ASSOCIATE PROGRAM OFFICER – POST HARVESTMANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY
REF: APO/AGRA/11/2025
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seeks to recruit Associate Program Officer - Inclusive Finance who will be member of AGRA Ethiopia located at the International Livestock Research institute, Addis Ababa Campus.
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:
Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation. 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. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation. 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, therefore, 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?
Overall purpose
The RE-GAIN program - Scaling solutions for food loss in Africa, aims to address the impacts of climate change on post-harvest food losses in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The program focuses on strengthening food security by supporting the innovative adaptation of the harvest and post-harvest value chain. It seeks to reduce food loss, improve food quality, and enhance local capacity through the wide-scale adoption of Food Loss-Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) among smallholder farmers. The program operates across three primary pathways: farmer-centric, supplier-centric, and institutional support
The Associate Program Officer – Postharvest Management and Delivery will guide the implementation of extension services interventions, training, and capacity building, and support to farmers on the use of climate-resilient Food Loss – Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) interventions of the RE-GAIN program in Ethiopia. The program officer will further ensure the coordination of multiple actors in the harvest and postharvest management phases of value chains.
Role Summary:
The Associate Program Officer – Postharvest Management and Delivery will work closely with Ethiopia’s in-country partners to identify appropriate methods for training and capacity building of extension service providers for postharvest management technologies and facilitate the implementation of interventions to support the increased utilization of food loss reduction technologies. Additionally, the ideal candidate will work closely with the M&E unit to develop a knowledge management system that is interactive and that will welcome contributions from AGRA staff and external partners.
The main purpose of the job is to guide the implementation of extension services interventions, training, and capacity building, and support to farmers on the use of climate-resilient Food Loss – Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) interventions of the RE-GAIN program in Ethiopia. The Associate program officer will further ensure the coordination of multiple actors in the harvest and postharvest management phases of value chains.
Key Responsibilities:
Mainstream extension-related activities in investments made on the RE-GAIN Program. Facilitate the implementation of awareness-raising activities on the program, targeting smallholder farming communities that are focused on the impacts of climate change on postharvest food losses and the availability of locally appropriate and climate-resilient FL-RS. Provide training to smallholder farmers on improved postharvest crop management and storage techniques to reduce food losses and maintain the quality of produce. Work with partner organizations to increase farmers' income by reducing losses, improving marketability (premium pricing), and improving the supply of financial services and FL-RS to smallholders and other value chain actors. Identify and train local MSMEs and cooperatives to develop FL-RS service provision operations in the target communities within Ethiopia with a focus on women- and youth to maximize the social benefits and build resilience among these vulnerable groups. Deploy effective extension and training channels such as onsite demonstration of best practices in postharvest crop management. Promote pluralistic extension systems in the delivery of postharvest crop management - lead farmers and agricultural extension agents (DAs), farmer cooperatives, SME associations, and digital platforms and the existing networks of local service providers. Develop postharvest food loss reduction and management messaging for agricultural traders and processors on complementary services that support and maximize the effectiveness of FL-RS. Develop and ensure implementation of cross-cutting extension materials on postharvest management and food loss reduction. Develop and adapt approaches for integrating methods and innovations into the postharvest management extension messaging. Mainstream interventions that attract and enhance the participation of the youth in the postharvest management value chain. Identify approaches that will facilitate integration into interventions, postharvest management, and food loss reduction practices. Advise implementing partners and stakeholders on the RE_GAIN Program on extension and delivery innovations to effectively reach target beneficiaries and program participants. Strengthening existing partnerships that advance AGRA’s efforts to mainstream youth in agriculture. Develop a data and information mining framework to assess the impact of the investments on the RE-GAIN Program. Work with the M&E team to develop appropriate baselines and indicators and identify capacity gaps in postharvest management and food loss reduction. Conduct country-level monitoring of RE-GAIN investments. Develop and implement targeted policy advocacy messaging and activities. Generate, and share knowledge on postharvest management and food loss reduction at the country level. Synthesize the large body of existing knowledge on postharvest management and extension systems and determine what is relevant and useful for the RE-GAIN Program implementation.Academic and professional qualifications:
Education:
Masters degree or PhD in agricultural extension and advisory services, post-harvest management, or related fields. Relevant professional certificationExperience:
Nine years relevant experience with masters or two years relevant experience with PhD Proven, practical, work experience in leading post-harvest management initiatives in Ethiopia. Experience working with rural communities. Extensive experience working with educational and national agricultural research institutions in Africa. Good knowledge of issues about curriculum development at the tertiary level and educational policy with a bias towards the agricultural sciences.Skills:
Demonstrates a deep understanding of how climate change impacts agricultural systems and is familiar with climate-smart practices that enhance Food Loss reduction solutions against climatic shocks. Demonstrates the ability to roll out capacity building and extension services at the community level and devise and implement effective strategies for packaging, promotion, and farmer outreach to ensure the dissemination of best practices that enhance support for smallholder farmers’ use of climate-resilient FL-RS intervention. Demonstrates a thorough understanding of government and private sector policies and governance frameworks, along with significant experience in designing and implementing programs and advancing policy and regulatory reforms in relevant sectors, facilitating effective stakeholder engagement to address barriers and drive farmer-centric and supplier centric food systems transformation Competent in designing and managing projects aimed at enhancing agricultural resilience through effective policy implementation and stakeholder engagement to foster a coordinated approach to climate adaptation Research and Analytical Skills encompass the ability to analyze agricultural data to assess vulnerabilities, evaluate the effectiveness of climate adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and Resilience measures, understand trends, conduct environmental assessments, and develop frameworks for monitoring outcomes to ensure continuous improvement and accountability in best practices. Demonstrates the ability to develop/design and lead the implementation of capacity-building activities that integrate FL-RS sustainability principles into Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation, equipping stakeholders with the knowledge and skills necessary for the effective achievement of program goalsDuty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Grade: HG 16
Minimum Base Salary: Birr 130,890 per month
Terms of appointment: This is a National Staff (NS) positions, initial appointment is for three years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. The ILRI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes a very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc.
Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position and reference number, as given above, should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 4 June 2025.
AGRA/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).
To find more about AGRA, visit our Website at www.agra.org.
To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at https://www.ilri.org/
Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.
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