This position is remote based in Kenya, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Ethiopia; WRI Africa Regional Office. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission. WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position.
About the Program:
WRI Africaโs Food Program aims at transforming food systems in Africa to address food and nutritional insecurity for a rapidly growing population while driving economic development, increasing their resilience to climate change while pivoting away from potential future emissions, having positive impacts on biodiversity, and generating greater equity outcomes for women, children youth and other vulnerable groups.
WRI Africaโs Food Program is anchored on four reinforcing principles:
โข Producing nutrient dense foods that address food and nutritional insecurity, generating jobs for youth, women and other marginalized groups, while keeping within planetary boundaries on nature and climate. โข Reducing food loss and waste (FLW), including evidence generation and building partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders to advance the Target-Measure-Act approach, including building circular food systems models. โข Restoring degraded agricultural lands to increase productivity while generating essential ecosystems services for agriculture such as soil health, water and biodiversity that is critical for pollination and other ecosystem services. โข Protecting remaining natural ecosystems from conversion to agriculture through sustainable intensification of agriculture without adverse effects on the climate and biodiversity.
Job Highlight:
Reporting to the Director of Vital Landscapes, you will be a thought leader in food systems with experience in research, policy engagement, partnership building, fundraising and people management skills. Your role will include developing and articulating WRI Africaโs value proposition in the food system space and a strategy that is aligned with the WRI Africa and global strategies.
You will work with the team to develop a clear Theory of Change of the Food program that links the produce, reduce, protect and restore streams of work, while working with other WRI Africa staff to integrate relevant work around energy and water with food. You lead research, partnership building and support to local action across WRI Africa priority geographies and/or countries. You will oversee people management in the food program.
What will you do:
Research, Thought Leadership and Policy Engagement (30%):
- Develop a clear and transformative strategy for the food program aligned with WRIโs framework of produce, protect reduce and restore that articulates the value proposition for the food program
- Lead high quality research and technical analysis for the food program to inform policy and practice
- Synthesize findings and develop high quality policy, implementation and communication outputs
- Lead the work on food policies, as well as stakeholder engagement across the food program
- Develop policies and best practices to sustainably close yield gaps and improve food security in WRI priority geographies while helping farmers to adapt to climate change
- Assess scalability of the methods and data developed by the food program in priority countries/geographies to other African jurisdictions and provide relevant guidance to the teams
- Lead the production of written outputs including research papers, reports, internal briefs, blogs, presentations, and press releases for the food program.
- Lead the editing, peer review, publishing of all research and communication outputs of the food program
- Support the monitoring and reporting of the food program, including working closely with the โmanaging of resultsโ team to develop and monitor the relevant food indicators
Engagement, Convening and Partnerships (25%):
- Develop and lead the partnership engagement strategy for the food program covering strategic stakeholders including government, development partners, private sector, farmer federations and civil society organizations to achieve the food system transformation aligned with national and local food priorities
- Develop and lead the engagement strategy on uptake and use of data and evidence and tools developed by the food program
- Cultivate new and help manage existing relationships to deliver on the food systems transformation agenda. This includes forming or joining coalitions on research, and/or policy in priority geographies, including leading the Food and Land Use Coalition collaborations within Africa
- Represent WRI in key events, increase the public profile of WRIโs work on food systems
- Support policy engagement at national level WRIโs work is feeding into and aligned with relevant national polices on climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as food systems/agricultural policies and strategies
- Lead collaboration with other stakeholders in the food sector in priority countries/geographies to ensure synergies
Fundraising (25%):
- Identify funding and cooperation opportunities for all streams of work identified as a priority in the WRI Africa food strategy
- Lead proposals related to food loss and food waste; and food gap and food security analysis and the deployment of geosciences and their application in monitoring of crop yields in Africa, including the resources (financial and human) required to do so
- Lead and co-lead other proposals developed by other WRI country offices that pertain to Africa on food systems
- Support or lead the development of integrated strategies and proposals with other relevant strands of WRIโs work such as energy, water and others
- Ensure all food related proposal adhere to the highest quality standards including guidance to teams on Large and Small Proposal review Processes, budgeting requirements and approvals
Personnel and Program Leadership (20%):
- Lead and nurture a growing team of researchers under the food program by articulating a clear vision for the food program that they can align with
- Provide leadership of all projects and staff under the food program
- Recruit and supervise staff in relevant work areas of the food program in accordance with WRI regulations
- Identify and nurture young and upcoming researchers and thought leaders within the food program
- Liaise and coordinate with other staff from across the sisterhood on all matters related to food
What will you need:
- Education: You have a Masterโs degree(PhD preferred) in agriculture, food security analysis in relation to sustainable land management practice
- Experience: You have 12 years of relevant, full-time work experience of which 3 years have been in a leadership/management capacity
- Demonstrated knowledge and expertise on issues related to food systems transformation in Africa, including international climate policy, and sustainability challenges related to land and natural resource management
- Experience designing and managing complex, multi-partner projects in an NGO setting
- Experience creating and communicating theories of change, results frameworks, and other components of a MEL for project donors, partners, and stakeholders
- Experience with fundraising as a lead as well as part of a team
- Experience with geoscience methods and tools for assessing croplands in Africa
- A record of relevant publications
- You are willing and able to travel internationally
- Languages: Full fluency in English required and working knowledge of French would be desirable.
- Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization
Potential Salary: Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.
How to Apply: Please submit a resume with cover letter by the date of 28 November 2023. You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.
What we offer:
- A competitive salary
- Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Eu