AGRA

Program Officer – Gender, Youth, and Inclusion REGAIN

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: PO/PMU/02/2025

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 small-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 link 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.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems’ transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive, and Increasingly Entrepreneurial aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship, and Equity).

The Program

The RE-GAIN program – Scaling solutions for food loss in Africa, aims to address the impacts of climate change on harvest and post-harvest food losses in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The program focuses on strengthening food security by supporting the innovative adaptation of the harvest and post-harvest value chain. It seeks to reduce food loss, improve food quality, enhance local capacity, and reduce climate risks through the wide-scale adoption of Food Loss-Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) among smallholder farmers. The program operates across three primary pathways: farmer-centric, supplier-centric, and institutional support.

We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems by improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

 The Position

 Program Officer – Gender, Youth and Inclusion REGAIN Job Reference: PO/PMU/02/2025

 The Program Officer – Gender, Youth, and Inclusion in collaboration with the AGRA Gender Lead and under the overall guidance of the Director Gender, Youth, and Inclusiveness will provide technical oversight and guidance to country gender associate officers on the critical role of gender plays in ensuring sustainable, inclusive, and equitable program outcomes. Given the complex intersection of gender, youth empowerment, food loss, and climate change, dedicated technical expertise, coordination, and oversight are required to ensure these dynamics are adequately addressed within the RE-GAIN’s design, implementation, and coordinating lessons learned across the 7 countries. A dedicated Gender, Youth, and Inclusion Officer will ensure that the program integrates gender-responsive and youth-centric approaches in all its components, addressing these barriers and promoting equitable benefits for both men and women.

The ideal candidate will ensure that gender equity and youth-centricity are a central objective of the RE-GAIN program including setting measurable gender-based and age-disaggregated indicators, ensuring women’s and youth access to resources and decision-making processes, and monitoring progress toward reducing gender disparities. The role holder will provide technical oversight on gender-related aspects of the program, and youth-focused approaches, ensuring that interventions are designed with a strong gender and youth inclusion lens. This includes developing gender-sensitive tools, age-sensitive approaches, and methodologies to build the capacity of program staff and implementing partners to mainstream gender, youth, and inclusion in their activities. The role holder will also facilitate gender and inclusion training for AGRA teams to improve their understanding and integration of gender, youth, and inclusion considerations.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Be at the center of the RE-GAIN program ensuring that gender equity and youth inclusion are a central objective of the program.
• Provide technical expertise, coordination, and oversight to ensure that gender, youth empowerment, food loss, and climate change are adequately addressed in the RE-GAIN’s design and implementation acting as the gender, youth, and inclusion focal point for the project.
• With the support of the Lead – Gender Integration and guidance of the Director – Gender, Youth, and Inclusiveness, support country teams to design and implement innovative programs that promote gender equality in harvest and post-harvest food systems while addressing food loss and climate change impacts.
• Develop gender-sensitive tools, youth-centric, and methodologies to build the capacities of program staff and implementing partners to address barriers to gender integration and promote equitable benefits for both men and women.
• Champion and collaborate with stakeholders, including local communities, government agencies, and NGOs, to ensure that gender-sensitive and youth-inclusive approaches are integrated into all program activities.
• Analyze data related to food loss and its impacts on women, youth, and marginalized groups to advocate for targeted interventions.
• Coordinate the provision of technical assistance to the ministries of gender, youth, and agriculture that are in line with creating an enabling environment for upcoming entrepreneurs in agrifood systems
• Monitor gender-related and youth-focused programs timelines, milestones, and deliverables, ensuring adherence to project schedules.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to the RE-GAIN program’s gender performance, impact, and outcomes.
• Work closely with the Monitoring and Evaluation team to ensure that gender and youth-centric considerations are reflected in the Monitoring and Evaluation plan, frameworks, and reports to assess whether the gender and youth-centric objectives are being met.
• Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies, NGOs, private sector sectors, and other organizations involved in addressing the challenge of post-harvest food losses in Africa, to increase the voice and collective capacity of men and women networks.
• Work with local government and AGRA’s policy and advocacy teams to domesticate policies that address food loss and climate change impacts across the agri-food systems.
• Provide technical input for the establishment of an effective gender response monitoring system for the delivery of program results.
• Coordinate collection of lessons learned across the 7 countries to build on AGRA’s knowledge base for gender-related and youth-focused intervention on harvest and post-harvest food losses.
• Design and lead the implementation of capacity-building activities targeting both internal and external stakeholders focused on integrating sustainability principles into Africa’s agricultural transformation.
• Organize briefings, meetings, visits, and events; and set action plans for follow-up to ensure effective communication and accountability on gender-related matters at all levels of the program implementation.
• Ensure strict adherence to both internal and external reporting requirements to maintain transparency and compliance.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required: 

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, Rural Development, Social Sciences, Agriculture, Agribusiness Development, Development Studies, Agri-Enterprise development, and Economics.
• Experience in conceptualizing, planning, guiding, and implementing integrated gender, youth, and inclusion programs.
• Deep knowledge of gender and development frameworks, particularly in rural or agri-food contexts.
• Experience in climate-resilient agriculture, food security, and rural livelihoods will be an added advantage.
• Familiarity with International development organizations, donors, and policies related to gender equality and agriculture.
• Strong working experience with partners, governments, international development agencies, local organizations as well as youth, men, and women organizations/agencies in the field of gender-mainstreaming in the agrifood system.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of government and private sector policies and governance frameworks, along with significant experience in designing and implementing programs and advancing policy and regulatory reforms in relevant sectors, facilitating effective stakeholder engagement to address barriers and drive farmer-centric and supplier-centric food systems transformation.
• Demonstrate the ability to design and lead the implementation of capacity-building activities that integrate sustainability principles into Africa’s agricultural transformation, equipping stakeholders with the knowledge and skills necessary for the effective achievement of program goals.
• Fluency in English is required; the ability to communicate in French will be an advantage.

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 PO/PMU/02/2025 in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 14^th March 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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

 AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer