Feed the Future Liberia Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience (FSNR) activity

JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION IDENTIFICATION

Department: FSNR activity

Unit: Technical Program Unit

Job Title: VC Marketing & Competitiveness Specialist

Title of Immediate Supervisor: Chief of Party

Location: Monrovia

Date Job Description Revised: Mar 2024

2 Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has over 30 years’ experience assisting governments, communities, and the private sector. As a not-for-profit, independent research institute based in North Carolina, USA, RTI has over 6,000 employees with global experience implementing international development projects. RTI’s Sustainable Growth & Resilience (SG&R) technical unit within the International Development Group brings together RTI experts and capabilities across food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity. SG&R will leverage RTI’s experience designing and delivering multisectoral programming and technical solutions to respond to climate change, build resilience, and promote economic growth around the world.

SG&R’s Global Food Security and Agriculture portfolio is working to strengthen agricultural markets, engage youth and women as critical leaders of the on- and off-farm workforce, and tackle the dual burden of malnutrition around the globe. RTI’s work is helping foster stronger food systems, reduce malnutrition in all its forms, build resilience and engage the next generation of food security leaders. RTI is currently partnering on nearly 30 projects in East Africa, including activities focused on private sector-driven agricultural growth in Rwanda and market systems development in Kenya. Similarly, RTI has currently two activities supporting the Education and Economic growth objectives in Liberia.

• Project Description

The purpose of the FSNR activity is to improve Liberia’s food and nutrition security and households’ resilience. This is a five-year activity that targets smallholder farmers, subsistence farmers, cooperatives, women, and youth groups in rural and peri-urban communities. The activity headquarter is based in Monrovia, Liberia and provides programming in Lofa, Bong, Nimba, Margibi, Grand Bassa, and Montserrado communities. Overall, the FSNR aims at increasing competitiveness and expanding the number of cooperatives as well as micro- and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) engaging in selected value chains; facilitating industry linkages to markets and access to finance for small farmers; and increasing income generation and employment opportunities for rural, peri-urban, and urban youth and women.

• PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS POSITION:

The Marketing and Competitiveness specialist is expected to lead the mapping of supply and demand for targeted value chains to improve competitiveness of each value chain element and enhance business linkages by working and liasing with the cooperatives, MSME stakeholders and other value chain players.

S/he works closely with the DCoP as well as other technical specialists and MEL manager to develop programing to promote entrepreneurism, business formalization, market linkages, and business skills development. S/he will work with the cooperatives and viable business groups to strengthen their organiazational capacity and increase competitiveness and access to sustainable markets for selected value chains. The Marketing and Competitiveness specialist will also play the lead role in conducting business development training activities to expand the income generation and employment opportunities for youth and women.

S/he works closely with the MEL manager to ensure compliance in data analysis and reporting to promote standards of excellence and quality reporting as well as documentation of project achievements, success stories etc.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES (KEY TASKS):

Marketing & Competitiveness focused Program Quality

• Work with the Grant manager closely and lead the design of the “Request for Proposals/Applications” (RFP/RFA)
• Work with the “Access to Finance” specialist and facilitate business training and support the development of business strategy to increase capacity of cooperatives and MESMs.
• Helps facilitate market research data collection and technology integration for rural farmer groups.
• Support the Digital Extension App development to incorporate relevant marketing and business development content.
• Lead quarterly and annual review and planning sessions for the Marketing and Competitiveness component.
• Manage consultants or interns recruited to conduct market related surveys or data collection.
• Continue to upate the “Food Environment Toolkit” (both the consumer preference and market assessment) and engage with the relevant market actors to guide annual planning.
• Review and define the results expected from the Private Sector Engagement (Cross Cutting theme) and develop relevant target and monitoring tools.
• Support the development of viable marketing tools, and promotional market activities for cooperatives, MSMEs and small holders farmers to facilitate access to market

Program Management and Private Sector Engagement

• Work with the FSNR leadership team and develop the overall vision and goals for the Private Sector Engagement component.
• Identifies new domestic and regional markets for selected agricultural value chains.
• Builds subject matter expert skills, standards, and capacity to deliver products and services to markets including the promotion of value addition.
• Establishes and fosters linkages between farmer groups and private sector actors and/or market opportunities.
• Support targeted producer organizations (cooperatives) in developing long-term business plans and marketing strategies
• Oversees activities related to attracting and facilitating private-sector investment, especially in and improving enabling environment for private-sector engagement.
• Supports sustainable financing mechanisms for investments through microfinance institutions, banks, international financial institutions, donors, de-risking financing mechanism, and public-private partnerships.
• Leads activities in support of public-private partnership (PPP) development for agricultural infrastructure development and business facilitation.
• Advises key stakeholders on bankable PPP projects and PPP bundling to reduce risk; engages with private-sector financiers to attract investor interest.
• Is responsible for designing and implementing the project’s private sector engagement strategy as the overarching framework for increasing private sector resources, expertise, and collaboration in Liberia’s Agricultural Sector.
• Serves as main point-of-contact for private sector partners, municipal governments, and the Government of Liberia on strategies to improve private sector involvement.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Work with FSNR staff, from other units closely to develop annual, quarterly, and monthly work plans and analyze achievement of quarterly targets and present to DCoP.
• Supervise assigned staff to ensure effective and efficient implementation of project activities.

Other Functions

• Work with the Access to Finance Specialist closely and engage with financial institutions to create a “Financial Eco-system” to expand access to finance for cooperatives successfully engaging with the market.
• Participate in relevant activity teams to guide and support learning and case studies
• Develop reports, success stories, or other information related to private sector engagement for public outreach
• Take the lead with management, organization, and strategic planning of all marketing and competitivess related activities

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

• INTERNAL:

Regional and Home Office Technical resource persons; CoP/ DCoP; Technical teams for FSNR/ Operations and Finance team for FSNR/ implementing partners working for BRAC, GiveDirectly and Dimagi/ Technical and management staff from TESTS.

• EXTERNAL:

DELTA technical resource persons;; Marketing & competitiveness resource persons for FAO and other organizations; Local Government officials and structures; CARI; National Government officials and structures as appropriate and NGOs; private sector actors etc.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• At least Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture, agricultural economics, agribusiness, finance, trade or related field; advanced degree preferred
• Minimum five (5) years of work experience years of experience strengthening value chains, facilitating trade, working with small farmers and cooperatives, and branding agricultural products
• Good analytical and presentation skills
• Prior donor-funded project experience preferred
• Excellent written, verbal, and cross-cultural communication skills
• Dependable experience in agribusiness and value chains development
• Strong organizational skills and proven experience in transferring knowledge through formal and informal training
• Experience Managing staff, budgets, and planning processes
• A self –starter demonstrating strong problem solving, leadership and management skills and experience
• Willingness to travel approximately 40% of the time to field sites to strengthen capacity building support, monitoring and facilitate market linkages.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines,methods,and approaches in strengthening competitiveness and facilitating market linkages.
• Adherence to highest standards of ethics and data integrity
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated managerial skills.
• Fluent in written and spoken English.
• Ability to work throughout the target areas in Liberia.

DISCLAIMER CLAUSE

This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position .

• A written test / assessment may be used as a form of screening.
• Note: Recruitment will be done on a rolling basis’’.
• To apply for this position, see link: https://careers.rti.org/jobs/11767?lang=en-us

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