Activity Intern – Johannesburg

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) program is designed to bolster the U.S. Government’s ability to boost trade and investment to, from, and within the African continent. The continent-wide program is USAID’s flagship effort in support of the Prosper Africa initiative and will expand and accelerate two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States.

Driven by market demand, ATI embraces innovative approaches to achieve its goals. ATI is designed as a small, core set of centrally coordinated technical and institutional support activities and a large, flexible performance-based subcontracting and grants under contract facility designed to support the needs and opportunities that USAID Missions and the private sector identify.

ACTIVITY BACKGROUND:

The ATI trade objective seeks to mobilize trade, including two-way between the U.S. and Africa, through a proactive approach that identifies and/or improves private sector awareness of opportunities, information sharing, and direct facilitation of new and existing business relationships. Building on almost two decades of successful Trade Hub work, the mechanism will have a particular focus on supporting African exports, intra-Africa and to the U.S. Activities must also accelerate the implementation of the existing Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) export strategies and trade preferences with the U.S.

In Southern Africa, USAID Southern Africa seeks to sustain the significant progress made on the USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment (USAID TradeHub) through a buy-in program activity under ATI from October 2022 to September 2026, titled Southern Africa Trade Market Systems Activity. Specifically, the buy-in activity will focus on increasing exports from targeted Southern African countries to South Africa and boosting sustainable utilization of AGOA opportunities in the agriculture and agribusiness sector by targeted Southern African countries. To do this, ATI will deepen the market systems approach initiated under USAID TradeHub to tackle the root causes that limit Southern Africa’s agricultural market system – addressing incentives, behaviors, and relationships that impede the region’s trade competitiveness in three market systems:

• Trade promotion system refers to mechanisms linking supply with demand and helping exporters identify and meet these demands. Trade promotion activities are about raising awareness of agricultural trade opportunities among market actors.
• Trade enhancing services system, encompasses the sets of services that increase export competitiveness and functional ability to export. Trade enhancing services include all activities that build the export firms’ capacity to respond to the demand in the end markets in South Africa and the U.S.; and
• Supply chain management system deals with linking buyers to a robust supplier/exporter base and support to meet buyer needs. The activities in this market system relate to the core market functions of linking export firms to buyers with their products and services.

While ATI will initially focus on these three market systems, this list may be modified as opportunities and needs emerge and as USAID funding allows. The activity will operate primarily in the following Southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia.

ROLE’S PURPOSE:

The Activity Intern is a short-term position that will be responsible for providing surge capacity to support the Southern Africa Buy-In Activity Team in their management of multi-year buy-in activities. Responsibilities include providing technical and management support to buy-in activities, working with the technical and functional teams in developing and closing the grants pipeline; and managing the implementation of grants and subcontracts. The intern will further support the team in activity data collection, analysis, and entry.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Activity Intern will work with the Activity team to provide support in the following task areas:

• Support Activity Team and others on all matters related to the buy-in, including but not limited to contractual, operational, Monitoring, Evaluation and learning (MEL), reporting, and financial matters.
• Provide administrative, procurement, and operational support across all assigned buy-in activities; ensure buy-in activities are managed in accordance with USAID regulations and DAI Procurement policies.
• Liaise with implementing parties to ensure proper M&E data capture and data quality to contribute to overall ATI project M&E reporting and upload the MEL data into the MEL database/system.
• Support the development and review of calls for applications/proposals and all related solicitation documentation; work with the Technical team to integrate technical guidance and requirements.
• Assist the grants and procurement teams in grant selection committees and technical evaluation committees with recording committee member evaluations and feedback.
• Assist the grants and procurement teams in carrying out pre-award responsibility determination of prospective grantees.
• Assist in the review of grant and subcontract invoices and grant financial reports for accuracy and eligibility and upload in the system for reviews and approvals.
• Participate in regular project management meetings.
• Carry out any other tasks as requested by the Activity Manager.

REPORTING: The Activity Intern will report to the Activity Manager.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance/accounting, procurement, supply chain management, or any other relevant degree
• Have graduated not earlier than the year 2021
• Good computer skills, including Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Energetic and eager to tackle new projects and ideas.
• Good organizational skills and attention to detail
• Proven research skills with an aptitude for clear and succinct report writing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work in South Africa
• Must be able to demonstrate maturity and emotional intelligence.

ORGANIZATION AND VALUES:

DAI is a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.

DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work. DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner.

DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.