Fellow - Output Market and Trade Systems Analysis for African Geographies at TechnoServe

Objectives, Framework and Approach

Project Objective

Over a period of four months, the Fellow will assess the main delivery models that are used to develop output market and trade systems for increased farmers’ income and food security. The main goal for this assignment is to compare existing and potential delivery models for strengthening output markets and trade systems with quantified potential/projection of impact. On the basis of this, AGRA seeks a list of impact investment funds with the investment appetite, skills, and investment profile to invest in farmer-sourcing businesses and their target countries. Then, the team will recommend best practices for creating effective technical assistance that can attract more impact investments in food crop value chains. Finally, the Fellow would model an investment plan with cost estimates, suggested high-impact partners, and entry points for AGRA as part of a re-aligned strategy.

Activities and Workplan

TechnoServe will use its strategic approach to problem-solving to frame this complex problem and develop a clear strategy for AGRA with specific programmatic outcomes at the end.

1. Assess landscape and identify solutions: The team will spend time with AGRA partners meeting with the relevant actors to understand their current incentive structures, the historical and current challenges, and the structural changes or investments required to overcome them. We will also identify and interview investors, aggregators, warehouse operators, processors, and service providers to inform our understanding their incentives, and the types of needs we need to prioritize.
2. Develop strategy: countries, sectors, partners: Any strategy needs to make choices around how to achieve this in practice, which should be primarily driven by the intrinsic attractiveness of mechanisms for the various key actors. Within this activity, the team will meet with potential investors, off-takers, and industry stakeholders to understand their appetite to invest in the various mechanisms and what support they require to create a successful business case. We will also have conversations with the AGRA team about how to adjust the existing portfolio in terms of building on existing relationships and/or forging new ones.
3. Detail investment plan and impact plan: We will develop a top-down estimate of the cost to create the priority mechanisms based on reasonable benchmarks developed in earlier activities. We will also identify areas with high potential for external co-investment based on TechnoServe’s knowledge and experience with donors of different nature. This analysis, together with the findings from the updated strategy, will be rolled up into a summary investment/impact case for AGRA and potential impact investors.
4. Develop roadmap: We now have all the inputs required to craft the roadmap that will guide AGRA in the implementation of its updated delivery models. This will include:

• Timeline of mechanisms with corresponding targets and annual investment
• Scale, investment and impact projections
• Project management responsibilities and action plan
• Next steps for partnership conversations

The results from our work will be presented to AGRA across four workshops during the project.

Team

The Fellow will work with the TechnoServe staff in New York, TechnoServe agriculture teams in country offices, and Partner staff. Contact with TechnoServe field staff and Partner teams will be critical to align efforts, connect stakeholders, and prioritize investments.

External technical consultants will be recruited to provide targeted support with interpretation of technical data (e.g. nutrition data) and development of technical assumptions (e.g. for the farmer business case model).

The Fellow will perform interviews with farmers, suppliers, processors, exporters, industry associations, and trade associations. The Fellow will analyze data inputs from across these sources, create an analytical model and produce an overview of the critical areas for investment. Finally, the Fellow will triangulate and synthesize this data to create an accurate picture of the opportunity to redirect AGRA’s roadmap for investment going forward.

Skills and Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to effectively service clients/partners in the private sector
• Professional experience in developing countries
• Proven analytical and modeling skills
• Demonstrated leadership skills, teamwork and relationship building
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong computer skills, including MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Able to work independently, flexibly and responsively
• Able to adapt to changing working conditions
• Professional level of spoken and written English