Inclusive Supply Chains Portfolio Manager 27 views0 applications

Program Overview

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) anticipates funding the five-year Promoting Market Systems, Innovation and Resilience (PREMIER) activity in Mozambique. The PREMIER activity will facilitate the development of an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable market system to boost agriculture-led economic growth in the Nacala corridor of northern Mozambique. The activity will use a market systems approach and will focus on minimizing barriers that disadvantage the vulnerable, women and youth and exclude them from economic opportunities within the agriculture sector. This activity is anticipated to cover a combination of staple and high value crops.

The activity will implement solutions including:

• Enhancing access to finance across sectors for the rural poor and SMEs
• Enhancing risk mitigation management
• Building the capacity of smallholder producers and agribusinesses
• Increasing incomes for smallholder farmers
• Establishing strong and transparent relationships between actors
• Expanding employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, especially for youth and women
• Facilitate links between input providers and farmers/cooperatives/unions

Position Overview

The Technical Team will be responsible for facilitating support to primarily private sector actors through three main components: a) exploit attractive market opportunities where the Nacala Corridor has a comparative advantage, b) catalyze and expand local agro-processing industries, and c) work with and through local third-party service providers as delivery partners. With strategic guidance from the COP, the technical team comprises the Technical Director and six Portfolio Managers (PMs). The PMs manage relationships with clients and related local delivery partners to reach Premier’s objectives for expanding input distribution network, inclusive supply chains, food processing, route to market distribution, business development services, and access to finance.

Primary Functions and Responsibilities

The Inclusive Supply Chains Portfolio Manager will lead the Premier activities to incentivize large-scale buyers and aggregators to strengthen and expand their inclusive sourcing models within the Nacala corridor and build further their aggregation businesses. In order to achieve this, the responsibilities of the Inclusive Supply Chains PM will include the following:

• Contribute to Premier´s overall results by developing the Premiers supply chain support strategy with private sector partners, public sector actors and stakeholders to create sustainable changes to the relevant market systems.
• Contribute to Premier´s annual work plans and assure timely implementation of the supply chain support portfolio work plan activities.
• Promote Premier´s innovation and upscaling grants facility and identify and encourage eligible supply chain actors to participate in the grants application process.
• Deploy alternative partnership strategies to supply chain firms aimed at increasing access to market for smallholder farmers, SMEs and other market actors.
• Act as account manager for Premier beneficiary supply chain business that successfully applied for grants from Premier´s innovation and upscaling co-investment facility grant (the Private Sector Investment Fund, PSIF).
• Support the beneficiary actors with the development of scopes of work and ensure strong procurement policies and procedures, as well as product and service quality and cost monitoring required for the grant implementation.
• Actively identify, engage, develop and negotiate partnership and intervention with supply chain firms and aggregators.
• Assure timely implementation of the Premier supply chain portfolio grants and signal potential issues and delays and report these to the grants manager and the Technical Director.
• For each Premier beneficiary supply chain actor conduct participatory capacity assessment and determine growth opportunities and constraint analyses, and business diagnostics to identify issues and needs for each business or group of businesses to create the Core Business Technical Assistance (CBTA) plans.
• Assure the timely implementation of the CBTA plans; as well as their annual review and adaptation.
• For each Inclusive Business Plan partner and/or aggregator, support the business with determining the drivers and competitive advantages of Inclusive Business Plan (IBP), and support and facilitate the development of inclusive business plans.
• Support Premier’s agribusiness clients to select appropriate local third-party service partners to implement their CBTA and secure the necessary advisory services through a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Annual Program Statement (APS) and subsequent grant development under the Local Partner Investment Fund (LPIF)
• Design and Implement trainings either directly or through local BDS/CBTA providers focusing on challenges faced by agri-small growing businesses.
• Be a coach and mentor to business leadership in their daily dealings with company challenges.
• Support and collaborate with businesses that create agricultural and technology innovations.
• Contribute to Premier networking and relationship management with private and public actors to promote Premier objectives and facilitate wider adoption and crowding in.
• Drive monitoring, evaluation and learning across the portfolio through collection and analysis of data to measure performance and impact.
• Contribute in a timely manner with quality inputs to the monthly, quarterly and annual Premier reports and analyze progress as compared to the work plan, analyze differences and propose actions to overcome delays in work plan implementation.
• In coordination with the route to market portfolio manager, ensure liaison and facilitate transactions between farmers, agricultural service providers and input providers.

Qualifications

• Master’s level Degree in Business, Economics, Agriculture, Finance or other relevant degree.
• 5 years of experience or more as in a technical role for donor-funded value chain, M4P, and/or Market Systems Development projects, with demonstrated management experience.
• Experience in managing and operationalizing small holder farmer production schemes.
• Demonstrated success using facilitation in at least one of the following: the USAID value chain approach, M4P, or Market Systems Development approach, which led to greater competitiveness and inclusiveness in markets.
• Demonstrated understanding of agriculture production.
• Demonstrated experience with conducting value chain analysis and developing value chain work plans is desired.
• Strong private sector market orientation, entrepreneurial and innovative thinker.
• Detail orientation, including strong organizational, analytical, and quantitative skills.
• Excellent computer skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other administrative applications.
• Proven ability to produce timely and good quality progress reports.
• Communicative and open to exchange and learning.

Required Languages

• Fluency in Portuguese with excellent oral and written communication skills required.
• Proficiency in English is preferred.

Interested Mozambican candidates should apply by submitting their applications via the site.