The Kaizen Company
Position: Partner Assessment Consultant
Anticipated Start Date: o/a August 15, 2022
Location: Virtual or Multiple Cities, Malawi
Project: USAID’s Partnerships Incubator
Contract Duration: August 15 – December 1, 2022
Level of Effort: 180 hours
About Kaizen
The Kaizen Company is an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. Our proven solutions catalyze locally driven, organizational, and institutional performance improvements, and shift the development model into one that is bottom-up and ongoing. We leverage existing knowledge along with new technologies and innovative business models to support local reform that is sustained through market forces.
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The Kaizen Company is seeking applications for the position of Partner Assessment Consultant for the four-year, USAID-funded New Partnerships Initiative Incubator (Partnerships Incubator). The Consultant can complete the work virtually, but Malawi Nationals based in the country are highly encouraged to apply.
About The Partnerships Incubator
The Partnerships Incubator delivers technical assistance and capacity building support to potential and current USAID partners such that they are better capable of managing USAID awards while successfully delivering stronger development outcomes.
About The Assignment
The USAID/Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) Malawi Geographic Team has engaged the Incubator to deliver technical assistance and capacity building services to strengthen a select number of local and/or locally established organizations in the country. The aim is to build the organizational capacity of local or nontraditional partners in order to help them achieve greater administrative and technical capacity to implement and manage USAID or other donor awards. The consultant will work closely with the Partnerships Incubator and 1-2 other remotely- or locally-based consultants to identify the technical assistance and training needs of up to six Mission-identified partners and determine the most appropriate channels for support (e.g. one-on-one mentoring, workshops, etc.). The Consultant will identify organizational needs using a two-step partner needs assessment developed by the Incubator. They will not be responsible for delivering technical assistance under this scope of work.
Responsibilities
The Partner Assessment Consultant is a part-time consulting position for the Partnerships Incubator. Main roles and responsibilities include:
- In collaboration with other remote or local consultant team members, define the approach and establish a work plan for conducting a partner needs assessment for the six partners.
- Work with primary points of contact at the Mission to collect existing partner assessment information and come to agreement on any adjustments to the assessment tool.
- In collaboration with the other team members, administer the partner needs assessment step 1 (survey).
- Participate in the assessment step 2 interviews with the six partners in collaboration with the other remote or local consultants. Interviews may be conducted remotely or in-person.
- With input and assistance from other consultant team members, analyze the assessment data, determine the key findings, and write the technical assistance needs report (in English, likely in the format of a slide deck), ensuring the accuracy of the content and verification of all referenced information. Develop an annotated findings report for use in consultation with partners (also likely in the format of a slide deck).
- Using the technical assistance needs report, conduct discussions with both USAID and each of the partners to review findings and understand support priorities.
- With input and assistance from other consultant team members, draft, review with USAID, and finalize recommendations for partner technical assistance and training proposal packages for each of the six partners.
- Conduct follow-up discussions with the partners to communicate the final, agreed support packages to be delivered.
- Meet a tight deadline based on client needs.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in international development, statistics, communications, humanities, social sciences, or a related field.
- 5-7 years of experience in project management and/or consulting within the international development sector.
- USAID project management experience is highly preferred.
- Professional familiarity and/or experience in Malawi is preferred.
- Experience with data collection and analysis is highly preferred.
- Detail-oriented, analytically-minded, and multi-tasker.
- Strong English oral and writing skills required.
- Knowledge and oral/written skills in local language(s) is a plus.
Qualified applicants should send a resume/CV with a cover letter outlining qualifications, three references (professional and/or academic), and a desired hourly rate in USD (see “Desired Hourly Rate (USD)) by August 5, 2022 via the link provided. No phone calls, please. Only finalists will be contacted.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required of personnel so classified.
For candidates applying for positions based in Kaizen’s office in Washington, DC, we utilize career.place to mitigate bias in the recruitment process. Upon submitting an application, candidates will receive an email from career.place, prompting them to go through the anonymous screening. In order to be considered for a role, candidates must respond to career.place and proceed with the application. We do not currently use career.place for project positions outside of the United States.
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At Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer.