Associate Program Officer - Youth, Gender, And Enterprise Development

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seeks to recruit an Associate Program Officer - Youth, Gender, and Enterprise Development - plays a critical role in driving and coordinating initiatives that contribute to employment creation, youth engagement, and gender integration in countries strategic implementation plans. This role focuses on establishing strategic partnerships to facilitate the development of a sustainable Business Development Services (BDS) ecosystem and fostering an inclusive environment that empowers youth and women. The incumbent will provide technical and advisory support to country teams, partners, and grantees in implementing AGRA funded programs in-country, and operationalization of AGRA’s Gender and inclusiveness, and youth-employment strategy.

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:

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, therefore, 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?

An important component in the market development for FL-RS is the provision of smart subsidies that benefit smallholder farmers through availing more affordable products and services. AGRA will (partially) procure FL-RS for further distribution of the FL-RS to smallholder farmers. To ensure impact delivery, the smart subsidies will only be released upon delivery of FL-RS to eligible farmers.

The role will focus on implementing the financing models and improving the bankability and performance of the MSMEs including cooperatives, youth groups, and other market actors. Additionally, the role will focus on stimulating private sector investment and innovation by addressing systemic barriers to finance and business support services, to achieve commercial viability, sustainability, and impact at scale. The role holder will work to strengthen the enabling environment for inclusive finance, foster commercially viable delivery channels for FL-RS, and facilitate sustainable partnerships that reduce market inefficiencies and promote long-term competitiveness across the value chain.

Role Summary:

The Associate Program Officer YGED is responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring initiatives, policies, and plans that align with AGRA's objectives for youth and women empowerment, gender integration and inclusiveness, and enterprise development. The position holder will assist the country team, providing strategic guidance and leadership to ensure that youth, gender, and enterprise development receive due priority and visibility and are deliberately and effectively promoted as a critical component of AGRA in country programming.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Recommendations and Support

• Provide strategic recommendations and advice to Country teams in mainstreaming youth engagement and sustainable Business Development Services.
• Support country teams to design and implement innovative strategies to promote the establishment and growth of agricultural enterprises, contributing to increased employment opportunities and income generation activities for youth and young women.
• Work with project partners and grantees to ensure effective implementation of youth and women work in the country.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Monitor country youth programs timelines, milestones, and deliverables, ensuring adherence to project schedules.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to youth program performance, impact, and outcomes.

Job Creation and Entrepreneurship

• Identify opportunities to generate more jobs and entrepreneurial ventures for youth and women.
• Manage and organize field visits and practical training sessions to expose the youth entrepreneurs to successful agriculture enterprises.
• Inspiring implementing partners, grantees and like-minded organizations to join forces towards creating jobs in the country and systemic change towards entrepreneurship on behalf of young Agripreneurs.

Collaboration and Partnerships

• Drive collaboration with experts and agricultural organizations to bring in specialized knowledge for youth and women.
• Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies, NGOs, private sector sectors, and other organizations involved in Business Development Services (BDS) to increase voice and collective capacity of youth and women networks.
• Engage in cross-cutting projects to support the overall mission of youth and women in skills development, access to market, and value chain development.
• Work with local government and AGRA’s policy and advocacy teams to domesticate policies that support youth employment and voice. Coordinate provision of technical assistance to the ministries of youth and agriculture that are in line with creating an enabling environment for upcoming youth entrepreneurs in agrifood systems.

Support for Country Teams

• Provide guidance and support to country teams in facilitating connections between qualified youth and young women participants within the food systems sector.

Awareness and Engagement Initiatives

• Support awareness and engagement initiatives to influence the business environment for young people, by strengthening local youth and women organizations to act as a mechanism for decision processes, policy engagements, to advance voice and build collective agency.
• Plans and facilitates workshops, interactive sessions and assists in developing the action plans for strengthening meaningful youth engagement.

Research and Analysis

• Researches, analyzes and presents information gathered from diverse sources, to guide implementation of youth employment creation.
• Support thorough analyses of country's agricultural landscape, socio-economic conditions, and policy frameworks to tailor program interventions accordingly.

Program Development and Knowledge Management

• Contribute to the development and updating of the program work plan for youth work.
• Contribute to AGRA's knowledge management efforts by documenting successes, challenges, and best practices in alignment with country strategies.

Academic and professional qualifications:

Education:

• Masters degree or PhD in agriculture, agribusiness development, agri-enterprise development, economics, gender studies, or related discipline.
• Relevant professional certification

Experience

• Nine years of relevant experience with a master's or two years of relevant experience with a PhD

Skills:

• Strong understanding of the agricultural landscape in the country, including knowledge of key stakeholders, challenges, and opportunities for employment creation.
• Fluency in English required
• Ability to deliver high-quality products under pressure.
• Good command of English with excellent writing and analytical skills
• Ability to organize and prioritize work and meet deadlines within a fast-paced environment with multiple competing demands.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work effectively in a team and independently.

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Grade: HG16

Minimum Base Salary: USD 2,339 per month

Terms of appointment: These are National Staff (NS) positions, initial appointment is for two years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. The ILRI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes a very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc.

Skills Required:

• Agricultural / Studies
• Economics / Statistics
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development