Value Chain Development and Agribusiness Specialist Under Contract at KAYONZA IRRIGATION AND INTEGRATED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PROJECT (KIIWP2):Deadline: Mar 23, 2023

Job Description

Position : Value Chain Development and Agribusiness Specialist

a) About the position profile

Job title : Value Chain Development and Agribusiness Specialist
Job level : 3.V
Number of positions : One (1) position
Direct Supervisor : KIIWP Operations Manager
Duration : 2 years renewable performance-based contract with a 3 months’ probation
period.
b) Education and Experience
At least a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness, agricultural economics and crop production with at least 5 years of experience in a similar job position.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Strong coordination, networking and relationship building skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation and negotiation skills.
• Organised, punctual and detail oriented.
• Fluent in English or French (reading, writing and speaking) with very good knowledge of the second language (French or English).
• Fluent in Kinyarwanda.
• Ability to work in team setting, taking initiatives and performing multiple tasks. • Proficient in use of MS Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
• Able to travel to project sites.
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

c) Duties and Responsibilities

Under direct supervision by the Operations Manager, the Value Chain development/Agribusiness Specialist will be responsible for all matters related to promoting value chain development and agribusiness related aspect for all KIIWP’s targeted commodities. He/she will have to work closely with the other KIIWP technical team KIIWP’s technical team.
Specific duties/tasks of the Position

 Lead the value chain development related activities for all KIIWP targeted commodities including both staple and high value crops through proposed strategies, addressing production and productivity increase, post-harvest, access to finance, processing and marketing priorities through market driven sustainable approaches;
 Enhance sustainable market linkages and value addition by strengthening the capacity of farmers’ organizations (cooperatives, water users, self-help groups, women and youth in groups, smallholder farmer entrepreneurs) and other value chain actors from the private sector through increase performance of access to finance and commercialization of selected value chains;
 Conduct the coordination in identifying gaps and strengthen capacity building in post-harvest handling in priority value chains to minimize losses and reduce perishability while ensuring quality enhancement and pre-processing activities for the produce from the prioritized value chains;
 Coordinate and support selected cooperatives, farmers and agri-processors to obtain quality certification, to ease access to domestic and export markets;
 Lead the proper provision of matching grants for packaging and processing equipment (under Subcomponent 3.2) and technology, including preservation, to reduce food loss and preserve nutrition value of produce;
 Coordinate all activities related to providing support in financial literacy of farmers, and ensure financial skills provided to cooperatives increase the use of credit through provision of appropriate financial products and services from participating financial institutions;

 Support the provision of post-harvest facilities and equipment, training farmer organizations to manage them and to ensure their profitability and sustainability, ensuring that market infrastructure and equipment are demand-driven and market-oriented;

 Initiate and coordinate all the activities related to supporting forward and backward market linkages in the value chain to ensure sustainable business development;

 Assist in implementing, coaching and supervising in evaluating business proposals from farmer organizations to meet matching grants requirements linking them to private sector actors;

 Initiate regular meetings/workshops with all key stakeholders/ value chain actors among different selected value chains to exchange views and to fix issues or gaps that may appear and recommend adjustments as needed;

 Support the implementation of agribusiness development initiatives within the project;

 Support production of Farming as business-related training materials;

 Participate in the mapping and the selection of commodity chain;

 Initiate, lead and coordinate all activities related to linking farmers to the markets

 Support the development and implementation of comprehensive action plans for selected commodity chain actors;

 Facilitate the value chain actor’s platforms in the project site;

 Monitor the implementation of the joint action plan of the key players within a chain;

 Identify needs for capacity building of organizations of small farmers and rural micro enterprise development sectors in the process of value chain development;

 Coordinate the collection and analysis of data for monitoring and evaluation of the project, particularly regarding business plans and action plan;

 Initiate and implement all activities aiming to strengthen the relationship between producer’s organization and their umbrella organization and or national networks of key actors in selected commodities in order to facilitate the needed support and speed up the implementation of action plans;

 Contribute to KIIWP’s annual work plan, quarterly reports, annual report and any other deliverables, as required;

 Carry out any other duties within the position responsibilities assigned by the Operations manager;
Outputs
 All activities related to Farming as Business under KIIWP project is effectively and efficiently implemented;
 All activities related to value chain development for the selected commodities are effectively and efficiently implemented;