Associate Program Officer – Youth, Gender and Enterprise Development

Associate Program Officer – Youth, Gender and Enterprise Development (YGED)

Location: Bamako, Mali

Job Reference: YGED/PD/ML/02/2024 

AGRA and its Work 

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People 

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive and Increasingly Entrepreneurial aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity).

We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us? 

The Position 

Associate Program Officer – (YGED) Job Reference: YGED/PD/ML/02/2024  

The Associate Program Officer – (YGED) plays a critical role in driving and coordinating initiatives that contribute to employment creation, youth engagement, and gender integration in countries strategic implementation plan. This role focuses on establishing strategic partnerships to facilitate the development of a sustainable Business Development Services (BDS) ecosystem and fostering an inclusive environment that empowers youth and women.

The Associate Program Officer YGED is responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring initiatives, policies, and plans that align with AGRA’s objectives for youth and women empowerment, gender integration and inclusiveness, and enterprise development. 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic recommendations and advice to Country teams in mainstreaming youth engagement and sustainable Business Development Services.
• Engage in cross-cutting projects to support the overall mission of the youth and women in skills development, access to market and value chain development.
• Support country team to design and implement innovative strategies to promote the establishment and growth of agricultural enterprises, contributing to increased employment opportunities and income generating on activities for youth and young women.
• Work with project partners and grantees to ensure effective implementation of youth and women work in the country.
• Work with local government and AGRA’s policy and advocacy teams to domesticate policies that support youth employment and voice. Coordinate provision of technical assistance to the ministries of youth and agriculture that are in line with creating an enabling environment for upcoming youth entrepreneurs in agrifood systems.
• Monitor country youth programs timelines, milestones, and deliverables, ensuring adherence to project schedules.
• Identify opportunities to generate more jobs and entrepreneurial ventures for youth and women.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to youth program performance, impact, and outcomes.
• Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies, NGOs, private sector sectors, and other organizations involved in Business Development Services (BDS) to increase voice and collective capacity of youth and women networks.
• Provide guidance and support to country teams in facilitating connections between qualified youth and young women participants within the food systems sector.
• Inspiring implementing partners, grantees and like-minded organizations to join forces towards creating jobs in the country and systemic change towards entrepreneurship on behalf of young Agripreneurs.
• Support awareness and engagement initiatives to influence the business environment for young people, by strengthening local youth and women organizations to act as a mechanism for decision processes, policy engagements, to advance voice and build collective agency.

Key Qualifications and Experience required: 

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Agribusiness Development, Development Studies, Economics, and Gender Studies.
• Possesses a good understanding of stakeholders mapping and women and youth organization, collectives, networks and associations, business development services at country which best represent the voices and interests of youth and women in agrifood sectors.
• Solid commitment to promoting youth and women empowerment, gender integration and inclusiveness, and enterprise development.
• Experience working in the fields of gender, youth and enterprise development preferably with focus on youth and women employment, entrepreneurship in agriculture sector with demonstrated experience working directly with national level counterparts and local communities.
• Solid understanding of the youth employability landscape in Africa/in-country in the agricultural sector, including youth and women’s participation in agribusiness, agricultural entrepreneurship, and community development.
• Excellent track record in leading the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of projects/programs, and in influencing partners and stakeholders to achieve goals and objectives.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV in both English & French (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail. 

Applications must be received on or before 21^st February 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org. 

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer