USAID/Africa Resilience and Agriculture Advisor (Remote)

Jefferson Solutions, the government consulting company of Jefferson Consulting Group, a well-respected, woman-owned small business in Washington, D.C. seeks highly qualified individuals to serve as a Resilience and Agriculture Advisor supporting the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Africa’s (AFR) Office of Sustainable Development (SD).

We are seeking a Resilience and Agriculture Advisor to support related activities in the country on a consulting basis for a period of approximately one year / 200 working days starting in September 2022.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES, include but are not limited to:

• Serve as a Resilience and Agriculture Advisor for USAID/Burkina Faso and report to the Country Representative and the Agriculture and Resilience Team.
• Serve as part of the Agriculture and Resilience team of the Country Office and regularly interact with USAID Senior Management and Embassy leadership in Ouagadougou.
• Interact remotely as needed with high-level government representatives, donor community counterparts, key civil society members, and other stakeholders in Burkina Faso as well as colleagues in the Sahel Regional Office (SRO), the West Africa Regional Economic Growth Office (REGO) and Washington, DC.
• Provide technical expertise and oversight, strategic leadership, and personnel and activity management support/mentoring/guidance, and recommendations to management regarding USAID resilience, agriculture, and economic growth programming.
• In coordination with the Agriculture and Resilience team, work collaboratively and creatively to monitor and provide guidance to Implementing Partners (IPs) active within the Agriculture and Resilience program. This will include activities funded out of USAID/SRO as well as centrally-managed mechanisms funded out of Washington-based OUs such as RFS, DDI, and AFR.
• Manage day-to-day work planning and coordination of staff and resilience and agriculture programs in coordination with the USAID/Burkina Faso team. The consultant will not perform other inherently governmental functions or duties (e.g. will not serve as AOR/COR or supervise staff), but rather will advise, mentor, and facilitate as appropriate on the performance of inherently governmental functions on the part of the resilience and agriculture team and other key Country Office staff.
• Advise and mentor resilience and agriculture staff on technical and professional challenges and opportunities.
• Identify and support the Country Office in exploring strategic geographic flexibilities in the implementation of existing and potential future activities to focus on other priority areas beyond the RISE II Zones of Influence (ZOI) and linkages to security restrictions as well as economic growth opportunities.
• Other duties as assigned.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

1. Timely and qualitatively appropriate contributions to weekly, monthly, and annual reporting to Country Office leadership on the part of the resilience and agriculture team, as well as to periodic updating of communication materials.
2. Timely and qualitatively appropriate contributions to preparation of briefing materials for USAID or other USG stakeholders, as needed.
3. Timely and qualitatively appropriate contributions to proposals to apply for additional USAID resources for USAID/Burkina Faso.
4. Support USAID/Burkina in implementing the 2022-2030 USAID Climate Strategy in resilience and agriculture programming, evidenced by written product and participation in meetings and events.
5. Advise USAID/Burkina Faso and Embassy leadership as well as Washington stakeholders on key issues, achievements, and opportunities, especially as they relate to resilience and agriculture for USAID/Burkina Faso, evidenced by written product and participation in meetings and events.
6. Ensure coordination with USAID West Africa, SRO, and Washington for agriculture mechanisms/programming implemented in Burkina Faso; establish meeting/communications schedules and trackers as necessary.
7. Identify and implement ways to engage, meet with, and collaborate with USAID implementing partners in Ouagadougou, taking into consideration how USAID/Burkina Faso conducts business and manages relationships in the current operating environment. Submission of a summary of this information as agreed with Mission POCs.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE and/or SKILLS:

REQUIRED:

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred

Experience and Skill Set

• Mid-level professional with technical expertise and at least 7 years of experience including USAID/U.S. Government in agriculture, food security, rural development, WASH, and/or other sectors/sub-sectors.
• Agriculture-focused, multi-sector resilience background with USAID experience.
• Experience with resilient agricultural value chains development and water security.
• Capacity to understand, analyze, and synthesize complex technical project and activity design issues.
• Strong leader and strategic thinker who can lead big picture discussions while understanding the operating environment and reality on-the-ground.
• Understand the operating context in a conflict environment where humanitarian and development assistance converge.
• Can advocate for and communicate effectively on Burkina Faso programming to USAID regional offices, including supporting budgeting discussions.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to work in a dynamic team environment with a diverse set of partners and stakeholders across sectoral teams.
• Ability to quickly adapt to new work environments and understand new unfamiliar sectors.
• Excellent writing skills and ability to write clearly and succinctly in a collaborative process; ability to meet deadlines.
• Collaborative team player and effective communicator.
• Fluent in English.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a FAC security clearance.
• Compliance with all Federal or Agency COVID requirements to access Agency facilities, such as vaccination/public health requirements.

PREFERRED:

• Experience in Burkina Faso and/or other countries in West Africa.
• French language skills.