Catalytic Finance Specialist (Anglophone West Africa)

About the role

The role will support the scoping of key ecosystem enablers, stakeholders and partners within the menstrual health financing and investment ecosystem in Anglophone West Africa. It will also support the identification of gaps, needs and approaches to catalyse a pipeline of investment opportunities and catalytic finance opportunities with selected partners.

Responsibilities

• Identify and assess enterprises, financial institutions, investors and strategic partners that could support catalytic financing for market-based menstrual health solutions.
• Review enterprises across the menstrual health value chain, including manufacturers, distributors, retailers and e-commerce platforms.
• Assess enterprises' development stage, geographic presence, business model, market position, financial performance, fundraising status, financing needs and investment readiness, subject to data availability.
• Identify relevant incubation and acceleration programmes supporting menstrual health enterprises.
• Map local financial institutions and intermediaries that provide, or could provide, local-currency financing for menstrual health enterprises.
• Identify relevant blended finance funds, impact investors, development finance institutions and other financing partners.
• Assess their mandates, investment criteria, financing instruments, sector priorities and alignment with Capital M.
• Develop and apply criteria to screen and prioritise direct and indirect pipeline opportunities, including enterprises, financial institutions and investment vehicles.
• Assess opportunities based on their potential impact, feasibility, scalability, financing needs and alignment with SHF objectives.
• Recommend priority opportunities for technical assistance, catalytic financing, partnership development or further assessment.
• Support the development of suitable catalytic financing instruments, structures and partnership models.
• Contribute market intelligence and technical content to Capital M’s engagement strategy.
• Build and maintain relationships with potential Capital M partners and pipeline opportunities.
• Prepare technical briefs, presentations, assessment profiles and other agreed outputs.
• Represent SHF at selected meetings, conferences and sector events, as agreed with the technical team.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in development finance, corporate finance, economics, business administration, international development or a related field.
• A Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline in combination with additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• Minimum of 5 years work experience in the private sector/development finance/corporate finance related area is required.
• Experience in programme financing (related to development finance/impact investing in LMIC) is required.
• Desired Experience in working in menstrual health (MH) related to markets and value chain concepts from the perspective of the industry, enterprises, investors and/or development finance actors is desirable.
• Knowledge of regional (Anglophone West Africa) sector specific enterprise environment and financial actors is desirable.