Country Manager – Senegal

Location: Dakar, Senegal

Job Reference: CM/PD/SN/03/2025

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:

Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
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.
Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
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 Manager – Senegal Job Reference: CM/PD/SN/03/2025

The Country Manager is responsible for (i) Providing Strategic Leadership in defining and achieving AGRA’s Strategic Plans in-county whilst acting as the (ii) Public Face of AGRA in country by establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships with government, private sector, donors and other key stakeholders; (iii) Oversees and drives the program technical team and operational support roles in-country to effective day-to-day operational and program delivery; (iv) Lead the process of identifying and exploring potential options for funding.

S/He represents AGRA in the country and will act as the catalyst for AGRA’s integrated interventions, under the guidance of the VP Program Delivery, and respective Regional Director. S/he will mainly be responsible for coordinating activities and building necessary relationships with the government, private sector, donors, and other key stakeholders. S/He will lead the country to actively manage the country’s strategies. The role will lead in liaising with the government and donors and be seen as the expert on needs in the country, to provide feedback to technical teams, and lead in identifying grantees and the right avenues for making AGRA’s investments effective.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Develops the country strategy, change narrative and annual work plans in collaboration with relevant teams at the center and regional level.
Identifies and pursues opportunities to mobilize resources in support of AGRA’s priorities and/or advocating for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in the country.
Develop grantee portfolios dealing with binding constraints, resources, and opportunities for increasing and improving program delivery.
Strengthen collaboration, accountability, and stronger decentralization with support from regional and central technical/operational teams.
Provides strategic oversight for quality program execution in line with government priorities, as well as AGRA’s goals, vision and reputation the institution aspires to.
Leads in representing AGRA in key meetings and forums of the government and its development partners including sector coordination platforms that contribute to the advancement of AGRA’s investments in the country.
Convenes and builds relationships with national government, private sector, donors, civil society organizations and other in-country stakeholders, with the aim to build and nurture country-level strategic partnerships deemed essential to AGRA’s mission.
Leads in supporting and advancing national agricultural sector development plans to identify and pursue opportunities to (i) mobilize resources in support of AGRA’s priorities and/or (ii) advocate for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in country.
Oversees country-level interventions set out in the annual work plan, in close collaboration with program teams to deliver innovative and integrated intervention models across systems and value chain.
Ensures a robust integrated Government programming; and a robust approach to AGRA’s 3 routes to impact (end-to-end value chain development, anchor firms in secondary value chains and national ecosystem, and government agenda implementation).
Oversees country level research required to complete the country plan on a periodic basis, to safeguard alignment of program objectives with the national/government sector priorities.
Builds on the expertise of AGRA program officers in selected strategic business lines and other key thematic areas of intervention to enhance the operations of country strategies and link program investments and activities to other AGRA initiatives
Strengthens the financial sustainability of programs and operations through vibrant resource development effort, striking healthy financial ratios, and effective budget administration.
Leads and oversees the grants management effort in the country, ensuring long-term health of the country portfolio and achievement of annual targets

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Agriculture, Agriculture Economics or related disciplines
Demonstrated capacity to mobilize partners and be a good partner to the relevant respective in-country Ministry, and experience engaging with various senior Government players.
Experience engaging with various agriculture private and development players in-country
Proficiency in designing, implementing, and scaling agricultural programs that address key challenges related to food security, sustainable crop productivity, and rural livelihoods. Strong abilities in developing and executing M&E frameworks to assess program performance, outcomes, and impacts, ensuring continuous improvement.
Deep understanding of crop, livestock management and natural resources management, including knowledge of local farming practices, soil health, pest control, and irrigation techniques
Expertise in sustainable farming methods, including organic farming, agroforestry, and conservation agriculture to promote long-term environmental stewardship.
Knowledge of agricultural technologies and innovations (e.g., precision farming, digital agriculture) and the ability to introduce and scale these within programs.
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 21^st March 2025. 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.