Livelihoods Officer

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Department

Livelihoods and Economic Development (LEO) – Pact’s Livelihoods team works with local partners and communities to reach vulnerable groups in urban, peri-urban areas, and rural areas with a focus on access to finance, small and medium enterprise development, and labor rights. Marginalized populations are disproportionately affected by climate change and other shocks and lack access to finance, skills development, inclusive markets, and technology. Employment and entrepreneurship opportunities are essential for achieving sustainable livelihoods, accessing finance, and ensuring labor rights. The Livelihoods team works with community partners to reach a million people each year in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, developing knowledge, skills, and access to resources that enable participants to increase their income and overcome marginalization.

Position Overview

Pact is seeking an Officer for its Livelihoods (LH) Team. Pact’s Livelihoods team works closely with Pact’s country offices, local partners, and communities to reach vulnerable populations in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas with a focus on access to finance, small and medium enterprise development, and labor rights. Pact’s current livelihoods portfolio covers a wide geographic area and includes projects in Tanzania, Eswatini, Zambia, Madagascar, Colombia, Cambodia, Ukraine, Myanmar, South Sudan, Namibia, and DRC.

The LH Officer will be responsible for providing support for Pact’s global LH portfolio. They will provide technical assistance to current Pact projects, technical leadership and/or targeted technical inputs to proposals, and support organization-wide evidence generation and thought leadership. The Officer will be expected to coordinate closely with other technical at Pact both within and outside of the Sustainable Markets group to ensure integrated program development and delivery. The Officer reports to the Vice President for Sustainable Markets but will work closely day-to-day and receive guidance from other core members of the Livelihoods team.

Key Responsibilities

The Officer is responsible for contributing to strategic and programmatic priorities under the Livelihoods team portfolio across projects, proposals, and thought leadership, and all other duties as assigned. This includes:

Technical Assistance to Projects:

• In-person and/or remote technical assistance around targeted programmatic deliverables
• Technical editing and/or writing assistance for discrete programmatic and technical reports
• Support to ensure projects and country offices are meeting industry standards and expectations of donors around environmental programming.
• Support project technical and compliance staff to development and update project environmental mitigation plans across all sectors

New Business Development:

• Research upcoming opportunities and support determination of priorities to pursue (both public and private funding).
• Support (and where necessary lead) technical design of projects, ensuring proposals are technically sound and reflect Pact’s worldwide expertise and experience.
• Support cultivation of relationships with prospective partners, both local and international ones, and understand their strengths and weaknesses for future partnership.
• Development of tailored capability statements as part of pre-solicitation/capture/positioning.

Thought Leadership:

• Document and disseminate best practices internally and externally, including through participation in organization-wide Communities of Practice
• Support learning events with field offices and other programmatic staff
• Support field offices to increase their representation in global and regional events.
• Support and/or lead strategic research efforts to build Pact’s evidence base in priority areas
• Update the Livelihoods portfolio intranet space, developing blogs and other materials to share with internal audiences

Basic Requirements

• Master’s degree with five (5) years work experience or bachelor’s degree with at least seven (7+) years work experience
• Experience in economic development, financial inclusion, digital finance, economic empowerment with a focus on women and youth, labor rights, small and medium enterprise development, or other areas relevant to Pact’s global livelihoods portfolio
• Experience in proposal development and/or providing project technical assistance within international development or a similar field
• Ability to work as part of a hybrid in-person and remote team
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, multi-tasking environment
• Excellent verbal, written, and inter-personal communication skills
• Willingness to travel internationally, sometimes on short notice
• Fluency in English

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in priority technical areas such as sustainable livelihoods, international labor rights or youth livelihoods
• Experience overseeing and coordinating with international field offices
• Spanish proficiency
• Experience working and living internationally, particularly in Pact’s Livelihoods presence countries
• Experience working with the private sector

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.