Director, Women in Agriculture Initiative at Root Capital

Reports To: Chief Programs Officer
 

Region: Central America & Mexico - East Africa - South America

Location: Bogota, Colombia; San Jose, Costa Rica; Nairobi, Kenya; Chiapas, Mexico; Managua, Nicaragua; OR Lima, Peru.

Start Date: Immediate

Contact: Please apply by using the form below.

Summary

Root Capital’s Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI) celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year! The WAI was launched in 2012 to deepen our impact--and our clients’ impact--on women across the value chain. Today, gender equity is one of our four strategic pathways to impact, and Root Capital sets the bar for gender lens investing (GLI); 51% of our Lending clients last year qualified as gender inclusive. By 2025, we aim to disburse at least $622 Million to gender inclusive businesses and to more than double the number of rural women reached to 1.2 Million.

We work with partners and clients to ensure that women have equitable access to the resources they need to thrive, and can live and work in an industry that fully engages, values and rewards them for their crucial contributions. We collaborate and share our experience with other institutions to ensure that we hold ourselves and each other to the highest possible standards and address the most relevant issues in gender equity. In 2021, we worked with IFPRI to test an update to the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. We help agricultural businesses identify gender-related gaps in their practices, and design and implement actionable solutions that range from key policy changes to the creation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs). We recognize all of the important roles women play - not only as farmers or entrepreneurs, but also those in middle positions--like female agronomists and accountants.

The mandate of the Director of the Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI) includes both internal systems and processes, programs, and strategy; and external-facing engagement and thought leadership. The Director is responsible for the participatory development and ongoing evolution of an ambitious, pioneering and impactful strategy to advance gender equity for women in agriculture in the regions where Root Capital works. In partnership with implementing teams, the Director ensures the integration of the WAI across the organization’s strategic priorities and activities. This role informs WAI innovation priorities and supports the scaling and adaptation of services across regions. The Director owns the WAI’s field-building agenda, stays abreast of emerging client needs, relevant science and sector context, and represents Root Capital externally with key partners and at events as needed. The Director also provides critical proposal development support for WAI fundraising.

The Director collaborates closely with Root Capital colleagues across all teams and offices, ranging from members of the Executive Office to loan officers and advisors, with Root Capital board members; and with senior staff of external partners. especially the Chief Programs Officer, the Director of Innovation, global and regional leadership of both Advisory and Lending, and the regional WAI leads. This role is also a key contributor to the work of the Development team, and works closely with Impact, M&E, and Communications to ensure continuous alignment on learning and field building objectives and processes. The Director manages the East Africa Gender Specialist, has a dotted management line to the Impact Associate responsible for WAI coordination support, and may manage new roles as the WAI structure evolves.

Mission & History of Root Capital

Root Capital is a nonprofit whose mission is to grow rural prosperity and build the resilience of farming families around the world. We support the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These businesses purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs for the next generation of leaders, level the playing field for women, and take urgent action against climate change.

We supply these businesses with vital credit and capacity building to foster their growth and resilience. We work in hard-to-serve communities where others don’t. To date, we’ve distributed $1.6 billion to improve the lives of over 10 million people in farming families. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Root Capital currently has associated offices in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya.

Responsibilities

Strategic Planning (20%)

• Lead and develop the next phase (2022+) of Root Capital’s WAI strategic plan, leading research, setting the vision and priorities in coordination with internal and external stakeholders, and managing and creating strategy documents
• Ensure WAI strategy is understood and integrated into regional goals and work plans; oversee progress toward goals.
• Ensure gender equity sensitization and mainstreaming for global staff.

Programmatic Innovation, Learning, and Coordination (40%)

• Scope, provide technical guidance on, actively coordinate and document the development, testing, and scale-up of WAI innovations, pilots and programmatic implementation, in close partnership with global and regional Innovation, Lending, Advisory, and WAI leads
• Provide expert input into the development of gender equity activities
• Review and approve Gender Equity Grant proposals
• Oversee internal learning efforts. Play internal knowledge-sharing role, ensuring strong feedback loop across Root Capital departments and offices, and between Root Capital and partners and clients. Direct learning research and analysis efforts by the impact evaluation team and gender specialist.
• Advise on and support the design of M&E activities and metrics, survey questions, and data collection protocols
• WAI budget oversight

Field building (20%)

• Develop and implement Root Capital’s WAI field-building agenda (learning dissemination to influence the field and drive impact at scale).
• Originate and lead/ author thought pieces on gender-lens investing, women in agriculture, and other areas related to the WAI strategy as appropriate.
• Identify and participate in networks and working groups to inform our strategy and advance our field-building agenda.
• Ensure field building efforts are documented and measured.

Partnerships and Relationship Management (20%)

• Originate and lead WAI-related relationships with implementing and research partners.
• Collaborate with the Development team to fundraise for WAI: Support funder cultivation; provide input and review to grant proposals and reports, collecting information from internal contributors as needed; support relationship management.
• Represent Root Capital in highest-level fora related to the WAI, gender lens investing, and women in agriculture more broadly.
• Work closely with Communications to develop messaging, talking points for the CEO, and others to present the WAI externally, and to develop other effective communications tools for the website and publications.

Perform other relevant duties as assigned.

Skills and Experience

• Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in gender equity, gender lens investing, climate and gender, or another related field within the context of smallholder agriculture.
• Proven expertise in the design and scaling of gender inclusion programs, activities and innovations
• Strong knowledge and understanding of current sector developments in gender lens investing and gender in agriculture
• Proven expertise in, and passion for, the position and role of women in climate change and climate action
• Ability to convey complex, technical content in clear, concise and compelling language.
• Experience collaborating with key internal and external stakeholder groups, including executive leadership.
• Experience working with multicultural and multilingual teams; sensitivity to the dynamics of global teams (e.g. working across cultures and time zones).
• Proven ability to effectively collaborate between and across teams (including with coworkers outside of direct reporting lines)
• High level of comfort working in a matrixed organizational structure; proven horizontal leadership and collaboration skills in a global context.
• Highly organized and able to handle multiple projects while maintaining focus and flexibility in the face of change and ambiguity.
• Ability to think creatively, take initiative, and work independently, while also collaboratively.
• Professional fluency in English; demonstrably strong verbal and written communication skills. Professional competency in Spanish required.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent work experience
• Willingness to travel internationally, when and if conditions allow. Expected travel: 5% - 20% of time, under normal circumstances.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in one of the following countries: Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico or Kenya.

Salary

Commensurate with experience.