Financial Inclusion Advisor at Cuso International

  Start Date Jul  Sep 2017 (flexible)

Length of Placement 12 Months

Language Requirements English

English Reading: Level 4, Writing: Level 4, Speaking: Level 4

Language Scale: http://www.cusointernational.org/languageratingscale

Open to Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents of Canada only

The Volunteer’s Role

• The Financial Inclusion Advisor will work with the Financial Inclusion manager, partners as well as program staff, and local youth volunteers to develop and implement defined activities to enhance the overall objectives of the financial inclusion component of the project.
• The general goal of the placement is to support the project’s efforts to strengthen the capacities of partner financial service providers (mostly microfinance banks) to develop youth inclusive, gender sensitive and environmental responsible financial products and services which will be accessible by youths for new and expanded businesses employing best practices within the natural resource sector.

As a volunteer, you will:

• Research and analyze the evolving local market for financial products and services; and identify and assess the financing needs of the project’s youth clientele and other agricultural value chain actors – with the view to providing evidence based market information to the project’s partnering financial institutions;
• Continue the work done to identify, screen and build relationships with local organizations (other microfinance institutions, banks, credit unions, guarantee funds and other potential partners) to develop and expand access to financial products and services for youth clients;

Support the implementation of capacity building activities for partnering microfinance banks, including product development;

• Support the development and initial deployment of Management Information Systems (MIS) to ensure internal and external transparency and reporting of financial performance of partner microfinance banks (Note: this activity is dependent on funds available for MIS by the banks);
• Propose new financial solutions for the project’s value chain participants such as embedded finance to youth farmers, and facilitate their implementation by designing, testing, adjusting and ensuring affordability and sustainability of those solutions;
• Work closely with the project team to increase access for youth to appropriate financial products and services through partner and nonpartner financial institutions

Essential Academic Qualifications:

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics or business administration or minimum three years’ experience in a related field;
• Minimum five years’ experience in bank lending, agricultural finance, microfinance, along with experience in value chain development, enterprise development, financial product designs, alternate financial solutions such community savings and lending groups and digital financial services and some exposure to investment would be an advantage;
• Experience in microfinance, enterprise development and financial products design;
• Experience in training, mentoring and institutional capacity building with financial institutions or other private sector organizations.

Essential Professional Background:

• Experience working with financial institutions to facilitate product development with focus on but not limited to renewable energy financing;
• Experience in providing capacity development training for financial institutions;
• Experience developing and delivering gender equality interventions;
• Experience working crossculturally, and within a developing country context.

Support Package

• Modest monthly living allowance (varies depending country)
• Accommodation while in placement
• Return airfare and visa/work permit costs
• Cost of required vaccinations, antimalarial medication and health insurance
• Predeparture training and incountry orientation
• Travel and accommodation for reintegration debriefing weekend
• Modest support for accompanying partners and dependents going on placement with you for 12 months or longer
• Access to Employee Assistance Program while in placement and upon return
• Cuso International assessment day (Candidates must cover the first $200 of the most costeffective travel expenses and all accommodation costs).
• Travel and accommodation for the fiveday predeparture training course and for incountry orientation