AGRA

Support Coordinator

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: SC/KE/08/2024

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

Support Coordinator  Job Reference: SC/KE/08/2024

The Support Coordinator will be responsible for providing appropriate support to assigned Vice Presidents/Chiefs, Directors, and Heads of Units within assigned AGRA divisions to ensure prioritization and smooth flow of activities in the areas of procurement, administration, finance, compliance related issues, and processes related to grant making.

Reporting to the Senior Support Coordinator the role-holder they will liaise to handle complex schedules, facilitating communication, requests and queries from Vice Presidents, Chiefs, Directors, and Heads of Units and coordinate day-to-day activities as well as operational processes within the various divisions and functional units.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Oversee a comprehensive range of administrative responsibilities, including calendar management, travel arrangements, local transport management, invoice processing, and providing support and training to staff on AGRA’s administrative systems and processes.
• Oversee all arrangements, including outside logistics related to conferences and workshops within the function.
• Oversee the entire process of Meetings including budget preparation and approval, drafting meeting memos, aligning with finance on funding sources, procuring services, managing funds transfers and DSA payments, processing payments for goods and services, reconciling payments, and following up on proof of payment and vendor issues.
• Initiating procurement, identifying funding sources, raising requisitions, and following up on approvals.
• Processing payments, reviewing reimbursable invoices and validating supporting documents
• Onboarding consultants on AGRA processes and aligning consultancy milestones with payment disbursements.
• Initiating contract amendments – drafting the amendment memos and justification for submission to procurement.
• Provide comprehensive financial oversight by assisting technical officers in reviewing financial reports against narrative and Monitoring and Evaluation reports, review financial reports on AMIS (Management Information Systems) and Oracle.
• Maintaining a shared spreadsheet to track program administrative expenses.
• Obtaining and analyzing the Budget vs. Actual (BVA) report to interrogate expenditures and resolve any unposted or mis-posted expenses prior to management review.
• Coordinate various events by collaborating with communication teams for promotion, monitoring progress, evaluating participants, organizing high-profile meetings, and overseeing logistics to ensure successful event delivery through meticulous attention to detail and proactive communication.
• Assist coordinators by acting as a pseudo administrative assistant to grantees, managing budgets, organizing meetings, and providing administrative support to consultants; track and report quarterly expenditures for grantees on AMIS.
• General Communication and Liaison: Relay, respond to, and reroute general requests for information and electronic communication, facilitating liaison with other AGRA offices and representatives from other institutions as necessary.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Essential
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Management, Public Administration, Communication or any related area.
• Desirable
  • Project Management certification would be an added advantage.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and familiarity with project management tools
  • Proven track record of supporting multiple executives simultaneously
  • Strong understanding of corporate operations and executive-level communication

• Technical Competencies
• Meeting Management and Support Expertise:
• Organizational Skills:
• Program Coordination Expertise
• Financial Acumen:
• 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 13^th September 2024. Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

AGRA reserves the right to make changes to this role.

Data Privacy Statement

As part of our recruitment process, AGRA collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants.  AGRA is responsible for the processing of any personal information you provide to us. We take our responsibilities regarding the protection of personal information very seriously. You can view AGRA’s Privacy Policy here <https://agra.org/policy/privacy-policy/>.   We may use this information to conduct background verification, during the recruitment process, with your consent.

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

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer