Regional Director, West Africa

Location: Accra, Ghana

Job Reference: RDWA/PD/GH/02/2025

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

Regional Director – West Africa Job Reference: RDWA/PD/GH/02/2025

The Regional Director will oversee the strategic development and operational management of our programs across multiple countries within a specified region.

The role will have oversight of AGRA’s regional operating plans, budgets, teams and partnerships contributing to the institutional business lines and building AGRA’s brand as a go partner and convenor in Agricultural transformation. The role generates impact by influencing stakeholders to contribute to AGRA’s theory of change.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Develop and implement regional strategies aligned with the organization’s mission and goals.
Provide visionary leadership to country teams, ensuring effective program delivery and alignment with regional priorities.
Oversee the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs and initiatives.
Build and maintain relationships with local communities, government entities, partner organizations, and donors.
Represent the organization in regional and country meetings and forums to promote awareness and support for agricultural initiatives.
Monitor progress against performance metrics and facilitate adjustments as necessary.
Develop and manage regional budgets, ensuring optimal allocation of resources.
Identify funding opportunities and participate in grant proposal development.
Advice the Vice President, Programs Delivery on key challenges and opportunities for delivery and execution of the AGRA strategy.
Stay informed about agricultural trends, policies, and best practices within the region.
Advocate for policies that support sustainable agricultural development and food security
Lead the evaluation of programs, utilizing data to inform future initiatives and improve effectiveness.
Creates and implements the operating budget for the countries within the region.
Builds, coaches and manages professionals’ teams in a matrixed reporting environment in West Africa programmatic and operational functions.
Mentors the regional teams in the development and institutionalization of tracking metrics and success criteria.
Supervises regional staff to ensure execution and delivery of specific objectives and influences stakeholders to adopt or contribute to AGRA’s theory of change.
Builds the alliance by engaging with senior stakeholders and high-ranking government officials.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

Strong analytical skills with ability to translate analysis into clear concise written text.
Problem-solving skills and a motivation to improve policies and procedures systematically.
Excellent organizational skills, commitment to accuracy and to maintaining a timely and efficient work. flow, and extremely detail-oriented with the ability to work under pressure.

Strong diplomatic and communication skills, ability to develop a close and effective working relationship with government and across boarders’ partnership

Specialized qualifications and certifications in the field of evaluation
PhD/ master’s or equivalent qualification in a relevant field: agricultural development, program management, organization administration.
Experience in implementing and managing multi country strategies and business plans in agriculture or economic development space
A working knowledge of English and French is a MUST
Creative and lateral thinker able to recognize opportunities and propose solutions to problems.

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 28^th February 2025.

Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.