About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary:

As a member of the F2F Bina Aljusur project, you will facilitate the achievement of project objectives through coordinating and reporting on all project activities and providing technical guidance and advice to staff and implementing partner(s) advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. You will be responsible for scoping, preparing and supporting the organization, facilitation and marketing of the Business to Business (B2B)meetings. She/he will provide technical support and guidance to the participating Agribusinesses to ensure fruitful and sustainable B2B relations. Manage relationships with existing customers. Conduct market research to stay up to date on business trends, markets and strategies to enrich the B2B relations/platforms

• Organize and lead the implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Establish B2B platforms and ensure they function well, including actively approaching targeted business clients and searching for new client leads to support MSMEs, agriprenuers, and farmer organizations
• Ensure learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle. Conduct market research (analyze competitors, efficiency of sales strategies, etc.). Analyze implementation challenges and report any inconsistencies and/or gaps to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules.
• Coordinate and oversee working relationships with the large agribusinesses, MSMEs, agriprenuers, and farmer organizations as well as build relationships with other private sector parties that have a business model and interest which is relevant to the MSMEs, agriprenuers, and farmer organizations.
• Provide accompaniment to MSMEs, agriprenuers, and farmer organizations during their business start-up, providing individual follow-up as well as organizing monthly meetings to reinforce training topics and facilitate peer exchange of experience.
• Facilitate linkages between small scale producers, their cooperatives, agri-entrepreneurs with other value chain actors in agribusiness, financial institutions and input suppliers
• Support and coordinate capacity building and technical support activities to ensure agribusiness development activities are implemented per project guidelines and standards.
• Ensure project documentation for assigned activities is complete with all required documents and is filed per agency and donor requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business management, Agricultural Economics, or in a similar field is preferred.
• Minimum of 4 years of work experience in project support, ideally in the field of Agribusiness activities and value chain development(this could be outside of non-profit organizations)
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.

Required Languages - Fluent written and spoken Arabic and professional level of written and spoken English required.

Travel- Position is based in El Daein, East Darfur. Must be willing and able to travel up to 70% to project areas in East and South Kordofan.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

• Analysis and problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Staff supervision experience a plus.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff) 

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

Supervisory Responsibilities:2 Project Officers

Key Working Relationships: 

• Internal: Bina Aljusur DCoP, Project Officers, CRS Sudan country program MEAL Unit, East Darfur Head of Office, operations staff and CRS Regional Technical Advisors
• External: Relevant government departments as relevant, partner MEAL staff