Associate Programme Advisor, Eco-Tourism

It places a strong emphasis on inclusivity, with a particular focus on supporting women, youth, and rural communities. The programme will work with small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), farmers, and community-based tourism organisations, offering support through training, improved access to finance, and efforts to enhance the business and policy environment in these sectors. It also promotes sustainable business practices and digital market access, aligning with Botswana’s broader green growth and climate resilience goals. The programme is structured around three main objectives. First, it aims to enhance the capacities of SMEs in the selected value chains. This includes support in areas such as marketing, compliance with market access standards, ecotourism certification, sustainable resource management, circular economy practices, and financial access. Second, it seeks to strengthen the ecosystem of business support institutions that provide services to enterprises in these sectors. Third, it focuses on improving the overall business, policy, and regulatory environment, including support for regulatory reform and the implementation of key policy initiatives, such as green public procurement and climate-resilient development strategies. The ecotourism component of the programme supports the development of priority tourism locations, including urban tourism in Greater Gaborone. It promotes community-led tourism models, the integration of cultural and creative industries, and stronger linkages between tourism and local value chains. Meanwhile, the horticulture component aims to increase productivity and competitiveness through the adoption of eco-friendly technologies, improved irrigation and cold storage infrastructure, and better market integration. These efforts could help to reduce Botswana’s reliance on imported fruits and vegetables and to improve national food security. The programme directly addresses several of Botswana’s most pressing structural challenges. These include the country’s dependence on diamond mining, persistently high unemployment and inequality, food insecurity and import dependence, barriers to SME growth, climate vulnerability, and the limited integration between key economic sectors. To ensure effective delivery and coordination on the ground, ITC is currently seeking a qualified eco-tourism expert to support the implementation of the programme in Botswana. RESPONSIBILITIES: Under the direct supervision of the Programme Officer, Office for Africa, the overall guidance of the Chief, Office for Africa, and in close coordination with the National Coordinator , the Advisor will be responsible for the following duties: • Works with key clients to facilitate the development, implementation and evaluation of assigned project, etc.; monitors and analyzes specific aspects of the project development and implementation, including the operationalization of the Tourism Masterplan; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed and recommends corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties; identifies and tracks follow-up actions. • Carries out basic research on selected aspects of Botswana tourism programmes, operations and other activities, etc., to include collecting, analyzing and presenting statistical data and other information gathered from diverse sources. • Liaises with Business Support Organizations (BSOs) and sector associations as key multipliers to extend the reach, effectiveness, and sustainability of project interventions. Engages these meso-level institutions in the delivery and scaling of support to enterprises and communities, while strengthening their capacities and coordination, with the objective of building a durable support ecosystem capable of sustaining services, partnerships, and impact beyond the project’s lifetime. • Provides substantive support for strategy and policy coordination and evaluation functions, including the review and analysis of emerging issues and trends, participation in evaluations or research activities and studies. • Assists in performing consulting assignments, in collaboration with the client, by planning facilitating workshops, through other interactive sessions and assisting in developing the action plan the client will use to manage the change. • Participates in survey initiatives; assists with design of data collection tools; issues data collection tools, reviews, analyzes and interprets responses, identifies problems/issues and prepares preliminary conclusions. • Contributes to the preparation of various written outputs, e.g. draft background papers, analytical notes, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, etc. • Provides administrative and substantive support to consultative and other meetings, conferences, etc., to include proposing agenda topics, identifying and proposed participants, preparation of background documents and presentations, handling logistics, etc. • Undertakes outreach activities; participates in the development of training workshops, seminars, etc.; participates in and makes presentations on assigned topics/activities. • Participates in field missions, including provision of substantive and administrative support, data collection, etc. • Coordinates activities related to budget funding (programme /project preparation and submissions, progress reports, financial statements, etc.) and preparation of related documents/reports (pledging, work programme, programme budget, etc.). • Assists in the identification, segmentation and engagement of eco-tourism value chain actors, including MSMEs and community-based tourism groups, by coordinating data collection, facilitating stakeholder consultations with public and private counterparts, and supporting validation of beneficiary selection in line with programme criteria. • Assists in implementing capacity development and clustering activities for eco-tourism MSMEs, by planning and facilitating training needs assessments, cluster development workshops and coaching sessions, and supporting the implementation and follow-up of action plans related to sustainability, certification, digitalisation and market access. • Supports the development of backward, forward and cross-sectoral linkages within the eco-tourism value chain, by liaising with SMEs, BSOs, digital solution providers and financiers, facilitating partnership meetings and B2B interactions, and contributing to documentation of results for programme monitoring and reporting. • Ensures women, youth and marginalized groups are meaningfully included and mainstreamed throughout the programme, strengthening equitable and sustainable outcomes. • Performs other duties as required. Copyright : The personnel has to ensure that s/he has obtained the necessary permissions with regard to intellectual property rights required to perform his/her services under this consultancy contract and for the subsequent dissemination by ITC in any form. Documentary proof is to be submitted to ITC. Should any license fee be due for the use of copyrighted materials of third parties, the Consultant shall request the prior written permission from ITC. S/he has further to ensure to obtain accreditation to event(s), if required.