Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager for the USAID Moldova Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA)

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager for the USAID Moldova Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA)

Chemonics International Inc. seeks highly qualified candidates for the position of Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager for the USAID Moldova Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA). Chemonics International Inc. (www.chemonics.com) is a U.S.-based international consulting firm providing expertise in developing and emerging-market countries since 1975.

Background:

USAID Moldova Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA) is a five-year project (2022-2027) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Chemonics International. The goal of RCRA is to stimulate a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the regional crisis brought on by the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine and accelerate an inclusive, climate-resilient economic development of rural Moldova by protecting the development gains made with USAID support over the past decade and further stimulate the competitiveness of key economic sectors, including the wine industry, high-value agriculture, and tourism.

The objectives of the Activity are:

1. Accelerated export diversification and Western market integration in targeted sectors.
2. Enhanced economic resilience of small and medium enterprises in targeted sectors.
3. Improved sector enabling environment to facilitate resilience and Western integration.

Position Description:

The Tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Product Development Manager (Manager) will oversee the development of a model to support local companies and associations across the tourism sector in developing the new economically and ecologically sustainable "themed" tourism offers and infrastructure to enhance the quality of tourism products and services across regions and communities. In collaboration with the RCRA Tourism Director and Tourism Industry and Marketing Manager, the manager will devise a targeted strategy to assist local businesses in developing new high-value products and services that will be marketed as Moldova tourism offers to foreign source markets. Namely, the manager will co-design, manage, deploy, and implement programs for the hub-and-spoke approach, such as expanded hospitality services in the regions; support business entrepreneurship initiatives in the tourism industry; and promote partnerships across value chains and market-driven initiatives.  

In addition, the manager will design and manage activities related to the grants implementation for Moldovan tourism SMEs; activities and programs aimed at fostering sustainable SME development; expanding tourism infrastructure; and creating new tourism products and experiences. While doing this, the manager will foster cross-pollination among rural entrepreneurs and work with relevant stakeholders to achieve sustainable and resilient tourism development across Moldova. 

Finally, the manager will ensure that the offers generated through this model are financially viable, marketable, coherent with country positioning, inclusive, sustainable, and add value. In addition, the manager will coordinate all interventions with international and local STTA experts, agencies, and other actors.  

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

 Principal duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to: 

• Develop, coordinate, implement, and monitor programs and activities related to SME and tourism product development. 

• Support SMEs in implementing initiatives that enhance tourists’ experiences through more creative and diverse tourism products and services.  

• Develop and coordinate implementation of initiatives designed to create new immersive experiences or improve existing ones and enhance their market appeal to successfully attract visitors from foreign markets, as well as catalyze domestic tourism.  

• Collaborate with teams in various sectors and locations in Moldova to provide local entrepreneurs support to enhance their livelihoods derived from tourism in a sustainable manner. 

• Promote international best practices through training and certification, as well as facilitate cluster sector plans. Visitor experiences of focus include festivals, gastronomy tours, winery sites, and museum exploration, historical and folklore, active and soft adventure, among others. 

• Support increased productivity of rural and heritage sites through improving competitiveness and linking with other value chain actors.  

• Coordinate technical implementation of the SME tourism grants, provide guidance to SMEs, advise on the needed additional technical assistance, and develop and strengthen the management of the technical assistance program for tourism SMEs.  

• Build the capacity of tourism sector stakeholders to wean them from donor dependence. 

• Design, develop, and coordinate programs and activities aimed at expanding tourism hospitality infrastructure; foster new industry partnerships across the tourism value chain.  

• Provide guidance and inputs for investment initiatives in tourism regions and potential sites. 

• Develop activities to increase the competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability of the tourism industry. 

• Advise on tourism industry development, trends, statistics, and visitor surveys. 

• Stimulate interest and demand for improved quality and professionalism in tourism and hospitality professionals, including certifications and standards development.  

• Develop and maintain strong partnerships with the key tourism sector organizations - National Inbound and Domestic Tourism Association of Moldova (ANTRIM) and National Tourism Organization (ONT), private sector entities (industry associations, producers, advisors, etc.), public sector, and donor community. 

• Together with Moldovan tourism sector stakeholders, identify up to three “hubs” from which incoming tourists can use as a base and embark on daytrips along specific tourism routes or “spokes”. 

• Collaborate closely with the high value agriculture (HVA) and wine teams to identify HVA and wine sector actors for inclusion in the “hubs” and “spokes”.       

• Work with Moldovan tourism sector stakeholders to identify developmental needs of tourism sector stakeholders in the “hubs” and along the “spokes” to offer high quality services and products to incoming tourists. 

• Co-design and implement the grant programs to build the capacity and improve the quality of products and services of tourism sector stakeholders located in the “hubs” and along the “spokes”. 

• Design and implement customized workforce development programs to build the capacity and improve the quality of products and services of tourism sector stakeholders located in the “hubs” and along the “spokes”.  

• Contribute to weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports; drafts concept notes and various memos for RCRA internal and external use. 

• Manage assigned subcontract and grant activities in the tourism sector. 

• Collect information and data from tourism sector beneficiaries and provide MEL team with information and data according to the MEL manual, and at MEL team request, within the set timeline. 

• Collaborate with the Environmental Compliance Specialist to identify and address environmental issues related to the sector and to ensure assisted organizations meet relevant environmental conditions. 

• Work collaboratively with the Communications and Media Director to expand outreach and communication of the tourism sector initiatives. 

• Regularly identify beneficiaries and submit to the Communications team success stories about tourism sector beneficiaries that clearly describe the problems/issues, RCRA’s interventions to address the problems/issues, and the results and impacts of RCRA’s interventions.     

• Identify consultants and subcontractors, develop scopes of work for local and international short-term technical assistance (STTA) consultants and subcontractors, supervise consultants and subcontractors, and ensure quality deliverables (presentations, training activities, reports, etc.) from consultants and subcontractors. 

• Jointly with the Procurement team, prepare scopes of work (SOW), requests for proposals (RFP), requests for quotations (RFQ), purchase orders (PO) for services and commodities and payment requests (PR), participate in evaluation and selection of suppliers and service providers. 

• Assist with providing qualitative technical inputs to drafting concept notes, briefers, agendas, talking points, and other documents for internal and external use, as requested by Tourism Director, RCRA Chief of Party and USAID. 

• Perform other relevant duties as assigned by the Tourism Director or RCRA Chief of Party; 

• Respect and abide by all the internal regulations of the Representative Office, as expressed in the Chemonics International Field Office Policy Manual.  

 Qualifications 

• University degree in Education, Tourism, Economics, or other relevant areas;  

• Demonstrated experience (at least 3 years) in project or business management related to tourism product and/or SMEs development, preferably on USAID or other donor-funded projects; 

• Excellent communication skills, written and spoken, in Romanian; professional level communication skills, written and spoken, in English; knowledge of Russian would be a strong asset; 

• Excellent time-, team-, meeting- and conflict- management skills; 

• Strong self-organization, self-motivation, and planning skills; and 

• Autonomy, responsibility, and ability to work with minimum supervision. 

Reporting:  

The Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager will report to the Tourism Director. 

Application instructions

Please send an email with your CV and cover letter in English attached and “RCRA Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager” in the subject line to  MDA-RCRA-Recruit@chemonics.md by August 26, 2024. No telephone inquiries, please. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only finalists will be contacted.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.

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