Senior Research Associate- Agri-Enterprise Facilitator

The Organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people's lives. The Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation (https://alliancebioversityciat.org/ )

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people.

The Alliance is a member of the CGIAR Consortium (www.cgiar.org) a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About The Project

Beans for Women Empowerment (Beans4Women) is a five-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by the Pan Africa Bean Research Alliance, PABRA under the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Beans4Women aims at strengthening the gender equality, agency in decision-making, and resource rights of women and girls active in the bean sector in three conflict-prone provinces of Eastern DRC. The project focuses on three areas that most affect the degree of women's empowerment in the bean sector, namely the business environment around climate-smart agriculture, the participation of women in bean sector leadership and decision-making, and the rights of women to productive resources like land and nutritious food. Eastern DRC. The project will build on partnerships with INERA and development partners to benefit 2 million people, 60% of whom will be women and girls, in poor rural communities in Eastern DRC and will indirectly benefit 10 million people over the longer term.

The Position Summary

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT is seeking to recruit a Senior Research Associate- Agri-Enterprise Facilitator who will work with partners (farmer organizations such as cooperatives, associations, SMEs, and other corporates) to lead field implementation of market-facing activities in the project. The facilitator will work closely with other Beans4Women project teams; women-led bean enterprises; female entrepreneurs; schools (teachers and children) and general smallholder farming households public sector, including INERA; bean seed producers, bean product processors; and support service providers. He or she will support the project through thoughtful enterprise development approaches, technical direction, and grassroots coordination in adaptation, scaling, and dissemination of successful approaches that integrate sustainable business models that are women and youth-centric into agricultural and market systems development. The position will also ensure that sufficient services including digital ones are onboarded by a critical mass of agribusiness customers (Buyers, Aggregators, Traders) and active farmers.

Duties and responsibilities

• Mobilize target beneficiaries and leverage local partnerships across project staff; INERA; bean seed producers; women-led bean enterprises; female entrepreneurs; schools and general smallholder farming households to embrace commercialization and business models to deliver results.
  
• Drive digital service provision, onboarding, and uptake by SMEs, farmers, and stakeholders.
  
• Work with nutrition and product development colleagues and teams to develop business cases for investing in and scaling and promoting bean value-added products and innovations.
  
• Assist in the development and support implementation of capacity-building initiatives of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), targeting women, girls, teachers, and extension workers to improve agricultural practices, link with market players, and understand the importance of utilizing sustainable business models.
  
• Support identification of female-led food processors and conduct participatory development of bean-based products that are demand-driven, acceptable, commercially viable, nutritious, safe, and of high quality.
  
• Provide business acceleration support for the growth of women and youth entrepreneurs, female led MSMEs, and cooperatives.  to markets and business service providers for promotion and scaling of affordable products and services to meet the created demand.
  
• Represent the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) in forums as required to contribute to technical discussions, exchange experiences, market and business support service initiatives, and interventions, and identify areas of potential collaboration.
  
• Contribute to learning and knowledge management on best practices, successes, and lessons learned in the commercialization of bean production, bean products, and business development services,
  
• Assist in the dissemination and publication of findings through the writing of technical reports, manuscripts, policy briefs, press releases and articles, success stories, and conference papers.
  
  
  

  Requirements

  • At least first degree in Agribusiness, marketing research, rural development, or closely related fields from a recognized university with at least five (5) years of work experience in relevant agri-enterprise development work.
    
  • Verifiable track record of working in human rights-related programs with special attention to women, girls, and children.
    
  • Good understanding of value chains and market access issues of rural.
    
  • Knowledge and experience in business acceleration and support for agri-enterprises.
    
  • Experience deploying and training customers on digital services in the agriculture sector.
    
  • Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methodologies for assessing diet diversity and diet quality, developing food calendars, and designing food-based interventions to improve nutrition outcomes.
    
  • Proficiency in computer use and application (Statistical packages, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and digital ecosystems for rural communities.
    
  • Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
    
  • Proficiency in English and French and fluency in Kiswahili are desirable.
    
  • Farmer, SME, and community mobilization skills
    
  • Good analytical skills including statistical analyses.