Programme Policy Officer SC8 (Project Manager) - Farmer Service Centres at World Food Programme (WFP)

BACKGROUND:

WFP is a member of a consortium of public and private institutions, known as the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA), to help smallholder farmers unlock new opportunities. The Alliance works by supporting smallholder farmers to move from subsistence farming to market-oriented agriculture by connecting demand for their crops with commercial markets, and further by helping them to access formal contracts. These contracts help farmers to access the credit, resources and services necessary to plant and harvest quality crops, which in turn boosts incomes and builds long-term resilience. The Alliance is today operating in a pilot phase in Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Kenya.

In Kenya, the Alliance has been in operation since 2017 and have reached over 25,000+ farmers in two years of operation. FtMA operates in 9 counties and links smallholder farmers to off-take markets with pre-planting forward delivery contracts, offered improved input packages linked to mandatory crop insurance available on credit by partnering financial institutions and organize comprehensive training package over the course of the season.

FtMA does this with PATH – a holistic value chain solution supporting African farming families transition to commercial agriculture.

• Predictable markets
• Affordable finance
• Tools and inputs
• Handling and storage

FtMA’ s mission is to create a thriving and sustainable agricultural sector in Africa that aims to empower farmers, forge strong markets, and improve global food supply. Through its six Global Members, FtMA leverages the knowledge, experience and footprints of the world’s leading experts in agriculture. FtMA’ s mission is to enable a thriving and sustainable agricultural sector in Africa that aims to empower farmers, forge strong markets, and improve global food supply.

FtMA has been creating a supporting robust digital platform which operationalizes the PATH solution. The digital solution makes it easier for farmers to access locally provided agricultural services, reaching far beyond their communities. Additionally, FtMA leverages its data points to systematically collect data to provide deeper insight to markets for product and service innovation.

Unilever-Transform

FtMA – TRANSFORM: Market Based Solution

Despite the strong results to date, FtMA believes that more needs to be done in order to overcome the barriers preventing smallholders from increasing their agricultural production and lift themselves out of poverty sustainably. FtMA has ambitious plans to achieve this by expanding its lending portfolio and to onboard more ecosystem players to create a competitive and transparent marketplace, accessible to farmers through digital tools. Unilever-Transform have provided funds to FtMA to develop Farmer Service Centers through Agribusiness Advisors in Nakuru and Tharaka Nithi counties, with a possibility of scaling up in Phase II with a subsequent grant to all counties where FtMA operates.

WFP takes the lead in coordinating this comprehensive value chain intervention through an extensive partnership with all stakeholders and for the benefit of smallholder farmers’ resilience and livelihoods. WFP is looking for an individual to push forward these efforts.

ROLE:

The Alliance seeks an experienced professional for the key role of Project Manager (Farmer Service Centres) in Kenya.

Under the management of the FtMA Country Coordinator, the Project Manager will be responsible for equipping, training and expanding the network of Farmer Service Centres in Kenya, as well as the learnings. The incumbent will lead the Unilever-funded research project (Phase 1) and play a critical role in translating formative and implementation research findings into an evidence-based activity design for Phase 2 implementation of the Farmer Service Centres.

Reporting:

The Project Manager will report directly to the Country Coordinator of the Farm to Market Alliance in the country and liaise regularly with WFP staff as well as other FtMA members for technical guidance and industry best standards and trends. The position will involve frequent travel in the country.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Officer will be responsible for the following areas:

• Act as a thematic expert in business planning, and development analysis of Farmer Service Centres (FSC).
• Lead the identification and planning of appropriate interventions tailored to different contexts in counties where FtMA operates, coordinate the setup of FSCs with private sector partners and ensure the sustainability of the intervention, leveraging the strengths of all stakeholders involved.  
• Be the point of contact for the Digital Transformation Unit for the FtMA App development and coordinate the roll out and uptake of digital tools by FSCs
• Support FtMA in strategic dialogue on serving smallholders through Farmer Service Centre hubs.

Deliverables:

• Develop a best practice on Farmer Service Centre serving smallholder farmers, supported by a study report of findings during the project period.
• Farmers Service Centre hub matrix with partners role and income streams.
• Understanding product adoption and service uptake among smallholder farmers:  Understanding what drives farmer behaviour in their engagement with FtMA aggregation hubs and uptake of services suggested through awareness creation and trainings.
• Developed effective learning tool kits that will be deployed at the aggregation centre. The tool kits will be deployed and tested for effectiveness before scaling to other FtMA aggregation centres.
• The focus on phase one will be around i) measuring the uptake of FSC products and services, ii) additional services rendered through the internet connectivity made available, iii) increasing capacity building of service providers and iv) other key learnings about last mile service delivery through data analytics.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Strong understanding of smallholder agricultural livelihoods/agribusiness, input suppliers, service providers and output aggregation.
• Demonstrated ability for strategic thinking and developing programming and programmatic strategy based on analysis;
• Demonstrated ability to identify business opportunities and build and scale-up innovative programming;
• Strong project management skills that ensure goals are set, projects are planned and managed effectively within budget and time constraints.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and coordination skills; experience in the management and building of long-term partnerships and ability to influence.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with demonstrated ability write good quality written material (e.g. reports).
• Strong computer skills, including word processing, spreadsheet, and project management softwares.

The following qualifications are an added advantage:

• Experience in private sector firms, with exposure to agri-business
• Experience in developing and/or facilitating report writing and data analysis;
• Understanding of farmer service centers, agency model (hubs) operations

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
•  Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
•  Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
•  Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
•  Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
•  Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.