Working with the Africa regional team, the SPO Markets will be responsible for championing the markets strategy with special attention to women’s market inclusion.
Areas of Responsibility:
- Support regional advisors in messaging to and engaging with across relevant ministries on topics of market development and national growth pathways.
- Both internally and externally, help facilitate dialogue on value chain development and root cause of system constraints.
- Facilitate engagement with public, private, and donor partners on market-related topics to ensure cross-pollination of ideas, identification of investment synergies, and alignment of approaches.
- Work in partnership with the policy team to understand the effects of global markets and market volatility on African agriculture and identify possible solution sets and translate general policy recommendations to specific country contexts.
- Understand and map a more viable pathway for private sector to commercialize non-seed products from the AgDev team’s research and development portfolio.
- Engage with external partners and analysts to monitor market intelligence with regards to country supply and demand constraints to inform a market-based strategy.
- Oversee a portfolio of grants requiring commercial experience in the delivery of goods and services to smallholder farmers. This will include reviewing letters of inquiry and grant proposals and providing clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding.
- Champion the implementation and integration women’s market inclusion work outlined in the gender strategy.
- Serve as the source of market intelligence on Sub-Saharan Africa-related matters to inform the broader AgDev team program and efforts; including leading the analysis and evaluation of economic growth of relevant agriculture sub-sectors.
- Consult with grantees and other partners to maximize the impact of projects and ensure grants are meeting program goals. This may include: site visits, providing operational guidance and convening meetings of key stakeholders.
- Contribute to writing background documents, analysis, briefs, and presentations, often on short timeline.
Educational Background:
Bachelor’s or other advanced degree
Skills/Experience:
We are looking for people who enjoy the opportunity of working on complex problems and collectively creating solutions that have the potential for transformative change in the lives of people around the world. You must be prepared to work across a diverse set of disciplines, bridging a wide range of expertise all the while being a team player, with a demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency and diplomacy in an exciting, challenging environment. We seek a senior professional with a background in agricultural markets; especially African market systems and the intersection between national, regional and global markets. Additionally, we seek:
- Deep knowledge of market constraints and challenges for African agriculture and the demonstrated ability to catalyze change in addressing market challenges for smallholder farmers.
- Possesses thorough understanding of agricultural market development efforts in public, private, and donor sectors in Africa.
- Experience in developing service delivery models, marketing of products, and/or aggregation and the unique challenges smallholder farming bring to the models.
- Communications skills to explain new opportunities and priorities for agriculture development to both internal and external audiences.
- Demonstrated curiosity and comfort in areas beyond current areas of expertise, with demonstrated ability to rapidly acquire knowledge and use good judgment in a variety of areas.
- Ability to organize and prioritize work and meet deadlines within a fast-paced environment with multiple and competing demands.
- Demonstrated ability to work with diverse teams including scientists, program implementers, and in-country staff and partners.
- A mindset that guides and motivates the team to explore new approaches and partners and take risks that can potentially accelerate our pathway to improve lives of smallholder farmers.
- Exceptional results orientation combined with excellent relationship management skills.
- Willing to travel internationally (50%).
- 10+ years of experience in roles of increasing responsibility in agricultural development in donor, public or private sector organizations coupled with deep experience in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Commitment to the foundation’s core values, mission and programs with an approach that is consistent with the foundation’s guiding principles while holding oneself to the highest ethical standards.
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Sep 17 2018
Active Until:
Oct 17 2018
Hiring Organization:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
industry:
Nonprofit