Agriculture & Food Systems Technical Advisor, West and Central Africa Region at International Rescue Committee

Position Overview

As Agriculture & Food Systems Technical Advisor (Ag&FS TA) for West and Central Africa, you are responsible for ensuring high quality technical assistance to  country programs within the region.  You will collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve high quality, high impact interventions that are informed by evidence, data, and best practice, contextually appropriate, driven by client and partner voices, and are safe, inclusive, learning, and promote equal outcomes for clients.

• Program Design & Business Development: You will support country programs to design winning submissions and generally position IRC for continued success in Agriculture & Food System: 
• Substantially contribute to the development of proposal theories of change and log frames
• Support the in-country technical lead in analyzing relevant information including available M&E and client responsiveness data, to prepare and to inform design meetings/conversations 
• Advise on program modalities and strategic partnership development – including with the private sector - based on evidence, scale considerations, and how we can best support, complement, and reinforce local systems
• Advise on and/or provide hands-on support on assessments, including application and contextualization of technical standards, with special focus on: food security analysis, climate-smart agriculture, climate resilient livelihoods, nutrition-sensitive value chain/ market-system development and nutrition-sensitive programming
• Participate in project design meetings for all relevant proposals (remotely or in person)
• Review and validate design meeting decisions around technical design quality, including alignment of narratives, log-frames, and budgets, to IRC standards and outcomes
• Promote and support design collaboration with partners and clients
• Steer alignment and contextualization of Economic Well Being (EWB) Outcome Strategic Priorities and Country Programs Strategy Action Plans
• Promote and support gender equality and diversity inclusion throughout project design
• Input into go / no go decisions on proposals and on budgets required for project delivery
• When necessary, write technical narratives of proposals and provide support on monitoring and evaluation aspects of ERD projects
• Engage with donors, participate in donors’ meetings and do outreach in support of country programs
• Support countries and TU in pursuing emergency and long-term business development opportunities
• Implementation Support: You will support country program staff and other key stakeholders in implementing technical interventions:
• Support country programs and other stakeholders with the recruitment and training of technical coordinators
• Assess program quality against IRC IMPACT standards and inform improvements, providing follow up support to country programs as needed
• Collaborate with country program colleagues to monitor and analyze key indicators to inform periodic review, program adaptation, and course-correction as needed
• Provide technical capacity strengthening through ongoing mentoring, coaching, and trainings with country program focal points
• Knowledge & Learning: You will support continuous sectoral learning and IRC technical leadership:
• Document learnings from program activities and sharing takeaways and used for new positioning
• Share cross-contextual learnings with country program staff across the region
• Collaborate with the Quality in Emergency team counterparts during emergency classifications to support country programs to assess, design and implement high quality programming in acute emergency situations
• Collaborate with other technical advisors within the region to promote integrated programming leadership
• Refresh the sectoral evidence-base in collaboration with global and regional staff to influence approaches
• Contribute to the delivery of ERD strategic priorities
• Maintain currency with sectoral best practices through continual learning and development
• Support research efforts, both qualitative and quantitative, to drive IRC’s evidence generation agenda, in collaboration with research specialists in the Technical Unit and in the Airbel Impact Lab
• The Agriculture & Food Systems TA will undertake other special projects and tasks as needed within the realm of their expertise and within the TU’s function.

Professional Profile

• Success in this position requires an individual with expertise in designing and delivering technical assistance to Agriculture & Food Systems programs, and with a deep understanding of the cultural, societal, and political contexts in West and Central Africa. 
• Education: Master’s degree in agronomy, agricultural economics or related fields.

Work Experience: 

• Minimum of 6-8 years of proven experience in international emergency and development field posts, and or related private sector entities. 
• Experience in managing large evidenced-based emergency and development programs, including staff and budget management, preferably in conflict- or disaster-affected environments.
• Technical expertise in complex and volatile security contexts and one or more of the following areas (i) food security analysis, (ii) climate-smart agriculture and livestock practices (iii) climate resilient livelihoods (iv) nutrition-sensitive value chain/ market-system development (v) nutrition-sensitive programming 
• Demonstrated success in large business development for economic programs and familiarity with key donors and their funding streams. 

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: 

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, in English and French
• Strong organizational and time-management skills; proven ability to prioritize and deliver projects on time and independently.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate a dynamic, cross-functional, global team structure in a large multi-national organization.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels. 
• Strong analytic problem-solving skills.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office suite.
• Ability to manage and work through change in a proactive and positive manner.
• Knowledge of main institutional donors and a proven track record in developing funding proposals and reports for a range of institutional and other donors.
• Excellent interpersonal skills involving listening to, interacting with, and communicating clearly with people from diverse nationalities and backgrounds
• Demonstrated dedication to an anti-racist and Do No Harm approach, gender equality and inclusion.
• Language Skills: Excellent spoken and written English and French.