Entrepreneurship in the territories: is it the right time?
Job Description
The Inclusive Finance Specialist (IFS) will be responsible for working with financial service providers to strengthen their product offering to improve access to finance for the most vulnerable in the Mekong Delta and to develop innovative finance products and services for financing Nature based Solution in the Mekong Delta. They will work closely with financial institutions such as Agriculture Bank and Vietnam Bank Social Policies.
IFS will be responsible for identifying ways in which CRM could add value to the financial inclusion strategy, and to lead the design of inclusive financial development interventions and activities that will reinforce the financial inclusion component in the overall impact of the project. S/he will provide technical assistance to the activities related to planning, organizing, training/implementing, monitoring, and reporting of inclusive finance activities in collaboration with other CRM members and partners in five project provinces.
The IFS is expected to be based in Can Tho city, with frequent travel to the project’s target provinces and other places as required for the project activity implementation.
Responsibilities
- Assist the Team Leader of Objective 1 to explore viable financial inclusion strategies, develop appropriate interventions, prepare workplans, and accelerate planned activities to increase access to financial services for underserved population, including vulnerable groups in the project sites.
- Work with different financial service providers such as banks (e.g. Agribank, Banks for Social Policy), microfinance institutes or MFIs (e.g. Capital Aid for Employment of the Poor (CEP), People’s Credit Funds, e-MFI/banking (e.g. Kiva at kiva.org) and community group leaders to develop viable cost-effective programs to facilitate better access to savings, credit and insurance services for the (underserved) target beneficiaries, especially vulnerable groups.
- Support the project in designing suitable insurance products (e.g. crop insurance, satellite-based weather insurance, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and life insurance, health insurance, etc) in cooperation with potential insurance companies (e.g. Bao Minh Insurance, Hillridge Technology, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company,etc).
- Work with other CRM’s team members to leverage financial resources from enhancing public-private-producer partnership (4P) to scale up viable low emissions/resilient business models (including finance for technology investment and innovative transformation) aimed at building resilient capacity for vulnerable communities.
- Develop technical contents for training materials on financial inclusion and provide capacity building on finance, insurance, DRR, safety net literacy, including digital/e-banking skills for target groups.
- Work as a proactive team member to ensure collaboration and to support integrated implementation and management for cross-sectoral/Objective integration approaches (including policy advocacy, gender equity and social inclusion (GESI), environmental mitigation and monitoring plan, and climate vulnerability and resilience communications-knowledge products).
- Gather field data, prepare records of relevant financial inclusion operations for climate chance resilience and other activities of CRM to contribute to producing success stories, required technical progress reports, especially report on key indicators of the project.
- As a senior staff member proactively develop and maintain relationships with development and private sector partners, donors, local organisations (e.g. microfinance institutions, agri/rural finance institutions) and relevant government agencies.
- Other duties required by the line manager.
