Job Description

This is my job description as it is right now. From other volunteers, I have come to understand that what is implied on paper, is not necessarily true in all cases. I may actually end up doing something entirely different. If and when this does happen I will change my job description to clarify and further emphasize what I will be doing. I will also add my personal comments on how I feel the job is doing and other little tid bits of information, so stay tuned.

Small Enterprise Development Extentionist 09/29/01 - 12/8/03

A Small Enterprise Development (SEDs) Volunteer is a community developer worker with business/management eexpertise; he or she teaches business skills in a formal or informal setting. SEDs are assigned to a Ministry, Community Based Organization (CBO) or a non-governmental organizations (NGO) which has requested a Volunteer's services/

A SED provides technical assistance and training to organizations that provide loans to small businesses, directly to entrepreneurs, to women's self-help groups engaged in income-generating activities and to Technical Institutes.

Flexibility and adaptability of your skills are essential for this assignment. You will most likely have to conduct needs assessments with the organizations or entrepreneurs with whom you are working. From there, with little guidance you may have to determine the areas in which you can provide assistance. This is not an easy task because of the degree of ambiguity and the fact that Peace Corps does not provide direct funding of small business activities. This latter fact can cause endless frustrations since in many cases SED Volunteers are seen as conduits for financing small business ventures.

Assistance to NGOs or CBOs with a small business component may mean helping them to streamlime their reporting systems for their credit program or working with their clients in the field to improve profitability through training or technical assistance. The businesses are often one or two person ventures, at the retail, service (i.e. bicycle repair) or small-scale manufacturing (for example, carpemtry, metalworking or tailoring) level.

The technical assistance is likely to be rudimentary, but most businesses operate in a complex environment; and entrepreneurs often have limited understanding of forward and backward linkages and have limited access to resources such as credit and marketing information. Books and records are seldom kept and inventory management and quality control are frequent problems. Often the entrepreneurs are not aware of improvements. Providing assistance to women's or self-help groups may mean assisting rural women in developing basic planning and organizational/leadership skills to manage income-generating projects, training them to maintain a cash book, and, perhaps most importantly, assisting them in improving the quality of their products and idenifying markets for their goods and services.

YOUR ROLE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will provide technical assistance, training, and support to those interested in using information technology to enhance their networking, market linkages, product design, business management and their internal organization. In many cases, you will be introducing people to the computer and its abilities as a tool for efficiency and communication. These activities are likely to fall withing a broad program, such as business, education, health and agriculture. You may be assigned to a school system (such as Technical Training Institutes), municipal government office, or non-governmental organization. You may focus on transferring data processing and computer skills, developing regional databases, or implementing an area-wide network for use by a government office. Depending on your interests, skills, and the nature of the assignment, you may be involved in:

* Teaching computer literacy to teachers, students, and community menbers in a classroom setting and developing appropriate trainign materials;

* Using e-mail and creating web pages to create links among small businesses and other organizations, helping them advertise goods and services;

* Assisting with computer maintenance and repair, alongside training on its usage, and installation of hardware and software;

* Establishing self-sustaining computer resource centers and helping communities assume responsibities for maintenance, fees-for-service, support and teaching.

These will be in addition to business management skills that you will be required to share with various small-scale entrepreneurs.

As a Volunteer in Africa, you will also be equipped to play a key role in the Peace Corps' HIV/AIDS initiative.