Interagency Coordination Specialist Volunteer Expert
ORGANIZATION: IESC/Geekcorps
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Interagency Coordination Specialist Volunteer Expert
**Posted on behalf of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)**
Location of Assignment: Zanzibar City, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Proposed Level of Effort: 6 weeks
Anticipated Start Date: June 19, 2017
Background
Tanzania has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. With nearly 70 percent of the country’s labor force and a quarter of its GDP tied to agriculture, the US government, through its Feed the Future initiative, recognizes the high potential for stimulating inclusive, broad-based economic growth through support to the sector.
The Tanzania Enabling Growth through Investment and Enterprise Program (ENGINE) is a four-year USAID-funded Feed the Future Tanzania activity awarded through the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) contractual mechanism that aims to streamline and enhance many of the regulatory, informational and financial channels that encourage domestic and foreign investment in the southern mainland agricultural regions of Mbeya, Morogoro, and Iringa, and in Zanzibar.
ENGINE works at the district Local Government Authority (LGA) level, using a broad-based approach to engage with district councils, private sector associations, business development service providers, financial institutions and small and medium enterprises. The program’s activities are divided into three main components:
- Implement policies for growth. Build the capacity of the private sector to effectively dialogue with the government to set the policy agenda and improve the capacity of the public sector to implement policies.
- Equip businesses for growth. Strengthen SME capacity and foster the growth and capacity of a sustainable market for business development services (BDS) in Tanzania.
- Access to finance for growth. Broaden access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in all sectors, especially women and youth entrepreneurs and those working within agricultural value chains (excluding primary producers), to facilitate increased business viability, growth, and investment.
Problem Statement
Tanzania’s Vision 2020, the Zanzibar Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (ZSGRP - MKUZA) III, and the 2006 Zanzibar Trade policy each stress the importance of strengthening the business environment to create a thriving private sector. Business registration and licensing are key components constraining the business environment and ease of doing business, which can deter private sector growth.
Among the major challenges to creating a strong business enabling environment for the development of the private sector is the process for starting formal businesses, registering them and obtaining business licenses. Under these current formalization regime(s), there are many administrative procedures required by different authorities overseeing these processes. Surveying the customer experience navigating these procedures will allow them to be mapped, made more efficient, and harmonized. Gathering information about the business environment could help each of these disparate agencies improve customer service and their ability to quantify and monitor progress in streamlining the related businesses formalization processes and assess their progress in strengthening the business enabling environment that contributes to the growth of the formal economy.
Objective
To lower barriers to business formalization and increase the number of registered, licensed, and formal businesses, by making the business registration, licensing, and formalization processes as customer-friendly and simple as possible.
Assignment Tasks
The Expert Volunteer will complete the following tasks:
- Attend an orientation meeting with ENGINE Program staff;
- Accompanied by relevant ENGINE staff, attend an introductory meeting with leadership of the various stakeholder agencies to discuss the Expert Volunteer assignment and to review its objectives;
- Facilitate a consultation workshop with a technical working group comprised of relevant Zanzibar national and local institutional stakeholders to undertake an inter-agency mapping exercise and the design of an integrated baseline survey of business formalization, registration, and licensing in four of the local jurisdictions in Zanzibar (Urban Municipal Council, West A Municipal Council, and West B Municipal Council in Unguja, and Chake Chake Town Council in Pemba), and plan how it could be structured to meet the information needs of all agencies to help them achieve rapid results in creating a strengthened business-enabling environment;
- Assist the business formalization survey technical working group with preparatory steps (identifying necessary data points, developing the scope of the survey instrument, identify preliminary survey methods, etc.) to conduct a comprehensive survey of the state of business registration, licensing, and formalization in four of the local jurisdictions in Zanzibar (Urban Municipal Council, West A Municipal Council, and West B Municipal Council in Unguja, and Chake Chake Town Council in Pemba). The survey will build on the results of the "Doing Business in Zanzibar, 2010" (World Bank/IFC, 2010) and other relevant source material.
- Write a Final Report summarizing findings, conclusions and recommendations related to the assignment, as well as a discussion of the interagency technical working group’s organizational development challenges and proposed solutions;
- Provide exit debriefings to agency leadership (including the interagency technical working group), ENGINE, USAID and relevant anchor institutions/key stakeholders that provide an overview of the assignment and the interagency technical working group’s organizational development challenges and proposed solutions.
- Minutes/notes of the meeting(s)/workshop(s) described in (Tasks B through G above, and other relevant project meetings)
- Documents developed with the business formalization survey technical working group (Task D above)
- Action Plan
- Draft Scope of Work
- 5+ years of experience working within local governments, economic development agencies, or business associations (and, preferably with a role in project management, planning, policy or economic development);
- Experience with designing and conducting business baseline surveys;
- A proven track record of success in coordinating the collaboration of multiple government agencies to achieve a common task, with a measurable output;
- Experience in stakeholder engagement, consultation, and facilitation;
- Well-developed writing skills in English and the ability to express one’s self clearly and concisely;
- University degree in public administration, public policy, or another relevant field;
- Training skills, including participatory training in group settings. Training and consultation experience utilizing a translator or interpreter is an added plus;
- Self-motivated, proactive, detail-oriented, mature, professional team player, who is a strong people person and communicator, with good inter-personal skills;
- Ability to address issues, challenges, questions, and concerns in a professional, respectful, logical, and timely manner;
- Works well in a multi-cultural setting;
- Good computer skills in MS Office.
More opportunities with IESC/Geekcorps
No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.
About IESC/Geekcorps
Location:
901 15th Street NW, Suite 1010, Washington, DC 20005, US
Mission Statement
Promoting stability and prosperity in the developing world
Description
Geekcorps, a division of IESC, promotes economic growth in the developing world by sending highly skilled technology volunteers to teach communities how use innovative and affordable information and communication technologies to solve development problems.
CAUSE AREAS
WHEN
WHERE
Zanzibar CityZanzibar, Tanzania
DATE POSTED
May 23, 2017
SKILLS
- Business Development & Sales Management
- Strategic Planning
- SWOT / GAP Analysis
- Business Planning
- Management
- Professional Development
GOOD FOR
N/A
REQUIREMENTS
- 6 weeks