WHERE: Muhanga, Rwanda

WHEN:  As early as February 2013 and from one to six months, with could involve a combination of in country and distance support.  The schedule is flexible for the right candidate.

APPLICATION PROCESS:  Please send a detailed letter of interest and copy of your resume to Sarah Feldberg, Volunteer Coordinator at sarah.feldberg@coopscanada.coop.  Only qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview and we will interview candidates as suitable ones apply. 

This assignment is an integral component of CCA's Rwanda: Co-operative Agriculture Growth project.  

The project builds on the success of a three year pilot and will improve the agricultural production, productivity and marketing capacity of 15 co-operatives and their members in vulnerable, food-insecure communities. First, the project will increase food availability by helping small-scale, rural farmers to improve the quality and quantity of food they produce, second it will increase farmer incomes and third it will reduce households' ongoing vulnerability to food insecurity by increasing their resilience through improving nutrition and strengthening the co-operative's governance and management. The project will directly benefit more than 22,000 households and indirectly benefit 132,000 individuals.     

In particular this assignment will assist with the start up of a rice mill owned by Mukunguri Rice Promotion and Investment Company Ltd.(MRPIC), a new company owned by rice producing co-operatives in the region. The rice mill can process 4,000 - 5,000 MT of rice per year, 2,000MT of which will come directly from the rice co-operative members themselves.     

MRPIC has asked for production management assistance as they get ready to begin operations. The equipment has been purchased and installed, the buildings have been built, now they need the technical expertise to assist them with setting up management and processing systems to be able to successfully manage the facility.

Skills/Experience:

• Manufacturing management experience (preferably rice, maize or grain mill) and can help a start up business develop appropriate management structures and systems
• Preferably someone who has managed a small to medium-sized production facility
• Experience in operations management: inventory management, equipment, property, storage, packaging, quality control, production standards
• Human resource management (the facility is expected to employ 58-60 staff)
• Financial management
• Marketing: sales contracts 

Qualifications:

• background in/ understanding of production facility management 
• experience in developing facility management plans for rural communities preferred
• flexibility  
• Canadian citizen or landed immigrant
• Ability to write reports in plain language 
• bilingual French/English speaker preferred 

The Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) is a national association for co-operatives in Canada, representing more than ten million co-operative and credit union members from over 2,000 organizations.  Individual co-op members are represented by CCA either directly through their co-operative, through their provincial co-op associations or credit union central, or through sectoral organizations. CCA provides leadership to promote, develop, and unite co-operatives and credit unions for the benefit of people in Canada and around the world.