Enterprise Development Assistant (NPSA-4), SWAPNO II

Over the last decade, Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth and human development. Despite progress, fragile employment and the growing frequency and intensity of disasters and climate hazards are impeding progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality and forced millions of people into poverty in Bangladesh. Women are facing the burden of these complicated issues, and the pandemic primarily had gendered consequences, slowing or even reversing much of the progress made toward gender equality.

Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO) is a gender-based social security project that aims to lift poverty-stricken rural women (divorced/separated/widowed/having a husband with disability) out of economic insecurity by providing them with productive and sustainable livelihood opportunities. In addition to self-employment, SWAPNO also helps place women in local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and private sector companies in the formal and informal sectors.

Since its inception, SWAPNO has benefited 12,492 beneficiaries in five districts. Among them, SWAPNO II has covered 3564 in Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, and Gaibandha districts. The project has aided economically disadvantaged women in developing their talents, linking them to services and the local market, and ensuring their financial inclusion. This has ensured their survival, improved their resilience to shocks, and provided them more power.

Based on the success of the project and the experience gained, SWAPNO II aspires to implement the project across the 12 districts of Bangladesh – Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Gopalgonj, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Cumilla, and Chandpur. SWAPNO will specifically target women group from 18 to 30 years and 31 to 45 years to ensure employability and sustainability of project outcomes. The project will maximize the possibilities for financial inclusion while also emphasizing future employability by improving industry skills for job placements in the formal sector and local SMEs. Additionally, SWAPNO will aim to attract investors for social enterprises that offer commercially viable solutions for social problems, encourage environment-friendly business, create employment, and collaborate with the private sector. The project will put further emphasis on the importance of disaster resilience and climate change adaptation and train women to develop their life and soft skills.

In this backdrop, this Implementation Plan outlines SWAPNO’s strategy to support women’s access to decent employment, ensure a discrimination-free environment in public workplaces, develop adaptive livelihoods, establish localized Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), access to financial services for sustainable graduation from extreme poverty, and develop local government capacity to implement pro-poor projects. SWAPNO II will contribute to achieve the following results:

• Outcome 1: Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Sustaining SWAPNO Benefits
• Outcome 2: Increased Income and Assets Engaging Local Economy and Skill Development
• Outcome 3: Strengthened Human Capabilities and Resilience Capacity
   

The Enterprise Development Assistant will be responsible for the digital transformation of existing and new entrepreneurs of the SWAPNO project. S/he will be primarily responsible for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) Development to create local employment and implement the SWAPNO skills and employment development initiatives. S/he will report on work progress and work plans accordingly.

Summary of Key Functions:

The incumbent shall carry out the duties given below to achieve the mission:

Assist in implementing enterprise development initiative 

• Support to select the right entrepreneurs among the women beneficiaries as per guideline 
• Help the enterprises develop business plans and achieve the regular business target 
• Assist in finding skills gaps and ensure the capacity development required for the entrepreneurs 
• Encourage entrepreneurs to design product diversification, promotion, and marketing 
• Regular Mentoring and follow-up to the enterprises for their business growth

Support to implement the apprenticeship and local employment intervention

• Facilitate the assessment of the local job market and implement the skills development and apprenticeship program for women beneficiaries 
• Coordinate the activities of local-level job creation and enterprise business progress
• Facilitate the entrepreneurs and market actors for business promotion
• Assist the team in developing modules, guidelines, minutes, and progress report

Assist in implementing skills and formal sector employment

• Support to implement the pre-job workshop and psychosocial counseling for beneficiaries 
• Assist the beneficiary enrolment in vocational training and job placement 
• Reinforce regular monitoring and reporting of the progress of vocational training aligned with gender norms and policies.
• Tracking the beneficiaries employed in different sectors and reporting their job progress 
• Assist with the implementing partners and other stakeholders to implement the project activities 

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The Enterprise Development Assistant will work under the direct supervision of the Enterprise and Employment Analyst and overall leadership of the National Project Manager (NPM) of SWAPNO.

• Demonstrated experience in enterprise/economic analytics.
• Demonstrated experience in partnership building and networking.
   

• Demonstrable experience and knowledge of livelihood and training facilitation. 
• Prior experience in dealing with entrepreneurship development at the rural level.
• Experience in working on cottage, micro, and small entrepreneurs on digital platform is an asset. 
• Experience in working in private sectors, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), financial institutions, and the development sector related to skills development of Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (CMSME) entrepreneurs is an asset.
• Experience in women empowerment, vocational skills development, and employment is an asset.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and other relevant software is desired.
• Experience in working with the e-commerce sector is an asset.
   

• Fluency in English and Bengali is required.