Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub Recent Job Opportunity

The USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub (the “Hub”) project, a five-year trade and investment program for Southern Africa in its third year of implementation, is expected to increase global competitiveness and intra-regional trade and improve food security in Southern Africa. The Hub engages with partners across the region to increase sustainable economic growth, global export competitiveness, and trade in targeted Southern African countries.

It supports these objectives by increasing exports from Southern African countries to South Africa and the United States (under the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA]), boosting capital and technology flows from South Africa to other Southern African countries, and providing targeted trade facilitation support to Zambia.

The Hub works with market actors to identify and resolve enterprise constraints and to implement sustainable solutions through market-based trade and investment facilitation services. The Hub partners with USAID bilateral missions through the USAID/Southern Africa Regional Economic Growth Office in the successful delivery of its objectives.

Going forward, in partnership with USAID, the Hub will narrow its activities to achieve the following three objectives:

1. Increased exports to South Africa from targeted Southern African countries
2. Increased investment (capital and technology) out of South Africa to targeted Southern African countries
3. Sustainable utilization of AGOA opportunities by targeted Southern African countries

In addition, the Hub will improve Zambia’s trade enabling environment as part of a buy-in from USAID/Zambia.

 

 

Job Title: Program Associate – Office of the Chief of Party (COP)
Location: South Africa

Objectives and Duties:

The Program Associate will lead the management of the COP’s office for strategic focus and operational efficiency to ensure that the COP is effective in his leadership role and in managing his time.

Overall Tasks and Responsibilities:  

• Set the COP’s strategic priorities:
• Helping the COP identify the areas where he must direct his focus and identifying metrics for success, revisiting these priorities regularly and evaluating progress.
• Monitor information flow:
• Sometimes acting as a gatekeeper, ensuring the COP’s involvement in a project or decision-making process takes place at key times, where his input and authority are most needed.
• Implement:
• Translate COP program plans into action and drive innovation; act as a representative of the COP and step in to make decisions and attend to special projects as a designate of the COP.
• Ensure operational effectiveness:
• Create the necessary structures and establish processes that ensure efficiencies for delivery of work in a timely manner and on-budget.

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Managing the senior management meetings, ensuring materials are sent in advance, time is well spent, and objectives are achieved.
• Planning and leading program retreats and other special events.
• Creating and updating dashboards for reviewing key performance indicators.
• Strategically managing the COP’s time, looking at long-term travel calendar, evaluating opportunities, and determining fit with priorities.
• Reviewing upcoming meetings for the week to ensure the COP has all of the information needed to be as productive as possible and sending out agendas or documents to meeting attendees as necessary.
• Attending meetings and calls on behalf of the COP if he is unable to attend.
• Writing first drafts of proposals, emails, letters, etc. for the COP.
• Taking notes during the meetings that the COP attends and making sure that the action items from the meetings are executed.
• Acting as the communication arm (in coordination with the Communications Director) for the COP with other Directors in the program, USAID, or major stakeholders.
• Acting as a sounding board to the COP for new ideas and initiatives.
• Acting as the facilitator for wants, needs, concerns, ideas from employees to the COP in an effective and efficient way.

Qualifications:

• At least 5 years professional experience in a development organization or corporate environment
• Consulting experience with a focus on operations management or corporate communications
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and remain calm under pressure
• Exhibit resilience in the face of adversity and reduce COP distractions
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and build trust with program leadership team and serve as a confidant and sounding board to the COP, including being willing to disagree with the COP
• A CAN DO and WILL DO attitude, decisiveness, and ability to challenge the status quo
• Nimble business mind with a focus on developing creative solutions
• Proven success in a project coordination role and completing tasks in an orderly manner
• Experience with data analysis and budget management
• Strong project reporting skills, with a focus on interdepartmental communication
• Willingness to grow and an insatiable curiosity to continuously improve
• MBA strongly preferred or master’s degree in management or related area
• Methodical research skills with analytical capabilities to collect, distill, and interpret data
• An innovative and pragmatic problem solver with demonstrable skills for prioritization and organization of tasks within a complex project setting
• Demonstrated leadership skills and the ability to work well within a team
• Excellent English report writing and communication skills

Supervisory Responsibilities:

N/A

Place of Performance and Reporting:

The Program Associate will be based in Pretoria, South and will report to the Chief of Party.

To apply

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Interested candidates should submit their CV to [email protected]

 

Application Deadline: December 20, 2019