Associate Development Cooperation Officer at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

Job Reference: ADCO/PR/01/2023

The Position Summary

Reporting to the Head of Development Cooperation, the Associate Development Cooperation Officer will collaborate and partner in Development Cooperation team, providing expertise and insights for specific agriculture and food systems development topics . S/he will drive and develop fundraising content, supporting business development, building sector expertise, and helping the Development Cooperation team ramp up its resource mobilization efforts by sharing sector-specific donor intelligence.

S/he will work across Divisions to support new business development, knowledge management and in some instances, project delivery. S/he will play an active role in supporting the implementation of the Institutional resource mobilization strategy. S/he will also lead on the donor stewardship (Customer Relationship Management databased) support the facilitation of negotiations and signing of new funding agreements, while assisting in the implementation of AGRA’s Public-Private Partnership resource mobilization strategy.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Business Development/Analysis/Communication:

• Delivering original analysis and customized insights for strategic positioning, business development by leveraging specific experience or knowledge assets (products, tools, data, workshops, frameworks, surveys, and related expertise, etc.)
• Supporting Development Cooperation (DC) team through contributing donor research, trend and analysis, Intelligence gathering as outlined by the Head of Development Cooperation. This will include both independent working and work under the guidance of the Head of Development Cooperation who frames the interventions within the broader project context, desk research on donor commitments and trends in AGRA priority countries and continentally.
• Liaising closely with the DC team to support on bid processes including pre-positioning, partner engagement, research, RFA/Is and tender responses.
• Share insights and experiences from proposal development (from after action reviews) into the specific knowledge asset and/or adapting existing DC materials.
• Communication collateral development: helping develop the assets and tools which will help AGRA secure funding (e.g. project references, expressions of interest, proposals, updated capacity statements organization and sectoral etc)

Donor Stewardship/Customer Relationship Management:

• Lead in updating monthly funding pipeline tracker, portfolio dashboards (budget monitoring, donor reporting performance), updating the corporate risk register.
• Lead in producing monthly reporting deliverables for donor awards.
• Lead in producing DC monthly funding bulletin.
• Lead in training of existing and new staff on CRM utilization.
• Lead in updating the CRM database with donor contacts, awards etc. 

Team Support (Due Diligence, Internal Reports, Meeting and Briefing Docs, )

• Support in the preparation of meetings; presentations, talking points, briefing documents in support of RM.
• Lead in RM webinar content and facilitation .
• Lead in go-no-go, due diligence for new RM opportunities and donor partners.
• Support provided in driving pledge conversion rate and sufficient, predictable, and sustainable donor support for AGRA.
• Financial leverage captured in priority countries in the CRM.
• Accuracy and efficiency of reports.
• Supports the DC team to disseminate the Resource Mobilization guide to regional and country offices and main point person for compliance on the guide.
• Support the process of internal audits for DC unit as directed by Head of Development  cooperation. 
• Coordinates inter-divisional team meetings to discuss RM pipeline, opportunities, and areas for DC support
• DC Focal point for Oracle and Fusion (procurement, CRM ).

Relevant Experience & Professional Qualifications

• Minimum 3-5 years of experience of international development with demonstrable track record of working with donors.
• Master’s degree in International Development, Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Public Finance, Public Administration, Rural Development, Social Sciences, or any other relevant field.
• A Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Social science, International Studies or other relevant field.
• Fluency in English; Knowledge of French will be an advantage.
• Proficiency in using applications software, including presentation, spreadsheet, word processing, and project management tools.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills.
• Excellent written communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively and with polish to individuals and groups of people.
• Optimistic and persuasive that African farmers and consumers will benefit from improved, well-adapted agricultural technologies and reforms across the input and output value chains.
• Ability to translate program-based concepts into practical realities.
• Experienced donor development and resource mobilization expert with a superior track record of success serving international development organizations.
• Success in resource mobilization for large multilateral or bilateral agencies or international organizations.
• Knowledge and experience working with donors as well as supporting the building of strategic donor relations .
• Sound understanding of the donor financing landscape and processes.
• Knowledge and experience working on performance-based targets for fundraising.
• Writing for a range of different audiences to produce high quality and concise materials including internal content, sector insights, marketing and selling materials, proposals and reports for development sector clients.
• Able to work both collaboratively and effectively in a group dynamic of local and remote teams around the world, and of working independently to develop content that can contribute to wider business priorities.
• Analysis and problem solving, with a high capacity for conceptual and strategic/end-to-end thinking.