Horticulture Partnership Facilitator at SNV

Location: Abuja - The position requires intensive travels (up to 50% of the time) in target regions in Nigeria and exceptionally in other 2SCALE countries.
Contract type: National employment contract
Contract Duration: 1 year initial contract with possible extension

Program Summary

• The 2SCALE program (2019 to 2023) builds on achievements and lessons learnt from a first phase (2012-18, www.2scale.org). It aims to be a flagship program for the Netherlands’ food security policy and one of the leading catalysts of inclusive agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa. 2SCALE is designed to incubate and accelerate inclusive agribusiness development in target countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger and Nigeria). Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are the core implementation modality to achieve the objectives of the program.

2SCALE’s strategy is three-pronged:

• Incubating inclusive business: through PPPs, 2SCALE works together with private enterprises to develop agribusiness models that promote inclusiveness, develop (new) competitive edge, and have potential for scaling. PPPs support value chain development and agribusiness cluster formation. The agribusiness cluster approach helps smallholder farmers develop farming as a business and supply agricultural products for local, national, regional and international markets. 2SCALE partners with African and multinational agri-food companies as drivers to increase productivity and to improve efficiency and sustainability of supported agribusiness clusters and value chains. Specific attention is given to youth and women to integrate value chains (as farmers, laborers, entrepreneurs, service providers), and to low income / “base of the pyramid” (BoP) consumers that represent the largest market for food products in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Replicating inclusive business: through PPPs, 2SCALE supports the replication of most successful business models, in different settings (regions, industries), with the same or different private partners.
• Facilitating sector transformation and policy alignment: 2SCALE also supports partnering enterprises to drive sector transformation and policy alignment for critical bottlenecks that cannot be solved by the actors within the focus PPPs, and which affects a number of actors in the sector simultaneously. 2SCALE is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and implemented by a consortium led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and comprising the Base-of-the-Pyramid Innovation Center (BoP Inc) and SNV Netherlands Development Organization. The Partnerships Resource Center (PrC) supports the consortium as a knowledge partner.

Job Description
The Partnership Facilitator is responsible for the design and implementation of all activities related to the PPPs under her/his responsibility. She/he facilitates, in close collaboration with the private partners and other relevant stakeholders, all the interventions by 2SCALE at the levels of partnership, grassroots (i.e. agribusiness cluster), value chain and industry. She/he also coordinates the support from business support services, consultants, and cross-cutting 2SCALE specialists to the PPPs under her/ his responsibility.

Under the supervision of the 2SCALE Country Team Leader, and working in close collaboration with 2SCALE colleagues from other consortium members, the key responsibilities of the Partnership Facilitator will include:

• Collect and analyze market and industry information related to anticipated and existing PPPs under her/his responsibility.
• Design, formalize, implement, monitor and document PPPs with private business champions (companies or cooperatives) and other relevant private/ public partners:
  • Develop partnership agreements with clear theories of change, and well as related action plans and cost-shared budgets.
  • Coordinate field interventions that fall under 2SCALE’s responsibility, in line with set targets, and in close collaboration with supporting 2SCALE cross-cutting specialists. These activities may include but not be limited to the following:
    • Mobilization of actors around target agribusiness clusters and value chains.
    • Profiling/ assessments of agribusiness cluster and value chain actors.
    • Business connections of grassroots actors.
    • Coordination of activities of connected local actors within agribusiness clusters, based on competitive strategies.
    • Capacity building (technical, organizational) and empowerment programs.
    • Promotion of innovations within agribusiness clusters and value chains.
    • Capacity and trust building activities to improve efficiency and reduce transaction costs within value chains.
    • Linkage of value chain actors to financial and other support services.
  • Monitor and document the progress of the PPPs in line with:
    • PPP key performance indicators and markers for change.
    • PPP action plans and cost-shared budgets.
• Facilitate the development of PPP strategies that are gender-transformative, foster youth inclusion, and are environmentally sustainable:
  • Use a gender lens in every action, analyze gender-related constraints and ensure that proposed strategies are gender-sensitive and address key constraints faced by female stakeholders in each PPP.
  • Analyze youth-related constraints (for both young women and young men) and ensure that proposed strategies improve youth employment and youth integration in PPPs and their value chains.
  • Lead the inclusion of environmental considerations in all PPPs, and in every pilot of a new technology/ practice, and design - if needed - capacity building activities to mitigate environmental risks.
• Ensure that business champions and other relevant private partners understand and adhere to commonly agreed standards of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design - upon request - capacity building activities to deepen the design/ implementation/ monitoring of CSR policies.
• Prepare service agreements for business support services, in collaboration with the 2SCALE Contract Manager. Monitor these agreements, particularly through frequent field visits to cluster actors.
• Organize frequent governance meetings with the lead partner(s) and other parties in the PPPs. Ensure that governance mechanisms implemented in the partnership are inclusive. Lead the validation, sharing and filing of the minutes of every governance meeting.
• Collaborate with the Communication Specialists to develop outreach materials in a frequent manner, and ensure the visibility of the PPPs and their development (achievements, challenges, lessons learnt).
• Write and submit timely activity reports, as well as other technical reports, notes and partnership profiles.
• Participate pro-actively in the industry team, composed of all Partnership Facilitators with PPPs in the same industry. Respond to and seek advice from the 2SCALE management to improve industry knowledge, forward-looking strategizing within the industry, and priority-setting within existing and new PPPs.
• Represent the program at relevant national/ local events.
• The Partnership Facilitator may implement other tasks that the 2SCALE management deems necessary for the success of the program.

Qualifications

• Applicant must have relevant knowledge in Private Sector; good understanding and work experience in value chain development and agribusiness operations. She/he must have strong knowledge of horti-culture and the vegetable sector in Nigeria.
• Minimum of three (3) years’ experience in agribusiness and agriculture operations with Private Sector;
• Master's degree in one of the following: Agribusiness; Agriculture Economics, and/or related field;
• Proven experience in organizing and facilitating capacity building programs (trainings, demonstrations, field visits, etc.), business meetings, and other events for value chain stakeholders.
• Result-orientation and ability to take initiatives under minimal supervision, and to reach targets.
• Excellent spoken English and ability to write quality documents in English.
• Additional proficiency in a major local language would be an advantage.