Senior Program Manager Coffee East Africa at IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative

Do you get energy from establishing farming support services for smallholder farmers through efficient and cost-effective approaches to create innovative and inclusive business models? Are you an organized, engaging, self-motivated, team player with a strong passion for promoting smallholder livelihoods through sustainable and innovative strategies? And are you looking for a job that gives you the chance to be creative and strategic within a multi-stakeholder setting with both private and public sector industry players? IDH has an excellent opportunity for a Senior Program Manager Coffee to support our Coffee team. We are looking for a colleague, who can operate at senior level, and can contribute to move and shape the coffee sector in East Africa. You will be based in East Africa, location to be determined.

The role

As Senior Program Manager, you are responsible for developing and implementing a strategic agenda focusing on a living income and climate change mitigation in key coffee producing countries in the region using business drivers and investment tools. Capitalizing on the current coffee portfolio and networks of IDH across the world and in East Africa, you develop, drive and co-execute the coffee program in East Africa. You will work with key stakeholders including private sector, government and civil society organizations to drive key strategies to strengthen farmer resilience, support delivery of services, promote technical and financial innovations, diversification and changing business practices in coffee. You add to the global coffee and living income agenda with strategic learning, business-development (pipeline), convening activities and program implementation to reach the coffee program targets.

You will be leading a 5-year Coffee Farmer Income Resilience Program in Uganda and. The Coffee Farmer Income Resilience Program focusses on “expanding IDH’s proven service delivery model approach in the coffee sector to develop a robust proof of concept for blending coffee-specific services with services for other non-coffee farm produce, which will improve the income resilience of 20,000 coffee farming families in Kenya and Uganda. For this, IDH will co-develop sustainable and economically viable service delivery systems that integrate a stepwise approach to achieving income resilience for farmers while transitioning farm systems to regenerative agriculture.”

You are part of the IDH Coffee team, which is part of the Agri-Commodities business unit. You will be reporting directly to the Program Director Coffee and will be managing the coffee team in East Africa.

The position is a full-time position and requires international travel.

Your key responsibilities would be:

• Strategic development and management of the East Africa Coffee Program: lead the development of an East Africa coffee program that focusses on living income interventions and the implementation of the Coffee Farmer Resilience Program. Coordinate the regional operations and reporting for the East Africa coffee Program and align with Head Quarters and take the lead in regional program development.
• Team management: coordinate the IDH coffee team in East Africa (Kenya and Uganda, with possible extension) responsible for the implementation of the coffee program in the region and the Coffee Farmer Resilience Program.
• Engage and align stakeholders: create and formalize partnerships as necessary; convene key stakeholders and present program and project progress, outcomes and learnings relevant events and congresses. Represent IDH on a regional international level and through this determine the brand of IDH.
• Program administration: work with the operations team to develop project baselines and a data collection framework; monitor and report progress while coordinating periodic reviews and evaluation and sharing of learnings of the total East Africa coffee program and of the Coffee Farmer Resilience Program specifically.
• Internal coordination: communicate and align where needed on program progress, milestones, stakeholder engagement and other key information among internal stakeholders in the Coffee program and IDH FarmFit in East Africa and The Netherlands. Attribute to the team in the conceptualization and implementation of programs delivering on the global program goals, e.g. realization of living incomes for smallholder farmers, climate mitigation and accelerating regenerative agricultural practices in the sector.

Who you are:

You are experienced in engaging with smallholder farmers and understand farmer realities. You have experience with leading teams and building strategic programs, enabling the team to deliver projects from development to implementation. You are a brand ambassador for IDH, extending the coffee networks and representing IDH in discussions with different stakeholders, driving change in the sector. You create impact through an analytical, data driven and result oriented approach and are able to communicate those results internally and externally. Most importantly, you can build and guide the East Africa coffee team to grow together to implement the East Africa Coffee Program.

What you bring:

• At least 10 years of experience in agricultural supply chains, preferably in coffee, in East Africa, in a leading position in agribusiness management and/or sourcing departments;
• Entrepreneurial and professional skills, capability and tenacity to drive continued business engagement;
• A degree in (agricultural) Economics, Business Management, Supply chain management, (agricultural) Finance, Development Economics or other relevant discipline;
• Experience in project management & (financial) administration and project budgeting;
• Experience in managing (sector and/or sustainability) coalitions and with international development;
• Experience in working in an NGO in Agri-Commodities, preferably in coffee;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.

Who we are:

IDH brings companies, CSOs, governments and others in public-private partnerships together to realize green & inclusive growth at scale in commodity sectors and sourcing areas. Our approaches are designed to drive sustainability from niche to norm in mainstream markets, delivering impact on Sustainable Development Goals. We focus on creating positive impact on deforestation, living incomes and living wages, working conditions, toxic loading and gender. In this we are supported by multiple European governments, including our institutional donors: BUZA, SECO and DANIDA. IDH is an organization that works together with over 600 companies, CSOs, financial institutions, producer organizations and governments in 12 sectors and 12 landscapes in over 40 countries worldwide.

What we offer:

IDH offers a dynamic international environment and an enthusiastic and passionate team. As an IDH team member you can contribute to positive global change. This is a full-time position for an initial period of one year, with the possibility of extension. We offer a contract with a competitive remuneration. Candidates are based in Nairobi, Kenya or Kampala, Uganda and must have permission to work in Kenya or Uganda. No Kenyan/Ugandan work visas will be provided as part of the employment package.