AGRA

Associate Program Officer – Market Systems & Post Harvest Management

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Job Reference: APO/PD/UG/12/2025

AGRA and its Work

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

Associate Program Officer – Market Systems & Post Harvest Management – Job Reference: APO/PD/UG/12/2025

The Associate Program Officer – Market Systems & Post Harvest Management will work closely with Uganda’s in-country partners to identify appropriate methods for linking smallholder farmers, SMEs, youth and women to market and trade opportunities. In addition to enhancing access to market and trade, the role will also contribute to creating awareness and promoting adoption of food loss reduction solutions.

The role focuses on strengthening business practices of cooperatives, aggregators, processors, and other value chain actors; enhancing post-harvest handling, storage, and processing; promoting access to markets; and facilitating innovation and partnerships. The officer will work closely with field teams, private-sector actors, and development partners to ensure high-quality delivery, learning, and documentation of results.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Contributes to the development of analytical tools and methodologies related to market-led development.
• Innovates to create, implement, and scale value chain approaches that enhance the participation of smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, in local, regional, and global markets.
• Leads the design and implementation of grant-making activities that address constraints to farmer knowledge, practices, and behavior change, applying new ideas to improve market access and post-harvest management.
• Facilitate market and trade linkages between off-takers and smallholder farmers at both local and national levels.
• Provides leadership in country SME development in alignment with the IMTF strategic direction.
• Identifies and reports key trade and market trends and barriers that inform national trade and market policies and initiatives.
• Strengthen Quality and Standards: Enhance traceability, quality, and standards of commodities in priority value chains.
• Leads/Support the development of innovative project concepts and proposals for resource mobilization to support future IMTF work in the country.
• Identify financial services opportunities for SMEs development in view of enhancing growth and creation of work opportunities for youth.
• Support the Country Director in messaging and engaging with relevant government ministries, departments, development partners, and agencies on Inclusive Markets and Trade to foster agricultural development and growth.
• Support the markets and trade policy and regulatory influencing agenda by gathering evidence, leading stakeholder engagements, and producing knowledge products or collateral
• Conduct in-depth market research and analysis to identify opportunities for expanding Inclusive Markets and Trade.
• Support the Food Trade Coalition’s work and other strategic initiatives of the Inclusive Markets Task Force (IMTF) at the country level.
• Build and support multi-disciplinary networks of individuals and organizations that promote linking smallholder farmers to markets.
• Responsible for optimizing annual program budgets and managing program performance to ensure value for money and demonstrate programmatic impact.
• Oversee project grants in compliance with AGRA, grant, and audit requirements.
• Assist in collecting and sharing data with the center of technical expertise for the program’s Food Security Monitor and other knowledge management products.
• Support country teams in developing grant proposals focused on market shaping, policy, and trade resilience.
• Provide technical assistance to grantees and monitor the progress of the Inclusive Markets & Trade program in the country.

Key Qualifications required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics, Business or in a relevant discipline, a master degree will be an added advantage.
• Experience on agricultural development, Inclusive markets, trade, finance and economic policy.
• Fluency in English required; ability to communicate in French will be considered an advantage
• A desire to keep ahead of new and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends.
• Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience.
• Sound skills in proposal development and projects management, including consultancy services.

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 person for this internship, 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 APO/PD/UG/12/2025 in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 5^th January2026.

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