Careers at FIPS Africa

Purpose of the role

• The Program Manager leads FIPS Africa's part of AgEMERGE (Agricultural Enterprise-led Market Ecosystems for Resilience, Growth and Equity), a consortium program with TechnoServe and Wageningen University & Research funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The role oversees FIPS' grassroots Village-Based Advisor (VBA) delivery model, keeps it aligned with the corridor teams' work, and is accountable for FIPS' results, budget, people and partnership with the consortium.

Duties & Responsibilities 

Objective 1: Programs Management: Lead FIPS' Delivery of AgEMERGE

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

Plan, Do, Review, Report … the program management cycle

• Lead FIPS' delivery of its AgEMERGE activities, in particular strengthening and expanding the VBA and agrodealer network in the six FIPS counties, including the “test before you invest” approach, Farmer Learning Networks and Farmer Research Networks
• Translate the AgEMERGE logframe, work plan and FIPS sub-contract deliverables into annual and seasonal work plans, and manage the Senior Program Coordinator and team in planning against program, donor and FIPS objectives
• Keep FIPS' grassroots delivery aligned with TechnoServe's corridor teams, so VBAs and agrodealers connect to the commercial demand and anchor buyers those teams develop
• Ensure regular progress updates on implementation, and timely, accurate flow of data against the Theory of Change and logframe
• Meet consortium, EKN and FIPS reporting timelines with quality narrative and well-analysed data that clearly express impact, progress, challenges, key learnings, innovations and emerging trends
• Feed program results into M&E, continuous learning, and Fundraising & Partnership Development systems
• Lead FIPS' contribution to the six-month inception phase: team recruitment and onboarding, the MEL plan, baseline methodology, templates and the kick-off workshop

Objective 2: Consortium Leadership, Partnership Development and Sustainability

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Represent FIPS on the AgEMERGE Program Management Unit as agreed, and prepare FIPS' input to the Internal Steering Committee and the Extended Advisory Committee
• Build a strong, trusting working relationship with the Program Director, Inclusive Agri-Food Systems Manager and MEL Manager at TechnoServe, and with WUR
• Help agree, then follow, the partner roles, decision rights and financial management protocols set at inception
• Notice lessons and opportunities from implementation and convert them into program design, concept notes and new partnerships, and contribute to brainstorming sessions during concept development
• Work with the Partnership and Technical lead to blend sustainability models into the program and budget for them, and agree the learning agenda with WUR and other partners
• Support the progressive shift from direct project support to commercial and local actors managing and financing successful networks

Objective 3: Financial Management of the AgEMERGE Sub-contract

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Strategic, proactive input into budget design, revision and forecasting, feeding back prior implementation outcomes into new budget processes
• Budgets fully understood and conveyed appropriately to the Senior Program Coordinator and other budget-line holders
• Spending generally on track on all budget lines and deliverables, with intelligent and timely response on reallocation or adjustment needs
• Work with the Finance Manager so milestones, invoices and financial reports under the deliverables-based sub-contract are accurate and on time, and advances are liquidated on time
• Compliance with donor and consortium financial requirements

Objective 4: Inclusion, Evidence and Learning

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Ensure delivery reaches the program's inclusion targets for women and youth, building on the 55% of existing FIPS VBAs who are women through intentional recruitment and retention of women VBAs and first-mile entrepreneurs
• Guide the Youth & Social Inclusion Officer in building entrepreneurship pathways that connect youth and women's groups to technologies, inputs, financing and markets, with peer-to-peer coaching and mentorship
• Use MEL data and the Field Monitoring Officers' spot-checks for adaptive management, and hold regular review meetings with the program team
• Work with the MELA Manager to align FIPS data collection with the consortium MEL plan and EKN indicators
• Document and share evidence, learning and case studies across FIPS and the consortium

Objective 5: Management and Development of Directly Reporting Leads & Teams

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Manage supervisors and help them manage their teams to support a thriving team, growing in their own roles, with well thought-out succession and development planning at all levels
• Regular and meaningful interaction at all levels of supervision with HR for support in people development, performance management, corrective action, documentation, compliance, and tools and systems that support effective work
• Quality, timely feedback at all levels, including formal appraisals
• Effective delegation and follow-up processes

Objective 6: FIPS Organizational Leadership at Senior Management Level

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Proactively contribute at both strategic and practical levels to positive donor and funder relationships, and feed learning from AgEMERGE into Fundraising and Partnership Development to identify new funders, donors and partners
• Represent FIPS externally as needed, professionally, enthusiastically and effectively
• Contribute to Board of Directors meetings with substantive and well-analysed learnings from programs
• Notice, flag and suggest interventions for any “problem” issues that could threaten or undermine FIPS' success and reputation, including safeguarding (SEAH) concerns
• Act as a role model and leader in transparent, accountable but also firm leadership

Qualifications and Experience

• Degree in agriculture, agribusiness, development, economics or a related field.
• 7+ years in agricultural development program management.

Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of market systems development, inclusive business and last-mile / VBA-type extension models
• Experience managing donor-funded programs using logframes and Theory of Change (plan-do-review-report)
• Budgeting and financial management of sub-contracts, forecasting and reallocation
• Able to use MEL data for adaptive management and to turn data into clear narrative reporting
• Stakeholder and partner management, including county governments and private-sector actors
• Experience in a consortium or with European donors (e.g. EKN) reporting requirements
• Gender equality, youth and social inclusion (GESI) programming
• Knowledge of climate-smart or regenerative agriculture and nutrition-sensitive approaches
• Use of digital tools for farmer data and service delivery
• Knowledge of Meru, Makueni, Kitui, Machakos or Kilifi counties

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Purpose of the role

The Senior Program Coordinator is responsible for leading the day-to-day field implementation of FIPS Africa’s Village-Based Advisor (VBA) model under the AgEMERGE programme. The role translates the Program Manager’s strategic plans into actionable seasonal field work plans, provides leadership and support to the farmer-facing team, strengthens the capacity of VBAs and agrodealers, and facilitates linkages with agricultural input suppliers, service providers, and output market actors. The role also ensures effective programme monitoring, data quality, budget management, and coordination with county stakeholders to achieve programme objectives and deliver sustainable outcomes for farmers.

Duties & responsibilities

Objective 1: Support Effective Implementation of FIPS' AgEMERGE Activities in the Six Counties

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Translate the approved annual work plan into seasonal and monthly plans for the Network Coordinators, Agribusiness Facilitators and Field Youth Officers, aligned with agricultural seasons, the MEL plan and the sub-contract deliverables
• Link work plans to approved budget lines and planned expenditure, and give the Program Manager regular implementation updates
• Lead seasonal, quarterly and annual planning and review meetings with field staff, and support realistic targets and performance indicators for the team
• Monitor progress against targets and milestones, and support timely reporting on achievements, challenges and lessons learned
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date VBA databases, records and program information in line with donor requirements and audit and review standards
• Support the development of project tools, implementation plans and staff appraisal processes

Objective 2: Lead the VBA and Agrodealer Network: Increase Farmer Resilience & Income

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

To strengthen and scale the VBA and agrodealer networks so farmers gain access to quality inputs, technologies, extension services and markets, improving their resilience, productivity and income.

• Strengthen VBA technical and business capacity, using practical demonstrations, farmer-led testing and small packs (“test before you invest”)
• Support Farmer Learning Networks and Farmer Research Networks that let farmers test and generate evidence on climate-adaptive technologies and practices
• Connect VBAs and agrodealers with input, service and output companies, and link them to the buyer demand the corridor teams generate
• Work with the Field Youth Officers and the Youth & Social Inclusion Officer to recruit and retain women and youth VBAs and first-mile entrepreneurs
• Explore digital tools that improve visibility of farmer demand, service delivery and supply
• Contribute to strategies that improve VBA profitability and farmer incomes

Objective 3: Strengthen County Government and Stakeholder Relationships

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Take part in meetings, workshops and calls with partners, county governments and consortium members to understand their priorities and areas of collaboration
• Maintain strong working relationships with the county governments in the six counties, with regular updates on progress, achievements and lessons learned
• Coordinate FIPS and partner activities so they are complementary, aligned and mutually reinforcing
• Contribute to FIPS' visibility and recognition among county governments and development partners
• Share project experiences, good practice and lessons learned with county and national stakeholders

Objective 4: Budget Management and People Leadership

Key activities & responsibilities to achieve this objective:

• Help prepare and manage the field budget in line with project goals, work plans and implementation priorities
• Ensure activities are aligned with the approved budget, with timely approvals, expenditure monitoring and adherence to financial procedures
• Prepare timely, accurate budget utilization, reallocation and liquidation reports
• Lead, coach and appraise direct reports; set clear targets and give regular, quality feedback
• Build team capacity and plan for succession and development, working with HR

Qualifications & Experience

• Degree in agriculture or a related field
• 5+ years in field program coordination or agricultural extension

Technical Skills

• Good understanding of VBA, last-mile or market-linked extension approaches
• Able to convert project documents and proposals into implementable work plans, and to follow them up
• Able to understand the farmer's situation and use it to inform narrative reporting and data interpretation
• Ability to engage with county governments and partners
• Familiar with budget tracking and field reporting systems

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Role Purpose of the Role

The Learning Data Analyst transforms programme, research, and farmer-experience data into credible, actionable insights that strengthen evidence-based learning, inform decision-making, and support adaptive programme delivery to improve outcomes for smallholder farmers and agricultural enterprises.

Key responsibilities

Learning questions and analytical design

• Work with programme teams to turn priority questions and hypotheses into feasible analysis plans with identified users, methods, data needs and review dates.
• Assess existing evidence before proposing new collection. Support the design of tools, sampling, measures and field protocols, seeking specialist input for complex designs or impact evaluation.

 Data preparation and quality

• Compile, clean, survey, trial, enterprise and qualitative data.
• Maintain data dictionaries, cleaning logs and versioned analysis files. Reconcile discrepancies with source owners, preserve original records and document unresolved limitations before findings are used.
• Support field-team checks and practical improvements to collection tools.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis

• Undertake descriptive, comparative and appropriate statistical analysis; analyse trends and relevant differences by region, gender, age, farmer circumstances or enterprise type where sample sizes and data quality permit.
• Code and synthesise interviews, open responses, case studies and reflection records. Combine these with quantitative findings to explore mechanisms, farmer choices and contextual differences.
• Check calculations, assumptions and alternative explanations; report uncertainty, selection bias and other limits.

Interpretation and accessible communication

• Prepare clear evidence summaries, charts, tables, analytical briefs and presentations. Develop or maintain dashboards only where these serve an agreed learning need and can be kept current.
• Help programme colleagues, farmers and partners interpret findings, test whether explanations fit experience and identify what still needs investigation. Explain the analysis in plain language and record competing interpretations.
• Contribute analysis and methods to research reports and publications

Analytical capability and knowledge continuity

• Coach colleagues on basic data checks, interpretation, chart reading and common analytical errors through real programme work. Respond constructively to questions and make analytical choices understandable.
• Organise approved evidence packages in the shared repository

Qualification & Experience.

• A bachelor’s degree in statistics, economics, agricultural economics, data science, agricultural sciences or related discipline, with substantial quantitative training,
• 2 years work experience
• Practical experience analyzing agricultural or rural-development data and translating findings into programme or research decisions, with an understanding of smallholder farming conditions.
• Demonstrated ability to clean, manage and analyze quantitative datasets using Excel and at least one statistical or programming package such as R, Stata, Python or SPSS.
• Experience with statistical reasoning, sampling and measurement limitations, systematic qualitative analysis and synthesis of different evidence sources.

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Role purpose

The Learning officer makes evidence of a routine part of how FIPS plans, delivers and adapts its programmes. The role helps teams ask decision-relevant questions, generate and interpret credible evidence, and act on what they learn within the agricultural season, not after it.

Strategic contribution

• Sharper decisions: management and programme teams can see what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain and what it would take to find out.
• Faster adaptation: learning is timed to seasons and review points so that findings change delivery while it still matters.
• Stronger positioning: credible, well-documented evidence and publications strengthen FIPS with research partners, funders and the wider sector.
• Stronger capability: colleagues build their own inquiry and reflection skills, so learning does not depend on one post.

Key responsibilities

Learning agenda and strategic questions

• Co-develop a manageable learning agenda with programme and MELA colleagues, linking each priority question to a strategic decision, programme assumption or evidence gap.
• Help teams make theories of change explicit: what is expected to change, for whom, through which mechanism, and what evidence would support or challenge that expectation.
• Apply consistent lenses across questions where relevant: differences by gender, age and farm type; climate and seasonal risk; and the sustainability of enterprise and market relationships beyond FIPS support.
• Translate agreed priorities into feasible learning plans with decision users, methods, responsibilities, resources and review points aligned with seasons. Propose sequencing and flag constraints for approval.

Applied learning and analysis

• Help teams choose methods that fit the question, context, time and resources, including farmer-led experimentation, on-farm trials, participatory inquiry, case studies and mixed-method studies.
• Design and undertake agreed studies, including protocols, sampling, field tools, fieldwork supervision and data-quality checks, with programme teams, MELA colleagues and technical specialists.
• Apply informed consent, confidentiality, responsible data handling and safeguarding requirements. Identify when research approvals are needed and work through the authorised process before fieldwork.
• Analyse quantitative and qualitative evidence with appropriate tools. Examine differences across farmer and enterprise groups where the data permit; assess bias, missing data and uncertainty; and avoid causal claims the design cannot support.
• Use digital data collection, analysis and AI-assisted tools where they add rigour or speed, with human review of outputs, protection of personal data and transparency about how tools were used.
• Validate findings with farmers, programme colleagues and research partners. Record divergent views, unexpected results and open questions, and keep a traceable link from data to conclusions.

Facilitation, coaching and learning culture

• Co-design learning activities with farmers, VBAs and partners; make space for their questions and practical knowledge and agree how findings will be returned to them.
• Facilitate reflection sessions, after-action reviews and learning events that separate observation from interpretation, surface alternative explanations and end with agreed actions, owners and dates.
• Embed proportionate reflection into existing planning, field supervision and review routines rather than adding parallel processes.
• Coach colleagues through real programme questions, building inquiry, facilitation, analysis and reflective practice skills, tailored to their starting points and responsibilities.
• Create accessible, respectful learning spaces: listen without interrupting, check understanding, invite quieter participants, adapt to language and literacy needs, and challenge assumptions without blame.

Knowledge products and publication

• Produce research reports, learning briefs, case studies, practical guidance and publications with colleagues and partners, matching detail and format to farmers, practitioners, researchers, management and funders.
• Present findings accurately, including methods, limitations and implications. Coordinate technical review and required approvals, maintain accessible records, and agree authorship according to contribution.
• Lead or co-author appropriate publications, including peer-reviewed outputs where suitable and resourced, and contribute evidence to sector platforms, conferences and partner networks as agreed.
• Gather feedback on whether knowledge products are used and adjust formats and channels accordingly.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelors’ Degree in agricultural sciences, agricultural economics, research methods or related discipline.
• 2 years working experience
• Experience designing and leading applied research from question to evidence use.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills.