Mastercard Foundation Recruitment for Senior Program Manager, Agriculture

Applications are invited from interested and suitably qualified candidates for Mastercard Foundation Recruitment for Senior Program Manager, Agriculture.

Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based in Toronto, Canada. Our programs promote financial inclusion and advance youth learning in Africa. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. From inception, the Foundation was designed to be a separate entity and independent from Mastercard. Our policies, operations, and funding decisions are made by our President and Board of Directors.

Job Description

Company: Mastercard Foundation
Location: Ghana
State: Accra
Job type: Full-Time

THE WORK AT THE FOUNDATION

Agri-food and rural SMEs are often a critical link in the economic transformation of a country as they allow farmers to commercialize their activities and lift themselves out of subsistence farming. The majority of the population across Africa depend on the agricultural sector for livelihoods and employment and agri-food and rural SMEs can help to provide a route out of poverty for smallholder farmers and rural communities while spurring economic diversification, sustainable development, creation of jobs and trade.

To ensure that the Foundation leverages the great opportunity for youth employment that the agricultural sector offers, an Agriculture Technical Expertise Group has formed to provide technical expertise that supports the development of country strategies and programs. The Agriculture Technical Expertise Group supports the development of country strategies, provides technical support in the development of country-led programs, helps colleagues build a shared understanding of key issues and opportunities related to inclusive agricultural economies in Africa, and contributes to the Foundation’s learning agenda.

Africa remains a continent where most people, and a large majority of disadvantaged people, live in rural areas and rely on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. Under the Rural and Agricultural Finance (RAF) initiative, the Foundation has committed over $175 million in funding to programs that provide financial services to smallholder farmers, provides access to essential inputs, and strengthens their capability to apply tested farming practices to improve the productivity of their farms. The initiative supports MFIs, banks, agribusinesses, MNOs, investment funds, and technology companies to provide these services to farmers. As a learning institution, the Foundation continues to generate and disseminate evaluation analysis to guide its future programming under its new Young Africa Works strategy and to benefit the wider financial inclusion industry.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Associate Director, Programs, the Senior Program Manager will be responsible for a portfolio of existing Rural and Agricultural Finance programs and partnerships. They will work collaboratively with the Agriculture Technical Expertise Group Lead and other Foundation staff.

The Senior Program Manager will be expected to provide expertise to identify constraints that prevent agricultural systems from functioning effectively at the country level, including, those that prevent youth from developing skills relevant for work in the sector; agribusinesses from accessing the finance; capacity and markets needed to grow; the development and design of programs in the agricultural sector and incorporating the agricultural sector’s needs into country strategies.

This individual will be expected to interact effectively with senior levels of partner organizations to advance the current work of the Foundation, while concurrently contributing to the Foundation’s country strategy development and new programs.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

Identify challenges and opportunities in the agri-food system that can be unlocked through education, labour and financial systems, to drive job growth.
Provide agricultural sector expertise to support Foundation country teams in the design and management of agricultural and agri-finance programs to scale country-level inclusive education, financial and labour systems in Africa.
Work closely with Country Team leads, Technical Expertise Groups, and other team members in the development or implementation of new programs, including co-creation of programs and due diligence of potential partners and projects
Provide perspective and expertise on emerging issues and trends in the agricultural and agri-finance sector, including climate change.
Lead and supervise small teams of colleagues and/or junior experts by providing coaching and support necessary for success and growth.
Manage current programs, distilling learnings for Foundation staff and country teams. Includes oversight of day-to-day activities of particular programs or processes, conducting field visits, and reviewing project budgets.
Communicate progress and learnings from projects to foundation colleagues and the wider development community.
Contribute insights to the Foundation’s thought leadership on youth employment in Africa.
Work closely with the program and country teams to leverage synergies across programs and across geographies.
Build relationships with partner organizations, communities of practice, and global stakeholders.
Represent the Foundation and collaborate with key internal and external audiences.
Identify and help overcome challenges and other barriers to team effectiveness.
Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Finance, Business, Agricultural Economics and/or Financial Inclusion.
Ten (10) plus years of experience in financing agricultural companies and farmers is required. This experience could include project management and/or field experience working in developing countries.
Minimum of five (5) years leadership and management experience including managing staff and coaching, mentoring and providing feedback.
Experience working in commercial agricultural companies operational in Africa
Experience living and working in Africa.
Demonstrates a strong understanding of the role of financial inclusion in economic growth and development, particularly in Africa, and as it relates to small holder farmers.
Understands market and systemic challenges to financial inclusion for rural and agricultural economics in Africa and best practices for addressing them, including M4P (Markets for the Poor) and facilitating market systems.
Experience and understanding in a variety of value chains (cash and food crops), the small businesses and SMEs along the value chain, and supply chain/logistics in the agri-food system.
Understanding of the role agri-food and rural SMEs can play in economic transformation and job creation for youth.
Demonstrates a strong understanding of agricultural markets in Africa and the systemic challenges leading to stagnant growth. Possesses understanding and knowledge of current trends and innovations in agri-finance for value chains, agri SMEs, smallholder farmers and youth engaged in the agri-food system. Experience with global grant making, especially in designing market systems development programs. This experience may come from working in another funding organization, corporation or an NGO.
Demonstrates strong analytical skills, the ability to think strategically and contribute as a thought partner in the Foundation’s strategy development
Demonstrates strong budgeting skills with the ability to manage a large portfolio of assets.
Demonstrates the ability to communicate progress and learnings from projects to colleagues and the wider development community.
Demonstrates experience in translating technical advice into practical recommendations for program managers and implementers. Command of quantitative and qualitative business analytics.
Excellent project management skills, including multi-stakeholder projects.
Proactive, engaged and a self-starter.
Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
Bilingual English and French oral and written language skills preferred.
Willing to travel up to 40% of the time.
You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
You possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
You possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.