Partnership Officer – Deal Room at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

The Position

Partnership Officer – Deal Room Job Reference: PO/PD/02/2024

The Partnership Officer, Deal Room will build and manage relationships with predominantly private sector partners to scale AGRA’s existing investments (institutional investors, pensions funds, equity funds, guarantees, , identify new opportunities for investments, adopt innovative approaches and develop opportunities to leverage additional resources (i.e., catalytic co-investment) for transformation. Create bridges with national, regional and global financing platforms to improve access to affordable financing. 

The ideal candidate will lead the execution of the Agribusiness Deal Room as a year-round engagement with the aim to increase investment into African agriculture and food systems and to position AGRF partners including AGRA as a preferred partner for private sector-led agriculture development and food systems transformation, and a leading initiator, convener and catalyst of multi-stakeholder partnerships that drive transformation.

Reporting to the Head – Private Sector Partnerships, the Partnership Officer – Deal Room will work closely with relevant staff in various teams across AGRA to strengthen and grow the Partners Group identify, disseminate information, and deliver on partnership and private sector led opportunities that scale AGRA’s efforts. 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Drive pipeline development and matchmaking of high potential SMEs with investors and Business Advisory Services.
• Develop new partnerships with companies and institutions whose core objective align with AGRA (i.e., value chains, type of intervention, regions, systems change, etc.
• Create linkages between Agribusiness Deal Room SMEs and AGRA and other donor programs to continue driving investments into the SMEs.
• Develop Deal Room related grants and provide technical assistance to the grantees.
• Represent AGRF at agribusiness forums and alliances to contribute strategically and showcase AGRF’s work and seek opportunities for new partnerships.
• Develop knowledge products i.e. case studies, blogs etc.
• Support the design of Dealroom partnership governance structures and frameworks.
• Work closely with AGRA countries to support government investor engagement through need prioritization and a country partnership framework for partner coordination.
• Work closely with investors to ensure optimization of the Agribusiness Deal Room opportunities.
• Build and support relationship management and coordination of Deal Room network of partners and manage the Deal Room contact databases.
• Disseminate information on key private sector and partnership development and opportunities within AGRA and across relevant stakeholder groups.
• Plan and ensure timely execution of the year-round Agribusiness Deal Room workplan and deliverables.
• Manage and oversee relevant grants and consultancies that are critical to the delivery of AGRA’s mandate and the Agribusiness Deal Room.
• Manage the staging of the Deal Room at the AGRF including all elements of the event’s project management.
• Manage the tracking and reporting of the Agribusiness Deal Room events and activities.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Master’s degree in business administration (strategic analysis focus), International Relations, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Social Entrepreneurship, Education, or related field.
• Must possess knowledge of the agriculture sector and exposure to private sector investment processes and policies in Africa.
• Should have experience working in agriculture development in Africa, including strategic partnership/relationship management, public-private partnerships, agribusiness.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a team orientation and strong collaborative skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work with donors as well as manage and build strategic donor relations; sound understanding of the donor financing landscape and processes.
• Experience working multiple actors of partners in the private and public partnership landscape is required.
• Experience working with a large multinational development agency in a coordination role will be critical to have.
• Must demonstrate outstanding people skills and a demonstrated ability to influence a wide range of individuals from different backgrounds and at different levels.
• Display social and humanitarian awareness and diplomacy.