Duma Works is recruiting a Program
Associate for one of our clients; a leading
organisation that represents Africa’s largest network of smallholder farmers
with a vision to serve at least 1 million farm families by 2020.
Wanted: Early‐career professionals with
2–5+ years’ work experience to serve in a position that combines both field and
management experience in Africa.
Job Description: The
organization was launched in Rwanda in 2007 and is now their second largest
country of operation.
The organization anticipates 50%
growth in enrollment this year, much of this growth will come from their Kenya
and Rwanda operations.
In 2014, Rwanda reached its highest
enrollment numbers to date, and working with their Rwanda team presents the
opportunity to directly serve 10% of the Rwandan population in the next four
years. The organization is currently seeking Program Associates in Rwanda
on the following teams:
Field Operations: The main objective of our Field Operations
team is to build the capacity of our local staff to provide financially
sustainable impact, at scale, to all farmers. This team is the direct
service provider to our farmers.
Field Operations is responsible for
setting strategy, developing content, liaising with other departments, and
ensuring execution of our program at scale. Every material or strategy
rolled out through the core program will reach hundreds of thousands of
farmers! Example projects include:
Operations Management:
Most Program Associates start out partnering with a Senior Field Director to
support ongoing operations/district performance management and mentor the field
leadership in that region.
Eventually, Field Operations team
members’ take‐on more central management responsibilities, which could include
managing our core calendar, managing communication flow from the operations
team to the field, and/or facilitating key meetings with other
departments.
Scale Improvements:
All Program Associates will be expected to manage anywhere from 1 to 3 scale
improvement projects that set our core program content and aim to improve the
way that we operate at scale.
This involves managing a project
plan/calendar, making strategy recommendations, developing content, and
ensuring execution.
An example of a scale improvement
project would be leading the scale-‐up of major program change
like mobile repayment where farmers can repay their loan using
mobile
money.
Product Innovations:
The objective of Product Innovations
is to increase positive impact on farmers’ lives by developing new products and
improving our existing product offering.
This team manages our agricultural
and non-‐agricultural product pipelines and runs trials using a multi-‐phased
product development cycle to determine if new a product should be offered to
our entire client base.
Example projects include:
Agriculture Product
Development: A Program Associate typically manages
one of the stages in the Agricultural Product Development cycle, which includes
research stations, farmer trials, demo plots, and large farmer trials.
Additionally, a Program Associate may
manage 1-‐2 non‐agricultural products that are in development (for example, reusable
sanitary pads).
Trial Design & Execution: Program
Associates fully own projects and are responsible for all aspects from trial
design through execution.
Each Program Associate manages a
project until it either reaches full scale or is handed to our Core Program
team or until the product shows no further promise.
Mentor-ship & Development of
Staff: Manage and mentor 1-‐2 staff;
in addition to assisting with Product Innovations trials, staff will
develop into independent innovators capable of leading their own
projects.
Scale Innovations: The Scale Innovations team aims to deepen impact
on every community we serve by increasing the percent of households who join
our program, and by developing innovations that help our field staff serve
farmers better.
Our trials include innovations around
marketing, mobile technologies, farmer cash constraints, and more.
We develop trial interventions using
a combination of data analysis and human centered design methods, and test them
using field pilots, surveys, and close engagement with farmers.
Recent projects include piloting new
strategies for marketing to our farmers, testing new forms of repayment
incentives, and integrating tablets into our field program.
The typical steps in a trial include: Understand the problem and
develop trial concept: Meet with field leaders, gather information using
surveys, analyze existing KPIs, observe operations in the field, talk to
farmers, literature reviews, etc. Identify and prioritize ideas to improve the
program.
Plan the trial:
- Design a quantitatively rigorous trial.
- Plan a project calendar and create field tools
and talking points.
- Design integration with tech and finance
systems and set up incentive systems that promote success.
Run the trial:
- Supervise trial roll-‐out, usually done
by Field Officers.
- Visit the trial in the field to observe
execution and propose mid-‐trial changes where appropriate.
Collect/analyze data:
- Usually involves both quantitative and
qualitative components.
Communicate results:
- Create reports, present findings, meet with
key stakeholders to determine how findings should be implemented in our
core program, or if trial should be scaled up/rerun/canceled.
Mentorship & Development of
Staff:
- Manage and mentor 1-‐2 staff; in
addition to assisting with Scale Innovations trials, staff will develop
into independent innovators capable of leading their own
projects.
Career Growth and Development: The
organization invests heavily in building management and leadership skills. Your
manager will invest significant time in your career development.
We provide constant, actionable
feedback delivered through mentor-ship and through regular management
consulting-‐style career reviews.
We also have regular one‐on‐one
meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively
to craft roles that each person can be passionate about.
Because of our rapid growth, we
constantly have new roles opening up and opportunities to grow in many
functions. This results in relatively fast career growth for our
staff.
Qualifications: We are seeking exceptional professionals with 2 to
5+ years of work experience, and a demonstrated long-‐term
passion for international development.
Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Strong work experiences. Examples include a
demanding professional work experience, or successful
entrepreneurial experience (e.g. starting a field program in a developing
country, leading a conference, starting a business, solid Peace Corps
accomplishments).
- Leadership experience at work, or outside of
work.
- Top-‐performing undergraduate background (include
GPA and test scores on your resume).
- We are looking for passionate professionals
who combine strong leadership skills with good humor,
patience, and a humble approach to service to join our growing family of
leaders.
- A willingness to commit to living in rural
areas of East Africa for at least two years‐ this is a long‐term, career‐track role.
- The ideal candidate will have at least one
year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although
this is not a strict requirement.
- Ability to cook/laugh – desirable.
- Language: English required. Kinyarwanda‐speakers are
particularly encouraged to apply.
Preferred Start Date: Flexible
Compensation: Starts modest. However, this is a career‐track
role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary
for long‐term placement in developing
nations.
Benefits: Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and
board.
Job Location: Rural Rwanda
Duration: Minimum 2-‐year commitment, full‐time
job.
How to Apply:
Applications letters and detailed CV
are to be sent by email to apply@dumaworks.com marking the subject as “PAR
1855”, Your Full name & Phone number e.g. PAR 1855, Barack Obama,
07xxxxxxxxx.
If you don’t follow these
instructions, your application will not go through
Deadline for receiving applications: 25th September 2015
