Uganda: Lead for Social Business in Refugee Hosting Areas

Nov 26, 2018 | Xavier Project
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Xavier Project is registered as an NGO in Uganda, an international NGO in Kenya and a company and charity in UK. All operations are in Kenya and Uganda, but a proportion of funding is raised in the UK. We have a three way partnership agreement between the branches of Xavier Project and one executive team primarily based in the Xavier Project headquarters in Nairobi. Xavier Project currently employs 28 permanent staff and has an income in 2017 £750,000. Annual spending has been increasing by 50% every year since its founding in 2008. Our partners include UNHCR, UNICEF, GIZ and USAID.

Xavier Project is looking to recruit for the position of social business lead in our Uganda office. Xavier Project has two departments – Education and Enterprise. The education team are ensuring that more refugee children access quality learning, delivered in environments that are safe and inclusive, and foster social, emotional and extra-curricular learning. The Enterprise team are enabling refugees to contribute to their new societies through relevant skills and access to livelihoods opportunities. Xavier Project is scaling implementation models in both these departments. Our implementation models rely on pioneering learning interventions and are run on the principle of community ownership.

The Enterprise Department implements a model called the Community Enterprise Cycle with refugees and local host communities. It starts with the identification of a group of community members, under an informal or more formal structure, leading efforts in education and livelihoods to support their own communities.

As part of CEC Xavier Project has launched social business with refugees. Through this experience Xavier Project is immersed in value chains helping understand the multiple, but not unsurmountable barriers to doing business in refugee hosting areas. In addition the social businesses will deepen understanding of market challenges and actively support market improvements, support skill building in relevant sectors, and take the capital and operational risk of testing new practices in emergency like settings so as to inform refugees who can then take the reins to scale livelihood solutions for greater self-reliance. Xavier Project is exploring blended ownership models; controlling ownership in the start-up phase while looking at options for transition of ownership to communities in later years. Examples of these social businesses include a farm on the periphery of Rwamwanja Settlement and 3D printing business in Kakuma in Kenya.

Duties

The role of the social business lead will be to oversee the social business work in Uganda and contribute towards this new area for Xavier Project as a whole. In Uganda the 25 acre farm on the periphery of Rwamwanja Settlement will be a focus initially, with a view to scaling this work and the social impact across multiple refugee hosting areas. Meanwhile, Xavier Project intends to play a greater role in merging outcomes between the humanitarian sector and the private sector when it comes to refugee hosting areas. We intend to use successful social businesses in refugee hosting areas as examples to contribute to learning and to build a dialogue between the two sectors. This staff member will contribute to this learning and help build networks so that refugee hosting areas can become positive contributors to the local economy at the same time as being places of protection for vulnerable populations.

In addition the social business staff member will:

  • Consult and lead three programme team members to implement current projects
  • Liaise with refugee-led grassroots organizations, UNHCR, and international NGOs
  • Design creative, evidence based strategies to tap into opportunities for enterprise in refugee hosting areas
  • Monitor, assess and evaluate Xavier Project’s current social business activities and share learning internally and externally
  • Conduct research on new locations within Uganda
  • Increase the visibility of Xavier Project’s work with refugees within Uganda

The Social Business staff member will join a team of eight full-time staff in Kampala. CEO Edmund Page visits Uganda twice per quarter and other members of the leadership team from Kenya visit at least once per quarter.

Requirements

Essential:

  • Must hold a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
  • Experience of not less than five years in the field of international development, social business, agriculture or value chain economics
  • Excellent communication skills in English (both written and oral)
  • Good knowledge of MS Office
  • Ability to work sensitively with refugee population or demonstrated experience working with marginalised communities
  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Experience in managing budgets, work plans and reports
  • Willing to travel within East Africa

Desired but not essential:

  • Master’s degree in a relevant discipline
  • Competent in an East African language
  • Experience in leading people from various backgrounds
  • Experience working in a tough environment with vulnerable people
  • Experience managing funding from institutional donors
  • Experience pitching to investors or raising funds commercially
  • Experience in developing strategies relevant to the sector
  • Experience in government and private sector engagement
  • Experience working in agriculture value chains
  • Strong understanding of the challenges faced by refugees and other marginalised communities in East Africa