be a self-starter, taking initiative and supporting Management

●        Pleasant, dynamic individual who understands local contexts and is able to establish rapport with rural entrepreneurs

Physical and Language Skills

●        Ability to travel and undertake fieldwork in a rural context

● Ability to drive motorcycles and having a valid driving license

●        Physical fitness is required for frequent field visits and extensive travel.

●        Written and oral communication skills in Bangla and English, including the ability to present coherent and convincing messages to different audiences

●      Strong computer skills in Microsoft Office Suite, e-mail, and the internet

●        Familiarity with internet-based software systems such as Google Apps

Application Deadline: 21 April 2024

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview

(Any personal persuasion will result in disqualification)

Women are actively encouraged to apply

iDE provides a women-friendly work environment with flexible work arrangements, appropriate skill development opportunities, and good career development potential for high performing individuals. We are committed to creating a diverse environment and proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. Employee selection and related decisions are made without regard to gender, race, age, disability, religion, national origin, color, or any other protected class.

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