AGRA

In-Country Grants Officer – Malawi

Location: Lilongwe, Malawi

Job Reference: GO/PD/MLW/04/2024

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

In-Country Grants Officer – Malawi Job Reference: GO/PD/MLW/04/2024

The In-Country Grants Officer is responsible for working flexibly and collegially in offering support to the Country Director, grants and programs staff as well as in processing grants and maintaining a grants database.

S/he will oversee the grants monitoring and evaluation processes in the assigned Country, and efficiently manages the flow of grants as per donor rules and regulations and in compliance with AGRA’s internal policies and processes and uses technology to achieve the set turnaround times.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Manage day to day project and grants management of grantees within their portfolio.
• Creates and maintains a grant tracking database through the AGRA management information system (AMIS) and other tools to monitor the flow of project proposals from the time full grant documentation is received in the grants unit to the time a grant award is issued, and the first payment is made.
• Identifies grantees requiring technical assistance and provides relevant training on AGRA grants compliance and reporting requirements.
• Conduct pre-award due diligence for potential grantees including organization capacity assessments.
• Ensure adherence to donor compliance requirements by grantees during the life of the grant post grants issuance. Provide advice to the country leadership on grants compliance requirements.
• Provide grants portfolio performance reports to country leadership and provide corrective actions on parameters that include commitment budget uptake, disbursement, and burn-rate, closures, and implementation of audit recommendations etc.
• Collaborates with country leadership, and HQ regional grants officers in implementing systems, policies, and procedures related to grants administration in the designated country.
• Collaborates with the program staff to analyze, revise and formalize any necessary modifications and/or amendments to grants and contracts.
• Builds capability of the AGRA grantees within priority countries through providing trainings and technical backstopping on M&E systems and tools as required.
• Advocates for compliance with donor and AGRA-specific regulations for grant making and all applicable delegation of authority policies, as they relate to signatory powers and thresholds.
• Track grant-making pipeline, Request for Concept Note processing and Grants Agreement Letter issuance.
• Ensure complete and accurate expenditure support documentation is uploaded by grantees and AGRA to AMIS in compliance with MCF and other donors as appropriate.
• Organize grants charter reviews and compiles grant materials for Grants Committee review.
• Delivers training to grantees and other In-Country users of grants tools and e-platforms e.g. AMIS and maintains a log of problems and gathers information to contribute to continuous enhancement of the database.
• Conduct grantee monitoring and portfolio performance health checks.
• Prepare and conduct start-up orientation workshops for new awards and coordinate monthly / quarterly meetings with project staff to ensure grant contract clauses and all project-related requirements are complied with.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Bachelor’s degree in a commercial domain or equivalent experience in a related field.
• Computer proficiency in: Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet search skills, PowerPoint, and ability to learn new applications quickly.
• Working knowledge of key donor agencies including MCF, USAID, The Rockefeller Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Fluency in English and experience in a grant making environment.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV in both English & French (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 30^th April 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