Access to Finance Associate, CATALYZE, Engines of Growth
Project Overview and Role:
USAID CATALYZE is a global project designed to facilitate partnerships and craft solutions to mobilize $2 billion in blended private sector and other financing to USAID partner countries. The program can work in any development sector or region, enabling USAID Bureaus and Missions around the world to efficiently facilitate investment solutions that respond to the needs of specific sectors, issues, and geographies and leverage private sector financing to achieve development objectives.
The Engines of Growth (EoG) Activity is one project under the CATALYZE activity and is designed to facilitate Western Balkans small and medium enterprise (SME) resilience, growth, and job creation by improving their access to and utilization of appropriate finance. EoG is working to help mobilize capital to SMEs to sustain vulnerable SMEs and jobs in the wake of COVID-19, and now seeks to facilitate appropriate financing to high growth potential SMEs in the long term.
EoG is focused on two main objectives in the Western Balkans:
Objective 1: Mobilize capital and/or restructure debt to otherwise viable but distressed SMEs which have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 in order to sustain them, retain/rehire workers, and preserve capacity for future growth.
Objective 2: Facilitate additional alternative financing to high-growth potential SMEs in the Western Balkans in order to enhance their growth, productivity, and job creation.
This activity is being implemented using different funding windows to engage local partners to address these objectives and support both vulnerable and high growth potential SMEs.
Palladium seeks an Access to Finance Associate to support the Engines of Growth activity in the Western Balkans. The associate will support the activities under EoG’s Objective 1 and help successful implementation and administration of the Objective 1 activities.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
Access to Finance Duties:
Communicate verbally and in writing with facilitators and client companies.
- Administer and archive project documents.
- Manage the pipeline of companies assisted under Objective 1. Perform statistical analysis of project results using Excel data sheets and tools.
- Assist the M&E manager with data collection and relevant data analysis.
- Aid in writing and formatting quarterly reports, white papers, and other publications.
- Provide technical assistance in organizing events, including writing memos, articles, and reports.
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Prepare presentations, questionnaires, and handouts.
- Assist in organizing workshops, conferences, and matchmaking events under component A2F.
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Identify and draft success stories derived from A2F component activities.
- Assist in maintaining the project library of communication tools, photos, and digital event records related to A2F activities.
Finance and Administration Duties:
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Register incoming invoices in a register book.
- Scan documents as requested.
- Archive administrative documents.
- Assist the Finance & Administration team with other administrative and logistic tasks.
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Provide EoG Home Office with budget updates including pipeline accruals, budget adjustments, etc. on a monthly basis.
- Assist in drafting contract modification documents as needed.
Required Qualifications:
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Bachelor’s degree in Economy, Business, Finance, Law, Communication, or a related field.
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Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
- Strong research skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a team.
- Willingness to learn and an open mind.
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Fluent in Macedonian language.
- Good English language skills, both written and oral.
Company Overview:
About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world's most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people's lives.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.
Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.
