People in Need (PIN) is a Czech-based international non-governmental organization (NGO) that has provided humanitarian and development assistance across more than 20 countries since 1992. Today, PIN stands as one of the largest organizations of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, supporting vulnerable communities in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. PIN empowers civil society, advocates for human rights, and promotes social inclusion both at home and abroad.
PIN is present in Ethiopia since 2003, works in partnership with communities, local organisations and public institutions to support sustainable development and improve people's well-being across the country. Through integrated programming, PIN combines immediate assistance with longer-term, systems-oriented approaches aimed at strengthening resilience, expanding access to essential services and economic opportunities, and enabling locally led solutions. Guided by its Relief and Development strategy, PIN operates across multiple regions and works with a diverse portfolio of institutional donors and partners.
About the role:
The Economic Programming and Private Business Partnerships Advisor will play a central role in shaping and strengthening People in Need Ethiopia's economic and private business programming portfolio. The position combines strategic oversight, programme delivery support (with the EU Empower project as a current priority), partnership development, and external positioning, with a strong focus on identifying new opportunities, building relationships, and supporting the design and growth of market-relevant interventions across the Country Programme. While grounded in market systems thinking, the role goes beyond technical advisory to support business engagement, adaptive programming, resource mobilisation, and the translation of programme learning into wider strategic opportunities.
Main Duties & Responsibilities:
Economic Strategy & Opportunity Development
- Continuously scan the economic landscape to identify new opportunities, emerging sectors, and partnership potential relevant to the Ethiopia CP's strategic priorities and programming areas
- Develop and refine the Ethiopia CP's approach to economic programming, ensuring interventions are grounded in market realities, responsive to emerging opportunities, and positioned for sustainable impact across the portfolio
- Lead structured market and sector assessments, translating findings into actionable strategic directions, programme adaptation, and the development of new initiatives across the CP.
- Facilitate access to finance for target groups and market actors, brokering relationships with banks, microfinance institutions, and impact investors to develop tailored financial products and instruments.
Strategic Partnerships & Business engagement
- Lead the Ethiopia CP's business engagement and its related partnership agenda
- Manage and grow a portfolio of high-value strategic partnerships, ensuring mutual accountability, active co-investment, and commercially sustainable collaboration models.
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with TVET institutions, facilitating skills pipelines and employer-linked incubation and placement programmes.
- Engage government stakeholders at regional and national levels to secure buy-in, align with policy priorities, and advocate for market-enabling reforms.
Programme Delivery & Technical Oversight
- Oversee the quality and coherence of programme delivery across economic and market-facing interventions, working closely with implementing partners and the Consortium or Project Managers.
- Provide strategic and technical guidance to partners and field teams, ensuring interventions reflect sound market systems principles and achieve intended outcomes.
- Drive youth and women's integration into priority value chains, focusing on value-added participation, distribution roles, and entrepreneurship pathways.
- Champion green and climate-smart approaches across value chains, supporting private sector actors in adopting environmentally sustainable practices aligned with national climate commitments.
- Identify and test innovative models and approaches, including circular economy and regenerative solutions, that strengthen the commercial and environmental sustainability of interventions.
Monitoring, Adaptation & Reporting
- Contribute to the establishment of monitoring frameworks that track both programme delivery performance and strategic partnership milestones.
- Lead adaptive management, using data and market intelligence to identify new opportunities and refine the programme's strategic direction.
- Prepare high-quality reports and strategic briefs for the Consortium or Project Managers and donors, highlighting progress, emerging opportunities, risks, and recommendations.
- Track systemic change indicators, including crowding-in actors, behaviour shifts among market actors, embedded service uptake, and post-project continuation of market functions and use these to inform strategic decisions
Strategic positioning, Influence and Learning
- Represent the Ethiopia CP in key external forums, industry events, and policy dialogues, positioning PIN as a credible and strategic actor in economic development, market systems, and inclusive livelihood
- Contribute to the Ethiopia CP's thought leadership, visibility, and strategic positioning, translating programme learning into policy-relevant insights, publications, and advocacy materials.
- Facilitate cross-learning across consortium partners and stakeholders, ensuring best practices in market systems and business partnership are shared and embedded.
- Actively contribute to new business development, donor engagement, and proposal development, drawing on evidence, partnerships, and market insights from across the CP to pursue new funding opportunities.
- Support evidence-based advocacy by translating market insights into actionable policy recommendations, contributing to government and industry dialogues on market-enabling reforms.
Main Requirements:
- Minimum 3 years of relevant experience in economic development, livelihoods, market systems development, private sector engagement, or partnership management
- Strong understanding of market systems approaches, inclusive economic development, and private sector partnership models
- Demonstrated experience in developing and managing partnerships with private sector actors, financial institutions, investors, and other market stakeholders in Ethiopia
- Experience in programme design and implementation, business development, and resource mobilisation, ideally including donor engagement and proposal development
- With excellent spoken and written English
- Reliable and self-reliant personality with a responsible and systematic approach to work;
- Dynamic and result-oriented profile, critical analysis skills;
- University degree in a relevant field;
For complete job description and to apply, visit:
HOW TO APPLY:
If you are interested in this position, send us your CV and short cover letter via our application form. (https://career.peopleinneed.net/?pos=879 )