Company Profile

CESO is an international economic development organization dedicated to reducing poverty and fostering economic growth around the world and in Canada. CESO empowers people, businesses, communities and institutions to drive economic development and improve lives by sharing the right expertise and experience.

CESO’s international development program aims to advance women’s economic empowerment and gender equality by applying a gender sensitive value chain approach. In this program, CESO will engage highly experienced advisors in short term field assignments to improve opportunities, rights, participation and the role of women in selected sectors including agribusiness, tourism and nutrition. CESO will work closely with developing country partners to design capacity building activities to be implemented by CESO Advisors with support of local staff members and experts.

Job Description

SUMMARY
Reporting to the Country Representative (CR), the Project Officer (PO) will contribute towards fulfilling CESO’s mission of strengthening economic and social well-being in the program country. The PO will support the CR’s role, and will develop and maintain effective relationships with partners, stakeholders, CESO Advisors (CAs) and CESO staff. He/she is responsible for providing overall programmatic and logistical support to design and implement activities in selected sectors, with the aim to advance CESO’s gender equality (GE) and women’s economic empowerment (WEE) objectives, in accordance with approved CESO policies and guidelines.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Program Support

• Participate in stakeholder consultations to support the development of GE/WEE and sector strategies and the integration of local knowledge, in alignment with donor priorities;
• Support partnership development, assignment design and applications with the aim to meet/surpass country targets and objectives;
• Support timely recruitment and deployment of appropriately skilled CAs by collaborating with the Volunteer Services (VS) department and delivering all logistical support as requested;
• Support CAs in carrying out work plans, ensuring they are in line with GE/WEE objectives, local context and CESO guidelines/policies;
• Support the collection of content and the development of communications and marketing materials, as requested by the Communications and Engagement (CE) team, with the aim to showcase the impact of CESO’s work to key stakeholders;
• Represent CESO as a brand ambassador at relevant meetings/events in lieu of CR as needed;
• Contribute to annual work plans and other donor reports.

Operations Support

• Collaborate with VS department to ensure efficient processes are in place to manage CAs’ arrival, placement and departure from the program country, including the development of tools (e.g. online surveys, service questionnaires);
• Assist with in-country travel for CAs if necessary;
• Assist the CR in arranging, in collaboration with partners, accommodation, food and other services to be provided to the CAs, including the identification and approval of comfortable accommodations in a secure and safe location;
• Arrange meetings between CAs and partners relating to CESO assignments;
• Search for, vet and hire vendors/service providers as needed (e.g. interpreters);
• Assist the CR in providing orientation to CAs and monitoring progress of CAs’ work (e.g. participate in entrance and exit meetings between CAs and partners in lieu of CR, as needed);
• File, manage and organize documents related to the program country;
• Adhere to CESO’s policies and processes related to security, emergency preparedness, code of conduct, conflict of interest, misconduct, harassment and other administrative matters;
• Contribute to CESO’s efforts to standardize organizational processes and customer experiences, in line with the One CESO approach;
• Assist the CR with accounting, budget management and preparation of financial reports to the Program Manager;
• Provide any other duties to support CESO’s work in the program country, as required.

Organizational Learning

• Support gender-based analysis in project design, implementation and learning processes;
• Actively collect quality data from partners, clients and other stakeholders and share in a timely manner as requested by the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team;
• Develop strategic, evidence based suggestions to improve long term results based on learning from implemented activities, partners, volunteers and other stakeholders.

Required Skills or Experience

• Degree in business administration, international development or related discipline, and/or 3 years of related experience in a similar role.
• Deep understanding of international development issues, notably GE/WEE, the environment and climate change, private sector development, value chains and governance; hands-on experience with these issues preferred.
• Project management experience.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent written communication skills including the ability to prepare reports and other documents.
• Cultural sensitivity and ability to deal with sensitive issues in a diplomatic fashion.
• Ability to work independently, as well as in a team environment and under pressure.
• Strong organizational skills; attention to detail while successfully meeting tight deadlines
• Proficiency using MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).