Business Development Mentor

We’re looking for a Business Development Mentor who can live and volunteer for 10 months in Eswatini.

• This assignment seeks to support WITAD in strengthening its organisational sustainability and creating greater economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs. 
• To be considered for this role, you’ll need a tertiary qualification in Business Administration, Marketing, International Development, Economics, or a related field with experience in Business Development, marketing, fundraising, or resource mobilisation.
• As a volunteer, you will support, through practical mentoring and knowledge sharing, the volunteer will leave WITAD with stronger tools, skills and approaches that can continue to create impact beyond the assignment. 

About the partner organisation 

Women in Trade and Development (WITAD) is a community-based, non-profit organisation registered in Eswatini. The organisation has a clear mission to support the empowerment of marginalised girls and women so that they can secure higher incomes and to advance gender equality. Operating across all four regions of Eswatini, WITAD works at the grassroots level with women and marginalised groups, including persons with disabilities and refugees, to overcome the interconnected challenges of poverty, poor health, and gender-based violence. 

WITAD's mandate focuses on creating self-sustaining livelihoods through skills transfer and sustainable entrepreneurship. A key program is a first-of-its-kind (for Eswatini) rural business acceleration initiative that transitions informal women traders into the formal economy. This is achieved through demanddriven, practical skills training in areas like organic farming, food processing, and tailoring for bulk contracts. WITAD's work extends to sexual and reproductive health and rights awareness and safeguarding strengthening (Gender based violence and child abuse prevention) within its community outreach activities. 

The volunteer will work alongside WITAD to develop an Income Generation Model, explore resource mobilisation and partnership opportunities, and establish practical approaches to support the organisation’s long-term growth. The volunteer will also help create market linkages for priority business clusters and strengthen digital marketing approaches, enabling women entrepreneurs to better promote their businesses, access new markets and grow their livelihoods.  

About the Australian Volunteers Program  

The Australian Volunteers Program is an Australian government-funded initiative. We support partner organisations across the Pacific, Asia, and Africa to achieve locally led change.  

Volunteers are supported throughout their volunteer journey. We actively support and encourage people of all backgrounds and abilities to volunteer and aim to make the program as accessible and inclusive as possible. If you have accessibility requirements, please contact us to discuss how we can support you to volunteer with us - [email protected]. Learn more about our commitment to inclusion.