Association of Startup & SMEs Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK)
GIZ AgriJobs4Youth (AJ4Y) Initiative
Position Title: Project Manager
Station: Kisumu
A: Background:
The Association of Startup & SMEs Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK) is a business membership organization operating in Kenya that aims to bring together and represent the interests of organizations supporting the development and growth of startups and SMEs for maximum impact of such activities.
In fostering the startup and SME enablers ecosystem in Kenya, ASSEK plays a key role to represent all the actors of the Kenyan start-up and SME enablers Ecosystem and actively promotes the networking among its members that, scattered throughout the country, are the driving force for an entrepreneurial economic breakthrough of our country.
B: Partnership with GIZ AgriJobs4Youth (AJ4Y) Initiative:
The objective of GIZ’s AgriJobs4Youth initiative is to create opportunities and empower young people to build their livelihoods through gainful salaried employment or self-employment in agribusiness.
This is being achieved through a variety of complementary measures, ranging from creating framework conditions that foster economic and public policy participation of youth, catalysing private sector-led job creation, promoting a performance-driven, future-oriented learning system, engaging to overcome labour market constraints, supporting independent and self-sustaining youth organisations, as well as promoting cross-country knowledge exchange.
AJ4Y is partnering with ASSEK to address business environment topics, strengthen institutional capacities of enterprise support organizations, promote entrepreneurship culture, and incubate promising ideas in the Agri-Food sector in select counties in Western Kenya.
ASSEK together with other collaborators will aim at providing a strategic direction towards a long-term guide by identifying critical capacity gaps, highlighting and implementing effective and sustainable systems of support and strengthening the existing support to the ecosystem as well as setting the foundations for collaborations amongst agri-food entities and institutions such as incubators, accelerators, financial intermediaries and regulatory bodies.
ASSEK is therefore seeking to recruit a Project Manager (PM) who will be responsible for the success of the activities under this partnership with AJ4Y.
The PM shall report to the CEO of ASSEK.
C: Duties and Responsibilities
Project Management
- Tasked with implementation of business plans and the day-to-day delivery of the project and operational support
- With consultation with the ASSEK CEO, lead in the development of Terms of Reference to recruit consultants with relevant experience to execute project activities.
- Onboarding and coordinating technical consultants to ensure standards of quality in the work.
- Lead in steering partnership with GIZ technical team, innovation hubs in Western Region and relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem to ensure project delivery and implementation.
- Build partnerships by identifying and creating alignments between organizations and with county governments, developing mutually beneficial partnerships in the policy, financial and or investors spaces.
- Facilitate and lead roundtables on key emerging issues in policy, regulations, and compliance amongst others.
- Execute and manage “checks and balances” to ensure the project meets its intended objectives.
- Define the project’s requirements and work with the Finance team in procuring the resources.
- Oversee budgetary accountability for projects where required, ensuring alignment and coordination
Organizational Development
- Conducts needs assessments to determine measures required to enhance the overall institutional performance of innovation hubs in the Western Region.
- Support in the development and review of the curriculum and evaluations of training courses, objectives and accomplishments.
- Propose and develop innovative approaches and programs that help offer solutions or add value to the challenges and identified barriers of business.
- Lead the road mapping process and drive the analysis of new opportunities and create a strategic roadmap
- Identifies and incorporates best practices and lessons learned into program plans.
- Consults with management on performance, organizational and leadership matters.
Stakeholder Management
- Ensure adequate and timely communication of the Project to all the stakeholders in the Lake Regional Economic Block such as county governments and Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs) amongst others.
- Represent the organization in meetings with high-profile stakeholders and at events
- Ensure strong stakeholder management through continuous data collection during the project duration to document the impact and share the findings with the ecosystem.
D: Qualifications / Requirements
- Holds a degree from a recognized university or equivalent professional experience
- Experience in mapping and analyzing stakeholder needs, barriers and opportunities
- Exemplary understanding of policy issues and policy development processes
- Experience in organizational development (OD) processes/competent in the area of OD
- Solid experience in representation with donors, government and internal and external stakeholders with a demonstrated track record in business development
- Strong experience in donor reporting, designing, setting up and coordinating, monitoring, evaluating and impact assessment and processes.
- Proven track record of developing strategies, management of programmes achieving key objectives and delivering core outputs
- Experience in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem will be an added advantage
- Experience in coordinating and facilitating multi-stakeholder events and workshops
- Ready and able to be based full-time in Kisumu
E. Competencies:
- Leadership and management experience in leading and implementing projects
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work both independently and cooperatively with team members.
- A versatile leader who takes an active role in program design and overarching strategy
- Able to thrive in evolving and challenging environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.
- Strategic thinker who can go beyond the obvious to spot and take advantage of immediate and long-term opportunities in a way that positions our organization as a credible partner and leader
- Good planning skills
- Have a high degree of integrity and dependability
- Performance and results-oriented
F: How to Apply
To apply please send your CV and application letter to admin@assek.ke by 22nd July 2022 indicating “Project Manager” on the subject line.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
ASSEK is an equal opportunity employer.