Program Assistant - ARE Activity

BACKGROUND:

The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity, funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics International, supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities to obtain technical and financial resources in order to facilitate increased productivity, sales, and exports, improved business income, while also ensuring livelihood sustainability. To support this purpose, ARE will increase jobs; improve incomes; improve female participation and employment opportunities; increase domestic and export sales; increase private sector investment; improve access to finance; link value chain actors to domestic and international markets; and improve production through improved practices, technology, increased volume, and/or decreased cost. ARE supports two key expected results:

1. Increased domestic and export sales at both firm and farm levels.
2. Livelihoods improved, especially in rural areas and for women. 

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Program Assistant is an entry-level position for a candidate that seeks to apply their management and business analysis skills to strengthen program design and implementation. The Assistant will work closely with ARE’s Program Specialist, Program Manager and ARE’s technical advisors on the day-to-day activity management that the department provides to the wider ARE program. The Program Assistant will also support in the follow-up with partners and stakeholders on implementation of interventions. In addition, the Program Assistant has administrative duties that are essential to the efficient and effective functioning of the TASC team and wider ARE program.   The assistant is expected to have solid MS Excel skills, along with excellent English writing skills.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES

Administrative

• Arrange programmatic and technical meetings as requested
• Arrange program logistics including but not limited to travel requests, room bookings, event bookings.
• Note-taking and drafting meeting minutes.
• Ensure appropriate documentation related to the interventions.
• Other administrative duties as assigned.

Programmatic and Technical

• Maintain and update individual program activities, including document control and deliverable tracking.
• Create basic financial spreadsheets using MS excel showing financial returns, investment returns.
• Undertake research on assigned agricultural and agribusiness and tourism sectors, if requested.
• Assist in the drafting, editing, and formatting of technical reports.
• Follow-up with partners and other stakeholders on gathering documentation related to implementation.
• Assist in the review of documentation presented by partners and other stakeholders.
• Conduct field visits to partners and other stakeholders as needed.
• Other programmatic and technical duties as assigned.

Communications

• Collect data and maintain ARE’s database
• Update ARE’s virtual library
• Support in organizing and planning ARE’s public events, site visits
• Update databases and media lists
• Facilitate effective internal communications
• Maintain calendars and appointments
• Prepare presentations and reports
• Other communications-related duties as assigned

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, including Agriculture, Agribusiness, or Business Administration.
• Minimum of two years of experience preferably working on donor-funded projects in a related role; Applied financial/business/organizational skills in agricultural programs are a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in assisting technical teams in day-to-day program operations, basic financial modeling and analysis, and report writing
• Knowledge of USAID, or other donor preferred;
• Excellent/fluent written and spoken English and Arabic;

LOCATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The Program Assistant will be based in the project’s main office in Beirut, with travel throughout the country as needed.

REPORTING

The Program Assistant will report to the Program Manager