Senior Agriculture and Fertilizer Specialist

Project Overview and Role

CATALYZE is a $250 million 5 to 8-year program, designed to catalyze $2 billion in private capital, especially to underfinanced social sectors (such as education) and higher risk countries (especially low-income and post-conflict countries) around the globe, complemented by a cross-cutting inclusion of gender-lens investing. CATALYZE will provide services to USAID missions and bureaus that “buy in” to tap the CATALYZE investment and pay-for-results project management expertise.

Our aim is for investors to explore and find commercially viable opportunities and approaches to creating jobs, developing sustainable social services, tightening, and rationalizing supply chains, and advancing inclusive growth.

About USAID CATALYZE Ethiopia: MS4G

USAID CATALYZE Ethiopia: MS4G is designed to benefit the Ethiopian people, build community resilience, and strengthen rural-urban linkages in the areas of food security, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). MS4G invests in developing relationships with private sector players, co-investing in inclusive business models, advisory services, digital solutions, and market-based initiatives that increase the resilience and sustainability of Ethiopian enterprises and employment for women and youth. The project supports activities in Addis Ababa and secondary cities.

To strengthen the private sector in the food security and WASH sectors, MS4G uses a market-based approach to deliver business development and financial advisory services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The project leverages Business Advisory Service Providers (BASPs) Pay-for-Results (P4R) awards and co-creates and co-fund partnerships to enhance enterprises’ performance, product/service delivery, and inclusion. The activities are designed to build institutional capacity, enhance knowledge and skill transfers through workforce development initiatives, advance the business enabling environment, accelerate digital transformations and scale best practices to increase productivity and quality.

CATALYZE Ethiopia MS4G, Senior Agriculture and Fertilizer Specialist

Overall purpose of the role

The Senior Agriculture and Fertilizer Specialist will report to the regional Coordinator and responsible in implementing and coordinate market system related activities of the project. The specialist will also use CATALYZE market systems development approach and tools to the MS4G intervention of food security and fertilizer. He/She will contribute to the success of the project and required to apply the approved MS4G approaches to catalyze the services and facilitate linkages between market actors in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate marketing and value chain related functions in Agriculture/food security and providing continuous technical guidance and capacity building to private sectors (SME) through BASP and TASPs
• Ensure implementation of marketing and value-chain development activities according to approved plans
• Leads the implementation of impactful activities to support labor markets actors to enable them to create job opportunities for youth, women and job seekers.
• Ensures the program to captures and responds to up-to-date information about market developments within respective market systems, global best practices and  Markets Systems Development.
• Link farmers with financial institution, agro-dealers and selected private sector to access different agricultural inputs including fertilizer, improved seed, and agro chemicals
• Identify, select, and assess potential fertilizer companies to enhance the resilience of regional fertilizer market and supply chain.
• Facilitate farmers capacity building platform through adapting BASP and TASP approaches for the use and adoption of agricultural inputs and technologies towards ensuring climate smart agriculture
• Job Requirement
• Relevant experience in private sector engagement in relation to agricultural marketing and value chain development (supply chain).
• Strong communication skills, both interpersonal and written with professional fluency in English and local language is required
• Solid experience on agriculture input supply and working with formal and informal financial sectors

Preferred Qualifications

•  Minimum of a bachelor’s degree, in horticulture, plant science, economics and agribusiness.
• Previous experience/knowledge of USAID projects and private sector engagement, approaches, and policy,