This role involves supporting the design phase activities for the Veggies for Planet and People (V4P&P) project. The Project Officer will work directly within the V4P&P project and report to the Project Manager.
Key Responsibilities
- Facilitating county profiling, context analysis discussions with stakeholders and documentation.
- Facilitating county and regional workshops to disseminate learnings from the V4P&P project.
- Conducting stakeholder mapping exercises at county, regional and national level on the horticulture value chain using a systems approach.
- Documenting entry points for a robust multi-sectoral program with horticulture as the entry point/catalyst.
- Conducting engagements and awareness building activities using tools such as Foresight around the need for low-carbon, climate-proof, safe production of horticultural crops to nourish a rapidly urbanizing population in Kenya.
- Co-development of knowledge products that will be used in stakeholder convenings.
- Support in the development of the proposal for the new V4P&P Program for consideration by the IKEA Foundation to start mid-2026.
- Support in report writing for the V4P&P project.
Qualifications and Experience
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline; Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, Horticulture, Business Studies, or Entrepreneurship. A Masters degree is considered a plus.
- Experience: Minimum of six (6) years of progressive responsible work experience in implementing multi-faceted, multi-sectoral donor-funded development programmes using a systems approach (i.e., experience that demonstrates growth and/or advancement in complexity, difficulty, or level of responsibility.)
- Thorough and up to date knowledge of academic and donor thinking in thematic fields like regenerative agriculture/agroecology, women and youth employment and entrepreneurship, and enterprise development.
- Technical knowledge and familiarity in specific topics of value chain development for small holder farmer’s production, markets, food safety, food losses, resilience, etc.
- Skills in agriculture market systems approaches and value chain development processes; including stakeholder engagement; the public sector actors, research institutions, private sector and consumer organisations.
- Familiarity with the intersection between renewable energy and water security sectors with agri-food systems.
- Excellent social, networking and facilitation skills, ability to engage with the private sector, civil society and governments.
- Experience working in Kenya. A deep understanding of the local context, cultural nuances, and development challenges would be a plus.
- Excellent communication in English (written and oral), reporting and presentation skills.
- Willingness to travel to all programme locations in Kenya.
- Good documentation and reporting skills.
- Strong interpersonal and influencing skills and experience working in a matrix organization.
