Local Economic Development Specialist - Ministry of Local Government

The Local Economic Development Specialist at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development overall responsibility is to carry out a comprehensive socio-economic situation analysis of the project's target regions which will serve as a basis for designing an integrated local economic development strategy for beneficiary communities. Activities to be performed by the LED Specialist include but not are limited to the following:

• Lead the development, implementation and update of an LED strategy for the project, in consultation with the Project Coordinator, and relevant learners and stakeholders at the national, regional and district level
  
  • Provide support in reviewing the existing local economic development policies, strategies and priorities in the target areas.
  • Identify and facilitate consultations with key local, regional and national level stakeholders as well as other relevant stakeholders on issues pertaining to LED in the target areas and
  • Prepare an operational handbook to guide the implementation of the LED sub-component
• Provide need-based technical support to the zonal and district team on the planning and implementation of LED interventions
• Operationalise and scape up strategies for LED interventions in implementing regions and districts in a timely manner
• Review the progress of the implementation of LED sub-component in target regions and districts
• Prepare quarterly status reports capturing the results and impact of LED interventions and conduct quarterly assessments of gaps in the implementation of the sub-component across the six regions and develop quarterly improvement plans
• Contribute to the documentation of experience and lessons learned to identify sub-component-related success stories/best practices and disseminate them across regions
• Provide support to regional and districts teams to develop LED platforms at the district level to support LED interventions in collaboration with the relevant private sector actors, financial institutions, social enterprises, digital enterprises, foundations, and impact investors among others and
• Perform any other related tasks assigned by the Project Coordinator

Qualification Required & Experience

• Master’s Degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Development Planning, Economic Development, Business management, Agribusiness or related programme deemed relevant to the position
• 5 years of professional experience in the field of local and regional economic development, entrepreneurship development or market-driven livelihoods development on large-scale development projects
• 3 years of professional experience on a project funded by the World Bank or an agency of the United Nations system or other donors of the same size
• Possess a good working knowledge of the community-driven development as well as Ghana’s local economic development ecosystem
• Proven skills related to strategic economic planning
• Demonstrate conceptual and practical knowledge and expertise in the provision of LED assessments
• Possess excellent digital skills, including the use of software such as Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc) for design, communication, project management and analysis
• Full proficiency in the English language (proficiency in French is an advantage)

Location: Accra