Background: The International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) invites applications for the position of Senior
Business Development Officer (BDO), N2Africa.
IITA is an international non-profit agricultural
research-for-development (R4D) organization established in 1967, governed by a
Board of Trustees, and a member of the CGIAR Consortium. Our R4D approach is
anchored on the development needs of tropical nations. We work with partners in
the public and private sectors to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce
producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. We have more
than 100 internationally recruited scientists from about 35 countries and 900
nationally recruited staff based in various stations across Africa. Please
visit http://www.iita.org/ for
more information on IITA.
The Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder
Farmers in Africa (http://www.n2africa.org)
Project is led by Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The project aims to
deploy state-of-the-art legume and rhizobial inoculant technologies to African
smallholder farmers to enhance inputs of free atmospheric nitrogen by
biological nitrogen fixation, thereby improving legume productivity, human
nutrition and farm income, while enhancing soil health. In its second phase,
the project will put a major emphasis on (i) institutionalizing N2Africa
technologies, approaches, and expertise and (ii) fostering long-term
sustainability of the various components addressed by N2Africa, including seed,
inoculant, and fertilizer supply chains, access to profitable legume markets, and
knowledge transfer. The project will primarily work in the N2Africa Core
Countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia (with a
limited range of activities in DR Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and
Mozambique).
IITA seeks a qualified Senior Business
Development Officer to lead the implementation of activities focused on
creating sustainable seed, inoculant, and fertilizer input supply chains and
linking small holder farmers and farmer organizations to profitable and
sustainable legume markets through public-private partnerships. The successful
candidate will develop strategies, design implementation plans and oversee
activities in the project countries, with the goal of identifying opportunities
to stimulate business development as part of the larger program team. He/she
will lead a small team with a focus on creating, delivering and implementing
agreements that establish effective partnerships in two distinct domains of the
legume value chain: the production and distribution of relevant seed,
inoculants and fertilizers for legumes crops; and demand-side market
development, with an emphasis on business opportunities that create vibrant
local, regional, and export legume markets, including price stabilization,
grain supply and processing activities where feasible. The successful candidate
will recognize and understand the critical role that women play in the legume
value chain and build realistic, sustainable business solutions that include
their perspective and create opportunities for their participation.
The successful candidate will report to the R4D Director on
Natural Resource Management and the R4D Director for West (or East, depending
on the duty station) Africa.
More specifically the Senior BDO will:
- Assess
the current state of agricultural input production, marketing and
consumption in the project countries and characterize the agricultural
input supply system.
- Establish
a strategic framework for sustainable agricultural input business
development.
- Identify
existing partnerships and initiatives in the agricultural input business
sector.
- Identify
potential partnerships and initiatives with public (school feeding, WFP
Purchase for Progress, etc.) and private sector output market actors.
- Consistently
seek, develop and deliver new business opportunities and successful
alliances with commercial farms, trading companies, processors, exporters
and international corporations interested in sourcing quality legume supplies.
- Participate
in platforms (or establish these if needed) on legume crop value chains
and establish relationships with prospective partners and stakeholders
that lead to executed agreements and contracts.
- Identify
opportunities for fund raising and assist in applying for grants for
business development and establishment; liaise with donor community on
possible grant making for business incubation and development.
- Identify
and develop partnerships with financial institutions willing to support
smallholder farmer enterprises, commercial farm, processor and input
supply development.
- Conduct
and oversee advocacy for business development and promotional campaigns.
- Identify
enabling environment constraints and work with project management to
address such constraints.
- Work
with and inform project management and research and field staff and/or
delivery partners to a) identify and produce market preferred varieties;
b) identify those farmers and/or farmer organizations most capable of
producing for the market.
- Report
to project management on developments and achievements in promoting
business development.
- Manage
and supervise a small team of country business development officers that
support the project objectives.
Educational Qualifications
The successful candidate will have a Masters in Business
Administration (MBA) or a PhD in business, agricultural economics or a related
field from a highly recognized university and at least 10 years experience
developing or working with agricultural businesses in sub-Saharan Africa or
similar developing country environment.
Core Competencies:
- Strong
knowledge and experience with African farming systems and input/output
value chains in Africa.
- Successful
experience facilitating national and/or partnership platforms related to agricultural
intensification; positive track record of work relations with a wide range
of partners, including research institutes, governments, private sector,
and other development entities.
- Successful
experience facilitating private-public partnerships in the realm of
input/output markets.
- Strong
negotiation skills and the ability to execute agreements.
- Highly
developed project management, implementation and monitoring skills.
- Demonstrated
ability to lead the writing of technical documents.
- Demonstrated
ability to successfully manage a small team with a high degree of
interpersonal effectiveness, and to work positively in a dynamic team
environment.
- Excellent
spoken and written English (with French being an added advantage).
- Ability
to work independently in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and
multi-cultural environment.
Duty station: Ibadan, Nigeria (or Nairobi,
Kenya), but will involve extensive travel to the various project countries.
General information: Initial appointment is for
two years. IITA offers a competitive remuneration package paid in US dollars.
Applications: Applications which must include
covering letter, curriculum vitae, names and addresses of three referees should
be addressed to the Head, Human Resources Service. Please complete our online
application form using this link:http://www.iita.org/irs-online-application
Closing Date: 31 December 2013
IITA is an equal opportunity employer and particularly
welcomes applications from women candidates.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be
contacted.
