TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. We are a non-profit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital, and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs, and wealth for their families and communities. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.
Prosper Cashew is a five-year, $26 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Food for Progress Program that aims to catalyze investment for the West African cashew processing sector.
Over the next five years, the project will strengthen and revive existing cashew processing facilities across Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria and support the development of new processing facilities and other value chain enterprises as part of the project’s overall goal to increase the share of raw cashew nut that is processed in the region from about 8% to 50%. Over five years, Prosper Cashew will improve the capacity of 60 processing units who source cashews from approximately 34,000 farmers, facilitate $497 million of investment in the cashew sector, and generate $1.5 billion in cashew kernel sales. The project expects to create more than 26,000 new jobs (at least 50% for women) and indirectly benefit more than 133,000 women, men, and children in West Africa.
A key component of the project will be to strengthen and increase commercially viable cashew enterprises through technical support. The project will build processor capacity in business management, financial management, investment facilitation, HR and workforce management, marketing, and supply chain development. It will also identify and address specific constraints related to particular sections of cashew processing (raw cashew nut drying, warehousing, calibration, steam cooking, shelling, oven drying, peeling, grading, fumigation, packing, and storage) and provide support to processors to install food safety management systems, support the introduction of traceability, and support the introduction of environmental practices and effective waste management.
Primary Purpose and Function
Reporting to Technical Support Lead, the Engineering Specialist will provide engineering (maintenance and projects) support to processors (with a minimum annual installed capacity of 5,000 MT) with an objective to assist them to achieve improved effective machine availability, spare parts and consumables inventory planning, preventive maintenance implementation and local workshop development to achieve higher productivity, capacity utilization and efficiency.
S/he will identify the gaps in existing engineering systems of partner processors and suggest an improvement plan which will ultimately lead to better efficiency, productivity, and cost optimization.
S/he will support implementation of a tailored action plan with each processing unit to address those gaps as per agreed goals and milestones.
Duties & Responsibilities
Provide engineering support to a portfolio of five processors to build robust engineering systems to address specific constraints related to particular sections of cashew processing (warehousing, calibration, steam cooking, shelling, oven drying, peeling, grading, fumigation, packing, and storage)
Assist processors to optimize the effective machine availability, including advising on spares and consumables inventory
Compile, analyze, and report data on progress of processing units with key internal and external stakeholders
Lead the training and development programs of processors’ staff as well as key participants of the broader cashew processing ecosystem
Ensure that women and other disadvantaged groups are sustainably integrated into processing activities
Support processors to implement improved environmental practices, including effective waste management
Support the establishment of processing units for cashew byproducts
Oversight of processing equipment and machine productivity improvements and inventory management