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The Youth Employment and Livelihoods Specialist will be responsible for providing leadership in developing the technical aspects of the program related to sustainable livelihood interventions, including household economic strengthening, youth employment, identifying rural and micro-finance or other savings and loans programs as part of an integrated program to reduce the incidence of child labor and enhance youth employment and livelihoods opportunities in the cocoa-growing sector in Ghana. The position is contingent upon receipt of donor funding.

Essential Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership of all programmatic activities concerned with employment and livelihoods for adults and youth, income generation programs/opportunities, youth employment, and rural financing.
• In coordination with a team, develop and oversee implementation of youth employment and livelihood work plans/targets, budgets, and reports.
• Coordinate strategy and activities with any implementing partners, national and local government authorities involved in and responsible for economic development.
• Manage and mentor staff in rural finance, youth employment, and livelihoods.
• Coordinate closely on data collection to measure impacts, incomes, household and business investments, and savings.
• Serve as technical lead in at least four of the following areas and supervise staff and/or consultants in the remaining areas: life skills training, micro-lending, savings programs, micro-insurance, micro-franchising, village savings and loan programs, financial literacy, adult literacy, employment generation, alternative/additional income generation, youth apprenticeships, internships, job placement support, modern job search methods training, entrepreneurship, OSH training, and labor market analysis.
• Coordinate project interventions related to: agricultural value-chain development, public-private partnerships, enterprise development and incubation, community mobilization; workforce development for legally aged working children; vocational education/training, microfinance access, nutrition, youth and women’s empowerment, or land tenure/property rights.

Required Skills or Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required (MBA or master’s degree preferred) in economics, agriculture/horticulture, environmental sciences or gender in development. Supplemental training in income generation/entrepreneurship, monitoring and evaluation, HIV/AIDS, gender analysis/mainstreaming, microfinance preferred.
• Minimum four years’ experience working in projects promoting livelihoods interventions in areas including skills training, micro-lending, micro-savings, employment generation, alternative/additional income generation for adults and youth, youth employment, community mobilization and social protection for donor-funded development programs required.
• Experience working successfully with government ministries engaged in promoting improved livelihoods for households and the provision of social protection services, as well as experience working with the private sector, employers’ organizations, trade unions, or comparable entities.
• Experience managing and monitoring integrated US Government programs and budgets strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in four of the following areas: agricultural value-chain development, public-private partnerships, enterprise development and incubation, vocational education/training, microfinance access, nutrition, youth and women’s empowerment, land tenure/property rights, and child labor prevention.
• Experience with public-private partnership building, working with labor unions and farmers groups, specifically in the cocoa-growing sector
• Knowledge of youth employment issues in Ghana is required

​Skills

• Strong skills in financial management, writing, monitoring and evaluation required.
• Excellent written and oral communication skill in English is required. Proficiency in an Akan language is preferred.