National Advisor in Renewable Energy

SNV is a Dutch based International Development Organisation that provides Capacity Development Services to local institutions and organizations in more than 30 developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Present in Mali since 1979, SNV is committed to the reduction of poverty, and works to achieve this in line with national poverty reduction strategies.
Access to adequate, affordable and sustainable energy products and services is a precondition for development. Typically, less than 10 % of the population in a sub Saharan African country is connected to the electricity grid and over 80 % of the same population lacks access to modern, safe, clean and efficient energy sources for heating, cooking and lighting. This segment of the population uses traditional biomass such as charcoal, wood, straw, agricultural residues and dung. The use and collection of which brings with it various negative consequences, such as increased pressure on the environment, a high workload and indoor air pollution, especially affecting women and children.
Access to modern energy not only helps eradicate extreme poverty and improve the environment and living conditions, it also reduces the disparity between men and women. Social services (hospitals and schools) and businesses can only operate efficiently if they have access to modern energy. It is nowadays fully recognized that access to affordable and sustainable energy products and services is necessary for the fulfilment of most development objectives.
The overall goal of SNV Mali is to contribute to improve the livelihoods of the rural and peri-urban poor in Mali by accelerating the dissemination of renewable energy products and services for the poor.
In this context, SNV has recently chosen to extend its advisory team and is seeking a level III (senior level) national advisor in Renewable Energy.
The main responsibilities will be:
A. Advisory Services
– Support clients / group of clients in developing and implementing successful Renewable Energy dissemination programmes and projects;
– Support the operationalization of SNV Mali strategy for Renewable Energy and translate it into continued support activities to a wide range of actors;
– Provide client focused quality capacity building advisory services to clients, partners and Local Capacity Builders (LCBs);
– Initiate and contributes to national activities within his/her field of expertise;
– Stimulate market and product innovation for SNV Mali;
– Facilitate evaluation and impact assessment of the program interventions both at Client/Partner level and beneficiary level;
– Support mainstreaming governance for empowerment, gender equity and social inclusion in the Renewable Energy sector.
B. Learning & Teamwork
– Contribute to sharing and learning among Renewable energy team: best practices, methods, tools, case-studies, etc.;
– Give strategic direction for the scaling up of the program’s activities; provide on-the-job support, coaching, technical backstopping and guidance to SNV advisors across all portfolios and LCBs on the above mentioned issues;
– Document results, including the process followed and the support supplied by SNV, and present study and research findings at relevant forum;
– Develop effective external knowledge alliances with high level knowledge institutes; promote the participation of SNV in high profile knowledge events; promote the publication of SNV-knowledge to external public;
– Contribute to product development: transform current advisory practice in marketable products and services and develop new relevant and meaningful products.
C. Positioning/networking/resource mobilization
– Provide input for decision making in Renewable Energy practice area development;
– Actively explore new markets – opportunities for resource mobilization – product – client combinations;
– Build strategic alliances and partnerships which leads to creating income and employment opportunities;
– Support and promote collaboration between stakeholders in the sector especially at national level. Actively engage with stakeholders to further increase the priority of the sector on government’s and donor’s agendas;
– Contribute to external resource mobilization and business development;
– Represent SNV and its interests effectively in national, regional and local level forums as appropriate.
D. Knowledge management / development
– Ensure proper documentation of activities and achievements;
– Ensure that best practices are systematized, documented and if possible published;
– Create knowledge networks/partnerships nationally within his/her field of expertise.
Requirements:
Educational background:
– Master’s degree in Renewable energy or in Management of renewable energy or Master’s degree in Agro-economy with specialization in Renewable energy.
– Academic level of working and thinking in SNV related themes.
Experience:
– Minimum of ten years working in business development with a large part in the renewable energy sector;
– Proven track record in capacity building, process facilitation, sector development and resource mobilization;
– Experience in micro and medium size enterprise development and insight into problems and constraints in stimulating private-public partnerships;
– Ability and experience in analysing the socio- economic and political context of renewable energy;
– Experience in networking, alliances building and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes, product development, organisational learning, institutional change processes, and project proposal formulation
Knowledge:
– Strong (state of the art) knowledge of the renewable sector in Mali;
– Knowledge of national strategies for poverty alleviation, rural development;
– Knowledge of policy development and governance in Renewable Energy;
– Knowledge on finance/business analyst and business development;
– Understanding of SNV cross-cutting themes as good governance and gender equity;
– I ntelligence tools as wel as business modelling;
– Achieved recognized results in related knowledge development (e.g. articles, publications, as speaker on professional relevant congresses/seminars);
– Knowledge of and experience with participatory monitoring and evaluation systems and with process documentation for future reference, organizational learning and decision making.
Skills:
– Excellent writing and verbal communication skills;
– Client and team oriented attitude;
– Leadership, entrepreneurship and coaching and self-reflection skills;
– Proactive, creative and out-of-the-box thinking;
– Business attitude and want-to-learn attitude;
– Proven abilities and experience in team building and participatory techniques;
– Networking and negotiation abilities combined with result orientation;
– Focuses on networking, positioning and thematic expertise;
– Proven ability to work in different cultural settings and multi-cultural environment;
– Proven ability to take initiatives independently and to have perseverance under adverse circumstances;
– Flexibility to work compatibly with national community based and non-government, government and private sector organizations;
– A strong flare for problem solving and evidence-based approaches to capacity development;
– Some knowledge of gender concepts;
– Readiness to work and travel in rural districts with minimal amenities;
– Fluency in French and good command of English (SNV’s corporate language);
– Computer literacy in MS Office and Internet use;
– Driver’s license.
Nationality: Malienne
Duty station: Bamako
Salary scale: 17
Contract period: one (1) year renewable.
Desired appointment date: ASAP.
Information/application: You can send your application letter and CV (in English) to: [email protected] until the 13 Juin 2011.
We do not appreciate any commercial mediation based on this advertisement.