AGRA

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: SMT/IMT/02/2024

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 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.

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).

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 improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

The Position

Specialist – Markets and Trade Job Reference: SMT/IMT/02/2024

The role will promote regional food trade and food markets through policy predictability and market systems development across AGRA’s 11 priority countries in East, West, and Southern Africa. Future climate change and natural resource constraints will be elements to consider in securing regional food trade and sustainable markets. 

The ideal candidate will champion interventions aimed at strengthening the participation of women and youth in regional markets as well as coordinating activities of the food trade coalition. The Food Trade Coalition for Africa is a unique platform that brings together a variety of stakeholders whose diverse voices, viewpoints, knowledge, and experiences, will be leveraged to coordinate food trade investments and interventions across the continent. The Coalition was launched at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in September 2019.

S/he will lead engagements with stakeholders in both the public and private sector, on addressing the barriers to intra-regional trade, by generating evidence through research, lessons learned from Coalition members, and disseminating that knowledge to key audiences, including policymakers.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support program formulation and implementation in area of women in trade and markets, value 4 her and food markets coalition
• Analyze the latest evidence and convenes stakeholders to improve the resilience of agriculture food systems.
• Develop platforms of state and non-state actors to pursue evidence-based decision making for greater food market system resilience and sustainability.
• Develop intellectual capital around policy influencing in the sustainable agriculture sector as well the consolidation and sharing with a wider stakeholder base in a way that builds alignment and drives action.
• Identify and manage international, regional, and national technical experts in areas covered by the program, including market analysis, climate smart agriculture, value chain coordination, structured trade and market facilitation; in a way that creates efficiency in achieving overall program objectives.
• Develop quarterly and annual reports and other reports, as needed, in compliance with the requirements of DFID and other partners; as well as provide regular verbal and written updates and briefings on program operations, achievements, and problems to the Head, Regional Food Trade and other program staff.
• Lead in the convening of the coalition of partners that drive evidence-based policy advocacy and government engagement to improve policy transparency, resilience, and predictability to unlock regional food trade and investment.
• Create and maintain strong linkages and partnerships to ensure that policy is informed by the concerns and needs of private companies operating in regional food markets and that the program leverages on these for result-oriented business led advocacy efforts.
• Secure program visibility by maintaining relationships across agricultural and climate policy actors in the region and representing the program in targeted national and regional for a.
• Deliver on the scaling up of integrated approaches for proven resilient food systems in-country and at regional level. Uses evidence to inform sectoral and regional plans which guide investment into resilient approaches.
• Implement and promote global environmental benefits and agro-ecosystem resilience because of development and mainstreaming of resilient and integrated approaches to food systems across countries.
• Deliver technical support related to climate resilience and environmental protection within AGRA linking to other initiatives and regional strategies.
• Organize reports and knowledge management materials across the project interventions to enhance learning, programmatic impact, visibility, and coherence in relation to system resilience and sustainability.
• Deliver project documentation to include but not limited to reviewing, finalizing, and presenting proposals and grant memos at regular meetings of the Grants Committee to ensure timely implementation of the program.
• Optimize annual program budgets and program performance management in a way that ensures value for money and demonstrates programmatic impact.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics, or in a relevant discipline. A master’s degree will be an added advantage.
• Experience on agricultural development, food trade and markets and resilience/climate smart agriculture.
• Experience in the project programming. Experience in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning will be an added advantage.
• Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience.
• A desire to keep ahead of new and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends and resilience.
• Demonstrated ability to develop agricultural training and dissemination materials.
• Fluency in program finance.
• Sound skills in proposal development and projects management, including consultancy services.
• Demonstrated ability to develop agricultural training and dissemination materials.

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 22nd February 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer