Grants Associate – Kenya
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Job Reference: GA/OPS/KE/08/2024
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:
- 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
Grants Associate, Job Reference: GA/OPS/KE/08/2024
The Grants Associate has the responsibility for providing administrative, financial and logistical support to the Grants Unit. Grants Associate supports the grants unit staff with grants disbursements, reporting, and follow-on grantees’ general communication correspondence.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Receive and log in AMIS (Management Information Systems) all funding requests and inquiries and forward them to relevant program units for review while maintaining a tracking system to ensure timely response.
- Generation of monthly grants process performance reports for Head of Grants review and reporting any deviations.
- Schedule reporting and payment requirements for all new grants in the grant management system
- Develop and maintain an effective document management system for all documents related to the grants unit for easy retrieval.
- Conduct pre-award due diligence for potential grantees including organization capacity assessments
- Monitor grantee budget utilization and advise grants officer and Head of Grants on variances and forecasts.
- Engages and follows up with the program staff for timely grants reporting and closure
- Monitors and maintains updated records of all in-kind budgets and ensures that the Grants Officer and program staff are informed of the current utilization and expenses reported.
- Tracking approvals and initiate grants related disbursement requests
- Serve as the Grants Unit contact person to receive, acknowledge, log-in and track resolutions of general grants-related issues in a timely manner.
Key Qualifications and Experience required:
- Essential
- Bachelor’s degree in a commercial domain or equivalent experience in a related field.
- Desirable
- Knowledge of AMIS operating system
- Relevant experience in a grant making environment
- Computer proficiency in: Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet search skills, PowerPoint, and ability to learn new applications quickly
- Working knowledge of key donor agencies including USAID, Rockefeller Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Master Card Foundation and FCDO.
- Technical Competencies
- Capacity Building and Training Coordination
- Grantee Budget Management and Performance Reporting
- Record and Database Management
- Technical and Industry Knowledge
- 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 13th September 2024. Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.
AGRA reserves the right to make changes to this role.
Data Privacy Statement
As part of our recruitment process, AGRA collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. AGRA is responsible for the processing of any personal information you provide to us. We take our responsibilities regarding the protection of personal information very seriously. You can view AGRA’s Privacy Policy here <https://agra.org/policy/privacy-policy/>. We may use this information to conduct background verification, during the recruitment process, with your consent.
For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.
AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer