AGRA

Vacancies

Country Programs Lead – USAID Ghana

DEADLINE: July 16, 2024 5:00 pm

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Job Role: Country Programs Lead – USAID Ghana

Location: Accra, Ghana

Job Reference CPL/PD/07/2024

 

AGRA and its Work to Transform Agriculture

 

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

 

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

 

  1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
  2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
  3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
  4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

 

Why Join Us?

 

People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success.

We have cultivated a workplace that fuels Depth in Collaboration, Excellence in Execution, Constructive Engagements, and a spirit of being Increasingly Entrepreneurial; all underpinned by our cherished I-RISE Values (Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity)

 

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 25 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

 

We are looking for people who are passionate about being part of a mission-driven team that is making a real difference on the continent; love to work on cutting edge Ag technologies; and able to grow their skills, expertise, and experience career growth, while enjoying very competitive compensation and benefits.

 

Are you ready to embark on this exciting transformative journey with us?

 

The Position

 

Country Programs Lead – USAID Ghana Job Reference: CPL/PD/07/2024

 

The Country Programs Lead – USAID Ghana plays a critical role in effectively contributing to the overall delivery of AGRA’s USAID investment in the country, providing leadership for identifying grantees and the right avenues for marketing the investments effectively. S/he will cultivate and manage strategic partnership approaches with USAID and other shared partners at country level to come together behind a shared vision for sustainably growing Africa’s food systems, leveraging the best of partners’ collective expertise, knowledge, and resources to catalyze transformative investments and change.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

 

  • Lead development of USAID program workplan on an annual basis in collaboration with AGRA country, regional and HQ teams, particularly the Country Director and Country Programs Lead, as well as the Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party for AGRA’s USAID cooperative agreement and PIO mechanisms.
  • Coordinate country-level interventions set out in the USAID funded program, working with program teams, USAID counterparts, and common program and development partners to deliver innovative intervention models across the value chain.
  • Convene and build relationships with domestic government, private sector, donors, civil society organizations and others with a presence in country, to build and nurture country-level partnerships deemed essential to AGRA’s mission in the country.
  • Lead in the areas of day-to-day collaboration with USAID, both through the Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) and AGRA’s new Public International Organization (PIO) status, to advance strong programmatic partnerships with USAID.
  • Working closely with AGRA Enterprise Risk and Compliance officer and Deputy Chief of Party, PIATA, ensure USAID-funded programs adhere to USAID’s rules and regulations.
  • Maintain working knowledge of national agricultural sector development plans in order to identify and pursue opportunities to (i) mobilize resources and/or (ii) advocate for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in country.
  • Draw on the expertise of AGRA program officers in the areas of seed systems development, sustainable farming and soil fertility, integrated markets, trade, and finance, and policy to enhance the operations of country strategies and link program investments and activities to other AGRA initiatives.
  • Establish relationships with existing USAID programs/projects including but not limited to Market Systems and Resilience (MSR), Policy Link, and Mobilizing Finance for Agriculture (MFA).
  • Facilitate the reporting requirement of USAID and other development partners.
  • Support in identifying and pursuing opportunities to mobilize strong partnerships and resources in support of AGRA’s priorities and/or advocating for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in country.
  • Collaborate with Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) team to monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) projections versus actuals and initiate correction actions.
  • Relay feedback from AGRA’s partners, especially the government and development partners to other parts of the organization
  • Assist program officers to research and develop grantee portfolios dealing with constraints, resources and opportunities for increasing and improving seed, Fertilizer and technology supply at farmer levels.

 

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

 

  • Essential
  • Bachelor’s or Advanced Degree in agriculture, agribusiness, agriculture economics or related disciplines.
  • A Doctorate degree in relevant fields will be an added advantage.
  • Certification in Project Management is an added advantage
  • Desirable
    • A Doctorate degree
    • Certification in Project Management
    • Experience in areas of market development, food trade or related fields.
    • Experience in agriculture related international development work.
    • Competencies in technologies related to climate change adaptation; value chains (extension, crops production & seed technology, post-harvest), and inclusive finance.
    • Experience working areas of seed systems, sustainable farming, inclusive markets and trade, policy and state capability

 

  • Technical Competencies
  • Climate Change Adaptation
  • Value Change (Extension, Crop Production, seed & Post harvest)
  • Inclusive Markets Trade & Finance
  • Policy & State Capability

 

  • Behavioral Competencies
  • Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking siloes, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
  • Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and increasing accountability to deliver impact at scale.
  • Ability to be sincerely constructive in interactions with others by demonstrating trust, sincerity, and care, in recognition of our joint purpose.
  • Ability be increasingly entrepreneurial by breaking hierarchies, embracing learning and innovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas.

 

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail.

 

Applications must be received on or before 16th July, 2024. Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

 

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

 

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer