Associate Program Officer - Safeguarding

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seeks to Associate Program Officer - Safeguarding  who oversees the implementation of AGRAs gender and safeguards policy, strategy and program to protect those we work with from harassment, sexual exploitation and all forms of abuse - to contribute and strengthen the safeguarding culture, and to promote within the teams a better understanding and adherence to AGRA’s values, particularly through the support and coordination of country teams and grantees.

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.  We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive and Increasingly Entrepreneurial aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity).

We are, therefore, looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

An important component in the market development for FL-RS is the provision of smart subsidies that benefit smallholder farmers through availing more affordable products and services. AGRA will (partially) procure FL-RS for further distribution of the FL-RS to smallholder farmers. To ensure impact delivery, the smart subsidies will only be released upon delivery of FL-RS to eligible farmers.

The role will focus on implementing the financing models and improving the bankability and performance of the MSMEs including cooperatives, youth groups, and other market actors. Additionally, the role will focus on stimulating private sector investment and innovation by addressing systemic barriers to finance and business support services, to achieve commercial viability, sustainability, and impact at scale. The role holder will work to strengthen the enabling environment for inclusive finance, foster commercially viable delivery channels for FL-RS, and facilitate sustainable partnerships that reduce market inefficiencies and promote long-term competitiveness across the value chain.

The Associate Program Officer - Safeguarding will help deliver AGRAs gender and safeguarding policy, and support in the day-to-day integration of the gender and safeguards policy, principles and priorities into field activities, coordinates and manages relationships with a range of stakeholders in the field, supports field data collection and analysis and provide for mechanisms for reporting on safeguards. S/he will build the capacity of country teams, partners, and grantees by integrating gender and safeguard measures at the country levels and working with AGRA teams, consultants, and external partners to help them understand gender and safeguard issues and response measures for AGRA investments.

• →Lead the analysis to identify context specific risks and vulnerabilities for youth and women and identify potential areas/concerns for gender and safeguarding plan.
• →Develop AGRA’s gender and safeguarding framework in close consultation with the legal unit, develop necessary tools for aligning safeguarding framework with AGRAs programmatic work.
• →Leads the development of implementation plan based on findings from the various analyses (gender analysis, youth aspiration analysis, ecosystem mapping and value chain analysis) at country level.
• →Identify and develop practical response system towards gender-based violence, harassment, abuse, allegations of harm, exploitation, or misconduct within the agricultural sector and promoting a safe and inclusive working environment for youth and women in AGRA country.
• →Develop and implement a comprehensive framework that effectively integrates social safeguard protocols into AGRA Mali's agricultural development initiatives. Ensure that these protocols are seamlessly aligned with the organization's overall objectives
• →Ensure that AGRA's interventions are responsive to the circumstances, needs, aspirations, and priorities of youth and women, and guarantee equal employment opportunities to prevent women and vulnerable groups from being adversely affected by our work.
• →Support the application of the Gender and safeguards’ requirements in new grants to local partners and proposals to donors. 
• →In collaboration with the gender and inclusiveness team, develop training modules and awareness raising materials specific to the region on gender and safeguards principles, including case studies and good practices from the region.
• →Organize and implement continuous training programs to AGRA staff, relevant partners, community members and other stakeholders on the application of, and compliance with the Gender and Safeguarding requirements by delivering online webinars and/or in-country training sessions and ensuring these are embedded in or linked with other relevant AGRA programmatic trainings.
• →Enforce and oversee health and safety protocols throughout every facet of agricultural projects. Ensure strict adherence to rigorous safety standards, effectively reducing potential risks for workers and stakeholders, whether within private sector operations or workplace engagement.
• →Provide reports on gender sensitive and safeguards indicators and share results, and lessons learned during AGRA Program implementation of Gender and safeguarding, to improve the performance of AGRA and maintaining safeguard standards.
• →Develop relationships with and promote the active participation of gender and women-focused NGOs, CSOs, government entities working on gender equality and youth to learn and share lessons and magnify impact.

• →Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of gender and safeguarding tools and best practices related to youth and women employment in agriculture and making recommendations for improvement
• →Ensure strict adherence to established labor standards, ensuring that ethical work practices are upheld across all projects. Guarantee that labor rights are protected and maintained in line with Ethiopia’s labor regulation
• →Take a proactive role in preventing child labor within AGRA Ethiopia’s agricultural initiatives. With assistance from the respective institutions and departments, enforce strategies that keep child labor at bay, aligning with national and international standards

AGRA/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).

To find more about AGRA, visit our Website at www.agra.org.   

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at https://www.ilri.org/ 

• Masters degree or PhD in gender studies, social science, international development, humanitarian or related discipline.
• Relevant professional certification

• Nine years relevant experience with masters or two years relevant experience with PhD
• Experience in the fields of gender and youth safeguarding practices, preferably with focus on youth and women employment and entrepreneurship in agriculture sector.
• Solid commitment to promoting gender equality, safeguarding of children and youth and in the agricultural sector, and to upholding ethical and professional standards in the workplace.

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