Access to Finance Lead

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long-term impact.

The Program / Department / Team

The USAID Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaaع) is a five year, $75M USAID-funded project focused on formal and informal micro and small enterprise (MSE) development. The program geographically covers all of Jordan and seeks to create jobs and increase revenues for both formal and informal businesses. An important objective of the program is to facilitate business formalization for those informal businesses which have achieved appropriate scale and have the skills or access to required skills to remain formal in a healthy and sustainable manner. Iqlaaع is focused on four initial economic sectors: Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services and Tourism and hospitality.

Iqlaaع utilizes a market system approach not only to evaluate and elevate the competitiveness of individual enterprises but to also ensure that the market systems which they are part of are also supportive, synergistic and competitive. As such, Iqlaaع will be seeking to develop and/or support both formal and non-formal financial service providers (e.g. financial institutions as well as market actors providing credit and other services to customers and suppliers) in order to enable MSEs to reach more lucrative and resilient markets. As an evidence-driven program, Iqlaaع’s interventions will be designed to address weaknesses or exploit opportunities identified through existing evidence and the conducting of strategic research to test assumptions through pilots and fill critical gaps. Key to sustainable competitiveness and growth is a thriving and accessible financial services ecosystem that understands and values MSEs as important long-term customers.

The Position

The Access to Finance Lead is responsible for identifying areas of weakness and opportunity in the access to finance field which serves HBBs, and Micro/Small enterprises. Based on these findings the Access to Finance Lead will be responsible for leading staff, consultants and stakeholders to conceptualize, design, test, promote and deliver new/modified access to finance services and products through new or existing financial service providers to better serve HBBs, and Micro/Small enterprises. Access to finance services and products cover, debt, equity, grants and hybrid models. The Access to Finance Lead is also responsible for identifying, designing and delivering ways and means to HBBs and Micro/small enterprises to improve their ability to more intelligently and affectively use access to finance products and services to facilitate and support sustainable business growth.

Assessment & Analysis:

Using a Market Systems Analysis approach, lead the team to:

• Identify the various formal and informal financial services providers (local, regional and international) serving the Jordanian marketplace who provide financial services to home based businesses (HBBs) and micro & small enterprises (MSEs) through debt, equity and hybrid financial instruments.
• Discern and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the various, readily available financial instruments and services as far as they serve the needs and requirements of Jordanian HBBs and MSEs, as well as the needs of broader, strategic Jordanian market systems.
• Collaborate with local formal and informal financial services providers to identify regulatory, HR skill and capacity, and technology and system limitations which affect formal and informal financial services providers’ abilities to effectively serve Jordanian HBBs and MSEs.
• Work with Jordanian HBBs, MSEs, including those owned by women, youth and people living with disabilities, and Market system actors to identify and prioritize market opportunities with regard to modifying existing financial products and services in use in the Jordanian marketplace.
• Identify system actors with the incentives and capacity to sustain changes that would benefit HBBs and MSEs

Intervention design and management:

• Lead and manage the access to finance team in the timely, effective and adaptive design and implementation of a portfolio of interventions that is appropriately balanced in terms of risk and benefits in the achievement of targets, that is on time, on scope and on budget.
• Utilize evidence to understand local enterprises and market system actors financing needs and limitations comparing these to what currently exists for the express purpose of redesigning existing financial tools and services or designing new financial tools and services to meet local enterprise and market system needs.
• Coordinate with and facilitate the work of project partners and market actors who are focused on access to finance functions, these functions include, but are not limited to, lending mechanisms to MSEs, MSEs' microfinancing, loan guarantees, digital financing, mobile wallets, and access to banking, financial inclusion for MSEs, financial literacy, and access to investments
• Partner with local formal and informal financial services providers, providing a temporary and targeted support package which enables them to implement the required changes to their products and services to better serve local enterprises and market systems sustainably.
• In partnership with the PQL team, lead the access to finance team in regular reviews of interventions' performance, assessing both the impact at the level of the partnership and the wider system change impact. Adapt the portfolio in light of emergent results.

Enabling Environment

• Identify and understand the impact and implications of existing governmental regulations on both formal and informal providers of financial services to effectively address the needs of HBBs and MSEs.
• Develop individually or in cooperation with external consultants recommendations to improve the regulatory environment for both formal and informal providers of financial services to serve HBBs and MSEs with a focus on implementation.
• Coordinate regulatory reform efforts with sister USAID projects which are focusing on economic reforms, as well as the team working on interventions with associations and business groups, to ensure that recommendations are fed into them

Continuous monitoring, research, reporting and learning

In partnership with the Iqlaaع Program Quality and Learning (PQL) Team:

• Analyze existing evidence and monitoring and evaluation data from both external and internal sources for improving access to financial services for MSEs, and prepare and propose approaches and activities appropriate for the Iqlaaع program.
• Monitor and evaluate the impact of modifying existing or introducing new financial products and services, as well as new regulations or policies affecting both formal and informal providers of financial services on HBBs, MSEs and broader Market Systems.
• Engage in the design and evaluation of research initiatives that test assumptions and fill critical evidence gaps regarding MSE’s access to and use of financial services from formal and information financial services providers.
• Write monthly activity reports and quarterly case studies, and contribute to the development of reports and case studies as assigned and required by the Iqlaaع program.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Support Mercy Corps country, regional and global initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development;
• Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development;
• Assist with the on-boarding of senior team members, ensuring they are set up for success and familiar with agency systems, procedures, and protocols.

RISK MANAGEMENT

• Engage and support countries across the region to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place;
• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events;
• Engage with country teams on the internal audit process to track findings and ensure country team compliance with IA findings and recommendations;
• Engage with country level Ethics and Assurance managers as well as the global Ethics and Assurance department to track and analyze trends and needs across countries;

Supervisory Responsibility

Supervises a team of 2-3 personnel including a Financial Services Coordinator and Financial Services Officer

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Technical DCoP

Works Directly With: MSE sector Lead, Innovation and Scale Lead, Outreach and Coordination Manager, Research and Learning Lead, Inclusion Lead, Program Quality and Learning Team, and COP.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Demonstrated knowledge of the Jordanian financial sector for equity, debt and hybrid instruments targeting HBBs and MSEs.
• Demonstrated familiarity with international practice, products and services in providing finance to HBBs, and MSEs.
• University Degree in Finance, Economic Development or related fields with at least seven years’ experience in work related to enterprise finance (debt, equity, hybrid).
• Previous work with HBBs, MSEs or Start-ups
• Familiarity with incubation and acceleration and practical knowledge of relevant business support services
• Fluency in Arabic. High proficiency in English (report writing level) required
• Previous experience with development assistance programs preferable

Success Factors

Deep familiarity with the financing requirements and financial challenges facing HBBs (formal and informal), Micro enterprises and Small businesses. Working knowledge of alternative financing mechanisms such as angel funding, seed funding, early growth and mature growth stage funding requirements for promising businesses. Familiarity to include knowledge of crowdfunding methods, reverse factoring, leveraging loan guarantees, etc. Desire and ability to identify new funding concepts and tools as well as a desire to implement new solutions which fit identified opportunities and address challenges. Knowledge of the existing Jordanian MSE financial services sector with opinions on strengths and weaknesses and ideas on how to improve.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Amman, Jordan and requires up to 40% travel to the field, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

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