Program Specialist

Mekong Institute

Vacancy – Program Specialist (SME Development and Trade Facilitation), Trade and Investment Facilitation Department, Mekong Institute, Khon Kaen, Thailand

Mekong Institute

Mekong Institute (MI) is a regional inter-governmental organization of the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and China) established in 1996. The institute provides human resource development programs and services to GMS government agencies and private sector involved in various regional development and cooperation activities under the GMS Economic Cooperation Program. The institute holds the distinction of being the only GMS-based training and research institute, owned by the six GMS Governments, offering standard and on-demand human resource development programs with focus on regional cooperation and transnational development issues. The Institute is located in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

Program Specialist (SME Development and Trade Facilitation), Trade and Investment Facilitation Department

The Program Specialist is responsible for designing, planning, managing and follow up Programs/Projects under his/her designated thematic area (SME development and Trade facilitation) and deputizing Director of Trade and Investment Facilitation Department of Mekong Institute (MI). MI carryout capacity building for regional cooperation programs in three interrelated models: Learning Program, Research and Policy Dialogue.

Key task

• Plan, lead and coordinate learning programs, workshops, structured learning visits and seminar under his/her assigned thematic area.

• Develop/Formulate new SME development and Trade facilitation project concept, project proposals and budget.

• Make continuous improvement of training curriculum under Trade facilitation program; design and coordinate program delivery specifications to ensure that high quality training contents and methodologies are delivered together with qualified resource persons (session planning, resource persons, field visits sites, facilitators, on-line training packages, etc.).

• As Team leader/lead facilitator, facilitate training sessions under his/her thematic area. This includes delivering technical session, preparing session plan and training materials, facilitating learning activities and making synthesis/evaluation of each training session/module.

• Lead/ conduct research on emerging issues related to his/her thematic area and develop case studies to be used in his/her training program.

• In coordination with M&E specialist, design project monitoring and evaluation tools, administer pre-test, post-test of capacity development activities to provide data for M&E system.

• Prepare project completion report, evaluation report and post training follow up activities in accordance with MI standard and/or as required by development partners.

• Establish and maintain good relationship with MI Coordinating Agents in the GMS countries and concerned development partners and collaborating agencies.

• Write SME and Trade related information for MI website and contribute to MI publication (Mekong Connection, Course Design Statement, Brochures etc).

• Other related tasks as assigned by Director, Trade and Investment facilitation or Executive Director of Mekong Institute.

Required qualifications, skills and experience   

• Master Degree or PhD in Economics, Business or Trade and related fields.

• Minimum 10 years of experience preferably in capacity building and training and/or research in SME development, Logistics development and Trade facilitation.

• Good understanding of issues related to SME development, transport and logistics, Trade Policy, Special Economic zones, GMS/ASEAN economy etc.

• Proven experience in SME, Trade capacity building and research.

• Excellent communication and presentation skills in written and verbal English.

If you have the skills and experience to exceed in this position, and are passionate about equitable and inclusive economic growth in GMS, please send your CV and cover letter, to [email protected] by 15th December 2017, titled ‘TIF Program Specialist’.

Please note that only applications successful in progressing to the next stage will be responded to.