Sustainable Food Systems Manager

Background

The Feed the Future Democratic Republic of the Congo Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity is a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that contributes to the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative. The Resilience activity is based in Bunia and carries out its activities throughout the province of Ituri. Its goal is to reduce humanitarian, developmental, and economic costs due to recurrent crises caused by factors such as land conflicts, disputes over natural resources, natural disasters, climate stress, poverty, armed conflict, and food insecurity. Its objective is to improve the resilience of vulnerable households and communities, to help individuals, households, and communities overcome poverty and chronic vulnerability.

Job Description

In order to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Resilience activity, the Sustainable Food Systems Manager will collaborate with the rest of the Resilience activity team to develop partnerships with local organizations, government, and economic actors, and will be responsible for the program’s initiatives to incentivize economic growth and develop sustainable food systems. This person will support partner communities to identify and engage system actors at local, provincial, and regional level to engage in their agricultural production activities, including but not limited to companies, individuals, humanitarian organizations, working collaboratively to co-create activities that will expand the production and trade of agricultural products, improve food processing and storage, and strengthen value chains and relationships between market players.

Specific tasks

Specifically, the Sustainable Food Systems Manager will be responsible for:

• Conduct rapid assessments of local farmers’ organizations, agricultural groups, and other relevant associations selected for collaboration to identify both their technical and operational capacities and identified needs for capacity building and organizational development, and subsequently, if necessary, carry out the design and implementation of trainings to mitigate weaknesses;
• Propose effective, sustainable, and systemic ways to improve farmers’ and businesses’ access to market information;
• Support and facilitate the growth of regional, national, and cross-border trade in selected agricultural products;
• Use commercial solutions to support smallholder producers—including women and youth—to develop their capital, infrastructure, and expertise to enable them to prepare for shocks and stresses in the future;
• Advise the monitoring and evaluation manager as needed in methodologies to capture performance indicators and data around interventions in sustainable agriculture.
• Assist the team in ensuring that cross-cutting considerations such as social inclusion, conflict mitigation, data-driven decision-making and learning, and consideration of environmental considerations are integrated into all activities of this component;
• Learn and implement the technical and operational principles of the Resilience activity for all internal and external activities carried out under these terms of reference, supporting program management to ensure that the Resilience activity is carried out in accordance with the principles of resilience programs and the policies and rules of DAI and USAID; and
• Participate in the co-creation of activities with communities and the Resilience activity team, analyzing and improving the ways in which the Activity operates and how it carries out its technical activities, including participation in “pause and reflect” sessions and feedback to the Program Director, Deputy Director, and Director of Partnerships to support improvements to the Activity.

Reporting to

The Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) will be the supervisor of this position.

Qualifications

The following qualifications are required for all candidates for this position:

• Bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics, economics, or other agronomic fields.
• Five years of international experience with agricultural sustainable food systems development activities in the technical area of management responsibility in sub- Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrated ability to work and coordinate effectively with a wide variety of stakeholders to build cooperative relationships.
• Demonstrated success using facilitation (including analysis and work plan development) 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.
• Spoken and written fluency in English and French.

The following qualifications are preferred and may strengthen an application for this position:

• Proficiency (verbally) of the Indigenous languages of Ituri, such as: Alur, Bandaka, Bombo, Hema, Kebu-tuu, Lendu, Ndo-tuki, or Nyali;
• Experience working directly with community groups in marginalized geographies of Ituri;
• Experience working with or for the private sector in the field of agriculture; or
• Experience working with the provincial or local government in Ituri province.

The Feed the Future DRC Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity offers equal employment opportunities to any staff, consultant, and applicant and prohibits any kind of discrimination or harassment against race, color, religion, ethnicity, age, sex, national origin, infirmity, genetic status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristic protected by U.S. or Congolese laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruitment, hiring, promotion, termination, internal job changes, leave, compensation, and training.