Agribusiness Advisor at Self Help Africa

Job Purpose:

This role is central to the achievement of SHA’s vision of thriving rural economies and is part of the global technical advisory team. You will drive agribusiness innovation and facilitate learning in agribusiness growth across all of our country operations.

Key Responsibilities

The main purpose of this role is to lead our strategy on agribusiness growth opportunities for smallholder farmers, their associations, cooperatives, etc. Success in this role will be demonstrated by a measurable increase in farmer incomes, through improved market access, attracting additional investment into farmer organisations, strengthened organisation structures, and ensuring better business acumen in every organisation we work with.

You will be responsible for:

• Being part of a team which wins new business and funding to support agribusiness development throughout the organisation and with partners.
• Supporting programme design and facilitating new multi-stakeholder partnerships.
• Advising, training and supporting programme staff and partners on evolving good practice in promoting an agribusiness approach with smallholders.
• Participating in forums on market engagement and value chains to collect and share best practices and promote SHA’s work.
• Supporting the evaluation of Self Help Africa’s agribusiness interventions and capturing and sharing learning to improve and promote best practice in the sector.
• Working closely with colleagues in Tru Trade and Partner Africa to explore opportunities for collaboration and to win new business.

Technical excellence: ensure Self Help Africa is best in class in agribusiness development, market and food systems and value chain approaches.

• Provide business support and training to programme staff and project clients on:
• Market analysis and understanding specific value chains
• A proven ability to design and critically assess multiple agribusiness business plans and recommend / reject investment
• Developing business plans for medium, micro and small agribusinesses
• Strategic analysis of market opportunities
• Attract investment into agribusiness (key KPI for the role)
• Support farmers and their cooperatives to improve productivity, added value, quality and volume for market-led agricultural livelihood activities.
• Measure the performance and profitability of each agribusiness we work with on an annual basis and prepare an annual impact report specifically around agribusiness performance. This will be based on a standardised set of key performance indicators and published to a wide external audience.
• Identify and engage with strategic partners for business development in the area of micro-enterprise, farmer associations and cooperative development and support.
• Lead and contribute to developing policy documents in relation to our agribusiness work and keep abreast of innovations to inform our work.
• Develop and maintain appropriate agribusiness guidelines and resources and disseminate to programme teams.
• Represent Self Help Africa in relevant regional/international communities of practice, networks in order to promote our work. Document and disseminate Self Help Africa’s experiences.

Capacity Strengthening:  Strengthen the capacity of Self Help Africa to effectively support smallholder agribusinesses.

• Develop strategic relationships with key agribusiness donors and private sector companies.
• Lead capacity strengthening initiatives in agribusiness for staff and partners through developing and facilitating online training sessions and capacity building.
• Guide, advise and support field staff to conduct market and value chain assessments and feasibility studies to guide the direction of agribusiness development.
• Ensure agribusiness practices are in line with Self Help Africa policies on partnership and participation; inclusion (including gender and HIV/AIDS targeting); and environment (natural resource management and adaptation to climate change).
• Contribute to effective working relationships with key external sources of technical expertise for capacity building.

Key Relationships

Internal

• Technical Advisors at Head Office and Country Programme level
• Programmes Director
• Desk Officers
• Regional Directors/Country Directors/Heads of Programmes
• Country Representative and Business Development Coordinator DRC
• TruTrade country leads and TMEA focal point
• Partner Africa Executive Director
• Group CEO

External

• External stakeholders including but not limited to institutional and private donors, Irish Aid, and international aid agencies such as USAID  and FCDO
• Partners/service providers – Establish and maintain effective working relations, particularly national and regional agribusiness

Knowledge and Experience:

• Primary degree (minimum) in agriculture, cooperative management, social enterprise, finance, business, economics or a related discipline.
• 10 years’ experience of working in the agribusiness sector in Africa.
• The ideal candidate will have significant proven commercial experience with a solid understanding of key development development issues.
• This is a wide ranging role so experience in a management role within the agribusiness sector across value chain management,  cooperative management, business development, microfinance are all relevant.
• Excellent skills in developing and assessing business plans
• Programme cycle management.
• Excellent skills in report writing and proposal development.
• Strong research, evaluation and analytical skills.
• Experience in using participatory approaches in project design, monitoring and evaluation
• Excellent written English essential (French desirable)
• Flexibility and the ability to work in a multi-cultural team
• Commitment to working with a value-based organisation
• Self-motivated withexcellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Good organisation, planning and management skills
• Commitment to the vision, mission and values of Self Help Africa