Job Opportunity at Heifer International, Senior Business Development Advisor

Heifer International is a global non-profit, humanitarian development organization founded by Dan West in 1944 dedicated to ending hunger and poverty and caring for the Earth by empowering smallholder farm families around the globe become self-reliant and attain sustainable livelihood through economically viable animal agricultural enterprise. The global headquarters is located at 1 World Avenue, Little Rock Arkansas, USA.

Heifer lnternational’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, we have provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. And we continue to make incredible progress toward that mission in the 30 countries which we work. Over the course of the past year, we have set a refined goal within the context of our original mission: to help 4 million families, within the communities where we work, achieve living income by 2020

One the recent projects in its program portfolio is East Africa Dairy Development II (EADD II), an ambitious five-year program designed to transform the lives of resource poor farming families through a competitive and inclusive dairy value chain in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. EADD II in Tanzania is targeting to reach 35,000 farm families, and 200,000 dairy stakeholders in the dairy value chain. The program is implemented in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

The following vacancy has arisen:
Job Title: Senior Business Development Advisor – East Africa Dairy Development-II
Reports to: Cluster Leader
Location: East Africa Dairy Development Project, Njombe, Tanzania.
Closing Date : 15 May 2018

FUNCTION
The Senior Business Development Advisor (SBDA) will work closely with the Country Program Manager (CPM), Business Development Manager (BDM) and cluster teams, to provide leadership to business development at the cluster level in order to increase the overall level of competitiveness of the dairy sub-sector at the cluster. The job entails over 60% field based activities working closely with dairy farmer Producer organizations (POs) processors, dairy interest groups and dairy boards to enhance value-chain actors’ benefits; and leverage service delivery at each level of contact with both farmers and customers. He/She will also involve close collaboration with farmers’ groups, input suppliers, large processors and development partners on the ground in order to design and implement appropriate business development interventions within the cluster.

Minimum Requirements:
a) Bachelors’ Degree or equivalent in the fields of Agriculture Economics, Business Administration, Rural Development, Enterprise Development or other related field.
b) Three (3) years field and technical experience with commercial sector, agribusiness development in a mix of economic growth/trade, value chain competitiveness, investment promotion, or agriculture development.
c) Significant experience in building public/private partnerships, preferably in the dairy sector
d) Strong leadership skills.
e) Experience working with farmer group programs.

Preferred Requirements:
a) Experience in the commercial sector with skills to develop and evaluate investment opportunities and promote such opportunities to financial institutions.
a) Strong consumer marketing, financial analysis and management skills.
b) Experience in supporting and monitoring field based programs in the country.
c) Proven experience in building the capacity of partner institutions to document and disseminate industry information, manage knowledge, measure progress and plan and advocate within the industry.
d) Excellent command of Report writing, analysis and presentation skills using Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
e) Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships;
f) Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations;
g) Valid and clean driving license (with ability to use manual-gear vehicles).