This has been Extended to 4 April 2025

Summary

The Technical Officer – EU-LAC Social and Digital Innovation is responsible for supporting the implementation of social and digital innovation programmes that promote cross-regional partnerships between the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean (EU-LAC), as well as other relevant initiatives under Caribbean Export’s portfolio. The role focuses on advancing social innovation, digital transformation, and inclusive economic development in the Caribbean. The Officer plays a critical operational role in ensuring the timely and effective delivery of EU-LAC programmes in which Caribbean Export is an implementing partner, with responsibilities covering the coordination of national-level interventions, management of regional activities, and support to project stakeholders.

Under the EU-LAC Social Accelerator, the Officer is responsible for driving the implementation of Caribbean Export’s work plan, including establishing Social Innovation Labs, coordinating capacity-building activities, and facilitating access to finance for social enterprises. Simultaneously, the Officer supports the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator by fostering partnerships between corporates and startups, building and maintaining a pipeline of participants, designing and delivering innovation challenges, and strengthening engagement with the Caribbean startup ecosystem to encourage collaborative, technology-driven solutions.

Working closely with internal teams and external partners, the Officer oversees the day-to-day execution of activities across both programmes, ensuring the effective delivery of training, technical assistance, and investment facilitation. The Officer contributes to the development of strategies and roadmaps that enable sustainable partnerships between corporates, entrepreneurs, and social innovators, while also supporting knowledge sharing, reporting, and monitoring processes to ensure compliance with Caribbean Export’s obligations and donor requirements.

In delivering these responsibilities, the Technical Officer works in collaboration with the Deputy Executive Director and the Manager – Technical Programmes to support Caribbean Export’s strategic objectives in the areas of innovation, sustainability, private sector development, and regional cooperation, with a particular focus on enhancing the competitiveness and resilience of Caribbean MSMEs through social and digital transformation.

Responsibilities/Deliverables:

Programme Implementation and Coordination

• Drive the operational delivery of Caribbean Export’s responsibilities within the EU-LAC Social Accelerator work plan, ensuring timely and effective implementation of assigned activities.
• Coordinate the development and implementation of Social Innovation Labs in assigned Caribbean countries.
• Support the design, delivery, and monitoring of national social innovation strategies and action plans.
• Oversee the mapping of social innovation ecosystems and identify key stakeholders, opportunities, and gaps.
• Manage the organization of project events, including hackathons, acceleration programmes, capacity-building workshops, and investment forums.
• Facilitate the integration of digital tools and platforms to support programme delivery and beneficiary engagement.
• Ensure compliance with project timelines, budgets, and reporting requirements.
• Facilitate partnerships between Caribbean corporates and startups to co-create innovative digital solutions addressing specific corporate needs.
• Collaborate with corporate partners to design, structure, and launch innovation challenges, focused on solving operational, sustainability, and digital transformation challenges through startup-led solutions.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with startup ecosystems across the Caribbean, including incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneur networks, to identify high-potential startups for participation in innovation challenges.
• Identify opportunities to align corporate innovation needs with emerging startups capable of delivering digital solutions.
• Strengthen linkages between the objectives of the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator and the EU-LAC Social Accelerator, particularly by fostering collaborations that support socially impactful digital innovations.
• Provide technical support to participating startups and corporates to advance partnerships from ideation to implementation.

Technical Support and Capacity Building

• Provide technical assistance to MSMEs, startups, and business support organizations (BSOs) on digital transformation and social innovation practices.
• Implement tools to assess facilitate the participation of private sector and civil society stakeholders in the Agency’s interventions.
• Contribute to the development of knowledge products, guidelines, training materials, and policy recommendations to strengthen social and digital innovation ecosystems.
• Support mentoring programmes and provide guidance to enterprises participating in the Accelerators.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting

• Support the collection and analysis of data to monitor programme outcomes and impact.
• Prepare regular technical reports and updates for internal and external stakeholders, including donors and consortium partners.
• Contribute to the application of results-based management (RBM) practices across programme activities.

Resource Mobilization

• Assist in the development of proposals and identification of funding opportunities for future social and digital innovation initiatives.
• Collaborate with consortium partners and internal teams to support the sustainability of social innovation and digital innovation ecosystems beyond the life of the programmes.

Education and Experience:

Master’s degree in social sciences, innovation and entrepreneurship, international development, economics, business administration, or a related field.

A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field may be considered in lieu of a master’s degree, depending on the breadth and depth of the candidate’s professional experience.

Experience:

• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience in social innovation, digital transformation, private sector development, or a related area.
• Demonstrated experience supporting donor-funded projects with multi-stakeholder involvement.
• Experience working with CARIFORUM states and knowledge of the regional development context is an asset.
• Experience working with MSMEs, startups, and business support organizations in the Caribbean.
• Project management certification is considered an asset.
  • Strong understanding and working knowledge of the regional and international donor environment, including funding mechanisms supporting innovation, entrepreneurship, and private sector development.

This position is open to all suitably qualified CARIFORUM nationals. Applicants must be legally authorized to live and work in the Dominican Republic. The Agency will not provide visa sponsorship or cover relocation expenses.

The selected candidate will be required to work in the Sub-Regional Office from Monday to Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

Submission

To apply, please download the full Terms of Reference (TOR) and submit the required documentation:

• Updated CV
• Cover Letter outlining suitability for the Role

Interested applicants should submit documents to hr@carib-export.com by Friday, April 4, 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.