Scope of Work Summary:
USAID Small and Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA) requires the services of a Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)/consultant to provide support and help increase outreach, processing and follow up for a series of ongoing and upcoming training sessions (especially online sessions) for women entrepreneurs:
- Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness trainings
- FinLit or any other trainings for WLBs
1. Position Title and Department:
WLB Trainings – Special Initiative Manager
2. General Summary:
Chemonics International is implementing USAID Small and Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA), which is a five-year, USD 35 million project that is aimed at improvement of financial and operating performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Pakistan in selected high-performing industrial, manufacturing and services sectors. SMEA’s development hypothesis is that MSME-led economic growth will result in poverty reduction, job creation, and entrepreneurship development contributing to increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The project has a special interest in encouraging Women-Led Businesses (WLBs) to ensure that they are able display similar signs of growth as male-led businesses (increase in sales, jobs and exports). The constraints around business growth for small WLBs were initially identified during SMEA’s Market Led Sector Analysis, and then confirmed again through further meetings with stakeholders. These challenges were also identified as a part of the Business Enabling Environment (BEE) Analysis, which found that the same issues faced by male owned enterprises were accentuated when faced by female entrepreneurs. It was found that receiving support in terms of skill building in certain areas will enable women entrepreneurs to promote and manage their businesses more efficiently and confidently. Hence, SMEA’s targeted training efforts for WLBs since 2018 have resulted in a steady improvement in their economic performance as well as greater resilience to unprecedented challenges (particularly during COVID-19). For this reason, SMEA has been continuously organizing in-person and online need-based trainings as part of the Competitiveness Enhancement (CE) component.
So far, SMEA has carried out 35+ training activities to engage 700+ women owned MSMEs (36 percent of the project portfolio) from across all six regions (48 districts) of Pakistan. Some of the most popular training modules have included Business Management and Marketing (BMM), Sales and Taxation, Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Youth, Improving Financial Worthiness and Online Marketing with Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness. The project has partnered with a range of private and public sector entities and each of these training types served a different purpose and catered to a diverse audience. Over the past few months, the relevance of these trainings has grown exponentially due to COVID-19, as the need to remotely but successfully market a business through social media was augmented during the pandemic induced lockdowns. On the basis of these results, SMEA has decided to continue these and implement new online training modules to support a larger number of WLBs. To increase outreach, induction, screening, registration and follow up with a larger number of WLBs for these trainings, SMEA intends to induct a Special Initiative Manager, to support the WLB Specialist.
3. Duties and responsibilities:
The STTA will be required to increase the scale of WLB training sessions as proposed by the technical team. All the activities performed by the STTA must be in line with the awarded contract and scope of work. The consultant will perform the activity by keeping in view the business protocols/scope and quality parameters defined in the contract as per Chemonics policies. The STTA will also be responsible to produce and submit all deliverables with supporting documents mentioned in deliverable schedule.
4. Specific Tasks of the STTA:
The STTA as WLB Training Special Initiative Manager will build outreach to gather a large number of WLBs and organize a series of training sessions. In a nutshell, the STTA will be expected to carry out the following duties as part of its consultancy under CE:
- Building outreach with new and existing partners to engage 400-500 new WLBs, especially for online training events
- Reviewing and finalizing relevant participant lists
- Making arrangements for approximately 30+ sessions
- Coordinating with the CE Team, trainers and M&E team
- Engaging with participants (pre and post training) to collect registrations/feedback
- Monitoring sessions for the full duration to maximize participation
- Distributing certificates to WLBs that successfully complete the training
- Reporting on progress against each training as per project indicators
- Identify needs for new potential trainings
- Any other tasks that may come up for the successful execution of the session
5. Duty Station:
The STTA should be available to work with the USAID SMEA team out of SMEA’s Islamabad/Lahore/Karachi/other offices as and when required. In the case of travel and lodging, the cost will be paid according to the standard Chemonics’ policy.
6. Duration of the Assignment:
This assignment is planned to take place as per start date of on or around December, 2020 and end date of on or around November 2021, for up to a total of 107 days Level of Effort (LOE).
7. Job Qualification:
- Bachelor’s in social sciences, business management, economics or relevant field (preferably Masters)
- Minimum five years of relevant professional experience (preferably one to two years of experience in working with MSMEs and women entrepreneurs)
- Ability to build outreach amongst WLBs and confidently manage large crowds online (training management experience will also be an advantage)
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English are a must
- Self-motivated and responsible individual who can work independently and deliver results within assigned timelines
- Female applicants are encouraged to apply