Job Vacancies at International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR)

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Architecture & Alignment

• Lead the structured co-design and alignment process with institutional partners.
• Integrate multiple workstreams (eg. farmer organization, SME development, market systems) into a coherent strategic model.
• Ensure alignment with existing sector frameworks and avoid duplication.
• Translate technical feedback into clear, decision-ready revisions.

Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the primary senior counterpart to development finance institutions, impact investors, and technical partners.
• Coordinate inputs from external advisors, fund managers, and sector specialists.
• Maintain disciplined, unified messaging on behalf of IIRR.
• Prepare concise leadership-ready briefs and strategic notes.

Market Interface

• Engage with potential financing partners to test market realism and instrument design.
• Ensure proposed models reflect SME realities, structural constraints, and risk considerations.
• Support sequencing from concept to pilot design.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• 12–18+ years of progressive leadership experience.
• Deep background in African agriculture, agribusiness, food systems, and/or rural market development.
• Demonstrated experience working with development finance institutions (e.g., AfDB, World Bank, IFAD, or similar).
• Proven ability to navigate multi-stakeholder environments involving policy actors, private sector firms, and financing institutions.
• Experience in SME development, value chain programming, or anchor firm models.
• Strong systems-thinking capability; able to integrate institutional, market, and financial dimensions.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated credibility in senior-level institutional settings.

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Responsibilities

• Support in the production and presentation of the 2025 annual report & impact and lessons learned publication
• Support in training delivery of the global MEL framework.
• Support following up the data collection for the 2025 report.
• Assist with new initiatives in areas of health, education, and the environment in IIRR country offices
• Support in the identification/recording of key analytic tools for measuring the impacts of IIRR rural development programs
• Support in grant proposals through research and/or writing.
• Assist in creating new short-term initiatives on health, climate change adaptation and/or nutrition
• Provide research and authorship assistance for publications

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in any discipline, preferably development studies, social sciences, economics or statistics (completed prior to internship start date)
• Well-organized, reliable, and self-motivated
• Helpful and responsive (e.g., when dealing with ad-hoc requests for providing support)
• Resourceful, creative, who enjoys problem-solving
• Impeccable writing skills with meticulous attention to detail and organizational skills
• Curiosity, creativity, and fearlessness in contributing new and bold ideas
• Exceptional interpersonal skills
• Ability to meet deadlines and effectively multi-task
• A willingness to fail fast and forward while respecting and valuing input from a global and diverse team
• Ability and willingness to work in a startup culture that may require fluidity in roles from week to week
• Intermediate experience with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Applications
• Responsive to manager’s feedback, ability to take direction and execute work independently with minimal oversight in a remote working environment
• Passionate about making a positive difference