Senior Technical Expert II: Agribusiness Finance

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION INSTITUTE (ATI)

Job Announcement

Position:                               Senior Technical Expert II: - Agribusiness Finance 

Term of Employment:         One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station:                       Addis Ababa

Required Number:              One

Application Deadline:         September 15,2024

 BACKGROUND

The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) was established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify systemic bottlenecks, conduct studies, and provide recommendations, provide implementation support, manage projects, create linkages and coordination among activities and agricultural development programs. The Institute is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions that, to be the leading centre of innovative solutions to catalyse and contribute to the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030 where smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

ATI provides a unique platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector. The ATI offers rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  The ATI recognize that its most valuable assets are its staff and is committed to providing its teams with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

The programmatic focus of the Institute responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and other sectors along commodity value chains. Across the programs, the ATI engages public, private, and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models. Currently, ATI is tasked to coordinate the revised Agriculture and Rural Development policy agendas of the sector and such sectoral level delegation requires high level expertise in the policy areas and skillsets in coordination and networking with multiple stakeholders.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results.

At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

Program and position summary.

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has designed a program called “Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia” (ADEY) to address challenges of young women and men youth unemployment and increase the participation of young people in the labour market, particularly in the agriculture sector. ATI has mainstreamed youth employment, gender equality, climate-smart, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in all its programs and projects with the primary objectives of increased access to sustainable and inclusive job opportunities for youth, inclusivity, and the sustainable use of natural resources while building resilience capacities to shocks at all levels.

ATI, among others, currently works with more than 3 million smallholder farmers (540,300 are women and youth) engaged in the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) and digital agriculture programs designed to improve production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain. Taking ATI’s reputable experiences, ADEY program is designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities for over six hundred thousand youth. Access to Finance is one of the major ACC initiatives identified for ADEY program based on its potential and job creation opportunities. The major intervention areas of ADEY program are: enhance skills and mindsets of young women and men through technical and business skill development; increase access to agricultural inputs for production and marketing enterprises; introduce youth friendly and cost-effective agricultural production practices and technologies; establish young people owned micro, small and medium agro-processing and value addition enterprises; increased access to inclusive financial products tailored to the needs  of young people; enhance access to market tailored to the needs and capacities of young people and create an enabling environment for work opportunities through policy interventions.

The STE II: Agribusiness Finance  is responsible for the overall planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, and reporting of dignified job creation in prioritized interventions of inclusive financial products tailored to the needs of young people introduced/strengthened. He/she will provide day to day management and technical supports for the effective implementation of the project and other duties as listed out below. The STE II:Agribusiness Finance  will directly report to Deputy ADEY Program Director with matrix reporting to Digital Finance Services Director. He/she will closely work with ADEY and other ATI program teams at the federal and regional levels, and the program implementing partners.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Plan and manage the technical program based on the proposal submitted to the Foundation and initiate innovative interventions that contribute to the objective of the program as required.

• Develop and implement agribusiness financeprograms and initiatives that focus on creating jobs for youths in the agriculture sector.

• Ensure the delivery of program outcomes, targets and KPIs related with the Agribusiness Finance program effectively and efficiently. 

• Manage and lead problem solving sessions, provide high calibre support to project team members and ensure team alignment, coordination, and build high performance culture and delivery on priority objectives. 

• Develop annual workplan for Agribusiness Finance and related interventions based on project document in collaboration with stakeholders including ATI federal and regional team and follow up on its implementation. 

• Closely work with key sectors including banks and microfinance institutions and facilitate agribusiness financing for youth enterprises participating in ADEY program.

• Support regional team on the identification and prioritization of knowledge and skill gaps of targeted youths (young men and women) across the agribusiness financing.

• Provide technical support, training and coaching to youths on technical issues and interventions related to Agribusiness financing at different levels.

• Coordinate and manage the implementation of agribusiness financeactivities focusing on youths, especially women, employment, and enterprise development. 

• Coordinate the development of youth-focused Inclusive financial products tailored to the needs of young people and related interventions of ADEY Program across implementation regions of the country.

• Coordinate and Support Financial institutions to expand their reach and introduced inclusive financial products tailored to the needs of youth. 

• Lead and Facilitate access to inclusive financial services and investment funds tailored to youth owned MSMEs/entrepreneurs with financial institution.

• Strengthen the capacity of MFIs and banks to introduce and expand mobile and agent banking through selecting and training networks of agents, including VSLAs and RuSACCOs

• Facilitate and support youth enterprises to access financial services from financial institutions by developing new financial products (e.g., lease financing, credit guarantee, etc.) and supporting the application process.

• Coordinate and manage youth enterprises to access finance, and credit through e-voucher system. 

• Lead the development of the rural finance platforms and applications that address the needs of the agriculture sector, entrepreneurs can create new businesses and generate employment. 

•  Develop annual workplan for youth-focused Inclusive financial products and related interventions based on project document in collaboration with stakeholders including ATI federal and regional team and follow up on its implementation.

• Ensure the delivery of program outcomes, targets and KPIs related with the rural finance program effectively and efficiently. 

•  Support regional Digital Finance service team on developing access to finance tailored to the needs of young people or targeted youths (young men and women)              

• Supervise and manage regional project technical teams, including the preparation of annual work plans and budgets, establishing performance objectives and standards, and ensuring timely and appropriate feedback, guidance, and support for optimum performance.

• Develop appropriate database and data collection tools in consultation with M&E and DFS team and ensure regular data collection with high quality and undertake analysis.

•  Monitor implementation progress and evaluate performance of prioritized access to finance tailored to the needs of young people related interventions across project regions and provide recommendations. 

•  Compile and share progress updates and performance reports and share with project team periodically (weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually).

• Closely follow-up with implementing partners (sub-grants) for the proper implementation of technical and financial matters.

• Organize and facilitate stakeholder meetings, workshops and related activities and prepare materials as needed to expand the outreach and advocacy.

•   Implement other activities as required by the team lead and supervisors.

Required qualifications, competencies, skills, training, and experience 

•  Minimum of master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, business administration, finance, project management or other related fields.

• Minimum of 8 years of professional experience in the areas of financial services, entrepreneurship, agribusiness, and others directly relevant to the position.

• in-depth knowledge of Ethiopia’s financial sector, with a specific focus on financial strategy within the country and facilitating youth enterprises access to financial services offered by various financial institutions, including products such as lease financing and credit guarantees. 

• Demonstrated expertise in enhancing the operational capabilities of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and banks by facilitating the implementation and growth of mobile and agent banking. This involves strategically selecting and training networks of agents, including Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) and Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RuSACCOs)

• Expertise in designing and implementing financial products for young Ethiopians.

• Deep understanding and practical experience in inclusive and sustainable job creation for youths in the agriculture sector.

• Commitment to youth empowerment and sustainable development

• Expertise in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting on dairy and dairy related projects.

• Excellent understanding in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), common interest group, and entrepreneurship and the mechanisms how it functions.

• Excellent experience in establishing and facilitating public-private partnerships in Facilitate access to inclusive financial services, monitor project risks, supervise implementation of risk mitigation measures, and update the risk and mitigation measures yearly.

• Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership, and commitment to deliver results.

• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem solving and decision making.

• Strong team player with excellent relationship building.

• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service

• Highly developed interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to relate to and gain the confidence of the senior leadership immediately.

• Proven leadership ability, with the skills to manage a team and influence other leaders across an organization through informal guidance, coaching and feedback.

• Ability to work effectively with regional team and partners and ensure timely data exchange and problem solving between the Federal and Regional levels.

• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) in English and Amharic with the ability to create and deliver compelling presentations to diverse groups of stakeholders.

• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment.

• Excellent analytical skill and computer literate

• Desire of creating dignified and sustainable jobs for youths in the agriculture sector.

• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.

How To Apply

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

• We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et

• It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your application email.  

• Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.  

• Women are highly encouraged to apply. 

• NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.