Direct report: Programs Lead
Duty station:
● Northern Uganda
● West Nile
Contract type: Fixed-term contracts valid upto September 2023
About Outbox
At Outbox, our mission is to bring together the infrastructure, people, knowledge, and capital that supports entrepreneurs through the growth of inclusive communities that foster talent and create value where we operate. We take a deliberate approach to how we support Small and Growing businesses, by differentiating our programs based on their unique needs, walking the lonely entrepreneurship journey with them, and capturing our learnings for the benefit of the next entrepreneur we might meet.
We have the best learning communities in the startup ecosystem in Uganda and utilize that competency to distribute our expertise beyond our walls. We strongly believe in the potential of technology to provide an unfair advantage to any business when used for good, and as such focus on supporting digital entrepreneurs first.
Over the last eight (8) years, we have brought together the best people, companies, development partners, Government, and knowledge (best practice) for our entrepreneurs to succeed — which is why we believe we are best placed to guide our ecosystem forward. Various partners have trusted us to lead our ecosystem and enabled us to continue our work of ensuring that every young person in Uganda has an opportunity to have dignified work.
About the UNFPA WAY Initiative
The UNFPA WAY Initiative focuses on enhancing youth participation, leadership, and innovation in SRHR and GBV. Young leaders are identified and nurtured to develop and implement breakthrough solutions to improve SRHR and GBV outcomes and this is done through the following initiatives;
● Supporting selected young people to develop and implement social change ideas through partnerships with regional centers of social change entrepreneurship.
This involves the selection of up to 16 teams of 2–3 young people to develop their ideas on addressing SRHR and GBV in their communities. The selected young people will be supported for two years in phases of eight teams, each with expert mentorship and funding to develop and
actualize their ideas, which might include digital or non-digital technology for social change.
In 2023, Outbox will
● Support youth-led innovations in social change entrepreneurship
This will specifically be done by:
● Supporting training of the selected young people in the social innovation incubator in cycle 2 to further build their solutions.
● Providing mentorship and at least 3 training sessions to the social innovators to help them build their proof of concepts
● Offer more catalytic financial and technical support (USD 5,000 per business) to six of the most promising teams so that they can graduate to social enterprises WAY activities will focus on 11 districts in West Nile and Acholi sub-regions:
Adjumani, Agago, Amuru, Arua, Kitgum, Lamwo, Terego, Madi-Okollo, Obongi, Moyo, and Yumbe and target both refugee and host communities.
Role
As an innovation catalyst, you are responsible for providing operational support to our youth entrepreneurship program in the region within which you are stationed.
The primary emphasis of the role is to support our regional entrepreneurs and replicating partners during the implementation of our youth employment programs. You will ensure that our replicating partners are
equipped with the knowledge and tools to conform to our standardized program, the entrepreneurs in your location have access to the support they need, and other partners that include private businesses, and local
government are engaged on a regular basis in our activities. You will work closely with the venture development associates on a day-to-day basis.
We are looking for innovation catalysts to represent us in Northern Uganda and West Nile.
You are expected to be permanently residing in those regions full-time.
Core Responsibilities
● Engage and manage relationships with various stakeholders that include the local Governments, universities, replicating partners, etc. Act as a liaison between the stakeholders and the Outbox team. This will include setting up and attending coordination meetings, interagency meetings, and
various activities within your region;
● Support with the logistical aspects of our entrepreneurship programming. This will range from reserving accommodation for participants, communicating with our participants to show up, and securing venues for training to mention but a few;
● Provide follow-on support to the teams and young people accepted into our programs/projects as per the planned activities. This will involve following up with spot check visits to track implementation, following up to ensure they are sharing any deliverables requested from them among others;
● Provide support on work plan monitoring as part of our monitoring and evaluation activities
● Participate in the generation of activity reports as per the work plan and templates provided;
● Support with the delivery of training to our participants as and when required;
● Support with the development and management of our communities of practice in your region;
● Other duties as assigned
Job Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
● A Bachelor’s degree in business, development economics/financial inclusions, finance;
● At least 3 years of work experience in community-based fieldwork, building and managing volunteer communities/communities of practice;
● Experience with using modern digital tools for documentation and project management, including G-suite, slack, JIRA,
● Strong understanding of MSME segmentation (from early-stage startups to growth-stage SMEs and the systemic challenges affecting their growth with a particular understanding of Uganda’s context;
● Experience with supporting youth employment initiatives
Preferred Qualifications
● Experience in at least two fields that include Agribusiness, Health systems, Financial inclusion, tourism, education, and ICTs
● Experience in supporting large donor programming including UN initiatives;
● Strong ability to communicate progress and learnings from projects to colleagues
● Strong listening, documentation, and presentation skills;
● Demonstrated strong relationship management skills;
● Excellent project management skills, including handling multi-stakeholder projects
● A self-starter with the ability to work independently and as part of a team
● You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities;
● You pay attention to the various sensitivities of various cultures;
● Ability to self-supervise as well as hold others accountable for work-related commitments and deliverables, and consistently and all the time follow through on such commitments;
● You are fully resident in your proposed duty station;
● The ability to speak other regional local languages is an added advantage
To apply
Please email your cover letter and resume to people@outbox.co.ug indicating “Innovation catalyst — [Name of region e.g Northern Uganda]” in the subject line. The deadline to submit is 19th April 2023.
Only successful candidates will be contacted for interviews.
