Lead - Implementation and Delivery

AGRA is an alliance led by Africans with roots in farming communities across the continent. We understand that African farmers need uniquely African solutions designed to meet their specific environmental and agricultural needs so they can sustainably boost production and gain access to rapidly growing agriculture markets.

The Lead - Implementation and Delivery role is crucial for directing and overseeing the functioning of the Center of Excellence (CoE) and leading the central team members to support the effective implementation of the African Transformation Offices (ATO's) priority programs.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Direct and oversee the functioning of the CoE, leading the central team members to support the effective implementation of the ATO's priority programs.
• Support ATOs to design & operationalize investment cases on priority value chains.
• Engage and work with the ATOs teams and other related teams to understand their needs and jointly plan, prioritize, design an implementation plan, and manage performance to foster ownership and commitments to embed effective routinization of delivery functions and culture.
• In collaboration with ATOs, identify, map, target, and engage with anchor firms, potential local and foreign private sectors committed to working with smallholder farmers in priority flagships.
• Advise governments and delivery structure leads on how to design, operationalize and strengthen existing or new delivery structures for effective CAADP 3.0 NAIP coordination and delivery.
• Manage a network of delivery structures and of specialist delivery support organizations, for CAADP 3.0 NAIP across the continent and facilitate inter-connectedness and peer-learning among them.
• Coordinate and ensure quality planning, prioritization, and budgeting, tracking and performance management processes of the center of excellence unit, and the ATOs with clear KPIs and an implementation plan.
• Design and implement innovative approaches, systematic routines, delivery tools (playbooks, stocktakes, delivery chain analysis, prioritization, root cause problem-solving, etc.) and results framework while leveraging integrated government programming (IGP) to support the delivery capacities of the ATOs and countries.
• Support the ATOs with tools and frameworks to support the establishment and effective functioning of coordination mechanisms, ensuring alignment across stakeholders.
• Provide access to a wealth of knowledge on food system transformation and effective delivery strategies through best practices, case studies, and lessons learned from other regions and countries.
• Catalyse and foster synergy & alignment between AGRA business lines, country offices, ATOs teams, and partners.
• Map delivery chain analysis across actors and ecosystems to provide evidence-based recommendations to the ATOs.
• Identify binding constraints and key drivers of performance, motivations, and perceptions of delivery system actors and provide evidence-based recommendations to catalyze agrifood systems transformations.
• Design and provide need-based capacity building, strengthening packages to enhance leadership skills and delivery functions that ensure sustainability.
• Design and introduce standard quality delivery services to enhance the capabilities of the ATOs teams to catalyze agrifood systems transformation, with a demonstrated measurable impact.
• Coordinate and provide need-based structured capacity building programs, including on-the-job coaching and learning by doing.
• Collect and analyze data regularly to track and monitor the performance progress of the ATOs against milestones & targets and ensure evidence-based feedback to take timely actions.
• Document best practices, produce knowledge products, and lessons related to the ATOs delivery model and other delivery mechanisms.
• Embed and facilitate accountability mechanisms for effective execution of plans across the delivery system.
• Monitor, track, and report the performances of the ATOs regularly.
• Coordinate with internal and external partners to provide targeted capacity-building programs to the ATO team members.
• Support the design business and investment cases, pitch to local and international private sector investors across the priority value chains in collaboration with the ATOs and relevant institutions.
• Engage with new wave countries to assess their demands for ATO-type and/or other delivery mechanisms.
• Recruit and enable talent management and development employees and manage team dynamics to ensure high-performance and positive employee experience.
• Embed and enforce the discipline of delivery culture and routinization by instilling management routines and digital tools to plan/prioritize, set targets, solve problems, use a data-tracking system, evaluate, and report performance against agreed targets.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required

• Master's degree in Business Administration, Public Policy, Economics, Management, public/development administration, Rural Development, or any other relevant field from an accredited institution.
• An advanced degree in the fields mentioned above will be an added advantage.
• Professional experience, with at least 4 years in supervisory roles in economic growth, public administration, or the development sector.
• Hands-on expertise in delivery structures in an African government, with first-hand experience applying deliverology and performance management tools, frameworks, and best practices.
• Strong understanding of the economics of agro-industrial policy and of market systems.
• Experience in institutional capacity building of government institutions.
• Experience engaging the private sector to improve the enabling environment.
• Proven track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives with tangible results.
• Experience in working with multi-stakeholder platforms and processes, or other complex collaboration and partner management platforms across sectors.
• Strong knowledge of the African context and global food systems is highly desired.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing a prioritized implementation plan with clearly articulated KPIs, time-bound responsibilities, tracking, and monitoring performance consistently.
• Ability to map, engage, and coordinate with key ecosystem and delivery chain public and private sector actors, internal and external stakeholders across agrifood systems to foster alignment, coordination, and synergy around the Feed Salone Strategic priorities and deliverables.
• Ability to establish sound relationships and cross-functional partnerships, identify and respond to current and future stakeholders’ needs, thereby providing quality delivery services.
• Ability to set ambitious and measurable goals, inspire and mobilize teams to deliver desired outcomes and results that lead to success.
• Ability to design compelling investment and resource mobilization plans and proposals.
• Ability to establish sound relationships with the Ministry of Finance/treasury, private sector, development partner working groups, and development finance institutions to secure resources and investment on priority flagship initiatives.
• Must possess a deep understanding of market and government systems, agribusiness ecosystems, value chain dynamics, and market systems to identify viable entry points for private sector engagement and investment.
• Exceptional ability to communicate effectively, negotiate partnership terms, and influence senior-level decision-makers in the private sector, government, and development community.
• Ability to provide strategic direction and operational oversight with demonstrated competence in leading multidisciplinary teams, setting priorities, allocating resources, and ensuring alignment with institutional strategy and CAADP 3.0 objectives.