AGRA

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 – Post-Harvest Management and Delivery REGAIN Job Reference: PO/PHM/03/2025

The Program Officer – Post-Harvest Management and Delivery (RE-GAIN) will offer extension services, training and support to farmers that focus on use of climate-resilient Food Loss – Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) interventions and achieve improved market linkages between agri-value chain actors and ensure that smallholder farmers’ harvest is sold through structured market linkages.

The ideal candidate will work closely with the RE-GAIN technical team and AGRA’s in-country and regional partners to identify appropriate methods and content for training extension service providers in the RE-GAIN focal countries, design targeted studies and implement frameworks to support the increased utilization of postharvest management technologies and promote extension services delivery. Additionally, the role will provide technical backstopping in the implementation of a high-impact market systems program and provide technical assistance for system actors like government entities, the private sector, and non-profit organizations specializing in postharvest management, specifically and strengthening of agricultural value chains and systems, in general. He/she will support the PMU and AGRA teams in understanding the business and economics of market anchor companies such as agro-processors in the postharvest management processes.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Mainstream extension-related activities in investments made on the RE-GAIN Program across all the seven participating countries.
• Provide technical oversight and technical troubleshooting to investment and interventions implementation and scaling of postharvest management technologies on the RE-GAIN program.
• Develop and implement market-driven action plans for agro-processing, for all RE-GAIN components, including technical assistance, capacity building, technology transfer, quality improvement, product development, certification, branding, and marketing.
• Identify priority postharvest management opportunities and challenges that could be addressed through Market collaboration, Institutional market promotion, and Government Collaboration.
• Develop partnerships with research organizations and non-state actors (both local and international) on postharvest loss reduction systems.
• Contribute to capacity building of national institutions and local partners in the delivery of technologies to enable investments in FL-RS.
• Work with partners, and local leadership to engage with the policy makers to strengthen agro-suppliers and manufacturers of Postharvest Management technologies to expand opportunities for job creation and scaling of postharvest loss reduction.
• Develop context-specific and cross-cutting extension materials on postharvest loss reduction and climate advisories for the harvest stages of value chain management.
• Mainstream interventions that attract and enhance the participation of the youth in agriculture and agricultural enterprises in the postharvest management processes specifically and in AGRA’s program in general.
• Identify and innovate approaches that help with integrating interventions that enhance the participation of youth in Postharvest agri-business services
• Identify effective methods for training smallholder farmers in postharvest management of crops across the seven countries of program implementation.
• Provide technical advice to other experts on the RE-GAIN Program on extension innovations and delivery of scaling technologies.
• Build new and strengthen existing partnerships that advance the RE-GAIN efforts to mainstream youth in postharvest processes (and agriculture in general)
• In collaboration with the M&E unit and the data and analytics unit, maintain a monitoring and evaluation system to assess the impacts of extension and delivery-focused investments on the RE-GAIN program.
• Participate in developing appropriate baseline information and indicators, identify training needs and implement appropriate interventions to enhance postharvest management capacities of various actors, and devise targeted policy advocacy for wider systems changes.
• Devise an in-house system to manage and disseminate information on ‘best-bet’ extension approaches for postharvest management and food loss reduction.
• Synthesize the large body of existing knowledge on agricultural extension and determine what technical support is relevant and useful to the RE-GAIN program.
• Identify viable routes to attract access to financing into the postharvest value chain stages in agricultural and agro-processing sectors.
• Prioritize targeted interventions that address bottlenecks in food loss reduction.
• Participate in and support the development of agro-processing as a channel for food loss reduction.
• Promote wholegrain process and institutional markets as an innovation for food loss reduction

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• A Bachelor’s in agricultural extension and advisory services, education, and/or communication.
• Professional experience in agricultural finance, agricultural policy and political economy analyses in Africa.
• Experience advising governments, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and other types of organizations preferred.
• Experience in an advisory role, engagement of financial ecosystem stakeholders, and knowledge product development.
• Demonstrate deep understanding of food crop value chains, access to markets and trade for small-scale food crop producers and Agri SMEs, and youth engagement in the agricultural sector.
• Ability to spot and capitalize on emergent opportunities in inclusive finance, agriculture finance, digital finance, and related ecosystem actors.
• Familiarity with existing industry challenges and constraints for accessing financial services, especially for youth and young women.
• Demonstrates the ability to develop/design and lead the implementation of capacity-building activities that integrate FL-RS sustainability principles into Africa’s agricultural transformation, equipping stakeholders with the knowledge and skills necessary for the effective achievement of program goals.
• Demonstrates 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.
• 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.
• Fluency in English is required; the ability to communicate in French is 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/PHM/03/2025 in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 4^th April 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer