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

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

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

Chemonics International Inc. seeks highly qualified candidates for the position of Tourism Quality 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 Quality Development Manager will oversee developing and implementing the programs and activities to enhance Moldova’s tourism industry competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability, designing and implementing transformative programs aimed at fostering innovation, quality enhancement, workforce development, and sustainable practices across the tourism sector. S/he will be responsible for:

• Driving market-responsive tourism workforce development via sustainable, impactful, and systemic approaches, aiming at providing development support at the employed workforce and initial formal education, as part of its long-life-learning, continuous and professional development approach.
• Designing and coordinating the implementation of project activities targeting internationally recognized sustainability standards and development of quality systems within tourism.
• Promoting and capitalizing on cultural heritage as a driver for tourism, promoting Moldova’s unique history and culture, modernizing tourism sites with digital, innovative and interactive solutions.
• Implementing innovative initiatives designed to create and expand quality upgrades of Moldova tourism services, products, experiences and destinations, to successfully attract visitors from foreign markets and catalyze domestic tourism.

Additionally, the Manager will manage and coordinate the tourism-related international and local short-term technical assistance (STTA) and subcontractors, agencies, work with the partners and other associated institutions for the purposes of fulfilling the job requirements and implementing the technical programmatic activities.

The Manager will oversee ensuring that the offers generated by the proposed development models are financially viable, marketable, coherent with country positioning, inclusive, sustainable and value-added.

This position requires a dynamic professional skilled in project management and implementation, sustainable and innovative change management, strategic planning, capable of partnering with tourism industry key stakeholders and foster systemic and transformative changes within the tourism sector.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

• Develop, and lead implementation of transformative activities to increase the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of the tourism industry.
• Design and implement activities to foster innovation and creativity in tourism sector.
• Design and implement tourism sector workforce, sustainability and quality systems development strategies and activities.
• Support cultural heritage-related activities, aiming to preserve and showcase Moldova's rich history, authenticity and vibrant culture, by modernizing touristic spots, curating interactive experiences, integrating digital tools and innovative solutions, and integrating cultural heritage into the tourism landscape.
• Implement innovative initiatives designed to create and expand quality upgrades of Moldova tourism services, products, experiences, destinations and events to successfully attract visitors from foreign markets and catalyze domestic tourism; 
• Develop, and support implementation of initiatives that enhance the workforce capacities across the value chain, approximated to market trends and demands, and coordinate such activities with RCRA Workforce Development Manager to ensure congruency in workforce development approaches across RCRA sectors, as relevant;
• Collaborate with teams in various sectors and locations in Moldova to provide the local entrepreneurs special support to enhance their tourism knowledge, skills and capabilities to drive tourism business development in a sustainable manner;
• Manage, coordinate, develop international collaborations to implement in Moldova internationally recognized training and tourism education programs,
• Work closely with the RCRA Workforce Development Manager to support and coordinate all activities involving Vocational Education and Training (VET) schools and higher education in tourism industry education;
• Lead the design, management, and implementation of programs; partnerships; collaborations related to sustainability and quality systems implementation in the tourism industry, using best international practices;
• Stimulate interest and demand for improved quality and professionalism in tourism and hospitality professionals, including certifications and standards development.
• Work with Tourism SMEs and Product Development Manager, and provide hub and spoke development model deployments, when appropriate and assigned.
• Design and implement customized workforce development and sustainability improvement programs to build the capacity and improve the quality of products and services of tourism sector stakeholders.
• Work with Tourism industry and Marketing Manager, and provide support in implementation of tourism industry and marketing initiatives deployment, when appropriate and assigned.
• Develop and maintain strong partnerships with the key tourism sector organizations - National Inbound and Domestic Tourism Association of Moldova (ANTRIM) and National Tourism Office (ONT), private sector entities (industry associations, producers, advisors, etc.), public sector, and donor community.
• Collaborate with key tourism sector stakeholders to implement joint activities, build institutional capacity and wean them from donor dependence.
• Provide inputs in strategic planning of tourism development initiatives.
• Manage assigned subcontract and grant activities in the tourism sector.
• Mentor grantees and provide capacity building to ensure grant activities’ success.
• Contribute to weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports; drafts concept notes and various memos for RCRA internal and external use.
• 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.
• Work collaboratively with the Communications and Media Director to expand outreach and communication of the tourism sector initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with RCRA’s business enabling environment (BEE) team to jointly design and implement workforce development activities to support the tourism sector.
• Collaborate with the BEE team to identify and address the capacity building needs of key sector organizations.
• Collaborate with the BEE team to identify, diagnose, and recommend reforms that will address business enabling environment constraints to the growth and development of the tourism sector.
• Proactively collaborate with other RCRA teams (high value agriculture, BEE, wine, communications, MEL, grants, procurement, and finance) and other donor programs to jointly design and implement activities to benefit RCRA’s wine, tourism, and high value agriculture sectors.
• Properly design requests for applications (RFAs), collect information and data from shortlisted grant applicants, and provide the grants team with requested data and information to complete negotiation memos and grant agreements related to workforce and quality systems activities within the prescribed deadlines
• 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 fields.
• Demonstrated experience (at least 5 years) in project or business management, related to the tourism development and/or workforce development and/or cultural heritage development, preferably on USAID or other donor-funded projects.
• Excellent communication skills, written and spoken, in Romanian. Knowledge of English and 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 Quality 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 Quality Development Manager” in the subject line to MDA-RCRA-Recruit@chemonics.md by November 21, 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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