District Economic Strengthening Officer

Title

District Economic Strengthening Officer

Location

Beitbridge

Type of Contract

Fixed Term Contract

Deadline

07/10/2022 (Expired)

About

Zimbabwe Health Interventions (ZHI) is a not-for-profit human development organisation which is registered as a Trust under the Zimbabwe Deeds Registries Act (Chapter 20:05). ZHI’s mission is to develop and deliver innovative and sustainable high impact integrated health interventions with local communities while working with and strengthening existing institutions.

The Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe women (DREAMS) Program aims to prevent new HIV infections and reduce vulnerability among OVC, OVC caregivers and Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in Zimbabwe. The DREAMS program is being implemented in priority high HIV burden districts in Zimbabwe. ZHI’s primary role is to deliver a comprehensive curriculum on HIV prevention, gender norms and social asset building targeted at AGYW in school, out of school and their sexual partners at community level. ZHI’s core thrust in the DREAMS Program is to keep girls and young women HIV Free through supporting them to; Stay in school; Prevent early pregnancies; Prevent sexual violence; Access Post violence care; Reduce child marriage. DREAMS provides a comprehensive, multi-sectoral package of core interventions to address key factors that make girls and young women particularly vulnerable to HIV. These include structural factors, such as gender-based violence, exclusion from economic opportunities, and a lack of access to secondary school. DREAMS layers multiple interventions at once so that AGYW are surrounded with critical support to keep them safe from HIV and other risks.

Basic Function

The District Economic Strengthening Officer is responsible for supporting AGYW to undertake economic strengthening activities. S/He will support DPC by providing training, and technical support to targeted vulnerable Adolescent Girls and Young Women focusing on implementing and managing micro- enterprises, employment opportunities, financial education, market opportunity identification/assessment, and entrepreneurship and business development services. S/he will support DREAMS Clubs to liaise with relevant government ministries and programs, other technical experts and agencies, and the private sector to support AGYW graduation and transition. The District Economic Strengthening Officer is responsible for delivering the DREAMS Program Economic strengthening package at community level. They collaborate with community cadres, APOs and Services and Linkages Facilitators to mobilize, assess and recruit eligible girls into the DREAMS

The District Economic Strengthening Officer is responsible for working with others in developing and maintaining working relationships with beneficiaries, their families and community organizations, as well as enhancing relationships with referral sources and community leaders. They monitor and support ISAL Groups to thrive. Their primary responsibility is to support girls to identify and successfully follow a pathway of their choice. They work under the guidance and supervision of the Economic Strengthening Coordinators. They will ensure timely documentation and reporting of program activities using the ZHI weekly, monthly, biannual and annual reporting formats.

Job Description

Overall planning and implementation of the out of school combined socio-economic program at district level in collaboration with DPCs and ZHI sub-partners; Identify and nurture strategic partnerships to support program to meet its economic strengthening goals. Liaison with DREAMS Implementing Partners, Local Authorities, Zimbabwe Informal Traders Council (ZITC), Farmer Association, Government Extension Agencies and Private; Companies amongst others Develop and maintain linkages with governments, organizations, and projects that support economic strengthening activities; Coordinate with private companies and value chain players in provision production contracts and extension services for livestock and crop products to encourage farm and off farm enterprises; Use appropriate project management tools to plan, review, and track implementing partners’ progress on project implementation and use of project resources; Ensure high quality facilitation of training and systematic post-training supportive supervision and mentoring to AGYW and partner staff; Foster a culture of accountability and learning through regular monitoring to project sites, providing oversight of studies and assessments, and proper documentation of tools and promising practices to contribute to learning and building the evidence around household graduation, transition, and economic strengthening; Document project results and impacts in various forms, including media stories, lessons learned, case studies, client satisfaction, etc; Provide technical support to the District Project Officer and sub-partners in the implementation of the economic strengthening component as per program and donor benchmarks; Supports the DPC to implement Economic Strengthening program activities in designated districts; Supports OOS Club Supervisors (CS) and Facilitators (CF) identify, mobilize and recruit AGYW into clubs as well as identifying those that are eligible for the Economic Strengthening activities; Ensure program quality through use of program standard operating procedures and guides in clubs; Supporting the implementation of the Economic Strengthening activities ensuring that sessions meet program quality standards; Directly supports program monitoring through tracking weekly targets and mobilizing project data; Drafts project reports as required; Do any other duties as assign by supervisor.

Knowledge, Skills and abilities

Experience in working with vulnerable young people in economic strengthening initiatives, in areas such as small-scale crop and livestock production, value-chain development, business development, entrepreneurship, financial services; Demonstrated experience in community mobilization, organization, management and mediation among local actors and partner capacity building; Demonstrated experience in training design, delivery and mentoring in subject matter relevant to this position; Commitment to and understanding of the DREAMS Program’s goals aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches as they relate to building resilience to obtain better health outcomes; Ability to work independently, think innovatively and strategically, and work. Effectively within a team; Fluency in written and spoken English; Excellent verbal and written communication skills; Ability to work under pressure and deadlines; Sense of confidentiality; Good interpersonal communication skills; Excellence non-judgmental interaction with beneficiaries and stakeholders, great listener; Initiative and the ability to anticipate situations, create opportunities or avoid problems; Demonstrated skills in the effective management of resources; Demonstrated teamwork and networking abilities; Computer literacy; Proficiency in local languages a distinct added advantage.

Qualifications and experience

Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Natural Resource Management, Social Sciences, or a closely related field; A minimum of 3 years’ experience in household economic strengthening programming.

Application Procedures

Step 1: click here to complete the job application form.
Step 2: Submit your CV and application letter via email to recruitment@zhi.org.zw clearly indicating the position you are applying for on the subject of the email.

Statement

During the application process, ZHI will not charge any fee nor will it require any payment for an application to be considered. ZHI is an equal opportunity employer and employs personnel without regard to race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical handicap or financial ability.